Bonne nouvelle pour les étudiants de l’université de Maurice qui devront remettre leurs dissertations cette année.

La direction, qui s’est rencontrée hier, a en effet pris la décision de réduire les frais de moitié. Ceux- ci passent donc de Rs 3 000 à Rs 1 500.

Par ailleurs, les étudiants ayant déjà effectué leur paiement seront remboursés. Les étudiants se réjouissent de cette mesure, d’autant plus qu’ils doivent réunir cette somme d’ici demain, dernier jour pour effectuer le paiement.

« C’était difficile de trouver les Rs 3 000. Je voulais faire le paiement par tranches, mais l’on a pas cette option » , confie l’un deux.

Pour rappel, la décision de faire payer les étudiants qui soumettent leurs dissertations remonte à 2008. Le vice- chancelier de l’université, Konrad Morgan, a expliqué que cette mesure découle du nombre croissant d’étudiants sur le campus.

Il a fallu, dit- il, augmenter le personnel responsable de l’enregistrement et du traitement des copies. Il tient aussi à préciser qu’il faut aussi payer les frais des universitaires étrangers, chargés de vérifi er les grades accordés aux étudiants.

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The bone phallus, unearthed by archeologists earlier this month, was found in mud on the banks of the Göta Canal near Motala in Sweden’s Östergötland province, and is thought to between 6,000 and 8,000 years old.

The bone phallus: possible early evidence of dildonic technology among Mesolithic civilisations? (Picture: EPA/Swedish National Heritage Board)

The phallus, which measures about 11cm (just over 4 inches) long and around 2cm (just under an inch) wide, may have been used as a sex aid, the team have speculated – noting that while female sexual imagery is common among Stone Age finds, male fertility symbols are rare.

Swedish Heritage Board archeologist Goran Gruber trod a carefully non-commital dildo line, telling Swedish radio: ‘We do think it’s at least some sort of phallus, but I couldn’t say for sure what it was actually used for.’

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Two killers have been hanged in Japan’s first executions in a year.

Kazuo Shinozawa, 59, was sentenced to the death penalty after setting fire to a jewellery shop killing the six women inside in 2000.

Hidenori Ogata, 33, stabbed a man and woman to death in 2003.

They were both hanged today at the Tokyo Detention Centre in the first executions to be carried out since the Democratic Party of Japan swept to power in September 2009.

Japan, along with the U.S., is one of the few industrialised countries that still has capital punishment.

Justice Minister Keiko Chiba, formerly a member of a group of politicians opposed to the death penalty, witnessed the executions.

Afterwards, she said she wanted a new study group to spur debate on the punishment, including whether it should be abolished in Japan.

She added: ‘Witnessing the executions with my own eyes made me think deeply about the death penalty.’

Ms Chiba left the anti-execution group to take the top ministry job under the new government, but she has continued to express reservations about the practice.

The country’s media organisations are not permitted to cover executions. But Ms Chiba said that should change.

Criminals can be left on death row for years in Japan, and executions – all carried out by hanging – are highly secretive.

Inmates do not know when they will be executed, while lawyers and family are only told after the fact.

Japan has 107 death row inmates, the ministry of justice said.

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A landslide caused by rains in southern China left 21 people missing today, adding to a growing death toll from China’s worst flood season in a decade, which is expected to worsen with heavy rains forecast across the country.

Rescuers searched for 21 people missing after a landslide in Hanyuan County in China’s southern province of Sichuan this morning, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Rocks and mud buried 58 houses and about 4,000 villagers were evacuated from their homes.

Damaged houses are seen after the landslide inundated Shuanghe in China’s Sichuan province as a result of heavy rain that has caused the country’s worst flood season in a decade

News also emerged today of a bridge collapse in Henan on Saturday that claimed 33 lives, with more than 20 others missing.

Floods this year already killed at least 823 people, left 437 missing and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage, the State Flood Control and Drought Prevention reported.

It said two dozen major rivers rose beyond their warning levels, with workers scrambling to sandbag riverbanks along the Yellow, Jialing, Han, Huai and Yangtze rivers to prevent further flooding, the report said.

Water levels along the middle reaches of the Huai River, notorious for flooding, were five feet above its warning level in the provinces of Anhui and Henan.

Three-quarters of China’s provinces have been plagued by flooding and 25 rivers have seen record-high water levels, the Flood Prevention Agency said.

