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South Africa

It wasn’t a big event; it wasn’t fabulously well attended, but the Gauteng education department’s plea for help from retired teachers at the Gallagher Convention Centre last week was an event rich in symbolism. The messages it sent were unequivocal: We have messed up. We are desperate. Please help!

Gauteng department of education MEC, Barbara Creecy, called the meeting, which was attended by about 1,000 retired teachers, to create a databank of people who could fill in for teachers on leave, on training courses or who could participate in other “intervention” programmes. It’s a good idea, introduced by a straight-talking, no-nonsense MEC who has impressed so far in her first year in office. Yet inevitably, it’s a tacit acknowledgement that SA’s education system is in meltdown. How the education system arrived at this state is a matter of debate and confusion. But that it is a disaster is no… More

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World

Also today: Georgian TV says the Martians (oops, Russians) are invading; Nobel economist Krugman decries Chinese currency policy; Army swarms into Bangkok as 100,000 protest; Netanyahu “regrets” settlement row during Biden visit; Americans uncover own covert ops in Pakistan “war zone”.

Sarkozy tastes defeat by Socialists France French president Nicolas Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party tasted defeat in French regional elections, with first-round results showing the opposition Socialist party is way out in front. Sarkozy is battling fallout from the global economic crisis. Unemployment in the country is at 10%, and his popularity rating has plunged to an all-time low. A defeat would be big blow for his party, as it's the last such poll before presidential and parliamentary elections in 2012. On the other side of the spectrum, the far-right National Front looks to have done better than many thought it… More

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Johannesburg

The Johannesburg Equality Court on Monday ruled that Julius Malema is guilty of hate speech, has no protection in terms of freedom of speech provisions, denigrated women in general, added to the rape problem in South Africa, and must apologise.

It was a poignant end to a judgment that tossed out every defence Julius Malema had put up. Be wary, in the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, of turning into "a man who often speaks but seldom talks," the court advised ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema. The Equality Court found that when Malema had told a group of students that the woman who accused Jacob Zuma of rape must have enjoyed herself because she stayed for breakfast and asked for taxi money, he engaged in hate speech. Because he had not expressed an opinion or comment, but professed to… More

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WASHINGTON

Being the President of the USA is the world's toughest job by a wide margin. It is a job that every day tests how tough, brave, determined or just plain crazy you are. And as the going gets really tough for the current occupant of the White House, the world is trying to assess how much steel is still left in Barack Obama's fibre.

The late president Harry Truman - a man who understood the importance of the caring politics of the New Deal, the realities of big-shouldered, cigar-smoking political men making their deals in back rooms, and the tooth-and-claw nature of international politics - was fond of saying to those savaged by the media or their political opposition, “If you want to have a friend in Washington, you better get a dog”. Well, Barack Obama already has a dog – Bo, the Portuguese water dog, to be precise – but, to some it looks like he's still searching for a few new friends… More

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South Africa

There’s a whiff of the word “recall” in the air at the moment. No one will say it openly, but the terrible precedent set by President Jacob Zuma in allowing the ANC’s national executive committee to unseat Thabo Mbeki means that whenever things are going wrong for someone at the top, we’re going to hear the “R” word.

It’s a bit like that hoary old debate about the Alliance. Whenever tensions explode into the open (and yes, we chose the word explode deliberately) everyone starts pointing fingers at the whopping great policy chasms that have emerged and starts to ask questions. But the “R” word is out there at the moment. I was asked the other day by someone who has a more urgent need to follow politics than I do, but who isn’t an ANC member, whether I thought the party would split before next year’s local government elections. It was a question unthinkable before February, but… More

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World

Also today: Earth shakes as Chile inaugurates president; Obama hammers China over yuan; Suu Kyi fights back against new election laws; Ground Zero workers set to get compensation for illnesses; Iraqi election results on knife-edge; Swedes follow US in Armenian “genocide” vote.

Possible ban on bluefin tuna fishing tops Cites agenda Qatar Some 40 proposals are on the agenda for a marathon meeting of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The meeting in Qatar could help determine the fate of species such as polar bears, hammerhead sharks and red coral. But the tension is building up around Japan’s love affair with bluefin tuna, and the prospect that ivory might soon find its way back on to world markets. Kenya’s fighting a request by some nations to sell their ivory stockpiles, while there’s a pronounced… More

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Pretoria

An internationalised campaign against the World Bank lending Eskom $3.75 billion has already cost South Africa the United States’ vote. And though two cabinet ministers on Friday stressed that the loan will absolutely definitely undoubtedly go through, they are clearly worried that the environmental lobby isn’t yet done.

