24 hours in pictures, 12 May 2025
Buddhist and Muslim devotees release a lantern in front of Borobudur Temple, the world's largest Buddhist monument and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Magelang, Central Java, on May 12, 2025, as they commemorate Waisak, or Vesak Day. Vesak is the most sacred day for Buddhists, commemorating the birth, enlightenment and death of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, all traditionally believed to have occurred on the full moon day of the Vesakha month in the ancient Indian lunar calendar. (Photo by Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP)
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2 days ago
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War-weary Ukrainians find solace by frontline lake
Raisa Ustimenko barely looked up as a fighter jet swooped overhead, roaring over the lakeshore in Sloviansk towards the agonisingly close war front in eastern Ukraine. The 67-year-old was more focused on rummaging through a pink plastic bag for the plums she brought for her summer picnic by the lake. "Take some of my plums... This one is the best -- the largest!" she told AFP as the noise from the fighter became deafening. Some beachgoers shrugged at the roar. Others shaded their eyes to watch the swerving Ukrainian Su-27 as it sped away towards the front just 20 kilometres away. The lakeside is busy on summer days with mostly elderly residents who stayed behind when half the population of Sloviansk fled the Russian advance. It is one of the pockets of relative normality even in areas near the front, where residents can seek some solace from the war and the heat. Russian troops are pushing toward Sloviansk, now within range of devastating glide bombs dropped from Russian warplanes, and drones that have left buildings across the city in ruins. In the face of uncertainty, Ustimenko said she needs to hold on to something positive. "It can be at the beach, it can be in a beautiful cup of coffee, it can be just a flower. You look at a flower and you feel happy," she said. "You forget about what's flying over the sky -- that's the most important thing. We won't be able to survive here otherwise." - 'The little moments' – Omar Salih Rasheed, programme coordinator at the International Committee of the Red Cross Mental Health Support Programme, said such scenes are common across different conflicts. "People always look for the ways to adapt, to cope with what is happening," Rasheed said. "It does not mean that everyone is fine." AFP | Genya SAVILOV Rasheed said the need for mental health support will grow after the fighting stops, and people take stock of what has happened to them. While the war continues, it is important "that communities can enjoy the little moments that they can." At the Sloviansk lakeside, Vyacheslav Shatalov, who works at a nautical-themed beach bar, said people might scatter if they hear explosions but still come back later in the day. "If they left in the morning, they'll be back by the evening to relax," said the 61-year-old, his skin weathered by a decade of summers at the resort. At his bar, decorated with a giant ship's wheel, Shatalov hands out beach mattresses as Coldplay blared from the radio. "Those who are really scared have left already, but the seasoned ones still come," he said. - 'Look and remember' - The beach features white wooden huts and a concrete shelter in case of attacks. But Mariana Rebets, 37, said she had never seen anyone using it. "If the alarm rings and we see smoke, we'll see what people do, and follow them," she said. "My husband said: if something flies over the lake, just dive," said Rebets, wearing a bright pink dress and huge sunglasses. Rebets regularly travels from relatively safer western Ukraine to spend a few days with her husband, a soldier stationed near the front. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, about half of the population of Sloviansk fled, leaving only 53,000 in the former industrial city. Many of those who stayed are older residents attached to their homes, while younger people moved to safer areas. AFP | Genya SAVILOV Ustimenko's family has moved away too. From the wilder side of the lake, she gazed at the water where her grandchildren once learned to swim. "Now they're not here. No one is here," she said. "We come here on our own, we look and remember, we rejoice."
