Features catergory

Paris, France | AFP |  Gabon’s disputed election, which culminated Saturday with the constitutional court’s confirmation of President Ali Bongo’s victory, is the latest in a long list of violence-tinged ballots in Africa:   Ivory Coast  After a five-month-standoff, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo was detained on April 11, 2011 by forces …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | In one selfless act Olympic triathlon champion Alastair Brownlee erased the fratricidal image of Cain killing Abel as he helped his stricken brother Jonny over the line in the World Series event in Mexico. However, with praise raining down on him Alastair’s blunt no …

Anand, India | AFP | At a hostel for dozens of pregnant women, impoverished widow Sharmila Mackwan weighs up her decision to carry twins for another couple — her only ticket out of poverty — as the government moves to close India’s multi-million dollar surrogacy industry. She has left her …

United Nations, United States | AFP |  A young Iraqi woman who survived rape and abuse as a sex slave of Islamic State fighters has became a UN goodwill ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking. Nadia Murad Basee Taha, a 23-year-old Yazidi woman, called for justice for the …

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | AFP | French Paralympians got a taste of Rio’s tough realities in a visit to a favela Friday but the impoverished children greeting the disabled athletes got an eye opener of their own. Foreign celebrities and sports stars often follow a well-beaten track from Rio’s …

It is exactly four months before 2016 winds up but climate scientists have already noted that there is a 99% chance that this year will be the hottest ever recorded. The US-based NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration] recently released a mid-year climate analysis for the first time showing that …

Water for People in partnership with Agency For Sustainable Rural Transfomation (AFSRT), ICCO Cooperation and Kole District Local Government on September 7, 2016 commissioned a faecal sludge treatment plant to improve sanitation and create business opportunities especially for youth in the district. Kole district was specifically selected to benefit from this …

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso | AFP |  With the logo of his internet TV station on his black T-shirt, Inoussa Maiga energetically plucks corn stalks in northern Burkina Faso for a programme on farming in Africa. Maiga, 30, launched Agribusiness TV in May in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou, determined to change …

Tough health choices for men: Bread-winning men may have more money, but poorer health Men who earn more money than their wives may be rolling in the bucks, but they tend to have poor health and heightened anxiety, new research shows. Researchers analysed surveys from 9,000 young married men and women …

LIBREVILLE, Gabon | AFP | One of Africa’s largest oil producers and among the continent’s wealthier nations, small lush Gabon holds a presidential election Saturday at a time of rising social tension due to the global slump in oil prices. The vote sees one of the strongest challenges yet to …