Word: africa
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...Ukraine has about 6 million light weapons from Soviet stockpiles, and has modernized tanks, anti-aircraft missiles and other weaponry, says Hugh Griffiths, an expert on illicit weapons at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. A dramatic example of Ukraine's reach is playing out off the Horn of Africa, where a major shipment of Ukrainian weapons, including 33 T-72 tanks, was hijacked by Somali pirates and remains a vexing military and diplomatic problem...
...reports as known arms shippers. "About 53 companies have been forced to close down," according to Griffiths, who released his findings in a report on Monday. Griffiths says enforcing similar rules against ships could put several arms traffickers out of business entirely. Until then, if you need weapons in Africa, "there are plenty of arms out there - so long as you have the money to pay for it," he says...
...Over his 27-year tenure, Pope John Paul II named more saints than all his predecessors combined, beatifying more than 1,300 people and canonizing nearly 500. He fast-tracked Mother Theresa's canonization, and made a distinct effort to identify saints in Africa and Asia. In 2000, much to the chagrin of the communist government there, John Paul II canonized the first saints in China, naming 87 Chinese citizens and 33 foreign missionaries who had died in the country between 1648 and 1930. He also named the first saint from Brazil, home to more Catholics than any other country...
Ahtisaari, a former primary-school teacher, joined the Finnish Foreign Ministry as a diplomat in the mid-'60s. His first peace mediation job was as U.N. envoy to Namibia, where guerrillas were fighting the apartheid government of South Africa. He spent 20 years abroad as a diplomat for Finland and the U.N. before contesting and winning the presidential election in 1994, serving one term before returning to mediation work full time...
...years of fighting. He also helped bring an end to war and nearly 10 years of negotiations in Namibia, paving the way to that country's independence in 1990. In Iraq, the diplomat has hosted talks between feuding Sunni and Shi'ite groups, modeled on successful dialogues in South Africa and Northern Ireland...