eNCA
5 days ago
- eNCA
With poetry and chants, Omanis strive to preserve ancient language
SALALAH - Against the backdrop of southern Oman's lush mountains, men in traditional attire chant ancient poems in an ancient language, fighting to keep alive a spoken tradition used by just two percent of the population. Sitting under a tent, poet Khalid Ahmed al-Kathiri recites the verses, while men clad in robes and headdresses echo back his words in the vast expanse. "Jibbali poetry is a means for us to preserve the language and teach it to the new generation," Kathiri told AFP. The overwhelming majority of Omanis speak Arabic, but in the mountainous coastal region of Dhofar bordering Yemen, people speak Jibbali, also known as Shehri. Researcher Ali Almashani described it as an "endangered language" spoken by no more than 120,000 people in a country of over five million. - 'Protected by isolation' - While AFP was interviewing the poet, a heated debate broke out among the men over whether the language should be called Jibbali -- meaning "of the mountains" -- or Shehri, and whether it was an Arabic dialect. Almashani said it was a fully-fledged language with its own syntax and grammar, historically used for composing poetry and proverbs and recounting legends. The language predates Arabic, and has origins in Semitic south Arabian languages, he said. He combined both names in his research to find a middle ground. "It's a very old language, deeply rooted in history," Almashani said, adding that it was "protected by the isolation of Dhofar". "The mountains protected it from the west, the Empty Quarter from the north, and the Indian Ocean from the south. This isolation built an ancient barrier around it," he said. But remoteness is no guarantee for survival. Other languages originating from Dhofar like Bathari are nearly extinct, "spoken only by three or four people," he said. Some fear Jibbali could meet the same fate. Thirty-five-year-old Saeed Shamas, a social media advocate for Dhofari heritage, said it was vital for him to raise his children in a Jibbali-speaking environment to help keep the language alive. Children in Dhofar grow up speaking the mother tongue of their ancestors, singing along to folk songs and memorising ancient poems. "If everyone around you speaks Jibbali, from your father, to your grandfather, and mother, then this is the dialect or language you will speak," he said. - Not yet documented - The ancient recited poetry and chants also preserve archaic vocabulary no longer in use, Shamas told AFP. Arabic is taught at school and understood by most, but the majority of parents speak their native language with their children, he said. After the poetry recital, a group of young children nearby told AFP they "prefer speaking Jibbali over Arabic". But for Almashani, the spectre of extinction still looms over a language that is not taught in school or properly documented yet. There have been recent efforts towards studying Jibbali, with Oman's Vision 2040 economic plan prioritising heritage preservation. Almashani and a team of people looking to preserve their language are hoping for support from Dhofar University for their work on a dictionary with about 125,000 words translated into Arabic and English. The project will also include a digital version with a pronunciation feature for unique sounds that can be difficult to convey in writing.
eNCA
7 days ago
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Historic Spanish mosque-cathedral reopens after blaze
A fire at a historic mosque-turned-cathedral in Cordoba in southern Spain caused only "very localised damage," the city's mayor said Saturday as the site reopened to the public. The spectacular blaze broke out on Friday at about 9:00 pm raising fears for the early medieval architectural gem and evoking memories of the 2019 fire that ravaged Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Widely shared videos had shown flames and smoke billowing from inside the major tourist attraction, which is considered a jewel of Islamic architecture and is visited by two million people per year. "There is some damage, significant damage, but it is very, very localised," the mayor of Cordoba, Jose Maria Bellido, told reporters outside the site which opened to the public as usual in the morning. Most of the damage is concentrated in a chapel where the fire broke out, whose roof "completely collapsed" due to the flames and the weight of the water used to put them out, he added in an interview with Spanish public television. The mayor estimated that the fire damaged approximately 50 to 60 square metres of the building, which has a total interior area of around 3,000 square metres. "Fortunately yesterday a catastrophe was avoided that could have meant losing the entire mosque-cathedral," he said. The fire-damaged section, known as the Almanzor nave, was cordoned off with waist-high barriers. Several fire engines and police lined a street near the building on Saturday morning as tourists lined up to get inside, images broadcast on Spanish media showed. The fire-damaged section, known as the Almanzor nave, remained cordoned off. A total of 35 firefighters worked throughout the night to monitor the area and cool the walls after the blaze was extinguished, the head of Cordoba's firefighting service, Daniel Munoz, said. Forensics police were at the scene on Saturday to try to determine the cause of the fire, he added. ABC and other newspapers reported that a mechanical sweeping machine had caught fire in the site. The site was built as a mosque -- on the site of an earlier church -- between the 8th and 10th centuries by the southern city's then Muslim ruler, Abd ar-Rahman, an emir of the Umayyad dynasty. After Christians reconquered Spain in the 13th century under King Ferdinand III of Castile, it was converted into a cathedral and architectural alterations were made over following centuries. The building was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 due to its architectural and cultural significance.
