AFP Video

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.

Seoul (AFP) – An aquatic Santa swims with the fish and performs tricks for visitors at an aquarium in South Korean capital Seoul in a bid to bring festive cheer amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

Kiev (AFP) – During an address to parliament, Ukraine’s Defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov says that Russia will likely be ready for a potential large-scale attack on the country in late January. Western powers have been sounding the alarm for weeks about Russia gathering troops along the border with Ukraine, further stoking tensions in an area where a long-running conflict has already left 13,000 dead.

Vienna (AFP) – Austria’s ruling OeVP party has nominated Interior Minister Karl Nehammer to lead the country, hoping to draw a line under corruption allegations that cost Sebastian Kurz the top job two months ago. The president is expected to accept Nehammer’s nomination and set a date for the swearing-in.

Lagos (AFP) – The dress code is plastic bottles and the dance floor is the street – welcome to a ‘slum party’, a yearly dance performance which seeks to bring cheer to Orowonshoki, one of the poorer districts of Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital.

Pidgirtsi (Ukraine) (AFP) – Mountains of overflowing and noxious garbage at Landfill No.5 outside the Ukrainian capital Kiev are plaguing residents. Covering 63 hectares (156 acres), the sprawling dump outside Kiev is one of the largest in Ukraine and part of a network of more than 6,100 landfills.

Moscow (AFP) – In Russia, patients diagnosed with a rare neuromuscular disorder are fighting for access to a costly treatment to stop their condition from getting worse and which can help save them from dying young. The two medications so far registered in Russia to treat spinal muscular atrophy – Spinraza (Nusinersen) which is injected into the spine several times a year and Risdiplam (Evrysdi) which is taken orally every day – are among some of the most expensive drugs in the world.

Reykjavik (AFP) – A Christmas beer made from green peas and marinated red cabbage is a festive hit in Iceland, paying homage to the traditional holiday feast.

Bruzgi (Belarus) (AFP) – Migrants take temporary shelter in a logistics centre building near the Belarusian village of Bruzgi on the border with Poland, after being moved there from camps where they were exposed to freezing cold temperatures. Poland has extended emergency measures restricting access to its border with Belarus which is at the centre of a migrant crisis the West blames on Minsk. Polish media estimate that at least 12 migrants have died on the two sides of the border since the crisis began in the summer.

Kabul (AFP) – Haji Mirzaman was just a teenager when he started taking photos using a homemade wooden box camera in his cousin’s studio in downtown Kabul. Now in his 70s, he says the instant camera has survived wars, invasions and a Taliban ban on photography, but is now in danger of disappearing due to the digital age.