Al Jazeera World

Fifty years ago, United States Senator Robert F Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles just moments after he'd won California's Democratic presidential primary.

A look at the life and career of the influential post-colonial writer and champion of the Palestinian cause in the West.

A story filled with intrigue and suspense, the killing of Fathi Shaqaqi, founder of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, allegedly assassinated by Mossad.

The personal stories of villagers in south Lebanon and the extreme measures they take to deal with the threat they see from across the border with Israel.

Musicians from all around the world revive the Palestine National Orchestra and perform in the occupied territories.

A look at the case of Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein and his continued detention without trial in Egypt.

The lasting legacy of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Five Syrians reflect on the devastation wrought on their homes, some of which took a lifetime to build.

Exploring Ziade's complex life, her effort to emancipate women, and her platonic relationship with poet Khalil Gibran.

After the civil war, the basketball court became a new battleground of sectarian divisions between Lebanon's top teams.

The stories of five Egyptian village women supporting their entire families by selling local produce in the markets.

While working on a kibbutz in 1967, a Japanese journalist discovers the hidden remains of a Palestinian village.

Many of Morocco's nomadic communities living across the Atlas Mountains, like the Ait Atta tribe, are gradually changing their way of life from roaming herders to part settlers - or what sociologists call 'a sedentary lifestyle'. But such fundamental change comes challenges, as well as opportunities. Traditionally, nomads do not receive a formal education. However in the past decade, there have been moves to introduce what they call 'tent schools' to try and equip their children for the modern world. But for them to attend school, their families have to remain in one place all year. It might also mean that the children ultimately leave their parents' traditional nomadic way of life. 'They told us they'd provide education for our children if we settled in a particular place,' says nomad Daoud Ariba. Helping with that adjustment are social activists like Ali El Amine. It was his idea to bring the tent schools to the region, with help from international agencies and the Moroccan government. 'Our goal is to see nomads at all levels of education, in college and even university. We want them to get diplomas and not to stop at the primary level and then return to cattle grazing,' says El Amine who is also the President of Chems Association. In addition to providing tents, the association serves as a liaison between the nomads and local authorities. 'We try to integrate the children into charity groups and obtain financial support for them,' he says. While the tent schools are a first step towards settling the nomads, the schools' remote locations, harsh winters and heavy rains pose challenges for teachers and pupils. 'When I came here, I walked for two hours,' says teacher Abdallah al-Sahraoui. 'I got an idea about the area from the road condition. The road was difficult with dangerous bends. I had to walk up and slide down the mountain. I had to walk for two hours to reach the school.' The tough mountain terrain also poses risks. Teenager Ittou lost her leg after she suff

An investigation into the complex questions of identity and alienation in the under-privileged suburbs of Paris.

Millions of Turkish voters will head to the polls on June 24 to simultaneously elect a president and new members of parliament. It's the first time since the referendum last year when the people approved key constitutional amendments - giving more power to the presidency. Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) argue that a more powerful executive presidency makes Turkey more stable. But critics like Temel Karamollaoglu, presidential candidate and leader of the Saadet Party, warns that Erdogan is moving the country to a dictatorship and says the president is not doing enough to unite the Muslim world abroad. 'The new presidential system is going to lead Turkey to a dictatorship,' Karamollaoglu says. 'There is no doubt, because the parliament has no influence on the president. They can't control, they can't produce any values which will be effective, so the president, in fact, will decide whatever he thinks proper without consulting the parliament.' And although the people voted for the constitutional changes, Karamollaoglu believes that 'the public can make mistakes as well. It will be too late when they see, realise what the dangers are and what they will face.' 'We believe in separation of power ... The government should not have any influence on justice, on the courts. Today, the government directly controls and gives in fact orders to the courts. You can't have justice in a world like this,' he says. Asked about his chance to winning the presidency, he says, 'there are some rumours that certain tricks are prepared, but we don't know what will happen. When you take part in elections, you go there to win.' President Erdogan has been ruling Turkey for more than 15 years, and his spokesperson is confident that he will win another term - with increased powers. 'Those who claim that the new system will be some kind of an authoritarian autocracy, one

Widely seen as the world's leading primatologist and conservationist, Jane Goodall has an unparalleled understanding of chimpanzees. Goodall's study of chimpanzees, human beings' 'closest living relatives on earth', began in 1960 when she travelled to Tanzania for this sole purpose. Her moment of international recognition came with the broadcast of the documentary 'Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees' across the United States. However, Goodall's career hasn't always been embraced by society. As discoveries were made establishing the real biological and behavioural similarities between chimpanzees and human beings, the resistance in both the press and general public grew, the main point of contention being how a woman - without a university degree - could make such claims about humanity. As science backed the facts Goodall continued to uncover, those issues were more or less laid to rest; but the peoples' trust in science and what studying chimpanzees could tell us about humanity, especially whether aggression was an innate trait or something learned, was a real political predicament. 'At that time, in the early 1970s, it was a political issue. Science was divided as to whether human infants are born with a clean slate, everything is learned from your culture, your society, from your mother ... I was saying, no, some things are inherited, it's instinctive - I know as a mother. When your child is threatened you get this surge of adrenaline and sometimes anger. It's not rational, but it's there,' Goodall recalls. 'It's mostly people who don't want to admit that animals have personalities, minds, and above all, emotions.' In light of an upcoming visit to chimpanzee sanctuary Ngamba Island, Goodall also recalls the maltreatment and abuse of primates at the Entebbe zoo when she first visited Uganda under then-president Idi Amin's rule. 'They [Entebbe zoo] had about eight or nine infa

