Review: Danny Bhoy – Dear Epson

Danny Bhoy – Dear Epson Opera House, Wellington, 30 April Scottish comedian Danny Bhoy has been a regular to the International NZ Comedy Festival for many years now and has never disappointed; but his latest show Dear Epson may well be his best work yet. The premise of the evening is set with the tale of his discovery that the ink of a newly bought printer costs more than the printer itself.

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Essay: Guarding History

The five flagpoles that stand in front of the Star Ferry terminal at the tip of the Kowloon peninsula in Hong Kong have long been a popular meeting place. It was at this familiar spot 20 years ago that democracy advocates sold commemorative items to raise money for the victims of the June 4 crackdown at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square

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A Brief History of the Uighurs

The violence that has claimed at least 156 lives in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang this week is rooted in long-standing grievances among China’s Uighur minority. The Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs were traditionally the dominant ethnic group in the region whose Mandarin name, Xinjiang, means simply “New Frontier” — perhaps a reflection of the fact that the region was only brought under Beijing’s control in its entirety during the 19th century rein of the Qing dynasty.

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Four dead in suspected drone attack in Pakistan

An apparent drone attack on Monday killed four suspected militants in northern Pakistan, an intelligence source said. “To the American people, this is my message to you: a reminder of the reasons behind 9/11 and the wars and the repercussions that followed and the way to resolve it,” the message said

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Iranian opposition leader’s office raided, shut down

Iranian authorities raided and shut down the offices of opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi, an Iranian news agency reported Tuesday, one day after another prominent reformer’s office was raided. Brandishing a court order, representatives of the prosecutor entered the building in the Tehran neighborhood of Jamshidieh at 3 p.m., a spokesman for Karrubi’s party said, according to the Iranian Labor News Agency

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Votes tossed from 447 polls in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission said Sunday it was tossing ballots from 447 polling stations in figuring results of the August presidential election. The number of votes thrown out was not immediately known, but it could be as many as tens of thousands.

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China: 2008 quake killed 5,335 students

A magnitude-7.9 earthquake that struck southwestern China last year killed 5,335 students and left an additional 546 children disabled, state media reported. The first official tally of students killed in the Sichuan province quake was released Thursday by Tu Wentao, the head of the province’s education department, the Xinhua news agency said. As of September, official figures put the death toll at 69,227, with more than 17,923 people missing

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