If the World Bank in April decides to not grant Eskom a $3.75 billion loan to build new power stations, the consequences will be dire, the government says. How dire? “If we do not have that power in our system, then we can say goodbye to our economy and to our country,” said public enterprise minister Barbara Hogan. That was only one of the apocalyptic pronouncements by Hogan and energy minister Dipuo Peters. They raised the spectre of the lights going out in an endless wave of blackouts. They stressed that the impact would be felt right across the southern… More

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Soweto

It’s a smart, smart move. President Jacob Zuma has a tough NEC meeting this weekend. And what better strategy than to go back to the people; have them show how much he’s loved, how politically strong he still is. Now, no matter what he has to say this weekend, he can turn around and say: “Hey, who’s the one with the number one hit political song?” And he will have the pictures and the media coverage to prove it.

Zuma appearing at the Bella Ombre Taxi Rank in Marabastad, outside Pretoria, was a slam dunk for his advisors. There’s no chance of anything really going wrong. Imagine getting off a train, going through the platform and out the ticket counter, to be met by a smiling man, in a Bafana shirt with a flag, just for you. Of course people are going to go mad, and they did. The biggest problem really, is security. And for once, the VIP Protection Unit was in a fairly good mood. They were flying the flag as well, dressed in the green and… More

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Johannesburg

It may be called a “world-class African city”, but Johannesburg is quite publicly rushing in the opposite direction of late. And at the top of the rapidly-disintegrating structure sits the man who prefers decorum to action and is not responsible to anyone but his own political organisation.

This reporter had a flashback on Thursday at mayor Masondo's press conference. It was horrid. It brought back memories of another age, when questions at a press conference were generally ignored, when the existence of the real issues was just denied, and when Rome was just left to burn. It was Amos Masondo who brought these back. He’s the mayor of Joburg, the capital of Africa, the “world-class African city” with world-class potholes … you know the drill.??Masondo’s really a bit of a dinosaur. He’s probably the most powerful Mbekiite left to still hold the same office he held before… More

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South Africa

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s recent comments have caused a stir, again. But knowing her so well, can we really be surprised? The rash judgements are just another face of one of the most complex people in the already crowded pantheon of conflicted characters of our age.

If you spent the last couple of days in the farthest reaches of the Karoo, Madikizela-Mandela told writer VS Naipaul and, more pertinently, his wife Nadira Naipaul, who is a columnist for the Evening Standard in the UK during a recent visit to Soweto, that the head of the world-renowned Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was a “cretin”; that her former husband had struck a poor deal for black South Africans; that she would never forgive Mandela for accepting the Nobel Peace Prize with former president FW de Klerk; and that the Mandela name is “an albatross around… More

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World

Also today: US drones kill suspected militants in Afghan border area; American budget deficit swells to biggest ever ; Forbes says Mexico’s Carlos Slim is richer than Bill Gates; Brazil’s Lula in hot water over Cuban dissident comments; Quake may benefit Chile’s incoming billionaire president; Marathon Dostoyevsky play could exhaust even Manhattanites; Google strikes mega-antiquarian book deal with Italy.

US Vice-President Biden denounces Israel’s latest move on settlements Middle East The diplomatic row ensuing from Israel's announcement that it will build 1,600 homes in disputed east Jerusalem during the visit of vice president Joe Biden, shows all too clearly that the US only strives to retain a strategic upper hand in striking a peace deal in the Middle East. Biden rebuked Israel in some of the strongest terms heard from a US administration, but whether this will enable President Barack Obama’s government to break with decades of double-speak over the building of illegal settlements remains to be seen. That’s… More

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Johannesburg

KFC, a fast-food artist formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is blasting the Johannesburg airwaves of late, boasting about donating R200,000 to the City of Johannesburg to stop the pothole epidemic. Apart from the fact that they probably spend more money advertising the deed than on the deed itself, it should leave us all with a sick feeling in our collective stomach.

It’s a small thing, but it’s also a big thing - KFC has donated R200 000 to fix Joburg’s potholes. Great, many a wheel will be saved. But think about it: What does it say about the continent’s premier city that it needs help from a fastfood outfit in the private sector for so basic task as road maintenance, less than 100 days before hosting the world's highest-profile sports tournament? Potholes are a small issue in the greater scheme of things (take a look at Johannesburg’s pothole problems compared to some in the rest of the world below) but they are… More

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Pretoria

The number of screw-ups by the president’s closest working team is growing with annoying consistency these days. Perhaps people at the highest office in the country should be worried. Perhaps we all should.

