LOST IN THE DARK RIDE

Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who exposed the horrors of Stalin’s prison system, dies at the age of 89.

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Mexico City opens a global conference on HIV/Aids, 25 years after the syndrome first became widely known.

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Israel is accused of trying to recruit Palestinian medical patients as informers - a claim it dismisses as unfounded.

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The head of South Africa’s ruling ANC, Jacob Zuma, goes to court in an attempt to have corruption charges against him dropped.

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Bangladeshis are voting in local elections in the first polls since the caretaker government declared a state of emergency a year-and-a-half ago.

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Eleven climbers have died in north Pakistan trying to scale the world’s second-highest peak, K2, reports say.

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Barack Obama calls for delegates from Michigan and Florida to have their voting rights restored at the Democratic convention.

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Children are being denied the chance to climb trees and play conkers by over-cautious parents, a new survey claims.

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Staff at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel find a small girl alone after her parents accidentally take a plane without her.

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Sixteen Chinese policemen die in an attack on a border post in the north-western region of Xinjiang, state media say.

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