International report

2019 marked a tumultuous year for France, opening with Yellow Vests riding the early high of the protest movement and ending under crippling strikes against pension reform. Fury on the street was momentarily overshadowed by the fire that ravaged Notre-Dame Cathedral, with the restoration proving slower, more complex and more expensive than expected. Click 'Play' to listen to the podcast.

South Korea’s LGBTQI+ community continues to face strong social prejudice.

Conservative groups frequently protest pride festivals and there’s no legal protection that would prevent a person from losing their job or becoming a victim of other forms of discrimination due to their sexual or gender identity.

It’s no surprise that many choose to keep this a secret from employers, friends and family.

But, a small dance studio in Seoul is providing a safe place for members of this community to be themselves without fear.

Jason Strother brings us the story.

In October, thousands of people took to the streets in New York to put pressure on leaders worldwide to increase their emissions reduction targets to keep global temperatures down, and erratic weather linked to climate change at bay.

In Senegal, the annual rainy season is already showing signs of unusual weather patterns. Longer and stronger rains spread over a shorter period of time. Weather dictates life in the west African country for fishermen and farmers. A weather forecast can save a life, or a crop.

One Dakar resident with a passion for tropical storms and meteorology in general started his own weather page on Facebook. His precision forecasts and instinct have earned him 20,000 followers already, as Emmanuelle Landais reports from the Senegalese capital.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence recently kicked off around the world with different campaigns aimed at ending violence against women and girls. In Nigeria, where gender violence is common, the government has launched the first national Sex Offenders Register. The register is the latest move in the country’s war against sex offenders.

The various state governments are enacting stricter laws against sex offenders, while many women who say they were raped in the past have come out to publicly name the offenders.

Sam Olukoya has this report from Lagos.

In Guinea, the government has stepped up measures in an attempt to prevent terrorism spreading into the country from neigbouring states.

A commission has been set up to register mosques and Koranic schools across the country, to monitor the kind of messages imams pass on to their followers, and the kind of education being given to pupils attending Koranic schools.

Karim Kamara reports from Conakry.

In the Gaza Strip, 52,000 Palestinian householders, whose homes were partially damaged during Israeli attacks in 2014, have not yet been compensated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

Many thousands of those households had to cope with the damage, while many others had to manage on their own, under harsh economic conditions in the territory.

Recently, some of those waiting for compensation have staged a protest at the UN refugee agency.

Rami Almeghari reports from Gaza.

In Ethiopia, the practice of child marriage is less common today than in previous generations. But it remains a challenge for Africa's second most populous country.

Ethiopia is still home to 15 million child brides. 40% of young women are married or in union before their 18th birthday. Last august, Ethiopia set itself an ambitious target: the ending of child marriage by 2025.

In the Amhara region, in the north-western part of the country, the federal government has selected several districts. In partnership with UNICEF, local authorities are raising awareness among the communities.

Vincent Dublange has this report.

The International Monetary Fund or IMF is demanding a further reduction of Liberia’s current wage bill of over 297 million dollars.

According to Liberian Finance Minister Samuel Tweh, the IMF is worried about the increase in the wage bill because of the poor state of the nation’s economy.

Currently, there are over 74,000 public sector employees on the government’s payroll, compared to about 55,000 during Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s regime.

Darlington Porkpa has this report from Monrovia.

The cartoon journalist Tintin has been solving mysteries and bamboozling the bad guys since 1929.

There's no mystery about the enduring appeal of this cartoon character, or of the original artwork for the comic books, drawn by Belgian artist Hergé.

Fans of the boy reporter love the drawings for their simplicity of line, their energy and their humour. But the originals also attract record prices at art auctions.

We sent our own intrepid reporter, Dhananjay Kadilkar, along to the Paris branch of Christie's auction house to find out more . . .

A rural county in eastern Kenya has become the home of the country’s first-ever silk industry, using a special species known as Eri Silkworms.

Local farmers rear these silkworms and harvest silk cocoons in less than a month. They then sell the raw silk to a local social enterprise.

Correspondent David John Bwakali visited them and filed this report exploring the journey of silk from farm to fabric is a semi-arid corner of rural Kenya.