The overall damage totaled 154.1 billion yuan (£14billion).

Flooding this year has overwhelmed reservoirs, swamped towns and cities, and caused landslides that have smothered communities, including toppling 680,000 houses, Xinhua reported.

The water level in the massive Three Gorges Dam – the world’s largest hydroelectric project which was also built to end centuries of floods along the Yangtze River basin – hit its highest level ever last week.

More torrential rains are expected for the southwest, southeast and northeastern parts of the country through Wednesday, the National Meteorological Center said.

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It’s a tourist destination usually associated with beer-swilling Brits, but U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama is set to holiday with daughter Sasha in Spain’s Costa del Sol.

Mother and daughter are due to travel to the resort of Marbella in southern Spain next week for a private trip with long-time family friends, the White House announced today.

But Barack Obama, who turns 49 on 4 August, will stay at home while elder daughter Malia, 12, attends summer camp.

Mrs Obama and Sasha, nine, will be on the Costa del Sol between 4 and 8 August.

It is thought Mrs Obama has booked 30 rooms at the prestigious Villa Padierna, a golf and spa resort located along the coast from Marbella.

With a reputation as Spain’s most exclusive hotel, room prices start at 250 euros (£210) for a standard double and rise up to 5,000 euros (£4,175) for a private villa within the gardens.

Mrs Obama and Sasha will be accompanied by an entourage of secret service personnel who will follow their every move.

The cost of housing the first lady and her entourage could raise questions back in the U.S. over the use of taxpayers’s money.

Mrs Obama will pay an official visit to Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia. Spanish newspapers today reported that the royal family had invited her to join them at their summer palace on Majorca in the Mediterranean.

However Mrs Obama will miss her husband’s 49th birthday on August 4.

While there had been speculation in the Spanish media that the president will fly over to celebrate his special day, this was today denied by the White House.

A spokesman said: ‘The First Lady will travel to Spain next week for a private, mother-daughter trip with long-time family friends. President Obama will not be joining this trip.’

Following their Spanish jaunt, Mrs Obama and Sasha will tour the oil slick-devastated Gulf Coast of Florida before spending ten days on the New England resort island of Martha’s Vineyards, a long-term favourite of celebrities and politicians.

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Secret files leaked about the war in Afghanistan have revealed tantalising glimpses of Osama Bin Laden despite public CIA claims that they are clueless as to the whereabouts of the Al Qaeda boss.

# Bin Laden spotted in meeting with Taliban chief in 2006
# Al Qaeda boss ‘had hand’ in plot to poison UK troops
# Secret files claim British soldiers shot 16 children
# Military experts: leaks could put our troops in peril
# Taliban missile brought down Chinook helicopter

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1297916/Wikileaks-reveals-Osama-Bin-Laden-seen-village-meetings.html#ixzz0us3uOvuo

The claims are among 91,000 U.S. military records obtained by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, said last month that there have been no firm leads on Bin Laden’s whereabouts since the ‘early 2000s’.

But a ‘threat report’ from the International Security Assistance Force regional command (north) on suicide bombers in August 2006 suggested Bin Laden had been attending regular meetings in villages on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It said: ‘Reportedly a high-level meeting was held where six suicide bombers were given orders for an operation in northern Afghanistan. These meetings take place once every month.’

According to the Guardian, which has received the documents, the report went on: ‘The top four people in these meetings are Mullah Omar [the Taliban leader], Osama Bin Laden, Mullah Dadullah and Mullah [Baradar].’

If true, it could mean forces came close to having the opportunity to wipe out the senior leadership of the Afghan insurgency that has so far claimed the lives of 320 British soldiers.

The war logs also show that Bin Laden had a hand in a plot to poison coalition forces by adding a powder to food and drink consumed by troops as they passed through villages.

The leaked military logs also reveal how a secret ‘black’ unit of crack special forces hunt down Taliban leaders for ‘kill or capture’ without trial – and voice concerns that Pakistani intelligence and Iran are supporting the insurgents.

Downing Street said it ‘would lament all unauthorised releases of classified material’ and the White House condemned the ‘ irresponsible’ leak of the files.

And military and intelligence experts warned yesterday that the leaks could imperil the lives of British forces in Afghanistan.

