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GENEVA. — Around 2,7 billion people globally — 40 percent of the world’s population — will be connected to the Internet by the end of 2013, the United Nations said yesterday. Another 250 million people came online in 2012, but 4.4 billion people remain unconnected, said
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BEIJING. — As the government shutdown in the US enters its second week, the country is just 10-days away from default, and the country’s main creditor China has urged Washington to take decisive steps to avoid bankruptcy and ensure safety of Chinese
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WASHINGTON. — The White House warned yesterday that the idea of a self-inflicted national default was “a terrible” scenario that would damage America’s democracy, credit and global standing for years. Top officials sombrely warned there was no other plan than for
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BUENOS AIRES. – Argentina’s president Cristina Fernandez Kirchner has been told by doctors to take a month off because of a subdural haematoma on her brain, her spokesman said on Saturday, forcing her to abandon campaigning
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SANAA. – Germany’s ambassador to Yemen escaped a kidnapping attempt yesterday in the capital Sanaa during which her bodyguard was killed, a diplomatic source told AFP.
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BLANTYRE. — Despite the US Embassy in Lilongwe clearing Democratic Progressive Party leader Peter Mutharika that he is not an American citizen,a legal expert Justin Dzonzi has said Mutharika’s candidacy for the
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PARIS. — UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi yesterday urged Syria’s warring parties to hold talks “without preconditions” and said he hoped negotiations could take place in Geneva in late November.
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TRIPOLI/MOGADISHU. — Two US raids in Africa show the United States is pressuring al-Qaeda, officials said yesterday, though a failure in Somalia and an angry response in Libya also highlighted Washington’s problems.
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LAMPEDUSA — Italy yesterday mourned the 300 African asylum-seekers feared dead in the worst ever Mediterranean refugee disaster, as the government appealed for Europe to stem the influx of migrants.
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ROME. — An Italian journalist who reports on the construction of a highly contested new high-speed rail line has been sent a flash drive filled with explosives, Italian media reported yesterday.
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KIGALI — Rwanda’s army yesterday slammed United States’ sanctions for the use of child soldiers by rebels it is accused of supporting in Democratic Republic of Congo, saying it had no factual basis.
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WASHINGTON. — US investigators were trying to figure out what led a woman with a toddler in her car to ram into a White House barrier before leading police on a high-speed chase which ended with her being shot dead.
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NAIROBI. — President Kenyatta has put on notice incompetent public servants warning that they will be identified and sent packing. He warned that his government was developing a system for rewarding public servants
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WASHINGTON. — The political crisis gripping Washington could trigger a “catastrophic” US debt default, the Treasury warned yesterday, as America limped into day three of a government shut-down.
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PALERMO. — At least 94 people died and up to 250 were missing after a boat packed with African migrants caught fire and sank off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa yesterday.