International report

In March 2002, Bilkis Bano was gang raped and 14 members of her family murdered in one of the worst episodes during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of the state at the time.

For three days the rioters had free rein, as the state administration and  police turned a blind eye.

In the end, more than 1,000 people died, most of them Muslim.

Now, 17 years later, India’s Supreme Court has awarded Bilkis an exemplary compensation of 5 million Rupees or 64,000 euros, a house in a place of her choice and a government job. 

This is the highest compensation ever given to a rape survivor in India.

Murali Krishnan met up with her and has this report.

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No fewer than 23 teenage students committed suicide in a single week in April in the Indian state of Telangana after they failed their high school exams.

Thousands of others also failed to make the grades, sparking a scare among politicians running for office.

And as public protests stirred Telengana amid national elections, the spotlight has once again fallen on the nation’s archaic education system.

Vikram Roy has this report from Delhi, presented by Michael Fitzpatrick.

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Forty-one international peace activists from different Islamic and European countries arrived in Gaza earlier this month, for a five-day visit.

The activists represent the Miles of Smiles convoy that has visited Gaza 35 times since 2009, in an attempt to relieve the Israel-besieged coastal territory.

Correspondent Rami Almeghari has this report from Gaza.

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The United Nations says it is struggling to raise funds to ease food insecurity in Zimbabwe where over five million people need assistance after the country was hit by an El Nino-induced drought.

In one of the worst-hit regions, Masvingo, about 500km south of the capital Harare, the UN has called on the government to boost irrigation projects to ease the impact of recurring drought.

Correspondent Columbus Mavhunga travelled to the stricken region and sent this report.

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The Liberian economy has taken a serious nose-dive under the leadership of former soccer icon, President George Weah. He came to power in January 2018, elected on promises to revive the nation’s economy and improve living standards, but he is struggling to turn things around.

India's film industry, the legendary Bollywood, has been playing a lead role in the country's on-going epic elections, involving 900 million voters.

Many top actors have jumped aboard the political bandwagon of Prime Minister Narenda Modi as he seeks a second term.

Opposition parties too have been fishing for celebrities to try to dazzle undecided voters.

The 39-day marathon Indian ballot ends on Sunday May 19 with results expected four days later.

This report from correspondent Vikram Roy is presented by Michael Fitzpatrick.

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World migratory bird day lands on 11 May. It will be an occasion to highlight  thousands of species which migrate around the world, stopping in some of the most beautiful natural wetlands. Sometimes also in the most polluted ones.

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In Cameroon's restive Anglophone regions - where armed groups campaigning for a separate state -- pregnant women face major difficulties in accessing medical care.

Many residents fear being attacked or killed should they attempt to visit local health units at night since local authorities imposed an indefinite nighttime curfew on the English speaking communities.

In late 2016 protests calling for better treatment of minority English speaking Cameroonians by the Francophone dominated government were met with a brutal crackdown by security forces.

From Bamenda, correspondent Alphonse Tebeck reports.

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More university graduates are joining militancy in Kashmir than ever before.

The trend is gathering pace as India tries to strip decades-old special rights from the country’s only Muslim-majority state.

It comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed to repeal sweeping powers of his military, often accused of torture, sexual atrocities and extra-judicial killings.

Vikram Roy produced and wrote this report voiced by Michael Fitzpatrick.

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Delicious smells have been wafting over Dakar this week as the Afro Cooking roadshow We Eat Africa, set up base in the Senegalese capital. Frequently under-appreciated off the continent, African ingredients have a lot of diversity to them - with no two dishes identical from one country to the next.