Colonel Stuart Tootal, who in 2006 commanded 3rd Battalion Parachute Regiment in Helmand Province – where more than 320 UK soldiers have been killed – said the information ‘could impact on the security of our soldiers’.

He insisted Nato forces now put a ‘huge emphasis’ on avoiding civilian casualties.
Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a former Army captain, said: ‘Although much of this information is in the public domain, the details are particularly damaging to the credibility of the coalition.

‘Our enemies will be quick to exploit the propaganda element of it.

‘If there are details of operational matters – locations, equipment, troops movements, resources – then soldiers’ lives could be placed at risk.’

Details of the secret files, detailing military operations between 2004 and 2009, were published yesterday by the Guardian, New York times and Germany’s Der Spiegel while more than 75,000 records were made available on the WikiLeaks website.

The files list 144 incidents involving Afghan civilian casualties, in which 195 died and 174 were injured.

They detail coalition forces – fearful of suicide bombers – shooting unarmed drivers and civilian motorcyclists, and record an incident when French troops opened fire at a bus full of children because it came too close to a military convoy.

Other leaked documents record a U.S. patrol machine-gunning a bus, killing or wounding 15 passengers, and Polish troops mortaring a village, killing a wedding party including a pregnant woman.

They reveal details of undercover operations by a U.S. special forces unit named task Force 373, formed to hunt down and kill or capture taliban and Al Qaeda commanders.

According to Julian Assange, the founder of the website, the files contain details of ‘thousands’ of potential war crimes.

At a press conference in London, he defended his decision to publish the files and claimed the high level of civilian casualties reported was in fact lower than the true figure because military personnel ‘downplayed’ the number or reported them as insurgent deaths.

Mr Assange said: ‘We have tried hard to make sure that this material does not put innocents at harm.

‘All the material is over seven months old so it is of no current operational consequence, even though it may be of very significant investigative consequence.

‘The revelation of abuse by the U.S. and coalition forces may cause Afghans to be upset, and rightly so.

‘If governments don’t like populations being upset, they should treat them better, not conceal abuses.’

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, a defence expert at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said that the leaks could undermine already faltering public support for the war.

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Israeli men arrested upon arrival on island by officers claiming they came to spy on Dubai citizens

Three Israeli men have been turned out of Mauritius on suspicion they were there on a secret mission to spy on tourists from Dubai, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.

The three arrived on the island, an exotic tourist destination in the Indian Ocean, in order to conclude their trip to the Soccer World Cup.

But they never made it to the turquoise beaches. As soon as they landed immigration officers, who were convinced they were Mossad agents who had come to the island to disturb the peace, placed them under arrest and submitted them to hours of intensive interrogations.

The three 30-year old men all reside in Tel Aviv. Ido and Roee Reicher, a pair of twins, are computer engineers and their friend, Avi Levinstein, owns a sushi restaurant. They had been planning their trip for six months.

“We heard it was paradise. It’s cold in South Africa, and we were told it’s hot in Mauritius, so we decided to spoil ourselves and come back with a tan,” Roee said.

He said they had arrived Saturday on a British Airways flight, and were held up at passport control. “They looked at our passports, flipped through them, and then began to speak in French, saying, ‘Israelis, Israelis’,” Roee said.

Unfortunately, a flight from Dubai had landed on the island just moments before theirs had arrived. The immigration officers, fearing a case similar to that of the Mabhouh assassination, prevented them from passing.

They were taken to another room where, they say, the officers began to yell at them. “They claimed our passports were fake and didn’t believe a word we said,” Roee recounted.

“They didn’t understand why we hadn’t booked a hotel for the first night, and asked if we had any money. We showed them credit cards, but they just kept saying, ‘Israeli, Israeli’ as if we had done something wrong.”

Roee, Ido, and Avi were then placed in three separate rooms and interrogated further. “They asked us where we had traveled in the past, and refused to believe that young Israeli men could have visited so many places,” Roee said, adding that he had been to 40 different countries.

“Avi forgot to mention he had been to Zurich, and they took that as proof that we weren’t who we said we were. They kept yelling, ‘Where were you? What did you do? Who are you?’”

‘Go talk to president of Mauritius’

Exhausted, the three called the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, but were told they would only receive assistance on Monday because Israel does not have an embassy in Mauritius. “They recommended we leave the country,” Roee said. “I was really angry at this reply. We paid a lot of money to go there.”

