World

Campaigners and a film crew have appeared on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival chanting “solidarity” and wearing green in protest against Argentina’s abortion laws. They were showcasing the documentary Que Sea Ley, which translates as “Let It Be Law” and follows the intense battle over a bill which would have legalised abortion […]

Amar was brought to the UK from Iraq as an orphaned child with terrible burns, following a napalm attack by Saddam Hussein’s forces. When the spotlight faded he settled into a quiet life without his family in Devon, but then years later, he received a mysterious message from a stranger, saying his mother was looking

Nikita and Radyion are a gay couple from Belarus. It is hard for them to express their feeling anywhere but online as there are very few openly gay people in the country. Although same sex relationships are not illegal in Belarus, the country remains one of the most homophobic in Europe according to the International

Russian President Vladimir Putin has intervened in an ongoing row over a new church in Yekaterinburg. He said the Russian Orthodox Church “should unite people, not divide them”, and called for the plans to build a church in a park to be put to a poll. His intervention follows four days of protests by thousands

Femicide – the killing of a female, on account of her gender – is a global issue. Activists in Kenya say there has been a spike in violence recently, with 40 women reported to have been killed this year alone. BBC Africa has visited the county of Busia in western Kenya which has been the

The Kaka’i are a secretive religious minority in Iraq who usually avoid the cameras. Their persecution has forced them to keep their beliefs and rituals a secret; once numbering in their millions in Iraq, there are now just 200,000. They have been persecuted by extremists in the region who consider them to be infidels, such

There are around 1.2 million Australians with Chinese heritage but there has never been a Chinese-Australian MP in the lower house. When Australians go to the polls on 18 May in a federal election, history could well be made in the seat of Chisholm in Melbourne, where two Chinese-Australian candidates are running against each other.

Former Australian prime minister and Labor Party leader Bob Hawke, who dominated the country’s politics in the 1980s, has died at the age of 89. The charismatic politician, renowned for his love of beer and cricket, served from 1983 to 1991 and is credited with modernising the economy. He was the centre-left Labor Party’s longest-serving

Alabama has become the latest US state to move to restrict abortions by passing a bill to outlaw the procedure in almost all cases. The law includes a ban on abortion in cases of rape or incest. Supporters say they expect the law to be blocked in court, but hope that the appeals process will

Trees are connected by an underground network of fungi that connect trees and provide them with the nutrients they need to survive. This system has been nicknamed the Wood Wide Web. Now a team of scientists, including Tom Crowther from ETH Zurich and Brian Steidinger from Stanford University, have mapped this network on a global