La Havane (AFP) – Traffic lights remained off in most parts of Havana on 16 March as Cubans suffered through another days-long major blackout. “Let’s hope it will pass soon,” says Pedro Herrera, a constructor. Power is now slowly being restored across most of the island. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITE
Bangkok (AFP) – Wielding a cumbersome tattoo gun with his small hands swamped in surgical gloves, nine-year-old Napat Mitmakorn expertly inks the pattern of a fanged serpent on a man’s upper thigh, as he makes his public debut at the Thailand Tattoo Expo in Bangkok.
Rome (AFP) – The Vatican has released the first photo of Pope Francis since his hospitalisation over a month ago, showing the pontiff celebrating mass from the chapel in his hospital suite. Meanwhile, a steady stream of well-wishers continue to gather outside the hospital, including tango dancers.
Addis Abeba (AFP) – Ermias Haylay was 15 when he first touched a begena, one of Ethiopia’s oldest instruments, that has since become “an addiction” for the young musician. From his love for the “charismatic and knowledgeable” instrument was born the Eman begena school, which now regularly visits a nursing home to play for its residents as a form of therapy.
San Luis Talpa (Salvador) (AFP) – Over 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang arrive at the maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a mega-prison on the edge of a jungle 75 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of San Salvador, after being deported from the US despite a US federal judge granting a temporary suspension of the expulsions order.
Mavivi (RD Congo) (AFP) – Judith Kahindo makes her way through a tangled forest to harvest cocoa on her isolated plantation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the world’s leading cocoa exporters and where the crop is coveted by armed groups. “We tend our fields with the fear of being massacred” she says.
Beit Lahia (Territoires palestiniens) (AFP) – Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia gather for a mass fast-breaking iftar meal amid the rubble of destroyed buildings, as the ravaged territory spends its second Islamic holy month of Ramadan amidst the war.
Kocani (AFP) – Firefighters and emergency services are on site after a fire that tore through a nightclub in North Macedonia’s Kocani, killing 51 revellers. More than 100 people have been wounded, according to the country’s interior minister. The fire broke out in the nightclub “Pulse”, where more than 1,000 mostly young fans had crammed in to see the hip-hop duo DNK, popular in the country.
Damas (AFP) – Syrian army helicopters drop confetti and leaflets on people celebrating the fourteenth anniversary of the uprising at a rally in Damascus’ Umayyad Square. The rally is the first in the capital after years under toppled president Bashar al-Assad.
New York (AFP) – Palestinian student campaigner Mahmoud Khalil is arrested on 8 March 2025 by plainclothes agents in New York as his eight-months-pregnant wife, Noor Abdalla, records the scene. The officers did not present a warrant or identify themselves. Khalil was arrested by US immigration officials despite holding a permanent residency green card.
Tokyo (AFP) – Former sex worker and photographer Beniko is on a mission to capture the spirit of Tokyo’s historic red-light district, formerly known as Yoshiwara, a place she once called home. “These places are often referred to as having a “negative history”, she says, “but the truth is that through the years people lived there, people made their lives there, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that.”
Salé (Maroc) (AFP) – Abdel Aziz Touil is one of the few stucco master craftsmen in Morocco, experts in a craft threatened by dwindling numbers and the lack of interest from younger generations. Over the centuries, stucco, a type of plaster, has been an essential element of Moroccan architecture.
