Music is a form of expression in the medium of time using the structures of tones and silence. It is the creation of complex forms in time through construction of patterns and combinations of natural stimuli, principally sound. As a human activity, music may be used for artistic or aesthetic, as a means of communication, entertainment, or ceremonial purposes. The definition of what constitutes music varies according to culture and social context.

Definition of music

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The definition of music as sound with particular characteristics is taken as a given by psychoacoustics, and is a common one in musicology and performance. There are observable patterns to what is broadly labeled music, and while there are understandable cultural variations, the properties of music are the properties of sound as perceived and processed by humans.

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BBC News | Africa | World Edition

Delay-hit Angola election resumes
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 08:04:16 -0000
Angola's opposition calls for fresh elections, as voting is to continue for a second day.
US Libya relations in 'new phase'
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 03:51:22 -0000
Relations between the US and Libya have entered a "new phase", says US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
Malaysia deploys navy to Somalia
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:50:16 -0000
Malaysia sends three navy ships to the coast of Somalia to protect vessels from piracy.
Deadly rockslide hits Cairo homes
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:22:07 -0000
At least 20 people have died after a rockslide destroys homes in a shanty town in the Egyptian capital, emergency services say.
'Dozens die' in Mozambique fires
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:44:43 -0000
Bush fires in central Mozambique kill at least 32 people and injured hundreds more.
Zambian VP to lead ruling party
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:34:26 -0000
Zambia's ruling party choses current Vice-President, Rupiah Banda, as its candidate to succeed the late president.

NYT > Africa

In Destitute Swaziland, Leader Lives Royally
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:37:24 -0000
The extravagance of King Mswati III, who has given his 13 wives palaces and BMWs, is spurring protests.
Angolans Go to the Polls
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:11:00 -0000
War-ravaged Angola, a country with an abundance of oil, diamonds and grinding poverty, held its first election in 16 years on Friday.
Isolation Over, Libyan Leader Meets With Rice
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:44:42 -0000
For the first time in more than half a century, a sitting American secretary of state is in Libya, as Condoleezza Rice arrived on Friday to meet with Muammar el-Qaddafi.

L.A. Times - Africa

Rice meets with Libya leader, a former pariah
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Moammar Kadafi is a gracious host, but the U.S. and Libya are not friends yet. Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi welcomed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to his high-security personal compound Friday, in symbolic recognition that after nearly three decades of animosity, the U.S.-Libyan relationship is now officially normal, if not entirely friendly.
Sudan doesn't see relations improving after the U.S. election
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Officials in Khartoum are renewing efforts to reach agreement with the U.S., spurred by a genocide investigation and the impending end of the Bush administration. The American presidential race and a genocide investigation by the International Criminal Court are propelling Sudanese officials to renew efforts to strike a deal with the U.S. aimed at normalizing relations and improving stability in the volatile Darfur region.
World Briefing
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Ukraine: Cheney urges closer ties with West / Canada: Parliament to be dissolved / Angola: Voters go to polls Cheney pushes ties with West

UN News Centre - Africa

Situation worsening for Horn of Africa's children, warns UN agency
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Almost three million children across the Horn of Africa are at risk of death, disease and malnutrition due to a combination of drought, rising food prices and conflict, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned today.
Top UN envoy speaks out against piracy off Somali coast
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The top United Nations envoy to Somalia today said that he is extremely alarmed by the rise in piracy off the Horn of Africa nation's coast and deplored the destabilizing effects of the attacks in the region.
UN to train African Union peacekeeping support staff
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The United Nations peacekeeping arm launched a training programme this week for senior officials of the African Union (AU), aimed at improving the planning, deployment and management of its peacekeeping support missions.

The Economist: Middle East and Africa

Somalia: Hunger and terror
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
There has been no pause in the country’s relentless downward spiralIT HAS been a long, dreadful summer for Somalia. The UN says that 3.2m Somalis (out of about 8m) now need aid just to stay alive: a 77% rise on last year. A sixth of Somali infants are at risk of starving to death. Due to what aid organisations call “intolerable insecurity”, almost all international charity workers have left. Offshore, Somali pirates are as bold as ever. They are holding around ten vessels, including three large tankers with 130 crewmen captured this week.Foreign governments still wrangle over Africa’s worst humanitarian and political crisis. UN people working for a deal between Islamist insurgents and the weak Somali government want 8,000 peacekeeping troops to replace the few thousand beleaguered African Union and Ethiopian soldiers. But more senior people in the UN’s peacekeeping office, already failing to get enough troops into Darfur, rule that out. A multinational force would be the next best thing, but who would pay? Mooted Saudi cash has not materialised. ...
Kenya: When not imploding is not enough
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
Six months after its bloody election crisis, the country is still struggling to recoverIN THE past few weeks, Kenyans have been celebrating. They were delighted when their athletes came back from the Olympics in China with 14 medals, five of them gold, whereas South Africa, often the continent’s sporting giant, got just one silver. A buoyant president, Mwai Kibaki, handed bonus cheques to the medallists on their return. And then Kenyans had the pleasure, early one morning on television, of watching Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan civil servant, accept the Democratic nomination to be president of the United States. But despite such good cheer it is evident that east Africa’s leading country has yet to recover fully from the post-election violence that ravaged it earlier in the year, when some 1,700 people were killed and 300,000 displaced. Its fragile coalition government is struggling to take the necessary decisions to tackle the country’s manifold problems. With Mr Kibaki as president and the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, as prime minister, the mere fact that their cumbrous joint administration has hung together is an achievement. But beyond that, six months into its existence, it has little else to celebrate. ...
Israel: Come and have a good time
Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:35 -0000
Israelis want foreigners to see their country in a new lightCOUNTRIES, like items in the supermarket, sell better with clever advertising. So Israel, long frustrated by its image as a country tarnished by danger and strife, wants to rebrand itself—as hip, cool, cultured, fun and creative.The initiative comes from Israeli diplomats and Jewish groups in America, whose research shows that even though Israel enjoys strong political support from Americans, its image is far too lean and mean. Asked to describe “Israel house”, one focus group imagined it as arid, all-male and surrounded by barbed wire. The concepts that first spring to mind in polls are conflict, desert and religious extremism. “We want people to know other things about us,” says a top Israeli involved in the scheme. “About our computer chips and health-care innovations.” ...

Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune

Rice travels to Libya to meet with Qaddafi
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:38:16 -0000
For the first time in more than half a century, a sitting U.S. secretary of state is in Libya, with the arrival of Condoleezza Rice to meet with the man that Ronald Reagan called the "Mad Dog of the Middle East."
Opposition parties call to redo elections in Angola
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:38:16 -0000
The leader of Angola's main opposition party, Unita, said he had asked election officials to rehold Friday's parliamentary election because of widespread delays at polling stations.
Angolans go to the polls
By Celia W. Dugger Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:13:51 -0000
War-ravaged Angola, a country with an abundance of oil, diamonds and grinding poverty, held its first election in 16 years on Friday.
The costs of living in a fairy tale kingdom
By BARRY BEARAK Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:38:16 -0000
A young and handsome king ruled over a land of mountainous splendor near the southern tip of Africa. He liked to get married, and as the years passed he took 13 wives, each of them a great beauty.
Israel bolsters Palestinian Authority's arsenal
By ISABEL KERSHNER Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:38:16 -0000
Some 900 assault rifles were transferred to the Palestinian Authority in late August with Israeli approval.
U.S. plan would shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan
By MICHAEL R. GORDON AND THOM SHANKER Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:38:16 -0000
Pentagon leaders have recommended a modest shift of U.S. forces by early next year, officials said.

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