Each year, childhood ends for an estimated 15 million girls around the world who marry before the age of 18, according to the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW). South Asia has the largest concentration of child brides, but early marriage is a global phenomenon. Girls living in poverty are more susceptible, and by marrying so young, research shows, girls perpetuate the cycle of poverty. UNICEF says they typically drop out of school and as a result, face poor job prospects. 'I couldn't go to school because of the war,' says Ola, a Syrian refugee who was married at 14 years. 'We had to stay at home, the schools closed. I studied only until 6th grade.' The Syrian war has created a vortex of conditions, such as displacement and poverty as well as fears about the so-called honour and safety of girls that have prompted families to marry off their daughters. 'I left Aleppo six years ago,' says Fatima, a Syrian refugee living in a camp in Jordan. 'We used to go to the school, then come home. I did my homework, went out with my friends ... If the problems stop, I think I will go back. Because of the the current problems, it's all terror and fear.' Jordan is now home to more than 650,000 Syrian refugees. UNICEF says there is an epidemic of child marriage among them and it's on the rise. From the onset of the Syrian war in 2011 to the present, child marriage has spiked from 15 to 36 percent in the kingdom. European countries such as Sweden and Germany, that have welcomed large numbers of Syrian refugees, are also grappling with a dilemma: permit child marriage or separate families. Child brides commonly face domestic violence, restricted movement and are often not given a voice when it comes to making decisions in the family. No matter the justifications families give, the ICRW says, child marriage is 'a violation of human rights and a form of violence against girls'. 'I wanted to be a doctor' Fatima f

In 1990, Lebanon emerged from a 15-year civil war politically fractured and under the control of the Syrian army. Syrian troops eventually withdrew in 2005 but many Lebanese remained deeply wary of their neighbour to the north and east. In the two decades that followed, Lebanon continued to be dogged by regional, religious and political conflict - and Lebanon's efforts to stabilise have been frustrated by factionalism, fraught relations with Syria, Israeli interventions and internal divisions arising from Iran and Syria's backing of the Shia Muslim movement Hezbollah in south Lebanon. After the Syrian revolution and subsequent war in 2011, many wondered whether Lebanon could withstand yet another regional conflict. Today, in a country roughly the same size as the US city of Los Angeles, Lebanon still hosts some 450,000 Palestinian refugees - and since 2011 roughly 980,000 Syrian refugees have fled over the border into Lebanon. Amid the humanitarian crisis, the Lebanese themselves feel torn between their long-standing resentment of Syria's prolonged military presence in their country and a desire to help their Arab neighbours. It's a dilemma that filmmaker Raghida Skaff explores in Shahira: My Syrian Friend, in which she tells the story of her strong personal relationship with a seven-year-old Syrian girl whose family find themselves in her village of Zeghrine 30km east of Beirut.be

'The time for change has come' - that was the message from Malaysia's new leader Mahathir Mohamad after his stunning victory over the ruling coalition in May. The 92-year-old veteran politician, who served as Malaysia's prime minister for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, returned to politics two years ago. He opposed the political force he was once a part of - the Barisan Nasional coalition, which had ruled Malaysia since its independence from Britain in 1957. The law must take its course and if the attorney general finds sufficient evidence of acts that are criminal then the attorney general takes the decision. One of our [election] promises was that we would honour the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judiciary, so I cannot interfere with what the attorney general wants to do. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia PM Malaysia is a diverse nation with millions of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians living side by side. But in recent years, many Malaysians have been frustrated with high-level government corruption and a rising cost of living. Prime Minister Mahathir accused his predecessor Najib Razak of stealing millions of dollars, and this may have led to Najib's defeat at the polls. Najib has denied corruption charges over the disappearance of millions of dollars from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund, as part of a graft probe while he was in office. The new government led by Mahathir has reopened investigations that were stifled while Najib was in office, setting up a special task force to deal with the allegations. So what are the implications of the 1MDB investigation And what's next for Malaysian politics In an exclusive interview, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, talks to Al Jazeera about his fight against corruption and for more transparency in government.

On July 14, 2016, 31-year-old Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel ploughed a rented 19-tonne truck through crowds out celebrating France's Bastille Day in Nice. He was shot dead by police at the scene but 86 people died and 458 others from 19 different countries were wounded. There have been 12 vehicular attacks since 2006, 10 of which occurred in the two-year period following this incident. Nice has the highest death toll. One of Bouhlel's first victims was Fatima Charrihi, a Moroccan woman wearing a headscarf. In fact a third of the victims that day were Muslim men, women and children - including four year-old Kylan al-Majri who had come out to enjoy the fireworks with his family. Truck Attack in Nice looks at the event through the eyes of three Muslim families who lost two young sons and a wife and mother. They re-tell their own versions of their ordeals on an evening that started with celebration and ended in violent tragedy, as they all struggle to come to terms with a loss that they simply cannot comprehend. The relatively high numbers of Muslim victims in Nice and in the similar Barcelona attacks a year later, challenge the common perception that this type of violence is somehow an expression of Islamic teaching or values. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had been radicalised quickly through ISIL propaganda a few weeks before Bastille Day. He was known to French police for threatening behaviour, violence and petty theft but did not figure on the 'Fiche S', or France's high-security watch list. He was a loner whose neighbours said smelled of alcohol and behaved strangely. The 2016 attack in Nice followed those in 2015 on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and Bataclan nightclub and neighbouring restaurants in Paris. Each incident turned up the heat in the debate about the relationship between Islam and violence in French politics and society. In the months following Nice, politicians were campaigning for the French presidency. Marine Le Pen seized the o

Global climate change and an engineering 'quick fix' have created an ecological disaster on Senegal's Atlantic coast. Doune Baba Dieye was once a vibrant fishing community on the Langue de Barbarie, a narrow, 30km peninsula that has protected the Senegalese port city of Saint-Louis from the Atlantic Ocean for centuries. But changing weather patterns and heavy rainfall in 2003 led to flooding inland and a rise in sea levels that have now submerged part of the south of the peninsula. Today, the southern part of the Langue de Barbarie is an island and the village of Doune Baba Dieye under more than a metre of water. But the impact of climate change would not have been so great had local authorities not tried to fix the problem. By 2003, as rain hit record levels, the Senegal River threatened to overflow its banks and to flood the commercially important Saint-Louis. As floodwaters upstream slowly wound their way down the river into the Atlantic, the authorities hastily dug a four-metre-wide trench through the Langue de Barbarie. They hoped the trench would disperse the floodwaters more quickly.

