Old Fangak, South Sudan | AFP | Thouk Reath, 19, was recovering from a leg amputation after being shot in fighting in northeastern South Sudan when the clinic he was in had to be evacuated because of approaching gunfire. Patients and doctors at the clinic in the town of Maiwut risked …
Read More »Kenyan cattle herders defend ‘necessary’ land invasions
Crocodile Jaw Bridge, Kenya | AFP | Close by a narrow, rickety bridge in Kenya’s central Laikipia highlands two herders sit on blistering hot rock next to the muddy trickle of the Ewaso Nyiro river to explain why they routinely break the law, invading private land to graze their cattle. “The …
Read More »Rwanda’s essential oils offer big profits from little land
Gahara, Rwanda | AFP | Inside a metal shed in southeastern Rwanda, Nicholas Hitimana brandished a plastic container holding a green liquid: geranium essential oil, freshly distilled and ready for export at more than $200 (175 euros) a kilo. The pioneer of essential oils in Rwanda, Hitimana said he understood …
Read More »Macron puts France top of ‘soft power’ rankings: survey
Paris, France | AFP | France has leapfrogged the United States and Britain as the world’s top so-called soft power, helped by the election of President Emmanuel Macron, a study of countries’ non-military global influence showed Tuesday. While France has risen, Donald Trump’s ascent to the White House has seen the …
Read More »Call for Boko Haram peace talks masks ethnic tensions
Kano, Nigeria | AFP | A group of community elders in northeast Nigeria where Boko Haram has waged a bloody eight-year insurgency are urging the Islamists to enter peace talks, a move some see as motivated by ethnic self-interest. The Borno Elders Forum of retired military and civilian officials, all ethnic …
Read More »Boxed in: S.Korea child law sees more babies abandoned
Seoul, South Korea | AFP | The young woman laboured up the steps, past brightly decorated walls akin to a child’s nursery, her daughter in her arms. Opening a hatch in the wall, she put her inside, turned around and walked away. She ran her hands over her head but did …
Read More »547 boys were abused at German Catholic choir school: investigator
Munich, Germany | AFP | At least 547 boys at a German Catholic choir school suffered sexual or physical abuse in what victims have likened to “prison, hell or a concentration camp”, said an investigator releasing a final report Tuesday on one of the country’s worst such scandals. The Regensburger …
Read More »After six chaotic months, can Trump save his presidency?
Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump’s first six months in the White House have been a riot of scandal, chaos and outrage that — absent a major course correction — could spell doom for his entire administration. All US presidents face crises that seem to sweep the White …
Read More »Trump fumes as US health care reform bid collapses
Washington, United States | AFP | An angry President Donald Trump railed Tuesday against dissenters in his party who dashed his months-long effort to dismantle his predecessor’s landmark health care law, insisting it was finally time to “let Obamacare fail.” With four Republicans now lined up against Senate Majority Leader …
Read More »Jerusalem holy site closure ‘crime against humanity’: Turkey
Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | Turkey on Monday blasted Israel’s two-day closure of a Jerusalem holy site, following a deadly attack, as a “crime against humanity.” The Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, includes the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque. It is venerated …
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