AFP UK

Geneva (AFP) – Russia’s missile blitz on Ukrainian cities “may have violated the principles of the conduct of hostilities under international humanitarian law”, the UN says.

Tokyo (AFP) – Japan reopens its doors to tourists Tuesday after two-and-a-half years of tough Covid restrictions, with officials hoping an influx of travellers enticed by a weak yen will boost the economy.

Las Tejerías (Venezuela) (AFP) – “We don’t know if there are still people under this rubble,” says Isaac Castillo as residents help rescue teams comb through mud and debris in search of 52 missing people after a landslide swept through Las Tejerias in Venezuela, killing at least 36.

Na Klang (Thailand) (AFP) – Monks pray at a temple in northeastern Thai province of Nong Bua Lam Phu ahead of the cremation for the victims of nursery attack, which will be held early evening on Tuesday. Sacked police officer Panya Khamrab killed 36 people — 24 of them children — last Thursday in a gun and knife rampage, in one of the kingdom’s worst-ever mass killings.

Swat (Pakistan) (AFP) – 2,000 girls and boys walk out of classes accompanied by their teachers in protest after a driver was shot dead and a student critically wounded in an attack on a school bus in Pakistan on Monday. The Swat Valley, where the attack took place, was once overrun by the Pakistani Taliban, who notoriously shot Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai on a school bus in the same city ten years ago. The area has seen a resurgence of militancy since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan last year with a spike in attacks — mainly targeting security forces — in recent weeks.

Bangla Bazar (Bangladesh) (AFP) – Periodic flooding that inundates homes, markets and schools has always been part of the lives of millions of farmers and fishermen who crowd the riverbanks, some of the most densely populated areas of Bangladesh. Scientists say climate change has increased the severity and frequency of the phenomenon, with more erratic rainfall causing more cyclones and flash floods.

United Nations (United States) (AFP) – Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations denounces Russia as a “terrorist state” during an urgent General Assembly meeting to discuss Moscow’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions. “Russia has proven once again, that this is a terrorist state that must be deterred in the strongest possible ways,” says Sergiy Kyslytsya, speaking after Russia launched a deadly barrage of missile strikes at cities across Ukraine.

Beneath the waters off Egypt’s Red Sea coast a kaleidoscopic ecosystem teems with life that could become the world’s “last coral refuge” as global heating eradicates reefs elsewhere, researchers say.

Professor Hans Ellegren, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, defends the Nobel Committee’s attempts to better reflect the breadth of achievement across the world after a season where every Nobel laureate came from either Europe or the USA. He points to the increase in women laureates, including “half of all laureates in chemistry” as evidence of progress in the field over the past five years, and claims that the academy is taking “every measure we can” to increase the geographical diversity of the prize-winners. “One must be aware that we don’t really mirror the scientific community as it looks now, but maybe how it looked 20 or 30 years back when these discoveries were made” he further adds.

Lapalisse (France) (AFP) – Several hundred old car models converge in Lapalisse, in France’s Allier region, for the 9th edition of the “Lapalisse traffic jam”, a historical re-enactment in what was once a popular stop-off point for holidaymakers heading from Paris to Menton in the south.

Breda (Netherlands) (AFP) – Fans of Belgian-Dutch Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen gathered in the Netherlands this weekend to see him become double world champion by winning the Japanese Grand Prix. But an impending cost-cap ruling could wipe the smiles off faces in the Red Bull garage.

Château-Gontier (France) (AFP) – French President Emmanuel Macron says that Russian air strikes across Ukraine and against civilians on Monday signal a “profound change” in the conduct of the war.