AFP Video

Kharkiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Under the constant threat of rocket attacks, children in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv have started going to school underground. In September 2023, a school was established in the city’s metro network. “The children who come here are frightened by the war and they are in a stressful situation”, says school director Olha Belykh. “Teachers, tutors and psychologists work with them here, providing psychological and medical assistance.”

Nezahualcóyotl (Mexico) (AFP) – More than a thousand couples get hitched in a free mass wedding near Mexico City on Valentine’s Day. The municipality of Nezahualcoyotl has organized this celebration for 11 years, and the event has now reached a record number of participants, with some 1,200 couples.

Yerevan (AFP) – Azerbaijan is planning a “full-scale war” against Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says, two days after a skirmish on their border left four Armenian troops dead. Tensions between the two Caucasus neighbours have remained high since Baku re-captured the Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh last September in a lightning military offensive.

Jakarta (AFP) – Indonesian Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto looks set to become the new president of the world’s third-largest democracy, likely avoiding a runoff vote against election rivals who have yet to concede.

Shambhu (India) (AFP) – Police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel block a highway to prevent farmers from marching towards New Delhi during a protest demanding minimum crop prices, at the Haryana-Punjab state border in Shambhu near Ambala about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the capital. IMAGES

Shambhu (India) (AFP) – Columns of Indian farmers on tractors march on the capital to demand guaranteed crop prices. They launched this week the “Delhi Chalo”, or “March to Delhi”, in an echo of January 2021, when they broke through barriers and rolled into New Delhi on Republic Day during a then year-long protest.

Sarajevo (AFP) – Forty years since their impeccable performance at the Sarajevo Olympics left the world breathless, British skating greats Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean return to the Bosnian capital to mark the anniversary.

Canberra (AFP) – Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks to a parliament hearing about the war in Gaza and calls on Israel not to go ahead with a planned ground offensive in Rafah.

Istanbul (AFP) – The afternoon prayers have ended in the working-class Istanbul mosque and the silver-haired men turn their gaze from the imam to the fitness instructor in a white polo shirt. A dozen worshippers, including the imam, begin their exercises. In January, a fitness project was launched in 11 mosques of Istanbul’s deprived Bagcilar district and is allowing these men to get more exercise than they have had in years. But women in Turkey, who more often pray at home, are excluded from the project.

Selydove (Ukraine) (AFP) – Emergency workers rescue people from a hospital hit by a Russian strike late on February 13, in Ukraine’s eastern city of Selydove in the Donetsk region, according to local authorities. A 38-year-old pregnant woman as well as another women and her nine-year-old son were killed, Ukraine’s general prosecutor said. The strikes also hit nine apartment blocks, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of the front line, the local council said on Telegram.