Kampala, Uganda | DAVID IRVING | Ben Franklin famously wrote: “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. What he didn’t mention, despite being 83 years old, was a third, almost inevitable eventuality: ageing. Depending on when in history and where on the planet you …
Read More »Police investigate as sexual assault video shocks Morocco
Rabat, Morocco | AFP | Moroccan police on Tuesday announced an investigation into a video showing a teenage girl being pinned down, stripped and assaulted in broad daylight after it stirred a wave of anger. In the footage circulated online an assailant kneels on top of the teen touching and …
Read More »Firefighter tells court of finding French nanny’s remains on bonfire
London, United Kingdom | AFP | A British firefighter has described discovering the charred remnants of a young French nanny, during the trial of a couple accused of killing her and disposing of the body in a bonfire in their garden. The remains of 21-year-old Sophie Lionnet were discovered by …
Read More »Empire of delusion
Today the Commonwealth exists as an organisation in search of a rationale Kampala, Uganda | MICHAEL WESLEY | Anyone interested in power must visit Persepolis. Its ruins stand defiantly in a parched valley in southern Iran, the ultimate statement of the capacity of humans to dominate vast multitudes of their fellow …
Read More »London couple stand trial for murder of French nanny
London, United Kingdom | AFP | A French couple living in London went on trial Monday accused of murdering their compatriot nanny and burning her body in a bonfire after starving and mistreating her. Sabrina Kouider and Ouissem Medouni had kept 21-year-old Sophie Lionnet as a “prisoner” and violently abused …
Read More »Living across the front lines in South Sudan
Leer, South Sudan | AFP | Nyakol was 15, healthy and strong when South Sudanese soldiers attacked her hometown of Leer, forcing her to flee with her mother into the surrounding swamps. Not for the first time, government troops tore through the northern rebel stronghold, killing, kidnapping and raping, so …
Read More »Happiness and God
Are religious people happier than non-religious people? Kampala, Uganda | KAYONDO HUBERT NGAMABA | What makes people happy? This question can be difficult to answer. Happiness has been discussed throughout history. Philosophers, thinkers and activists, such as Aristippus, Aristotle, Zhuangzi, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Jeremy Benthan and Bertrand Russell, have considered happiness …
Read More »New take on real-life hijack drama in ‘7 Days in Entebbe’
Berlin, Germany | AFP | The counter-terrorism plot seems more far fetched than many action thrillers, yet “7 Days in Entebbe”, which premiered at the Berlin film festival Monday, depicts a real-life airline hijack drama. The movie recounts what is often called the most audacious hostage rescue mission ever staged, …
Read More »In Kenya, anti-poaching dogs are wildlife’s best friends
Maasai Mara, Kenya | AFP | Five-month-old bloodhound Shakaria gambols through the long savannah grasses of Kenya’s Maasai Mara reserve, her playful mood swiftly turning to keen determination as she is ordered to track a human scent. Straining at the leash, she pulls her handler along an invisible scent path …
Read More »For single Syrian women, search for soulmate comes up empty
Damascus, Syria | AFP | Syrian student Nour wistfully examines her bare ring finger, then scans fellow classmates around her at Damascus University. Amid the sea of women, there’s no eligible single man in sight. At 30, Nour says she is eager to get married — but Syria’s protracted conflict …
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