Geneva (AFP) – Israel’s expected mass military offensive on Rafah would create an “unfathomable catastrophe”, the World Health Organization warns, as international concern mounts over the fate of the more than 1.4 million Palestinians currently trapped in the southern Gazan city.
Jakarta (AFP) – Heavy rains cause flooding near polling station in Jakarta as Indonesians vote in giant one-day election. IMAGES
Jakarta (AFP) – Outgoing Indonesian leader Joko Widodo casts his vote at a polling station in Jakarta as the 200-million nation puts democracy to the test. IMAGES
Jakarta (AFP) – Voting drew to a close Wednesday after Indonesia held one of the world’s biggest one-day elections, with Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto the favourite to emerge as president of the Muslim-majority nation. More than 204 million Indonesians were eligible to cast a ballot at some 800,000 polling stations from easternmost Papua to Sumatra at the other end of the volcano-dotted archipelago. IMAGES
Bogor (Indonesia) (AFP) – Indonesia’s defence minister and presidential frontrunner, Prabowo Subianto, casts his vote at a polling station in Bogor, south of Jakarta. IMAGES
Timika (Indonesia) (AFP) – Voting begins in Indonesia’s presidential, national and provincial elections. Voters start entering a polling station in the easternmost province of Papua in an election Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto is favoured to win against two former governors to lead the world’s third-largest democracy. IMAGES
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanks US senators for passing $60 billion in aid for Kyiv on Tuesday, even as the bill looked likely to face resistance from House Republicans.
Berlin (AFP) – Israel has a duty to guarantee “safe corridors” for civilians in Rafah before conducting any incursion against Hamas in the southern Gaza city, Germany’s foreign minister says. Annalena Baerbock’s comments come at a press conference following talks with Palestinian foreign minister Riad al-Malki.
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Glistening with sequins and sweat and shimmying to sultry samba beats, thousands of performers dance their way down a Rio de Janeiro avenue in the Brazilian beach city’s famed carnival parades. With whimsical floats, thundering drum sections and legions of performers in fanciful, flesh-flaunting costumes, 12 samba schools are competing for the coveted title of carnival champions across the two-day extravaganza from February 11 to 12. One of them, the Salgueiro samba school, pays tribute to the Yanomami Indigenous people.
Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukrainian morale was high at the end of 2022, thanks to successful offensives in Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson in the south, which took back land seized by Russia after the war began in February. But 2023 brought a series of disappointments to Ukraine. Residents of Kyiv share their thoughts and concerns ahead of the second anniversary of the full-scale war with Russia.
