Unknown (AFP) – The leader of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement Hassan Nasrallah calls for the expulsion of the Swedish envoys in Arab and Muslim countries. “It’s the minimum required,” he said.
Yazd (Iran) (AFP) – Tall, chimney-like towers rise from the centuries-old buildings in Iran’s ancient city of Yazd, drawing in a pleasant breeze for residents of one of the world’s hottest cities. The wind catchers, called bagdirs in Persian, are among the engineering marvels inhabitants of central Iran have developed over centuries to stay cool in scorching temperatures.
Phoenix (AFP) – The homeless population in Phoenix are some of those most affected by the record heat wave hitting the US city. Daytime temperatures have been well above 110 degrees Fahrenheit for at least twenty days. Amy Schwabenlender of the Human Services Campus says it is a “life and death situation”.
Freetown (AFP) – In recent years Kush, a mix of various chemicals and plants that mimic the natural properties found in cannabis, according to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), is increasingly being used by youth in Sierra Leone. At only 25 US cents a dose, the drug is addicting users. ”We smoke it the whole day, we don’t stop,” says one. “Young people are dying,” warns Ibrahim Hassan Koroma, the founder of Mental Watch Advocacy Network Sierra Leone. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES
Amchît (Lebanon) (AFP) – In a pristine patch of Lebanon’s north coast, a rare marine visitor has fuelled opposition to a seafront development, in a country where unchecked construction has obstructed access to beaches. Residents of Amchit say a Mediterranean monk seal sometimes visits a sheltered cove in the area, but local environmental group Terre Liban has warned a proposed development on the ground above risks causing the cave to collapse, destroying the secluded site.
Antakya is home to two millenia’s worth of heritage and history, much of it now lying in ruins since the February 6 earthquake that devastated southern Turkey and Syria. Conservationists are calling on the Turkish government to do more to preserve what remains of the city’s histori sites.
At least 16 people were killed Thursday after a landslide smashed into their village in India’s Maharashtra state, as emergency workers continue to search for scores of missing people.
“Conflicts have become more complex, deadly, and harder to resolve,” says United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as he presents the international body’s New Agenda for Peace.
For more than 60 years, African-American fisherman Ed Atkins has drawn his catch from the waters off Saint Helena Island, in South Carolina. But his way of life on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean is at risk. The land and culture of his community, the Gullah Geechee, descendants of African people enslaved in the coastal plantations of the southeastern United States, are threatened by climate change and the steady creep of housing developments.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is still “open” for negotiations on a key clause of his hard-right government’s controversial judicial reforms, as protests intensified ahead of final votes on the bill.
