Rome (AFP) – Once the stomping ground of Italy’s greatest directors and actors, from Federico Fellini to Sophia Loren, Rome’s renowned Cinecitta film studios are planning a much-needed makeover for a new era. Dubbed the ‘Hollywood on the Tiber’, Cinecitta was at the heart of the golden age of Italian cinema and now hopes to regain some of its former lustre thanks to European Union post-pandemic funding.
Vatican City (AFP) – Pope Francis expresses his “sympathy to the people of the Philippines, hit by a strong typhoon which has destroyed many homes.” Typhoon Rai has ravaged the southern and central regions of the archipelago, affecting over 300,000 people.
Kabul (AFP) – Hundreds of people queue outside the passport office in Kabul, a day after the Taliban government announced it would resume issuing travel documents.
La Palma Island (Spain) (AFP) – Aerial images of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma and the surrounding areas where houses are covered with ash.
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Heathcare workers at the Ernani Agricola Municipal Health Center in Rio de Janeiro made a Christmas tree with empty Covid-19 and influenza vaccine vials.
New York (AFP) – New York City will enact a Covid-19 vaccine mandate for the private sector starting on December 27, Mayor Bill de Blasio says during a news conference.
Baghdad (AFP) – Twice a week, a small football pitch in Iraq offers the 25-member national squad of little people a chance to dream big. Omar Abdel Rahman’s team has set its sights on an ambitious goal: to travel to Argentina for their first international tournament.
Berlin (AFP) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who leaves office next week, makes a renewed plea for vaccination against Covid-19 in the latest in a series of more than 600 podcasts in which she has made a habit of addressing her fellow citizens directly.
Banjul (Gambia) (AFP) – Gambians are casting their ballots in the first presidential election in the tiny West African nation since former dictator Yahya Jammeh fled into exile. Jammeh ruled for 22 years after seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1994, before being forced into exile in January 2017 after Adama Barrow, then a relative unknown, defeated him at the ballot box.
Abidjan (AFP) – Changing the way society looks at disability is the challenge that some twenty disabled models in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, have taken up by stepping onto the podium.
