Posted on March 29, 2024
| 4 minutes
| 733 words
| Chauncey Koziol
A letter to ...FamilyThe letter you always wanted to write
I will never forget the beauty I saw when I first set eyes on you. I never tired of telling you how handsome you were (often to your intense irritation). You were ambitious; it was infectious. You made me promises I never imagined you wouldn’t keep.
Life was exciting. We enjoyed nights out, exotic holidays, I felt loved and wanted. We married and had two children.
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Posted on March 29, 2024
| 5 minutes
| 955 words
| Kary Bruening
AfricaObituaryAli Mazrui obituaryKenyan political thinker who was unafraid to confront contentious issuesThe Kenyan political thinker Ali Mazrui, who has died aged 81, was best known in the west for writing and presenting a groundbreaking television series, The Africans: A Triple Heritage (1986). In the nine-part documentary, co-produced by the BBC and the US Public Broadcasting Service in association with the Nigerian Television Authority, Mazrui set out to explore wide-ranging aspects of African culture and society “from the inside”.
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Posted on March 29, 2024
| 17 minutes
| 3575 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
The ObserverMiddle Eastern food and drinkSeafood and saffron stew, lamb and sour cherry meatballs, tomato salad with pomegranate molasses, and moreTomato salad with pomegranate molasses
The first time I had this salad (known as gavurdagi salatasi) in Istanbul, I was staggered by its simplicity. How could a little drizzle of pomegranate molasses transform a simple tomato salad into something so bold and delicious? This salad is really special and makes the perfect accompaniment to any meal.
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Posted on March 29, 2024
| 5 minutes
| 1008 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
ObituaryDr Beko Ransome-KutiNigerian doctor, bold human rights campaigner and prisoner of conscienceDr Beko Ransome-Kuti, who has died aged 65 from lung cancer, was a thorn in the flesh of the Nigerian ruling class for many years. Among the most consistent, staunch and fearless human rights campaigners in Africa, he began this work as a concerned 23-year old doctor fighting for poor Nigerians to have access to good medical care.
Returning home in 1963 after studying at Manchester University, he immediately joined a children's hospital, where he started to persuade his colleagues that medical care should be the right of every Nigerian.
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Posted on March 29, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1275 words
| Valentine Belue
Global developmentThe regime’s closure of her support and literacy centres for women and girls was crushing, but Jamila Afghani is looking for ways to build a brighter future for the Afghan women she left behind Jamila Afghani was settling into her new home in Kitchener, Ontario, when she found out that the Taliban had raided her office back in Afghanistan. Uniformed officers had barged into a counselling service for women in Kabul, accused the staff of running “a ministry of women” and taken one of the employees away for questioning.
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Posted on March 29, 2024
| 5 minutes
| 876 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
Carol Rumens's poem of the weekBooksThe US poet began writing his sonnets the day Donald Trump was elected president – but even after Trump, they remain fierce, profound and ageless
American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin
I only intend to send word to my future
Self perpetuation is a war against Time
Travel is essentially the aim of any religion
Is blindness the color one sees under water
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Posted on March 29, 2024
| 4 minutes
| 689 words
| Kary Bruening
Property This article is more than 8 months oldStately home ‘used for James Bond scenes’ goes on sale for £75mThis article is more than 8 months oldDenham Place in Buckinghamshire being sold by multimillionaire Mike Jatania
A 13-bedroom Grade-I listed stately home said to have been where some James Bond scenes were filmed has been put up for sale with a price tag of £75m – which would make it one of the most expensive properties outside London.
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Posted on March 28, 2024
| 4 minutes
| 648 words
| Kary Bruening
The ObserverFictionReviewThe narrowness of human desire is reflected across an intriguing range of seemingly disparate characters – but do their stories add up to a novel?David Szalay is known as an emptier of hidden pockets of English life: his previous novels have explored telesales (London and the South-East) and horse-racing tips (Spring). Like its predecessors, his new book is populated by small men with oversized ambitions (one is even a refugee from London and the South-East) and illuminates some interestingly shady worlds (prostitution in London’s glitzy hotels; bargain-basement tourism in Cyprus).
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Posted on March 28, 2024
| 2 minutes
| 261 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
Music This article is more than 14 years oldAmerican rapper Dolla shot dead in Los Angeles shopping mallThis article is more than 14 years oldA 23-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering the hip-hop artist who was in LA to work on his debut albumAmerican rapper Dolla has been killed outside a shopping mall in Los Angeles. The 21-year-old, real name Roderick Anthony Burton ll, is reported to have been involved in an altercation while waiting outside the Beverley Centre near west Hollywood that resulted in him being fatallay shot.
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