International report

In the Gaza Strip, thousands of stray dogs are left to run wild without any kind of care. However, over the past few years, a man called Said Al'er has been providing care for some of these stray animals across Gaza. But now the organisation is facing closure.

As Colombia’s Farc rebels continue with their move into party politics, and the government tries to broaden the peace process to include other armed groups, the country is also trying to clean up after its decades-long war with the Farc.

One aspect of this is removing land-mines - only Afghanistan has more land-mines than Colombia, and they’ve killed over ten thousand people (11,100 victims) in recent decades.

Handicap International is working with local people to clean the area of mines.

RFI reports from a village in the Meta department where the work of finding and disposing of mines is still on-going.

In Senegal this month, a movie club has started in the remote south-east Kédougou region, near the border with Mali and Guinea. But because there is almost no electricity in the area, the films are shown, under the stars, by using a projector that’s powered by a bicycle.

It’s the follow-up to an adventure a few years ago when two friends, one French and one Senegalese, cycled around the country and showed films in villages – thanks to the same bicycle-powered, and portable, cinema. Interested in more on Cinécyclo Sénégal?

Translated into more than 200 languages, the classic Christmas song Stille Nacht, better known around the globe as Silent Night, turns two hundred years old in 2018. Heidi Fuller-love reports from Salzburgerland in Austria, where celebrations are due to mark the anniversary are due to kick off in the New Year.

In Dakar, Senegal, an unofficial international delivery system that’s existed for decades has recently made its way online. It lets people send anything, anywhere in the world but most frequently to the African diaspora in Europe.

Known as "peer-to-peer suitcase sharing" the concept is relatively simple: rent out your extra airline weight allowance to others for a small fee and they'll deliver your package.

Correspondent Emmanuelle Landais in Dakar has been to find out how travelers cash in on the extra space in their suitcases.

Worried about their future, island nations like the Maldives or Fiji raise the alarm every year during the environment summit COP 23 on the impact of rising sea levels. But for small islands, it’s the past they’re worried about, and watching their history wash away.

Unesco’s first world heritage site in Africa, Gorée Island off the coast of Senegal, was the largest slave-trading centre on the African coast. Today it’s facing severe erosion and human-built defenses such as seawalls can’t hold up against the elements.

Unesco says renovating world heritage sites is complicated but not impossible.

Faced with few options residents on Gorée are working to make their island as sustainable as possible.

RFI's correspondent Emmanuelle Landais has this report.

A lack of public transport and of good roads in Senegal's rural areas has meant motorbike taxis flourish all over the south of the country. They're known as "Jakartas", and they not only help transport people short distances quickly and cheaply, they’ve also helped reduce unemployment. But the unregulated service has grown so quickly that they've become associated with road accidents. Emmanuelle Landais reports in Thiés, about 65 kilometres from Dakar.

Many girls in India are denied an education and forced into early marriages. But various studies show the trend is more pronounced among Muslims - who constitute nearly 14 per cent of the country's population, the largest minority community.

A recent Supreme Court ruling in India that bans Muslim men from divorcing their wives on the spot could be a sign of things to come.

And for some young Muslim girls, education is a way of taking control of their lives.

Correspondent Murali Krishnan reports from New Delhi.

African print fabric, known as wax, is 100% cotton, with bold designs and bright colours and can be tailored into any item of clothing.

Over the last two years designers such as Stella McCartney or Nanawax from Benin have revived this fabric's popularity not only across Africa but also around the world.

They've become so popular in fact that financial organisations see them as good investments and are lending money to women to go into business selling them.

Emmanuelle Landais reports from Dakar, Senegal.

In the West Bank, the daily life of Palestinians - under Israeli military occupation - can be very stressful and at times traumatic.

According to the World Health Organization, one in three Palestinians is struggling with a mental health disorder.

To beat stress and anxiety, they are increasingly turning to yoga, meditation and more recently, to laughter well-being workshops.

Participants say it helps them to vent their anger and to get back to the childhood they never really had, as Sabrina Myre reports.