'Take a step and reject Serzh' was the rallying cry of hundreds of thousands of Armenians who took to the streets earlier this year, forcing the resignation of Armenia's president-turned-prime-minister, Serzh Sargsyan, and clearing the way for the leader of the opposition, Nikol Pashinyan. What was Sargsyan's second term as PM, deemed by many to be a 'power grab', lasted only six days. Nicknamed the 'Velvet Revolution' for its non-violent nature, the protests marking Sargsyan's departure were a remarkable turning point for Armenia, with the promise of sweeping reforms under Pashinyan's interim administration. But the role doesn't come without challenges. Alongside the need to address internal disputes, such as oligarchs monopolising Armenia's politics and economy, the country is also in a delicate geopolitical situation, balanced between Russia and the West. Moscow provides economic and military support to Armenia, which has been geographically isolated by both Turkey and Azerbaijan, most pointedly with the building and recent inauguration of the Baku-Tiblisi-Kars Railway in 2017 after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict saw an existing railway that went to Baku via Armenia shut down. Armenia fought a war with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the 1990s. Azerbaijan wants its internationally recognised territory back, putting the real risk of conflict on the cards and now, in Nikol Pashinyan's hands. One of Pashinyan's first official moves as PM was a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh. Although he insists on a peaceful solution for the ongoing 'frozen conflict' between the two countries, Pashinyan insists that Azerbaijan may have more on its plate than a decades-old debacle with Armenia. 'I am sure that the Azerbaijani government is trying to distract the attention of its own people from its own domestic troubles and problems, to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. That is why I am saying that any aggre

The landmark conviction of Jean-Pierre Bemba for war crimes and crimes against humanity was overturned by panels of judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague last month. A majority ruling saw Bemba acquitted of all charges against him. The former rebel leader and vice president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has spent nearly a decade in custody in The Hague. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison after sending his militia to the Central African Republic (CAR) to help put down a coup attempt, where they conducted a reign of terror. A rampage of looting and killing of civilians followed, including the mass rape of hundreds of women. But a majority of judges ruled on his appeal that he could not be held responsible for the actions of his fighters. His lawyers argued successfully his fighters were no longer under his command after they crossed the international border - an argument Bemba has maintained throughout his trials and incarceration. 'I have a lot of sympathy for all the victims ... I have a lot of sympathy for people in Central Africa ... if there are any victims, I'm very sad and I support them in their pain,' Bemba tells Al Jazeera. 'But I have been acquitted by a professional judge, an experienced judge, an honest judge and that is all. Justice has been served.' His militia, known as the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), has now been transformed into a political party opposing the rule of President Joseph Kabila. The electoral commission (CENI) has announced that a delayed election is due to take place in December. The election was due at the end of 2016, Joseph Kabila's end of term. In spite of this, Kabila has maintained his position and refuses, to date, to announce the presidential majority candidate who would run for his party. This has stoked concern that Kabila is seeking to change the constitution in order to run again or further delay the elections. 'I never heard from himsel

Every civilisation stamps its own mark on history - but the Islamic period of rule over the Iberian peninsula has many features which are not often widely known or appreciated. The Algerian academic Saadane Benbabaali has now retired from teaching at Paris University III. But partly because his ancestors came from what's now the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, he became passionate about the region and for fifteen years, led groups of students on his annual trips there. He came to believe that the period of Arab, Muslim rule there in what was called Al Andalus was arguably the only time in European history when Muslims, Jews and Christians lived relatively peacefully together – and produced a common culture and harmonious society. Furthermore, he believes that the period and place have powerful lessons for what he sees as today's fractured world. 'Today we need all those [Andalusian] philosophers, thinkers and Sufis, who like [the scholar] Ibn Arabi, made love the basis of human relationships,' explains Benbabaali. Origins of Andalusia and Al Andalus Arabs came to Spain in CE 711 under the command of Tariq ibn Ziyad, who landed with his army at a spot he named 'Jabl al Tariq' (the Rock of Tariq). The location is now known as Gibraltar. The Muslim armies eventually occupied most of present-day Portugal, Spain and parts of Southern France until their defeat and expulsion in 1492. The region came to be ruled by the leader Abdurahman of the Umayyid dynasty whose power base was in Baghdad. The 'Golden Age' of Al Andalus In Muslim Al Andalus, Jews and Christians had to pay Jizya, a tax levied on non-Muslim citizens living in Muslim lands in exchange for protection. Muslims also paid a tax called zakaat, one of the five pillars of Islam. Non-Muslims were allowed to practise their faith freely and this sense of relative unity made Al Andalus prosperous, culturally as well as economically. At this time, the region became a hub for soci

In the four years since Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein became the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, attacks on people's safety and dignity have been reported all over the world. From Myanmar's campaign to drive hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya from the country, to the carnage wrought by the brutal wars in Yemen and Syria, human rights are under extreme pressure. Hussein is well-known as an outspoken critic of world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines. He himself has been criticised for pointing out where countries have failed to preserve human rights. Hussein is stepping down at the end of August and will be replaced by former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet. Before his departure, the outgoing human rights chief sat down with Al Jazeera to discuss areas where human rights are under extreme pressure and what should be done to protect these freedoms. On criticism by governments of the job he has done: 'The job of high commissioner is to effectively be the ambassador of human rights. It means that you have human rights law and you have obligations upon states to abide by the law, and where they don't do so you then have to defend the victims who either are deprived of their rights or discriminated against when it comes to their rights or they live in fear. 'My job is not to defend governments, they can do that themselves, my job was to defend the rights of everyone else, individuals. 'In that sense I knew early on that I was not going to have the backing of the permanent members of the Security Council. Actually, I would be concerned if I was on the outside and I'd see the high commissioner had gotten the support of the P5 because I would suspect he or she would not have done the job properly. 'I almost goes without saying that the permanent five enjoy a privileged status here in New York because of the use of the right to veto they have in the Security Council. 'But i

