Pushkar (India) (AFP) – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses his supporters during an election campaign rally for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Pushkar, India. Nearly a billion Indians will vote to elect a new government in six-week-long parliamentary elections starting on April 19, the largest democratic exercise in the world.
Bronte (Italy) (AFP) – Rare smoke rings rise into the blue sky above Sicily’s Mount Etna. Towering over the island at a height of 3,357 metres, Etna is Europe’s most active volcano and activity has been recorded there for over 3,500 years.
Mosul (Iraq) (AFP) – Iraqi Ghofran Mahmoud, a “Musaharati” who plays the traditional role of “Ramadan drummer”, awakens Muslims for the pre-dawn traditional “suhur” meal before the start of the following day’s fast, during the holy month of Ramadan in Mosul’s Old City in Iraq.
Chahak (Afghanistan) (AFP) – Children sit shoulder to shoulder crammed in rows on the floor of a shipping container with lesson books in their laps, the remains of their school unrepaired in the six months since a major earthquake devastated their village in western Afghanistan. Hundreds of schools are still damaged since a series of strong quakes jolted Afghanistan’s Herat province in October, with many students returning to lessons in tents and containers in March.
Dzhezkazgan (Kazakhstan) (AFP) – The first Belarussian woman to go to space, Marina Vasilevskaya, lands in Kazakhstan after a two-week mission at the International Space Station (ISS). Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, has said that the deorbit and landing of the spacecraft went “according to plan.”
Lima (AFP) – Peruvian President Dina Boluarte’s convoy leaves the Peruvian Prosecutor’s building in Lima after she appeared before prosecutors for questioning over her Rolex watches, expensive jewelry, and unexplained bank deposits, in a scandal that has shaken the country’s fragile government. IMAGES
Warsaw (AFP) – Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna demands a criminal investigation by Israel after what he describes as the “murder” of seven food charity workers, including a Polish citizen, in a Gaza airstrike. “We demand a transparent, criminal and not only a disciplinary investigation, at the end of which the guilty parties will be punished,” Szejna adds.
Groza (Ukraine) (AFP) – Residents of the village of Groza, in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, are still in grief over a devastating missile strike that killed 59 people last October — and suspicious towards residents deemed pro-Russian. Local authorities say two of their own — brothers Volodymyr and Dmytro Mamon — gave Moscow the coordinates that enabled Russian forces to fire an Iskander missile at a local soldier’s wake. “What for? You goddamned idiots,” Volodymyr Mukhovaty, who lost Tanya, his wife of 47 years in the strike asks.
Voskepar (Armenia) (AFP) – Locals in the village of Voskepar bordering Azerbaijan are on edge over their neighbour’s claims to their lands. The small village’s residents are gathering daily to share their fears since Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signalled in March his readiness to make territorial concessions to Baku to put some momentum into stalled peace talks, which could leave Voskepar isolated.
Damascus (AFP) – Every evening during Ramadan, members of a motorbike club hit the streets of Damascus — not just born to ride but eager to help the needy during the Muslim holy fasting month. “We target the most disadvantaged areas,” says Tarek Obaid, head of the Hope Bikers Syria. Some 50 members of his club have been volunteering with charities in the Syrian capital, delivering hot meals to the disadvantaged during Ramadan.