During election campaigns, candidates routinely come out with the most outlandish embellishments of their credentials. Hillary Clinton's 2008 run for the Democratic nomination is perhaps the best example: if she travelled with her daughter as part of delegation to the former war zone (Bosnia), in her eyes that made her fit to be a war-time commander. If she, in her day job as US Senator, voted for a finance bill that was envisaged and put together by someone else, that made her competent to run the economy. But, after many months of telling tall stories, one thing was becoming painfully… More

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Tibet

On March 10 1959, Tibetan nationalists rose up against their Chinese occupiers in a revolt that was quickly crushed. During the week of March 10 to March 14 2008, the Tibetans exacted a bloody revenge. It’s an anniversary the world now watches closely.

Exactly two years ago, on March 10 2008, three hundred or so monks from Drepung Monastery made their way slowly toward the centre of Lhasa, about eight kilometres to the east. It was the anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule, and as in previous years, the expectation was that the monks would calmly call for Tibet’s independence before retreating. Instead, they came with specific demands – one being that the Chinese authorities release five monks imprisoned in October 2007 for celebrating the US’s award of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama. The monks were stopped… More

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South Africa

Julius Malema did something really nasty on Tuesday. It wasn’t that it was just aggressive or bolshy. No, it was spiteful, mean and ugly. And, strangely enough, he was just the one saying it loudly.

As always, he was having the usual go at people who’ve vaguely crossed him. And with his little tax troubles now making headlines, he wasn’t going to leave anyone out. Patricia de Lille was his target. “No ordinary husband could marry Patricia,” he said. “If a normal husband has married her, he should leave her and come and meet a well-mannered beautiful woman in the ANC.” Malema, as always has put his finger on something. Sex and politics in this country is a cock-up. Malema wasn’t really talking about De Lille at all. And we don’t know, and don’t care,… More

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University of Johannesburg

On Tuesday, Julius Malema was in finer form than we've seen him in weeks. In just score of minutes he told students at the University of Johannesburg that DA leader Helen Zille is a satanist, that Patrica de Lille couldn't possibly have a husband and that FW de Klerk disadvantaged Africans. And that was just the warm-up.

Even with his reputation for controversy, Julius Malema outdid himself addressing just a couple of hundred students the day before student representative council elections started. About halfway through a speech on the importance of education, the need for mine nationalisation and other familiar themes, he digressed into an anecdote. "Today, as I was driving here, I received a call from a priest. [Democratic Alliance leader Helen] Zille is demolishing churches in Khayelitsha. In one church they found elders praying, they dragged them out… Helen Zille, who is suffering from satanism, has gone all out to demolish the churches in the… More

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China

China's ruling elite is now gathered in the National People's Congress, its premier political lekgotla, but the man everyone wants to meet, to whisper a word to, to be seen with, is almost certainly Bo Xilai. Who? Bo Xilai. And if things work out as a lot of China analysts (inside and outside of China) seem to think they might, a lot more people will soon be trying to get some quality time with ole' Bo.

Bo has already been named "Man of the Year" in a People's Daily online poll, he's the guy who is the subject of numerous adulatory video clips being circulated on the Internet – and he is a leading candidate for one of China's top jobs, after a whole generation of its current leaders retires in 2012. 60-year old Bo comes from Chinese Communist Party royalty and he's been advancing through increasingly prominent and demanding political and managerial positions for years. Most recently, over the past three years Bo has been the top party official in Chongqing, the country's largest municipality… More

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World

Also today: Iraqis tally votes as some claim election victory and others concede; Big Apple celebrates its superheroes; Cubans decry foreign press coverage of ill hunger-striker; UN asks donors to keep funding Aids efforts; US backs Israelis over existing settlement plan, but peace may suffer; Europeans mull their own version of the IMF as Greek debt woes weigh; Toyota emphatic that electronics are not the problem.

Obama barracks Republicans over healthcare negligence US For Bill Clinton, it was all about “the economy, stupid!”; for George W Bush, how to deal with the fallout of the Word Trade Center attacks. For current US President Barack Obama, it’s about all these things, as well as his pet project of healthcare reform. And he inherited a nation in crisis on many fronts. Obama’s Democrats are trying to ensure new healthcare legislation gets through Congress quickly. But they’re being bullied mercilessly by conservative Republicans and health insurance companies, which Obama says ration care so that it benefits only the healthy.… More

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Global event

It's a bad joke, but we'll repeat it anyway. Q: How do you tell Chuck Norris's age? A: Cut him in half and count the rings. The man who almost beat Bruce Lee in battle is seventy-years-old on Wednesday, would you believe. We at The Daily Maverick wanted to be the first to wish him happy birthday.

