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Bangkok (AFP) – From being ready to start a family to having more property rights, Thai same-sex and transgender couples talk to AFP about what the new legislation means to them.

Tokyo (AFP) – Japanese retiree Teruko Nakazawa devoted decades to supervising and helping rehabilitate convicted criminals on parole. The 83-year-old didn’t take a single yen for her hard work under a long-running but little-known state scheme that some say contributes to the nation’s famously low crime rate.

Bolu (Turkey) (AFP) – Outside the Grand Kartal Hotel in mountainous northwestern Turkey, ski instructors recall the fire that ripped through the packed building, killing 76 people. “You could hear screams,” says Cevdet Can, recalling how some of the hotel’s 238 guests threw themselves from windows to escape. Anger mounted in Turkey the day after the tragedy, with nine people arrested and allegations of negligence spreading.

Pekalongan (Indonesia) (AFP) – Hundreds of rescue workers are searching through the mud and debris left by a landslide in Indonesia’s Central Java region. The disaster has killed at least 19 people and left several others missing in the mountainous area. Triggered by intense rainfall, the landslide comes after flooding in November, which killed 27.

Washington (AFP) – “The European Union is very, very bad to us,” says US President Donald Trump, threatening tariffs against the bloc, as well as China, which he accuses of “sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada”. Speaking at the White House on the first full day of his second term in office, Trump also says further sanctions on Russia are “likely” if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t come to the table for talks on a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Panama City (AFP) – People in Panama City express their concern and anger at US President Donald Trump’s vow that he would “take back” the Panama Canal. In the weeks leading up to his second term in office, Trump refused to rule out using force to take control of the canal, accusing China of exerting its influence on the vital waterway.

London (AFP) – The UK’s Prince Harry has concluded a long-running lawsuit against media giant Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN). Reading a statement from the royal outside the London court, lawyer David Sherborne says “the truth has now been exposed” that NGN used private investigators to intrude — between 1996 and 2011 — into Harry’s private life, as well as those of other claimants, including former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson, the prince’s last remaining co-claimant.

Beijing (AFP) – Chinese teenager Zhang Yachun has long battled anxiety over school and work, and has struggled to form deep friendships with other people. But since buying a BooBoo, a “smart pet” that uses artificial intelligence to interact with humans, the 19-year-old says life has become easier and she feels less alone.

La Paz (AFP) – Across Latin America, some urban residents live in homes on unstable terrain, where rainfall and river flooding threaten the structural integrity of buildings. Despite the risks due to the city’s hilly topography, Bolivians in La Paz continue to live in these areas and even continue to build new homes in the absence of alternatives.

Bolu (Turkey) (AFP) – A huge fire at a ski resort has killed at least 66 people in northwestern Turkey, where authorities have arrested four people, including the owner of the stricken hotel. The blaze began at around 3:30am local time, ripping through the wooden-clad building, in which 238 guests were staying, according to Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.

Tijuana (Mexico) (AFP) – Migrants at the US-Mexico border feel the brunt of President Donald Trump’s immediate crackdown, with the Biden administration’s CBP One app dropping offline and asylum appointments canceled just minutes after his return to office. “It’s one of the saddest days of my life,” says Francisco Tordecilla, one of many who has made the dangerous journey through Central America.

Washington (AFP) – “I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally,” says US President Donald Trump, after giving the Chinese-owned app a 75-day grace period from a law that would ban it on national security grounds. The executive order came on the first day of Trump’s second term in office and ran in seeming contrast to his first term, during which he himself tried to ban TikTok.