Filmmaker: Khalid Zairi Morocco's key natural resources include phosphates, zinc, manganese and iron ore. The mining industry is important to the national economy and its products highly sought abroad. Moroccan truck drivers Ibrahim Tabii and Abdelkabir Ainan risk their lives on dangerous roads and through disputed terrain to bring mineral material from Agadir to Dakar, a 3,000-kilometre journey that can take around two weeks. This is not like truck driving across the United States where long distances are common and hours are controlled by the federal law. It's not like driving in Europe with its tight regulation and vehicle monitoring systems measuring driver-time at the wheel. This is driving in Saharan Africa. There are no motorway service stations, no 24-hour SOS vehicle recovery and no spare parts at the end of a mobile phone. Driving hours are not obviously regulated and there are hardly any rest areas. The two drivers also have to pass through an area known as the Western Sahara. It has been a disputed territory between Morocco and what's called the Polisario Front since 1975. The UN has maintained a peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, a territory about the size of New Zealand, for 27 years. UN efforts have repeatedly failed to broker a settlement over the disputed territory, which the Sahrawi people, led by the PF says belongs to them. The Polisario Front, a formerly armed nationalist group signed a cease-fire with Morocco in 1991; but since the conflict has made this leg of the journey risky. When the two drivers reach the border with Mauritania, they're heavily delayed and by customs and immigration formalities and have no alternative but to wait in a makeshift bedroom until vehicle checks and done and visas issued. In the US, a driver can be at the wheel for up to 11 hours out of 14. In Europe, the rules are tighter, the daily maximum is normally nine hours but breaks have to be taken every four-and-a-half hours. Daily rest should be

When Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega overthrew the country's Somoza dictatorship in 1979, Sergio Ramirez was standing by his side. Now, the poet and novelist is among Ortega's most vocal critics, saying the thirst for power has changed him. 'If someone says 'I'm staying no matter what' they have to crash into a wall of reality that usually gets stained with blood because that is not natural in a democratic system and that's what's happening in Nicaragua'. The Central American country has been in extreme disarray since April when students took to the streets in the capital, Managua, to protest the government's failure to handle forest fires in one of the country's most protected areas. Two days later, numbers swelled as plans to cut pensions and other social security reforms were announced and protests morphed into calls for the country's ageing leader to resign. 'I think that it's like the power of a dam that has been broken with the water ... people have suffered many grievances. All the fear that's been created, the social control in neighbours, much like Venezuela, much like Cuba,' he says. 'All these things began to create feelings of rejection and weariness ... a feeling of having had enough that was in the mouths of many people and was waiting to just explode.' Ortega responded with a brutal crackdown, allegedly using paramilitary groups to put down protests. He, and his wife and vice president blame the protests on so-called 'terrorists' and have refused calls for an early election to defuse the crisis. According to the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights, some 448 people have been killed since protests began, many are university students who have been a key force in the demonstrations. Ramirez is critical of Ortega's response, saying the levels of violence are worse than during the Sandinista revolution. 'These are unarmed casualties, people who are being per

In 2014, Yuval Noah Harari's life changed completely. The little-known academic was thrust into the international literary spotlight when his book on the history of humans from the discovery of fire to modern robotics, Sapiens, was translated into English. Then-US President Barack Obama said the book gave him a new perspective on 'the core things that have allowed us to build this extraordinary civilisation that we take for granted.' It went on to sell more than eight million copies worldwide. 'I still see myself as a historian,' says Harari. 'I don't think that historians are experts in the past, historians are specialists in change and how things change and we learn the nature of change by looking at the past.' 'The real question is what is happening right now What can we learn from the past about the future changes And what we should be doing or thinking today' In his next book, Homo Deus, Harari delved into how the growth of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology could radically alter and divide human society, perhaps ending the species altogether. The same themes appear in his latest work, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, which collects essays, talks and responses to his readers. 'What I see today in the world is that people are overwhelmed by information, misinformation, by distraction and they don't realise often what the most important challenges are. I see my job as trying to bring more clarity to the public discussion.' 'There are three big challenges facing human kind in the 21st century,' says Harari. 'They are nuclear war, climate change and technological disruption, especially the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and bioengineering. This will change the world more than anything else. 'Nuclear war and climate change we can hopefully prevent, so these are changes we try to avoid. But technological disruption and especially AI and bioengineering are bound to happen

Located in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Al-Mohtaseb’s ancestral home is a short distance from the site where both Muslims and Jews believe the ‘father of the faithful’, Abraham, to be buried. What Muslims call the Ibrahimi Mosque and Jews the Cave of the Patriarchs are built on a cave some fifteen metres feet below ground and are where both faiths worship, albeit on different sides of a bullet-proof wall. The Israeli army now maintains round-the-clock checkpoints and barricades that restrict Palestinian movement, separating Hebron’s 270,000 Palestinians from around 1,000 illegal Jewish settlers. This puts Hebron on the front line of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and makes the land and property surrounding the shared holy sites highly valued assets for both sides. As with generations of his family before him, Abdulraouf Al-Mohtaseb has lived close to the Ibrahmi Mosque all his life, through the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars and subsequent Israeli occupation. But even he was surprised when potential buyers began offering him millions for his modest home and souvenir shop. He refused as a matter of principle as the bids gradually increased to a staggering 100 million US dollars. Still Al-Mohtaseb refused, earning him the nickname ‘the crazy man’ by some of the bidders. In The Hundred Million Dollar Home, filmmaker Resad Kulenovic tells the story of life in Hebron today through the eyes of Al-Mohtaseb and his son Mohammed. Both firmly abide by the principle that their home is their heritage and must never be sold: '[Hebron] is beautiful despite all the suffering,' father tells son. 'If people evicted every area they {the Israelis] besieged, it would be a disaster. We're staying until God guides us to a solution. That's our fate.' The film also includes the perspective of a former Israeli soldier who now works for ‘Breaking The Silence’ which enables Israeli army personnel to recount their experiences and educate the Israeli public abo