There are way more than two websites that celebrate the sophisticated ouvre of Chuck Norris, but only two seem to do it with the zeal and professionalism of the man himself. The first is chucknorrisfacts.com and the second is chucknorrisjokes.net. On the first you have biographical details like "According to Einstein's theory of relativity, Chuck Norris can actually roundhouse kick you yesterday," "Chuck Norris sleeps with a pillow under his gun," and "Some people wear Superman pyjamas, Superman wears Chuck Norris pyjamas." On the second you have one-liners like "Chuck Norris does not wear a condom because there is no… More

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JOS, Nigeria

Religious violence, unfortunately, is nothing new in Nigeria. In the latest apparent reprisals over the weekend, scores of women and children, mostly Christians, were killed in villages around the central Nigerian city of Jos.

This violence appears to be in reprisal for attacks in January when more than 300 people died, most of them Muslim. Estimates are that some 500 have died in the pre-dawn attack on Dogo na Hauwa village, near Jos, many hacked to death with machetes – including young children, some of whose bodies are reported to have been mutilated. Jos has been under an all-night military curfew since the violence in January, so it is still unclear how the attackers managed to evade the lock-down to launch attacks that began early on Sunday. Following the violence on the weekend, Nigeria’s… More

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South Africa

President Jacob Zuma’s approach to the question of whether he should declare his financial interests illustrates one of South Africa’s biggest ethical problems: legalism.

Legalism can mean many things. It means that you are absolutely innocent until every appeal to every court in the land has decided every aspect of your case. It means worming your way out of a situation if there is the tiniest legal doubt. Legalism means never having to say not only that you are not sorry, but anything at all, because it's “sub judice”. And whatever you did say does not necessarily reflect what you actually believe. Neither should it necessarily be taken as an indication of what you intend doing. By now, dear reader, you probably get the… More

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Johannesburg

Just weeks away from a conference where it will ask for $20 billion over three years – twice the record amount ever raised for health – the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria launched a report trumpeting its recent successes. The world is on the brink of eliminating mother-to-child HIV transmission, beating malaria (on a public health scale) and containing drug-resistant TB, it says. All it needs is a flood of money, in the middle of a fiscal drought.

For a minimum of $13 billion, and a maximum of $20 billion, the world can end the outrage of mother-to-child HIV infections, the Global Fund says, and rectify some of the imbalances in mortality rates between the third world – and Africa especially – and rich countries. That’s the amount of money it will be asking for, in the next couple of weeks, for grants in the three years starting 2011. From countries like the United States, where legislators are getting militant and any spending outside the country, or countries like South Africa, where budget deficits have suddenly ballooned over… More

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World

Also today: Fantasy takes back seat to reality at Oscars; Iraqis vote amid barrage of rockets; Palestinians agree to indirect talks with Israel: US withdrawing troops from Haiti’s ravaged landscape; Scientists find HIV hides in new places; Annual military drills ratchet up tension on Korean peninsula; Survey finds most people think internet access is a basic human right.

Pressure mounts on China’s yuan China China’s trading partners want it to loosen currency controls and strengthen the yuan, as part of long-standing complaints that a weak yuan makes China’s exports cheap and overly competitive. The yuan doesn’t float freely on world currency markets, causing frictions over the balance of trade among its US and EU trading partners. A stronger yuan could actually help China make the economy more self-sustaining, by reducing dependence on exports and foreign investment, which drives up growth to extremely high levels and fuels inflation. Some US lawmakers are calling for punitive tariffs on Chinese goods… More

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South Africa

Arts and culture minister Lulu Xingwana's recent outburst over the Constitutional Court exhibition of “dangerous”  photographs by Zanele Muholi served one important purpose: It put the spotlight on the South African government’s tragic treatment of arts and culture. Read on and weep.

