AFP UK

Ruili (China) (AFP) – The Chinese city of Ruili on the southern border is slowly creaking back to life as the country ditches its zero-tolerance Covid strategy after years of strict lockdowns and other gruelling restrictions. Bordering Myanmar, the city was a key battleground in the fight to keep imported Covid cases out of China, with residents living through nearly a dozen lockdowns. Despite the harsh lockdowns, the residents are now optimistic that the city’s economy will recover, banking on the city’s famed jade and jewellery trade and closeness to Myanmar. Meanwhile in the Myanmar town of Muse, residents share their concerns over soaring Covid cases in China.

Tongi (Bangladesh) (AFP) – Hundreds of thousands of Muslims gather to pray in the Bangladeshi town of Tongi for Biswa Ijtema, the world’s second largest congregation of Muslims after the Hajj in Mecca.

Ruili (China) (AFP) – Shop owners in Ruili, a city in China’s southwestern Yunnan province bordering Myanmar, display and prepare Lunar New Year decorations in their storefronts, as the country prepares for the annual holiday. Ruili was one of the cities under near-constant lockdown before China decided to dismantle its zero-Covid policy in early December.

Pokhara (Nepal) (AFP) – Rescue workers search through the wreckage of a plane that crashed in Nepal with 72 people on board and retrieve the bodies of victims. At least 67 people were confirmed dead in the incident, police said, in the Himalayan country’s worst aviation disaster in three decades.

Athens (AFP) – The casket of former Greek king Constantine II arrives at Athens Metropolitan Cathedral. Constantine’s body will lie from 6:00 am (0800 GMT) to 10:00 am so members of the public can pay their respects. Constantine was a divisive figure in the country’s history and the government has decided not to grant him the honour of a state funeral. IMAGES

Pan de Azúcar (Uruguay) (AFP) – In Uruguay, herdsmen buy horses at auction to fatten them up and sell them for slaughter. But a local nonprofit seeks to give them a second chance: Santuarios Primitivo has bought some 250 doomed horses it has given up for adoption over the last three years.

Pokhara (Nepal) (AFP) – Images showing fire and thick smoke moments after a plane crash in Pokhara, Nepal. At least 67 people are confirmed dead after the plane with 72 on board crashed, police say, in the Himalayan country’s deadliest aviation disaster in three decades.

Yakutsk (Russia) (AFP) – In Yakutsk, a city in Russia’s east Siberia, 450km south of the Arctic circle, local weather services warn that temperatures could sink as low as -62°C. “It feels like this is the coldest winter” says one resident, where the abnormal cold is even lower than the -40°C temperatures locals are used to.

Goroimari (India) (AFP) – Hundreds of villagers gather at a lake in India’s northeastern state of Assam to celebrate 2023’s harvest festival of Bhogali Bihu.

Dnipro (Ukraine) (AFP) – A strike on a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has killed at least 21 and wounded more than 70, officials said, as the president blasted Russian “terror”. Rescuers dig through the rubble of the damaged building after the deadly strike.

Protaras (Cyprus) (AFP) – People waterski and kayak through flooded streets in Protaras, a seaside resort in Cyprus, after torrential rains.

Florence (Italy) (AFP) – Using gentle, circular motions, an art restorer gently cleans the painting of a half-nude woman that was censored more than 300 years ago by a prudish descendant of Michelangelo. The piece by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian Baroque’s trailblazing woman artist, is undergoing a months-long restoration to rediscover her original vision, hidden for centuries under a thick layer of strategically placed paint.