Hargeisa (AFP) – In Hargeisa, the largest city in Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland, traditional and religious values still influence societal norms. However, some women are breaking down those barriers by participating in sports.
Khost (Afghanistan) (AFP) – Afghanistan’s Taliban government rejects an arrest warrant sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its leaders. The ICC chief prosecutor said he was seeking arrest warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women, a crime against humanity. “The International Criminal Court can’t scare us,” Afghanistan’s First Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs, Mohammad Nabi Omari, says at a graduation ceremony in the eastern city of Khost.
Galway (Ireland) (AFP) – A violent storm hits the UK and Ireland with heavy rain and strong winds. The worst of the storm is impacting Scotland and the island of Ireland, with both put on high alert and schools ordered to close.
Davos (Switzerland) (AFP) – Speaking at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland, Argentina’s President Javier Milei says he has found “comrades in this fight for the ideas of freedom”, in likeminded leaders such as US President Donald Trump, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Hungarian Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Pristina (AFP) – A new museum opens in Kosovar capital Pristina, full of belongings and mementos from childhoods spent during the country’s conflict. Kosovo saw a bloody civil war from 1998-1999 between ethnic Albanian insurgents and Serbian armed forces. A decade after the war, majority-Albanian Kosovo declared independence, which Serbia and the Kosovo Serb minority do not recognise.
Goma (DR Congo) (AFP) – Displaced Congolese make their way along the road leading to the centre of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, as the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group continues to gain ground.
Mogadishu (AFP) – Twenty five year-old equestrian Shukri Osman Muse has been turning heads on the streets of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Since taking up riding just last year she has now become, according to her trainer, the conservative country’s “first” female equestrian.
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Hundreds of people gather at night on Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Ipanema beach as a heat wave continues to hit the Brazilian city. Meanwhile, animals at the city’s zoo are given frozen treats to keep them cool.
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.