It is a truism to say South Africa’s arts and culture sector is in turmoil. Now, there’s good turmoil and there’s bad turmoil. A culture and a country roiling from the shock of the new - such as were impressionist Paris in the 1880s, the remarkable German cultural efflorescence between 1920 and 1933 or New York City of the abstract impressionists in the post-World War II years - are turmoil in the good sense of the word. Assertive, vigorous new ideas and influences making both culture and society magnets for the creative from around the world. On the contrary there… More

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South Africa

The past week brought the long-fought battle of the alliance partners out into the open. The ANC was once a reasonably disciplined bunch able to put a lid on just about any anger boiling underneath. Not anymore.

Zwelinzima Vavi’s failure of late to influence to a greater extent the ANC government's policies, has exposed something that some had suspected, but is now beginning to emerge as a generally accepted consensus: there is no one person or faction in South Africa who can get exactly what they want. As a result, we are entering a new age of political uncertainty, where the fighting, overt and covert, will intensify until there's a clear winner. As strong as its leaders all claim it is, the alliance is divided. That is nothing new. But Cosatu is now back in the familiar… More

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World

Also today: Israelis to restart indirect peace talks next week; Afghanistan’s a mess, says outgoing UN chief; Turks react angrily to American genocide charges; Palin perfects the soundbite in Hollywood role; Research shows humans are much more than just human; GOP makes fear and loathing part of the campaign trail.

Bombs presage Iraqi election Iraq It’s not going to be a peaceful vote in Iraq, but people will still hopefully vote in droves. There have already been a series of deadly blasts and more can be expected ahead of parliamentary elections on Sunday. The poll will decide who will lead the chaotic nation through a slow withdrawal of US troops, and who has the best ideas for peace among the warring Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. Preliminary rounds of voting have started for those who can’t get to the polls this weekend, including police and military who’ll be working on election-day.… More

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Johannesburg

On Friday, the ANC struck back mightily at Cosatu's accusations. What could have been seen as an ideological tennis match between the alliance partners is now turning into a fight of panzer divisions.

The ANC has done something almost unprecedented: it has publicly attacked an alliance partner. On Thursday Cosatu’s general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi was about as angry as he’s ever been in public. On Friday the ANC's Jackson Mthembu upped the emotional ante. He accused Cosatu of “being on the warpath”, of being divisive, of telling untruths. You know, the stuff you’d expect him to say about, well, the Democratic Alliance. Which is all the more interesting, because Mthembu also claimed Cosatu was behaving like an opposition party. And he had a go at Cosatu for breaking that old alliance golden rule;… More

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Johannesburg

Ever since Ebrahim Patel was appointed as economic development minister, he has complained bitterly about having no power. Now it appears he has some. What will he do with it?

Patel has just set out his stall in a new 56-page policy document, his first clear indication of how he understands his mission. The document is largely functional, but on one issue it is supremely clear: Trevor Manuel, head of National Planning Commission, is his functionary. The document assigns to his department fabulous new powers to set the economic policy agenda, but as yet does not particularly specify what that policy will be other than setting a few absolute, overarching goals, including primarily creating “decent work”. Despite the existence of a planning function under former finance minister Trevor Manuel, “planning”… More

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South Africa

While a criminal investigation is still underway as to who committed the fraud that put thousands of unsafe taxis on the roads, those who own them have until the end September to get their vehicles retrofitted or have them impounded. Cue thousands of operators scrambling each to raise R18,000 to comply. Not that their banks can really say no.

On Friday, deputy transport minister Jeremy Cronin wouldn’t go into details of the investigation. His department is pretty certain, he said, that traffic officials had inserted false data into the national vehicle database, but there could have been collusion from financial institutions and dealers. Those who bought the vehicles may also have been in the know, though in at least some cases they were defrauded themselves. That will make no difference, come the end of September. Cronin announced that a six-month grace period begins on 1 April, and after it expires “illegally converted vehicles must be impounded.” That applies to… More

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South Africa

We’ve said before that Cosatu's Zwelinzima Vavi is a bellwether, someone who shows the way events are drifting before many others. He may not always be right, but he has a good track record. So it’s pretty damn interesting when he says that current events within the ANC “could plunge it into a an unprecedented crisis which may destroy the party”.

Now, don’t get too excited. He’s talking about a specific set of events that would need to happen and what he’s really doing is sounding a warning. This is about the fight back against Julius Malema and co. (Don’t you mean “Malema and Co. (Pty) Ltd" – Ed?). In his apocalyptic way Vavi is telling other ANC members they need to do something about the Youth League leader. It’s not really about Malema’s businesses, although that’s part of it. Vavi is saying that if a group, a “materialistic minority”, goes ahead with a vote of no-confidence in the leadership of… More

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