1 week ago My big night out: I was about to get fired – then a colleague invited me to the party that changed my life

I wasn’t sure journalism was for me until I ended up in a bar with a group of lawless, funny co-workers who complained long and hard about the panther suspended above us in a cageIn the mid-90s, I was working as an admin assistant on the listings magazine of the London Evening Standard, and was about to be fired. OK, I wasn’t that good at the job, but I was also done with it. It was on my mind that I needed an actual job, one that you could describe to someone: “I’m an X.” At what point did you get to say: “I’m a journalist”? And was that even a real thing? A lawyer friend had told me: “I see mine as a profession and yours as more of a trade.” I ruminated on that a lot.Anyway, some time between my latest misdemeanour and my inevitable disciplinary letter, someone from the main paper, let’s call him Pete Clark because that was his name (everyone else will go by initials, but Pete’s dead now, and he would want to be named, I think), asked if I wanted to go to a party. It was no specia...

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1 week ago 41 men are killed in South African circumcision initiation ceremonies

Traditional initiation is a rite of passage into manhood for young men that is practiced annually by various ethnic groups in Africa, including parts of South Africa.

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1 week ago At least 41 dead following initiation ceremonies in South Africa in just two months

Traditional initiation is practiced by various ethnic groups in which young men are isolated at initiation schools and taught cultural values and responsibilities as they become adults

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1 week ago At least 41 young men dead following two months of initiation ceremonies

Traditional initiation is practiced by various ethnic groups in which young men are isolated at initiation schools and taught cultural values and responsibilities as they become adults

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1 week ago 41 young men die in South Africa from circumcision procedures during initiation ceremonies

Authorities report that at least 41 young men have died from circumcision procedures during traditional initiation activities in South Africa in November and December

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2 w. ago Kimberlee Singler suspected of murdering her young children 'said God told her to do it'

Kimberlee Singler, who has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, was initially considered a victim after her two children were discovered dead at home in Colorado Springs, Colorado

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3 w. ago Gunmen kill nine in Johannesburg township in South Africa’s second mass shooting this month

Attackers wound 10 others in Bekkersdal after opening fire at people in a bar and ‘randomly’ shooting in the street, police sayNine people have been killed after gunmen opened fire at a bar outside Johannesburg in the second mass shooting in South Africa this month.Ten more were wounded in the early morning attack at the tavern in the impoverished Bekkersdal township in a gold mining area about 25 miles (40km) south-west of the city. Continue reading...

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