In the state of Assam, a sliver of India squeezed between Bangladesh and Bhutan, four million people are at risk of becoming stateless. The local government has put together a draft list of those it considers to be 'legitimate' citizens and four million of Assam's 32.9 million people didn’t make the cut. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) lists those who can prove that they or their parents were in India before March 1971, when Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands fled civil war in Pakistan, many choosing to cross the border into India's Assam to escape the violence, which led to the formation of Bangladesh. India's government says that those who came then or since should go back to Bangladesh. But Bangladesh doesn't view those missing from the NRC list as Bangladeshi and says it won't accept them. 'People are scared,' says Sharifa Khatun, who comes from the remote village of Langia where, she says, she is among some 500 people who did not find their names on the list. 'Our names were struck off the list, our family is sad. Many can't stop their tears,' she says. 'Apparently if your name's not on the list then you are a foreigner. If you are tagged as a foreigner then you will become a Bangladeshi. They are scared they will be put away in jails.' Authorities say those who did not make the list will not be arrested or deported immediately but will have time to file for corrections before the final list is published by the end of the year. Most of those missing from the list say their Indian roots pre-date 1971, they can appeal the decision but many fear that without the proper paperwork, they will become stateless. An hour's drive from Langia is the town of Nagoan and there, another family is worried. Despite having Indian passports, some of the family's names are not on the list. 'We are from here. This is my village,' says Hasiban Nesa. My father and my

Barely a year after his entry into politics, Robert Kyagulanyi - a pop star-turned-politician who also goes by the stage name Bobi Wine - is being hailed as the new face of Uganda’s opposition. Kyagulanyi has built a large youth following through his criticism of Uganda’s long-time leader President Yoweri Museveni - who has been in power for 32 years - both in parliament and through his music. The 36-year-old’s message of freedom and inclusivity, encourages young people to 'stand up' and take over the East African country from what he calls the government’s failed leadership. But Kyagulanyi’s rise to prominence has not been without difficulties. His appeal is considered a threat to Museveni’s hold on power, which is waning because of public anger over deteriorating public services, corruption and human rights abuses. On August 14, Kyagulanyi was arrested and charged with treason for allegedly throwing stones at Museveni’s presidential motorcade during a by-election campaign in August. 'In my opinion, it was more persecution than prosecution,' says Kyagulanyi, who claims he was tortured by Ugandan security forces while in detention. 'I feel humbled that my brutalisation attracted attention of friends across the world, but at the same time I feel indebted to the men and women who have endured similar torture over the years, in particular the people that were arrested together with me,' he says. After being released on bail nearly two weeks later, Kyagulanyi was rearrested last week while trying to leave the country to seek medical treatment in the United States for his injuries. Eventually Kyagulanyi was released and allowed to travel to Washington, DC to be treated in hospital. In an exclusive interview - his first for television since leaving hospital - Kyagulanyi discusses his detention, alleged torture by Ugandan security forces and what's next for Uganda with Al Jazeera. 'We've always wanted a free Uganda, but th

As the British mandate in Palestine drew to a close in the late 1940s, clashes intensified between Palestinian and Jewish militias. When the British left and the new state of Israel was announced in May 1948, the first Arab-Israeli War was fought. In the 1950s and 60s, tension continued and armed Palestinian ‘fedayeen’, many of them now refugees, mounted attacks into Israel which were met with equal force. Palestinian nationalists, including Yasser Arafat, formed the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) in 1959 - and the party became the dominant force in Palestinian politics – and in the PLO in particular - after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Ali Hassan Salameh rose to the top of the Fatah Party in the 1960s and 70s, to become one of Arafat’s most trusted men. He also founded the Black September armed group which killed 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972. Munich Olympics 1972 'The Munich operation was meant to protest against the Palestinians’ exclusion from the Olympic Games,' explains Saqr Abu Fakhr, assistant editor at the Journal for Palestine Studies. 'Why should Israel alone be represented at this event It was also aimed at drawing attention to the Palestinian cause and the issue of prisoners inside Israel. However, its operations were not intended to kill but to take hostages and exchange them.' Unfortunately, the operation went badly wrong. Black September killed two Israeli athletes in the Olympic village and abducted nine others. They demanded the release if Palestinian prisoners within Israel and planned to leave Germany with the hostages whom they later intended to exchange. But Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir would not negotiate with the Palestinians and left the operations in the hands of the inexperienced Germans authorities. The Germans laid on helicopters at a military air base but secretly planned to foil Black September’s getaway. German snipers killed all but two of the Black Septemb

Latin America is facing the largest refugee crisis in its history as hundreds of thousands of people flee Venezuela to escape severe economic hardship. Once one of the region's wealthiest countries, Venezuela has been hit hard by a drop in oil prices from 2014 onwards, with the economic situation worsening under the fiscal mismanagement of President Nicolas Maduro. Since Maduro took power following the death of the country's long-time leader, Hugo Chavez, in 2013, the Venezuelan bolivar has lost some 99.99 percent of its value against the US dollar on the black market. Few Venezuelans have access to official exchange rates, which have been controlled since 2003. The president blames the crisis on an 'economic war' against the socialist country by opponents, including the United States but for many of the country's 31.5 million people, the exact reason things went wrong is no longer important. The imploding economy has led to shortages of basic items such as food and medicine and, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), some 1.6 million Venezuelans have left the country since 2015. For those who remain, daily life is a struggle and hopes of a better life in Colombia, Brazil or elsewhere are never far from their minds. Three Venezuelans share their hopes, dreams and fears for the future with Al Jazeera: Olga Betancourt, 43, hairdresser 'The situation in the country has become so difficult. No matter how hard you work, the money is never enough to buy anything, including materials and tools to work with because they are extremely expensive. 'About a year and five months ago is when life began to become unbearable here ... I can't buy food, my mother needs special treatment for high blood pressure but she can't get it because it's too expensive. Her entire pension goes to pay for her medication. 'I will leave in two months if I can sell what I need to sell. It's not because I want to emigrate from

