London, United Kingdom | AFP | Nearly one young person a week has been stabbed to death in London so far this year, leaving British authorities hunting for ways to stop the increasing violence. Twenty-seven people under the age of 25 have been stabbed to death in London since the …
Read More »Sanders brings sardonic wit, southern drawl to White House podium
Washington, United States | AFP | Sarah Huckabee Sanders — a pugnacious Arkansas native from a political family — took to the podium as the new White House press secretary Friday, stepping into perhaps the most difficult job in the world: speaking for Donald Trump. Born in a town called Hope — also …
Read More »Sean Spicer: Republican veteran, but never a Trump insider
White House press secretary Sean Spicer resigns Washington, United States | AFP | Sean Spicer, who resigned Friday after a stormy six months as White House press secretary, was tapped to be Donald Trump’s spokesman even though he was not a member of the president’s inner circle. Spicer, 45, became …
Read More »S.Sudan clashes force patients, doctors to flee hospital
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 …
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