After hanging up, Roee and his friends insisted upon staying on the island. “They replied that we would be detained for six months because we tried to enter with fake passports,” he said.

The immigration officers also refused to call the Foreign Ministry in order to ascertain the identity of the young men. “I told the one in charge I wanted to speak to someone above him. He said, ‘Go talk to the president of Mauritius’,” Roee said.

Furious, the three were placed on a flight back to South Africa. They had spared no expense to enjoy their vacation, and paid for first-class seats on the way to the island, Roee said, but ended up spending just a few infuriating hours in the airport.

Mauritius is a small island, with a population of around 1.2 million people, which thrives on agriculture and tourism. Historically it is connected to Israel, as the British used it as an interim camp for Holocaust survivors attempting to reach the shores of Palestine.

Recently tension developed between the two countries when Mauritius refused to approve the nomination of a non-resident ambassador because his office would be the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, which they claim the UN does not recognize as Israel’s capital.

In response, the ministry cut back on aid to the island, which included sending over specialists, accepting foreign students and interns into courses in Israel, and backing the island’s nominees for UN positions.

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The Christopher Nolan-directed thriller Inception opened at No. 1 this weekend, raking in a bigger-than-expected $60.4 million.

The phenomenal cast: Leonardo DiCaprio (The Extractor), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Point Man), Ken Watanabe (The Tourist), Marion Cotillard (The Shade), Ellen Page (The Architect), Cillian Murphy (The Mark) and Tom Hardy (The Forger).

In its second week, Steve Carell’s animated hit Despicable Me was No 2 at the box office, pulling in $32.7 million. Nicolas Cage’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice opened this weekend at No. 3 with $17.4 million.

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Amy Reiley, one of only two Americans to hold a Masters of Gastronomy degree from Le Cordon Bleu, has revealed top six natural aphrodisiacs that will get you going.

Figs, she says, are loaded with manganese, magnesium, vitamin E and zinc, which are essential for sexual health.

Watermelons contain citrulline, which signals the body to release arginine, which relaxes blood vessels – an effect similar to Viagra.

Champagne is another one on the top. It enters the bloodstream more quickly than wine, so you drink less of it. And with pinot noir or pinot meunier grapes has as many antioxidants as red wine, reports Fox News.

About Rosemary, she said, “If you’re preparing a meal of seduction, you want something that will be easier to digest. You don’t want blood flow diverted to your stomach.”

Chilli Peppers – they replicate symptoms of arousal: flushed cheeks, a tingle on your tongue and plumper, more kissable lips. And they raise body temperature too.

Cheese – releases 10 times more endorphins than chocolate, and puts you in the mood.

Reiley adds that the multi-sensory experience of eating, when combined with the right ingredients, nutrients and intentions, makes food positively sexual. And given the frequency with which we eat, that makes food the ultimate aphrodisiac.

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Two U.S. soldiers have been captured by Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan.

A Taliban official said the U.S. nationals were seized after an exchange of fire with militants yesterday and were being held in southern Logar province.

A NATO official confirmed two soldiers were missing in the province.

A local radio broadcast said a $20,000 reward for information leading to the safe release of the two.
Capture

Capture: Two American International Security Assistance Force soldiers have been capture by the Taliban in Afghanistan (file photo) Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1297338/Two-U-S-soldiers-captured-Taliban-insurgents-Afghanistan.html#ixzz0uf1M7Nl2

‘Early this morning two coalition personnel went missing. They are believed to have been captured by insurgents somewhere in Logar province,’ the broadcast said.

‘They may have been separated from one another or maybe in the process of being moved to another location.’

A Taliban spokesman said three ISAF servicemen had been captured but one had died. He did not elaborate.

The two U.S. personnel were last seen wearing standard U.S. military camouflage, the radio broadcast said.

One was described as about six feet tall weighing 220lb with blond hair and brown eyes. The other was described as 190lb, bald with a thin moustache. Both men have tattoos, the broadcast said.

‘Coalition forces are offering $20,000 reward for any information that leads to the successful return of these two,’ the statement said, without identifying the men.

There is believed to be only one other ISAF soldier being held by the Taliban, who released a video of him last Christmas.

Violence in Afghanistan has risen sharply since a reinforcement brought to 150,000 the number of foreign forces facing the Taliban and two other insurgent groups.

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