Oddly Enough

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Year of the Dragon may burn Putin, light up for Pacino Friday, 20 Jan 2012

TAIPEI (Reuters) - The coming Year of the Dragon will bring actor Al Pacino good fortune, but Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin needs to watch out -- he may lose vast sums of money.  Full Article

 
Macho urinal game makes a splash in Japan Thursday, 19 Jan 2012 

TOKYO (Reuters) - Three years ago the "Toylet" was just a pipe-dream for developers at Japanese video game maker Sega, but now the urinal video game has been rolled out at pubs across the nation.  Full Article  

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U.S. clamps ban on pythons, yellow anaconda Thursday, 19 Jan 2012 

MIAMI (Reuters) - The United States announced a ban on Burmese pythons on Tuesday, after years of unsuccessful efforts to eradicate the giant snakes from the Everglades National Park in Florida.  Full Article  

Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi (L) welcomes Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak as he arrives to attend a meeting involving five Arab states in Tripoli June 28, 2010. REUTERS/Stringer
Will 2012 see more strong men of Africa leave office?

There are many reasons for being angry with Africa ’s strong men, whose autocratic ways have thrust some African countries back into the eye of the storm and threatened to undo the democratic gains in other parts of the continent of the past decades.  Blog 

 
Kenyan troops patrol the Garrisa airstrip October 18, 2011. Al Qaeda-linked militants prepared to defend a south Somali town on Tuesday from advancing Kenyan and government troops, while a suicide car bomb killed six people in Mogadishu during a visit by a Kenyan minister.  REUTERS/Gregory Olando
Operation Somalia: The U.S., Ethiopia and now Kenya

Ethiopia did it five years ago, the Americans a while back. Now Kenya has rolled tanks and troops across its arid frontier into lawless Somalia, in another campaign to stamp out a rag-tag militia of Islamist rebels that has stoked terror throughout the region with threats of strikes.  Blog 

 
New recruits belonging to Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebel group march during a passing out parade at a military training base in Afgoye, west of the capital Mogadishu February 17, 2011. REUTERS/Feisal Omar
Could Islamist rebels undermine change in Africa?

Creeping from the periphery in Africa’s east and west, Islamist militant groups now pose serious security challenges to key countries and potentially even a threat to the continent’s new success.  Blog 

 
A disabled Somali refugee child crawls from their makeshift house at the Ifo camp near Daadab, about 80km (50 miles) from Liboi on the border with Somalia in north-eastern Kenya, February 4, 2009. The growing flow of Somalis fleeing conflict at home has led to overcrowding in refugee camps in neighbouring Kenya and the United Nations expects the influx to continue, an official said. REUTERS/Noor Khamis
The children of Dadaab: Life through the lens

Through my video “The children of Dadaab: Life through the Lens” I wanted to tell the story of the Somali children living in Kenya’s Dadaab. Living in the world’s largest refugee camp, they are the ones bearing the brunt of Africa’s worst famine in sixty years.  Blog 

 
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe (R) and his Equatorial Guinea counterpart Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo arrive for the opening of the Harare Agricultural Show, August 31, 2007. President Robert Mugabe on Friday imposed a new law on Zimbabwean businesses banning them from raising wages to keep pace with the world's highest inflation. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
Who among the seven longest serving African leaders will be deposed next?

Several African leaders watching news of the death of Africa ’s longest serving leader are wondering who among them is next and how they will leave office.  Blog 

 
Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama jokes with photographers during a news conference  in Sao Paulo September 16, 2011.  REUTERS/Nacho Doce
Was South Africa right to deny Dalai Lama a visa?

Given that China is South Africa’s biggest trading partner and given the close relationship between Beijing and the ruling African National Congress, it didn’t come as a huge surprise that South Africa was in no hurry to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama.  Blog 

 
 
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