Beijing (AFP) – Packed into train carriages, millions of urbanites this week leave China’s major cities for their hometowns to share meals, pay respects to their elders and deliver blessings for the upcoming Year of the Dragon.
Rafah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Children in Gaza play on swings and mini ferris wheels to take their minds off the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Lisieux (France) (AFP) – Three-month-old Lucy, born in France’s Cerza zoo is one of the two subspecies of the white rhinoceros which is considered to be under threat.
Santiago (AFP) – As the night falls, people continue to leave flowers, candles in tribute to former Chilean President Sebastian Pinera outside his home in the capital Santiago after the 74-year-old died in a helicopter crash. IMAGES
Tall Birāk (Syria) (AFP) – Oil pollution has been a growing concern in Syria since the 2011 onset of civil war, which has taken a toll on infrastructure and seen rival powers compete over the control of energy resources.
Los Angeles (AFP) – A powerful storm lashing California destroyed houses and caused mudslides after dumping months’ worth of rain in a single day in the Beverly Crest area of Los Angeles.
Michoacan (Mexico) (AFP) – Incense fills the air and burning sticks light up the night in an Indigenous community in western Mexico where an ancient fire ritual has been brought back to life. Every year, the Purepecha people celebrate their New Year by taking a precious fire from village to village in the violence-ridden Michoacan state.
London (AFP) – Brits react to news that King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer after undergoing surgery for an enlarged prostate. “I feel kind of bad for him, he waited all these years to be King,” says one woman.
Dhurnal (Pakistan) (AFP) – Like all the women in her town, Naeem Kausir, a 60-year-old former headmistress and her seven daughters are forbidden from voting by their male elders. Although voting is a constitutional right for all adults in Pakistan, some rural areas in the socially conservative country are still ruled by a patriarchal system of male village elders who wield significant influence in their communities. “A system is prevalent in Pakistan where women are not allowed to exercise their rights. If she wants to use her rights, a woman has to first seek approval from her family members,” explains legal expert Fatima Tu Zara Butt.
Jindayris (Syria) (AFP) – A year ago, Afraa al-Sawadi was pulled from the rubble of her family home still attached to her dead mother by the umbilical cord, after a devastating earthquake hit northwest Syria. Now in the care of relatives after the February 6, 2023 quake, which ravaged Turkey and Syria and killed nearly 60,000 people, she is among the orphaned children toughing it out in the war-ravaged country.
Bariloche (Argentina) (AFP) – Images of firefighters battling a forest fire in Argentina’s Nahuel Huapi National Park. More than 3,000 hectares of native forest in southern Argentina haved burned in an uncontrolled fire that started on January 25 for reasons under investigation, provincial authorities have reported. IMAGES
Strasbourg (France) (AFP) – European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen tells the European Parliament in Strasbourg that “our farmers deserve to be listened to,” acknowledging that the bloc may not have made the case for the need for environmental and nature protectoins “convincingly”. A long list of grievances has prompted a mass protest movement by EU farmers, who in recent weeks have used tractors to block key roads to complain of shrinking income and rising production costs.