Pakistan's new government, headed by new Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has inherited challenging relations with two key countries, India and the United States. Observers are questioning how the country's new leadership will seek to reshape its foreign policy regionally and globally as it continues to battle the Pakistan Taliban, attempt engagement with India and address its aid and military relationship with the US. Despite Prime Minister Imran Khan's overtures to India to engage in dialogue, India cancelled the first planned talks between the two countries since 2015 that were meant to have taken place on the sidelines, this week, at the United Nations General Assembly. The cancellation of talks came hours after three policemen were killed by rebels in Kashmir. Citing the 'brutal killings of our security personnel by Pakistan-based entities' Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign ministry added that the release of a series of 20 postage stamps depicting a young Kashmiri rebel commander killed by Indian troops in July 2016 was 'glorifying a terrorist and terrorism.' Pakistan saw its relations with the US threatened one month after Prime Minister Imran Khan's election victory, on July 26, when the US Pentagon announced that it would be cancelling $300m in military and security aid to Pakistan, part of the $1.1bn suspended in January over allegations that the country was not acting against armed groups such as the Afghan Taliban. The US has alleged that, in the years since 9/11, Pakistan has been playing a double game, harbouring Osama bin Laden and maintaining relationships with elements of the Taliban and other armed groups. 'They were helping their own country,' Foreign Minister Qureshi responded. 'They were helping overcome a situation which was not of their own creation. Who were these people Who supported them Who trained them We forget history and at times we overlook that friends change. People that you sup

fter decades of hostility, can two of the world's most opaque organisations start anew or is this path doomed to fail? A scramble for control and power within the churches serving China's estimated 12 million Catholics has kept relations between the Vatican and the "Celestial Empire" fraught for almost 70 years. China's crackdown on religious groups, especially of late, has not gone unnoticed as the Muslim minority Uighurs face life in internment and re-education camps, while Protestant churches are raided and closed down. It therefore comes as no surprise that many are wary about a pact between two of the world's most secretive organisations. An agreement, as launched by the governing Communist Party of China and leaders of the Vatican, provisionally resolves the issue of who gets to appoint bishops within the churches, with Pope Francis insisting on the final say.

Filmmaker: Hala Mourad In the heart of Lebanon's second-largest city, Tripoli, is a 'Khan', an ancient guest house dating back to the period of Mamluk rule in the 14th century. The city fell to the Ottomans in 1516 and, under the Muslim charitable practice of 'Waqf', the Khan was donated to the community to house widows unable to support themselves. The Islamic philanthropic tradition of Waqf dates back to the Prophet Muhammad's time and is intended to be 'in perpetuity'. Waqf in Islamic law was developed in the medieval Islamic world, but bears a resemblance to English trust law. Every Waqf was required to have a waqif (founder), mutawillis (trustee), qadi (judge) in addition to its beneficiaries, with continuity being 'secured by the successive appointment of trustees or mutawillis.' Now called the 'Khanka', few Tripolitans may be aware of the guest house's existence, or its governance by the Ministry of Endowments. When this film was made, the Khanka had fallen into disrepair and its 12 rooms offered its residents only the most primitive accommodation. 'Everything leaks here,' says Khanka resident Um Fadi, a mother of three. 'We wake up in the morning to find our mattresses and clothes completely wet. My little daughter fell ill because of this problem.' While the widows depend on charitable donations for sustenance, some of them do menial jobs like cleaning apartments and cooking for meagre pay. Everything leaks here. We wake up in the morning to find our mattresses and clothes completely wet. My little daughter fell ill because of this problem. Um Fadi, Khanka resident Many of the widows have quite sad stories to tell. One of them, Um Ahmed al-Tahesh, had seven sons and two daughters, but moved to the Khanka when her husband died in the Lebanese civil war. 'I had a very good life. We lived well and I had a housemaid. My husband was killed in Beirut and my life was turned upside down,' s

In an unprecedented move against a member state, the European Parliament has triggered Article 7 of the EU's governing treaty meant to protect its core principles: human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including minority rights. The EU accuses the Hungarian government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban of breaching those values by passing anti-refugee laws, manipulating the media, disregarding government corruption and removing independent judges. Hungary has taken a harsh stance on refugees and migrants since the 2015-2016 migration crisis. It was the first country to erect barbed wire fences at the borders and went on to pass laws aimed at deterring migrants from attempting transit through its territory or from seeking asylum in Hungary. The decision to trigger Article 7 followed Hungary's ongoing refusal to comply with mandatory migrant quotas put in place by the EU and came two weeks after Hungarian authorities stopped food distribution for rejected asylum seekers being held in transit zones on the country's border with Serbia. Budapest denies the accusations and defends its policies. But with EU Parliament elections scheduled to take place in May 2019, could the divisions that have been exposed lead to political change across the EU And what is next for Hungary and Europe 'We are not violating them [EU core values],' Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told Al Jazeera. 'The report which was pushed through the European Parliament has a list of 69 points, 69 accusations against Hungary out of which 13 points have been totally agreed upon by the European Commission and the government ... and there are 37 points which are qualified lies ...' he said, adding that the vote against Hungary involved 'cheating' because abstentions were not counted. Hungary could potentially get stripped off its EU voting rights, but according to Szijjarto, 'the Polish government and Czech

In October of last year, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order lifting some trade and economic sanctions against Sudan. It followed a US Department of State report that said Khartoum had improved its fight against armed groups. But the US still designates Sudan as a 'state sponsor of terrorism' - along with Iran, North Korea and Syria. Regionally, it's mediating a peace deal between the warring parties in South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011. Sudan has also been playing a role in the Saudi-led coalition in the war in Yemen with troops on the ground and several fighter jets. Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, has been in power since 1989. He's the first head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for suspected war crimes. He dissolved his government last month amid a widespread economic crisis. But after almost 30 years as president, will Bashir seek another term in 2020 What's the state of human rights in Sudan Why is Omar al-Bashir mediating South Sudan peace talks Sudan's Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed talked to Al Jazeera about his country's human rights record, the lifting of US sanctions, the war in Yemen, and Sudan's role as peacemaker in South Sudan. According to him, ending the conflict between warring parties in South Sudan is a matter of regional security and that recently improved relations between Sudan and Uganda are related to national and regional stability. 'Sudan is the most connected to South Sudan for so many obvious reasons ... Uganda is a neighbouring country that will benefit from peace and stability in South Sudan ... The new thing is that Sudan and Uganda started working together ... We found that if South Sudan is going to continue as is and the situation in South Sudan is going to deteriorate, we will be having a black hole in the region, another Somalia,' he told Al Jazeera. Sudan's position as a member of both the African Union a

