OOF – Out of Food

A tribal language thought to have existed for 65,000 years has disapperead forever in India’s Andaman Islands, taken to the grave with its last speaker. According to the indigenous advocacy group Survival International, Boa Senior, the last member of the Bo tribe, died last week at the age of 85.

One of the 10 Great Andamanese tribes that are considered indigenous inhabitants of these islands 700 miles east of the Indian mainland, the Bo tribe spoke a language which is thought to date back to pre-Neolithic times and possibly to the first settlement of the region by modern humans.

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In future an immigrant arriving in Germany and wishing to stay may have to sign an “integration contract”. That is the idea of the Integration Minister, Maria Boehmer.

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NEWARK, NJ—The mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, the Jersey City deputy mayor and council president, two state assemblymen, numerous other public officials and political figures and five rabbis from New York and New Jersey were among 44 individuals charged today in a two-track federal investigation of public corruption and a high-volume, international money laundering conspiracy, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr., announced.

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A group of soldiers who took part in Israel’s assault in Gaza say widespread abuses were committed against civilians under “permissive” rules of engagement.

The troops said they had been urged to fire on any building or person that seemed suspicious and said Palestinians were sometimes used as human shields.

Breaking the Silence, a campaign group made up of Israeli soldiers, gathered anonymous accounts from 26 soldiers. Israel denies breaking the laws of war and dismissed the report as hearsay.

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An investigation is under way in Australia into claims that navy sailors competed with each other to bed their female colleagues for cash prizes.

According to Channel Seven news, sailors on board HMAS Success put a cash value on each woman’s head. Sleeping with a female officer or a lesbian, or having sex in a strange place, won more money, the report said.

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