Tag Archives: africa

South Africa’s Rape Crisis: 1 in 4 Men Say They’ve Done It

South Africans received a horrifying measure of just how bad their country’s rape crisis is with the release this week of a study in which more than a quarter of men admitted to having raped, and 46% of those said that they had raped more than once. The study, conducted by South Africa’s Medical Research Council, reveals a deeply rooted culture of violence against women, in which men rape in order to feel powerful, and do so with impunity, believing that their superiority entitles them to vent their frustrations on women and children. The men most likely to rape, the researchers found, were not the poorest, but those who had attained some level of education and income.

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Recession boosts global human trafficking, report says

The global financial crisis has increased the worldwide trade in trafficked persons, says a State Department report released Tuesday. The State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report also says trafficking has increased in Africa and slaps six African nations on a blacklist of countries not meeting the minimum standard of combating trafficking. The report, mandated by Congress, features data and statistics from 175 countries around the world regarding the amount of human trafficking that goes on within their borders.

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What is the Confederations Cup?

What are reigning world champions Italy, European champions Spain, and football giants Brazil doing taking on teams like New Zealand and Iraq this month? It sounds like a complete mismatch, but the eight-team FIFA Confederations Cup which starts in South Africa on Sunday, will see these teams pitted against one another in what is a dress-rehearsal of sorts for next year’s World Cup

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Top Colombian rebel suspect captured

The Colombian military has captured one of the top leaders for a Marxist rebel group waging war on the government for more than 40 years, authorities said. The officials believe that al Qaeda may see the Horn of Africa as its new headquarters after dozens of attacks from U.S. drones along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border

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Saro-Wiwa’s son welcomes Shell payout

A $15.5 million payout made by oil giant Shell to settle a lawsuit brought against it by relations of executed Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activists will allow the families of the victims to move on with their lives, Saro-Wiwa’s son has told CNN. The New York lawsuit — brought to court by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Saro-Wiwa’s family and others in 1996 — accused Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary of complicity in the writer’s 1995 hanging and the killings or persecution of other environmental activists in the Niger Delta. Nigeria’s Ogoni people have complained for years that Shell was allowed to pollute its land without consequences

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Delta denied permission to fly to Nairobi, Monrovia

Delta Air Lines has been denied permission to fly directly to Nairobi, Kenya, and Monrovia, Liberia, until security standards there are met or until assessments change, the Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday. The agency said it is allowing the airline to go ahead with plans to fly directly to Abuja, Nigeria. Delta had announced the direct flights to the three African cities last year, and air service had been expected to begin this month

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