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Akon: Success allows me to make music for myself
By Manish Pandey BBC Newsbeat RnB star Akon has been in the music business for almost 20 years. And the Senagalese-American singer says he’s finally able to start making music for himself. Born in the USA, Akon spent his childhood moving between New Jersey and the African country. He learned to play several western and…
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Muhammad Yunus: Leaders urge Bangladesh to end attacks on Nobel laureate
By Akbar Hossain & Kelly Ng in Dhaka and Singapore More than 170 global figures have called on Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina to stop the “persecution” of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Prof Yunus – known internationally as the “banker to the poor” – has been slapped with swathes of lawsuits, with several more filed…
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Refugee women’s personal photos on show
Five women who resettled as refugees to the UK share largely unseen, personal photos revealing lives before war and conflict and how they coped during journeys of upheaval and forced displacement. The women carried their photographic collections across borders, stored loosely in holdalls, kept pristine in decorative photo albums or held on digital devices. Here…
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The unexpected maths problem at work during the women’s World Cup
If you are in a room with 22 other people, it’s more likely than not that two of them share a birthday. There was something strange about the recent Women’s World Cup in Australia. If you were paying close attention, you might have spotted it. Many of the international teams had players who were born…
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Diver ‘Merman Mike’ finds your treasures under water
Michael Pelley, a California scuba diver and internet creator, returns lost trinkets to their owners for free and picks up trash along the way. “I figure I’m having a great time anytime my head goes underwater, so if I can make someone else’s day, week, month, or even year, by returning something they never thought…
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Ukraine war: Russia and Iran invited back to Nobel Prize banquet
By George Wright BBC News Russia and Belarus have been invited back to Stockholm’s Nobel Prize banquet after being left out last year because of the Ukraine war, the Nobel Foundation says. Iran has also been invited back to the event in Sweden’s capital after not being allowed to attend last year. The foundation said…
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Why John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is the ultimate spy novel
As it turns 60, Adam Scovell celebrates the gritty power of this tale of a disillusioned British agent who’s the opposite of James Bond, which was rooted in Le Carré’s own experiences in espionage. Espionage has a split personality in British culture. On the one hand, it’s seen as a glamorous, adventurous spectacle, a vision…
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The firms hoping to cut down on wasted cosmetics
By Maddy Savage BBC News, Stockholm Many of us buy makeup, hair and skincare products that we never end up finishing, because they don’t suit us, or work as we’d hoped. But could changing the way we produce and shop for cosmetics reduce the number of partly-used items lingering in bathrooms around the world? It’s…
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‘Marcus Aurelius’ statue seized from Cleveland museum in looting probe
By Max Matza BBC News Authorities have seized an allegedly looted headless statue, believed to depict Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, from a museum in Cleveland, Ohio. The bronze art was taken earlier this month by New York investigators who are probing claims that it was looted in the 1960s from Bubon, southern Turkey. The 76-inch…
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Aikido: A Japanese martial art practiced by millions
Emphasising self-defence rather than victory, Japan’s youngest martial art brings both new and veteran practitioners from across the globe to Tanabe, the town where it was born. Two men stood opposite each other holding wooden sticks shaped like a katana, the legendary Japanese sword, at arm’s length. The tips of the sticks crossed each other…