Filmmaker: Bashar Ghannam Nearly seven years after the death of Muammar Gaddafi, the British government apologised for handing over a Libyan dissident and his wife to Libya's intelligence in 2004, knowing that as an opponent of the government, they would be likely to be imprisoned and tortured. Fatima Boudchar was pregnant when she was tortured and kidnapped in Thailand in 2004, in a process that has become known as extraordinary rendition. It was carried out by MI6 and the CIA in collaboration with the Libyan External Security Organisation, the ESO. Her only 'crime' was that she was married to a Libyan opponent of the Gaddafi regime, Abdelhakim Belhaj. Belhaj was the former leader of an opposition group called the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) which Gaddafi accused of having links to al-Qaeda. He and his wife were planning to seek asylum in the UK. However, they were abducted in their transit in Thailand and taken to a CIA detention centre where they were tortured and later handed over to Libyan intelligence. 'I refused to be interrogated by them … and had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or any organisation outside Libya. My problem was with the Libyan security services' says Belhaj. This was not an isolated case and the subject of rendition is one that Western governments need to be accountable for. Until 2003, Gaddafi had been labelled by the West as the 'mad dog of the Middle East'. But after the US-led invasion of Iraq failed to unearth Saddam Hussein any weapons of mass destruction, Gaddafi seized an opportunity, not simply for redemption but complete rehabilitation, by claiming to possess WMDs and offering to surrender them. Sanctions against Libya were lifted, lucrative oil deals struck and collaboration between the CIA, MI6 and Libya stepped up in the so-called 'fight against terrorism'. This led directly to the rendition of Gaddafi's opponents like Belhaj and many others. After the US-led invasion of Iraq, Gadd

Since the age of 10, Svetlana Zakharova has devoted her life to ballet. Originally from Ukraine, her extraordinary talent catapulted her to world fame as the prima ballerina of Russia's renowned Bolshoi Ballet. Considered one of the greatest ballerinas of her generation, Zakharova is often compared with Russia's iconic male ballet dancers, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. But her success has come at a price. 'At the age of 10, my childhood was over and I started a new grown-up life,' she told Al Jazeera. Zakharova gave up her childhood to practise the art form she says she was physically designed for, despite ballet being 'unnatural for a human body. The stretching, the turnouts and the training load.' 'You get used to living with pain,' she said. 'I sometimes ask myself if I made any sacrifices. But I don't know any other way of life ... I have no regrets. Even when I'm exhausted and tired, when I want to hide from everyone and everything, I never think about quitting.' In 2006, Zakharova became a member of Russia's Presidential Council for Culture and Art, and in 2008, she was elected to a term in the Russian parliament. 'I did not just join the parliament to do something I didn't know,' she said. 'I was in the Culture Committee, which was my territory. So I worked there for some time. But I did not come back after my convocation because, first of all, I gave birth to my daughter and I understood that it's impossible to be a ballerina, a parliamentarian and a mother at once.' 'Russia has always been strong in culture,' she said. 'In my opinion, if there's money to pay attention to the arts, all the other spheres are more or less in a good state.' Asked about relations between her native Ukraine and Russia, Zakharova said: 'Now, I am not related to Ukraine in any way ... I believe that our politicians will do what's right. I'm just really sad that our

Journalist James Gannon has inherited a controversial family legacy - that of a clear descendancy from General Robert E Lee, who led the Confederate Army against the Union during the American Civil war in the mid-19th century. Gannon grew up in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy, where an 18-metre high statue of his ancestor dominates the landscape in Monument Avenue, the city's grandest street. For over 100 years, Richmond has honoured Lee as one of its greatest heroes. Until recently. In 2015, 21-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof shot nine African Americans in a church in Charleston, North Carolina. Photographs of Roof draped in and posing with the Confederate flag emerged on a now defunct white supremacist website. Soon after, the city council in New Orleans voted for their Confederate monuments to be removed. Public consultations over Confederate memorials took place in Virginia, which once had the largest enslaved population in the United States. When a 'Unite the Right' rally to protest against the removal of a Robert E Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned into violent clashes in August 2017, it accelerated the national debate about what to do with the country's more than 1,500 monuments and publically-installed symbols memorialising the American Civil War. What happened that weekend in Charlottesville made Gannon consider the true legacy of his slave-owning ancestors. On a journey into his family's legacy, Gannon explores why people across the US are so divided on the subject of Confederate monuments and whether the oppression of enslaved people by his ancestors still has an effect on black lives in the US today. Travelling across Virginia and Maryland to meet key actors in the ongoing moral dilemma the US finds itself in regards to the Civil War and glorification of Confederate monuments, Gannon finds himself face to face with the debate for justice, reparations and the fight to tear these statues do

The design of online games has reached a new level of sophistication, appealing to millions of people. There are more than 2.3 billion active gamers in the world this year, of which almost half spend money on games. A recent report by the international games market research company Newzoo estimates that the global games market will reach $137.9bn in 2018, with digital revenues accounting for 91 percent. As the gaming phenomenon grows, the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified a new disease - gaming disorder. The WHO defines the disorder as 'a pattern of gaming behaviour with increasing priority given to gaming over other activities ... and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.' So what does gaming disorder really mean and how can it be treated 'What happens when we are immersed in a video game, is that the brain starts to activate the sort of exciting reward system, neurological pathways that are associated with excitement and pleasurable activities, and of course it makes us want to do it more and more,' children and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Richard Graham told Al Jazeera. 'So game designers and perhaps social media platforms have learned how to activate those systems to keep us in game and on screen for as long as possible.' With many of his patients in the 14 to 15-year range, Graham said that many youths are facing increasing stress due to the pressure of school. One of the ways they try to escape the ordinary pressures of life is through technology - which then can become an unhealthy escape. 'Where we start to move into the territory of addiction is when what was once almost a healthy way of coping with stress starts to have a grip of its own. That person is no longer able to have control over their use and they feel compelled to keep increasing the amount of whatever is is - a substance or gaming,' Graham explained. 'The loss of control is absolutely key to an addi

