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African press review 8 June 2011

A psychic leads Texas Police on a wild goose chase. South African sex is getting safer. Phantom oil importers push up Uganda's petrol prices. Namibians win the right to have dual citizenship. And Kenya's finance minister faces a heavy day's reading after using social media to call for feedback on the budget.

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South African newspaper The Star headlines on a wild goose chase in the US state of Texas.

According to the paper, a psychic called local police to report a mass grave of up to 30 bodies. Authorities say, they took the tip seriously because the psychic said there were also bodies of children.

But no crime scene was found and the house's owner convinced the law enforcers that he hadn’t kill anyone.

Also in The Star, South African adults are engaging in healthier sexual behavior.

According to a recent study, 61 per cent of the country’s adults are aware of a campaign called OneLove, run by Soul City Institute.

In its fight against Aids and HIV, the campaign tries to raise awareness about condom use, HIV testing and challenge the common practice of multiple partners. The institute says, it thought the numbers were encouraging.

In Uganda, The Daily Monitor focuses on “ghost fuel firms”. The paper says it had uncovered the existence of one “ghost company” and learned of another six during an interview with the Ugandan Energy Minister.

These firms import fuel from Kenya without the necessary authorisation, pocketing the profit. Companies that import petrol legally are therefore unable to sell their stock, which in turn has driven fuel prices to record highs.

Namibians can now hold dual citizenship. The paper The Namibian reports that before the change the country’s Citizenship Act said that no Namibian is allowed to be the citizen of another country.

If they chose to hold a passport from another country, they would have had to renounce Namibian citizenship.

Now the High Court decided that that doesn’t apply to people who are Namibian by birth. In other words, people who are born in the country will be able to hold on to their citizenship, even if they decide to go and live in another country.

The Daily Nation in Kenya provides proof of the growing use of social media in politics in the country.

Kenyans blogged and posted their views on the budget online, after the country’s finance minister asked them for their opinions, also using a microblogging site. He received a lot of suggestions that he will have to read through today.

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