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What a doctor’s death in a lift tells us about Africa’s debt crisis
By Joe Inwood, Newsnight & Nkechi Ogbonna in Lagos BBC News Friends of a doctor who died in Nigeria because the lift in her hospital accommodation fell nine floors with her inside are not surprised by a new study that reveals the country spends twice as much money on debt repayments as on health and…
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Ukraine war: Back to school under Russian attacks
By Vitaly Shevchenko BBC Monitoring It was a quiet summer morning in Romny, a provincial town in northern Ukraine. As Tetyana Prokopenko, a local headteacher, left for work last Wednesday, she told her husband she had to hold some meetings to prepare for the new term. Shortly after 10:00 local time she would be dead,…
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When a child is shot, doctors must heal more than just bullet holes
By Rebecca Hartmann BBC News in Washington, DC With the number of young people shot by guns on the rise in the US, a children’s hospital in the heart of the America’s capital is trying to break the cycle of violence. In the emergency room at Children’s National hospital in Washington, DC, hospital beds line…
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Africa’s week in pictures: 25
A selection of the best photos from across Africa and beyond this week: Images subject to copyright. Around the BBC The Comb podcasts Africa Today podcasts
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Akon: Success allows me to make music for myself
By Manish Pandey BBC Newsbeat RnB star Akon has been in the music business for almost 20 years. And the Senagalese-American singer says he’s finally able to start making music for himself. Born in the USA, Akon spent his childhood moving between New Jersey and the African country. He learned to play several western and…
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Muhammad Yunus: Leaders urge Bangladesh to end attacks on Nobel laureate
By Akbar Hossain & Kelly Ng in Dhaka and Singapore More than 170 global figures have called on Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina to stop the “persecution” of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Prof Yunus – known internationally as the “banker to the poor” – has been slapped with swathes of lawsuits, with several more filed…
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Refugee women’s personal photos on show
Five women who resettled as refugees to the UK share largely unseen, personal photos revealing lives before war and conflict and how they coped during journeys of upheaval and forced displacement. The women carried their photographic collections across borders, stored loosely in holdalls, kept pristine in decorative photo albums or held on digital devices. Here…
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The unexpected maths problem at work during the women’s World Cup
If you are in a room with 22 other people, it’s more likely than not that two of them share a birthday. There was something strange about the recent Women’s World Cup in Australia. If you were paying close attention, you might have spotted it. Many of the international teams had players who were born…
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Diver ‘Merman Mike’ finds your treasures under water
Michael Pelley, a California scuba diver and internet creator, returns lost trinkets to their owners for free and picks up trash along the way. “I figure I’m having a great time anytime my head goes underwater, so if I can make someone else’s day, week, month, or even year, by returning something they never thought…
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Ukraine war: Russia and Iran invited back to Nobel Prize banquet
By George Wright BBC News Russia and Belarus have been invited back to Stockholm’s Nobel Prize banquet after being left out last year because of the Ukraine war, the Nobel Foundation says. Iran has also been invited back to the event in Sweden’s capital after not being allowed to attend last year. The foundation said…