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African peacekeeping: challenge of budgets, bureaucracy

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:40:00 +0000

The African Union, celebrating this weekend 50 years since the launch of a continental bloc, regularly repeats the mantra: African solutions to African problems. But AU efforts to tackle those problems — especially the conflicts that plague the continent — are strained by a shortage of cash, poor organisation, lack of capacity and often reluctance [...]

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South Africa’s Khoisan people demand recognition

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:38:00 +0000

South Africa’s first inhabitants, the Khoi and San people, want official recognition of their identity and reject the mixed-race tag they’ve been carrying since the end of apartheid, a leader has said. The country’s first indigenous people want to benefit more from policies to address abuses under white minority-rule, provincial leader Raymond Trollip said at [...]

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Large explosions, gunfire in central Kabul

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:32:00 +0000

At least two explosions hit the centre of Kabul on Friday, with Afghan police and the NATO-led international coalition unable to confirm the cause. Gunfire erupted as security forces rushed to the scene of the blasts, which occurred at about 4:00 pm (1130 GMT) on Friday, the first day of the Afghan weekend. “There has [...]

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AMISOM celebrates 50th Anniversary of the OAU

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:32:00 +0000

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, May 24, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) today celebrated the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. The main event which took place at the AMISOM Conference Centre in Mogadishu was presided over by the President of the [...]

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Berlusconi’s alleged call-girl says she lied

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:29:00 +0000

The alleged call-girl at the centre of a trial against Silvio Berlusconi told a courtroom on Friday that she had previously lied to investigators about raunchy parties hosted by the billionaire tycoon. “I am sorry I talked rubbish when I spoke to prosecutors,” Karima El-Mahroug, a dancer nicknamed “Ruby the Heart Stealer”, said at a [...]

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Syria opposition sceptical as Russia says regime will talk

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:51:00 +0000

Syria’s divided opposition on Friday called on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to bluntly state whether it was interested in peace talks and on what terms rather than use ally Moscow as its mouthpiece. Louay Safi, spokesman for the Western-backed National Coalition, the main opposition group, issued the call after Russia said Damascus had [...]

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British spy services under pressure over soldier’s murder

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:37:00 +0000

Britain’s intelligence services came under pressure on Friday to explain how they let two Islamic extremists suspected of hacking a soldier to death in the streets of London slip through their net. Both of the men, under armed guard in London hospitals after being shot by police at the scene, were previously known to the [...]

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Pakistan remains opposed to drones after Obama speech

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:32:00 +0000

The Pakistan government Friday repeated its view that US drone strikes in its territory were illegal, after President Barack Obama laid out new guidelines for their use. The US president mounted a firm defence of his covert drone war as legal and just in a major speech on counterterrorism policy on Thursday but warned that [...]

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Cars, schools ablaze in fifth night of Stockholm riots

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:27:00 +0000

More than a dozen cars were torched and schools, shops and a police station were set ablaze as riots swept through Stockholm’s immigrant-dominated suburbs for the fifth straight night, police and firefighters said Friday. Police plan to call in reinforcements to help quell the riots, but parents and volunteer organisations who have patrolled the streets [...]

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All Nigerians should condemn British soldier’s killing-envoy

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:26:00 +0000

Irked by the gruesome killing of a British soldier in London, the Consul General of Nigeria in New York, Ambassador Habib Habu, on Friday urged Nigerians all over the world to speak out and condemn the brutal murder as a common solidarity against the involvement of a Nigerian in the act.According to Habu, the beheading [...]

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