Journalist Namita Bhandare who writes a popular column on gender issues in the Hindustan Times newspaper told the BBC that contrary to what people say, many “women in India of course swear, it’s not new”. In many villages of northern Indian, an important wedding ritual involves women from bride’s family singing a medley of expletives…
Although outside the EU, Iceland is part of the European Economic Area (EEA) along with Norway and Liechtenstein, so it is part of the single market and the Schengen border-free zone. Reykjavik opened EU accession talks two years after the devastating 2008 global financial crisis, but abandoned them in 2013. Fishing was the biggest obstacle…
“If you ran into a room, they set the room on fire,” says Fatima, describing a recent attack on her village in Zamfara, north-western Nigeria. “If you came out and started running, they shot you.” The gunmen, who struck at 02:00, split into groups to surround residents: one at the village entrance, one in the…
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a treatment for pancreatic cancer that, in clinical trials, nearly doubled the overall survival time for patients. The drug, daraxonrasib, sold under the brand name Rasonque and manufactured by Revolution Medicines, appears to be a breakthrough in treating one of the world’s deadliest cancers. A late-stage clinical…
Four missing people have been found dead on South Korean holiday island Jeju, as local police face mounting public criticism for allegedly mishandling missing persons cases. Reports emerged last week that authorities were launching a belated search for a woman reported missing months ago. This sparked criticism of the police for failing to search for…
Fifty eggs suspected to be those of endangered parrots were intercepted at South Africa’s main airport in Johannesburg last Thursday – and some of them have now hatched. A 50-year-old Thai national was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle them in a “homemade incubator bag” carried as hand luggage, according to the Department of Forestry,…
A Libyan who was cleared after standing trial over the Lockerbie bombing has died aged 70. Al Amin Khalifah Fhimah was accused of murdering 270 people in the attack on Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988. He was found not guilty but a second Libyan, Abdulbasset Al Megrahi, was convicted of playing a key…
A far-right member of the Israeli parliament has badly damaged a Palestinian memorial with a sledgehammer in the occupied West Bank while under military escort. The incident has drawn strong criticism from Palestinians and across the political spectrum in Israel. Video footage showed Zvi Sukkot, a member of the far-right Religious Zionism party, and several…
A study this month at the Harvard Medical School in the US, external found that flight attendants and pilots had the highest level of radiation-related cancer deaths among more than 500 different professions. In all, about 6.9% of deaths among flight attendants and 6.7% of deaths among pilots were from radiation-related cancers, according to the…
The Trump administration has threatened to demolish the Kennedy Center if planned renovations for the performing arts venue are not allowed to be carried out, court documents show. Attorneys from the justice department have also asked for President Donald Trump’s name to be put back on the building after it was removed in June following…