Nicaragua: Crackdown on Catholic Church spreads fear among the faithful, there and in exile
GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO, of Associated Press, reports on the ongoing impact of President Daniel Ortega’s crackdown on churches in Nicaragua…
Belarus opposition march in Warsaw on anniversary of contested election
Warsaw, PolandReuters Hundreds of opponents of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko marched through the Polish capital Warsaw on Wednesday to mark the third anniversary of their unsuccessful attempt to unseat him in an election they say was rigged. Protests dragged on for months after Lukashenko claimed victory in the 9th August, 2020, presidential election. Western countries […]
Broken promises drive exiled hunter-gatherers back to Congolese gorilla refuge
Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo Reuters In the forested borderlands of eastern Congo, some members of an exiled hunter-gatherer community plan to move back into their ancestral land in a national park in protest over broken promises from the authorities they say put rare gorillas over their rights. An estimated 10,000 Indigenous Batwa live […]
Organise or fight? Three years in exile, Belarus opposition divided about path
Warsaw, PolandReuters Pavel Maryeuski, 33, was an activist committed to peaceful politics who had never held a weapon, when he fled his native Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on protests following an election three years ago. Last year, when Russia invaded Ukraine, he felt the call to battle, and joined a Belarus volunteer unit fighting in support of […]
Essay: Bounties on exiled Hong Kong activists show the ambitious reach of China’s political repression
In an article first published on The Conversation, BRENDAN CLIFT, of the University of Melbourne, argues that while the issung of warrants for the arrest of eight exiled pro-democracy figures may be “futile overreach”, the intention behind them remains condemnable…
“I miss my people, my nation”: Fear, anxiety follow Nicaraguan faith leaders into exile
MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ, of Associated Press, reports on the plight of those exiled from Nicaragua because of their faith…
Afghan women lawyers on the run face life in limbo abroad
Athens, GreeceReuters When the Taliban seized Afghanistan, lawyer Bibi Chaman Hafizi heard the militants were going door to door, hunting for people who worked for the state, so she burned every document in her home and went into hiding. Then she fled the country. Like dozens more women working in the legal sphere, Hafizi, who […]
Born among the animals
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is built on the stone cave where they think Jesus was born. Stained glass windows depicting the birth of Christ in St Malachy’s Church, Main Street, Castlewellan, Northern Ireland, UK. PICTURE: K Mitch Hodge/Unsplash Stables in ancient Palestine were stone not wood – and often attached to houses. The […]
SOUTH AMERICA: WITH OPPOSITION LEADER GUAIDO, EXILED VENEZUELANS DARE TO DREAM OF RETURNING HOME
ANASTASIA MOLONEY reports from Colombia for Thomson Reuters Foundation…