Every summer, Amira Abujbara boards a nine-seater plane at a tiny air taxi office. It is the same plane, with the same pilot, that she has flown in almost every year of her childhood. The 50-minute flight will take her over a snowy mountain range, a volcano and an elaborate tundra of blueberries and mushrooms, tea leaves and caribou moss, wildflowers and spider webs. She is heading to her mother’s childhood home and the place where she spends her summers – the remote Alaskan village of Iliamna. Without any roads connecting it to the outside world, this is her only way of going ‘home’. Iliamna, which is an Athabascan word meaning 'big ice' or 'big lake' sits on the shore of the lake that shares its name. The largest in Alaska, it spans more than 2,500 square kilometres, is pure enough to drink from and is home to the biggest sockeye salmon run in the world. Iliamna shares a post office, school, airport, medical clinic and two small stores with the neighbouring village, Newhalen. Together, they have fewer than 300 residents. It is a far cry from her father’s home country, Qatar, where Amira spends the rest of the year. Her father is Qatari and her mother is Dena’ina - a subset of the Athabascan Alaska Natives. Amira was born in Alaska and is registered as an Alaska Native. When her father married her mother he promised her parents that they would return regularly and so Amira and her sister spent their summers in Iliamna. Their grandmother ran a bed and breakfast for fishermen, so she would help make the beds, clean and prepare the meals for her guests. She learned how to subsistence fish – catching, smoking, brining and canning salmon during the summer months to store for the rest of the year. For the villagers, their home is a beautiful and fruitful land, but it is also a place of incredible hardships. Tiny villages are dwarfed by the vast wilderness that surrounds them, and while the region is rich in natural resources, many Alaska

Despite an uneven global economic recovery since the 2008 financial crisis, adequate and affordable housing is increasingly out of reach to hundreds of millions of people, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing, Leilani Farha. In her latest report on global housing need, Farha wrote that the world's money markets have priced people out of cities, with speculators and investors treating housing as a 'place to park capital'. Farha, who presented her findings before the Human Rights Council in Geneva in March 2017, said that 'housing has lost its social function and is seen instead as a vehicle for wealth and asset growth. It has become a financial commodity, robbed of its connection to community, dignity and the idea of home.' Leilani Farha spoke to Al Jazeera about the growing global housing crisis and the steep challenges ahead for the more than one billion people who do not have adequate housing. At an estimated global net worth of $163 trillion, the residential real estate market is equivalent to more than twice the world's total economy and dwarfs the approximate seven-trillion-dollar-value of all the gold ever mined, Farha told Al Jazeera. Housing is viewed as a way to 'grow wealth and that has changed the way in which housing operates', she said. 'It means ... you have investors, private equity firms, vulture funds, buying up housing. Who is their principle concern It's their investor and if they're using housing to satisfy their investor interests, what do they have to do with that housing if it's rental housing It's obvious, they have to increase the rents.' The right to adequate housing is enshrined in Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration for Human Rights, which states that 'Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care.' Hous

Filmmaker: Mostafa Bouazzaoui For almost his whole political career, Abraham Serfaty was a thorn on the side of authorities in Rabat, both during the days of French rule and later, under the reign of King Hassan II. Described by his closest supporters as 'the Moroccan Mandela', Serfaty endured 17 years of imprisonment, torture and 13 years of exile for his political views, including his opposition to Morocco's position on Western Sahara. Part of the minority Jewish population in Morocco, he never embraced Zionism. After the 1967 war, he distanced himself from Israel and became a vocal advocate for the Palestinian resistance movement, a burning issue that dominated discussion on Arab streets at the time. Serfaty once famously told the media 'Conveying the image of a democratic Israel is a fantasy. You cannot be a democrat while oppressing another people. Zionism goes against democracy. I was 10 in 1936, when my father told me at the synagogue that 'Zionism goes against our religion.'' His unique identity allowed him to break taboos and inspire others, according to those who met him. 'He established a new concept of the Arab Jew who didn't renounce any element of his origins as a Moroccan and an Arab Jew,' explains university teacher Michelle Fay. 'One can be a hundred percent Jewish and a hundred percent anti-Zionist.' Together with Abdellatif Laabi, Serfaty developed an artistic journal called 'Souffles', meaning 'Breaths'. Printed in Arabic and French, it was a creative space for political expression that its authors felt had been silenced for so long by politicians and the monarchy. 'It gave a new orientation to both journalism and creativity in an era that was giving birth to new ideas in Morocco, Palestine and the world,' says Noureddine Saoudi, a former prisoner and teacher. As a champion of universal human rights and democratic principles, Serfaty sits alongside the likes of Che Guevara, M

There are 68.5 million people forcibly displaced worldwide, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Of these, 25.4 million are refugees, and 68 percent of all the refugees come from just five countries: Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, and Somalia. Even though they are hosted by several countries, many of them aim for one final destination: Europe. The European Union declared a 'refugee crisis' in 2015, and the 'crisis' intensified as thousands kept pouring into the continent. EU member states have failed to agree on a solution with increased political tension as a result. But whose fault is this crisis And are all countries in the world - all of them - doing enough to ease the situation, or are only a few carrying the burden Amin Awad, the director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Bureau of the UNHCR, talks to Al Jazeera. 'The international community have paid, to a certain extent, generously for the Syria situation ... Traditional donors like the European Union, the EU member states ... The Arab world, thanks to Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, plus Turkey, have received six million refugees, and others have contributed to the Syria cause,' says Awad. 'But we also have Iraq, we have Libya and we have Yemen. We have many other crises in Africa that are also facing problems and a shortage of funding. Not all funding appeals from the UN are met.' Asked about the prospect of a central processing centre for migrants hoping to start a new life in Europe, located somewhere strategic in Africa, such as Morocco which had been formerly proposed, Awad sees the move as a potentially positive action as opposed to one which sees Europe shirking its responsibilities. 'I think what the Europeans are trying to do is to share the burden of the hundreds of thousands - or millions - that have crossed over in the last few years,' he says. 'The way out of this [multiple transit centres in North Africa] is ro

Lebanese and Moroccans reflect on life after retirement, as they pursue their passions in art, music, and literature.

The poignant refugee stories of an Iraqi artist, a Syrian screenwriter and a Palestinian filmmaker in Lebanon.

Two years after the Hamas engineer's assassination, Tunisia struggles to get the suspects extradited from the Balkans.