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What to expect from Xi's next five years in power
What to expect from Xi's next five years in power
World
by  AFP

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has emerged from a five-year congress with even more power over the ruling Communist Party. The Communist Party for the first time enshrined its opposition to Taiwanese independence in its constitution at its just-ended congress which handed Xi a third term in power.

Heat, then floods ruin Pakistani farmers' livelihoods
Heat, then floods ruin Pakistani farmers' livelihoods
World
by  AFP

Generations of Rahim Buksh's ancestors have laboured in the rice paddies and wheat fields surrounding Pakistan's hottest city, no strangers to intense summers or monsoon rains. "We would move to the cities and take up manual labour work if somebody helped us to get out of here," said Buksh, whose mud-brick home was flooded, like much of the surrounding farmland.

Tigray rebels in South Africa for peace talks
Tigray rebels in South Africa for peace talks
World
by  AFP

Tigrayan rebels said their negotiators have arrived in South Africa for African Union-led peace talks with Ethiopia's government aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the country's brutal two-year war. Kindeya Gebrehiwot, a spokesman for the rebel authorities in Tigray, announced the delegation's arrival in South Africa in a statement on Twitter late Sunday.

French girl, 12, laid to rest after 'evil' murder
French girl, 12, laid to rest after 'evil' murder
World
by  AFP

A 12-year-old girl whose murder shocked France and also sparked a bitter political controversy was to be laid to rest on Monday, with an Algerian woman already targeted by an expulsion order charged with the killing.

'Even if no one cares': Russia's lone liberal lawyer
'Even if no one cares': Russia's lone liberal lawyer
World
by  AFP

In a Moscow court, lawyer Maria Eismont is looking on stunned at a losing battle: her client, a student accused of defaming Russia's military, is being called a "liar" and part of an anti-Russian "sect". Eismont asks the witness, naming cities in Ukraine where Russian troops are accused of carrying out atrocities.

Slow-journeying in mountainous kingdom of Lesotho
Slow-journeying in mountainous kingdom of Lesotho
Africa
by  AFP

In the remote countryside of Lesotho, a kingdom in southern Africa, time stretches wide between long treks on horse or donkey back and hours of herding cattle along mountain ranges. But in the Belgium-sized country, the most convenient and commonly used off-road transport are horses and donkeys.