Six In The Morning Wednesday 22 June 2022

 

More than 1,000 people killed after magnitude 5.9 earthquake hits eastern Afghanistan

By Masoud Popalzai, Jessie Yeung, Ehsan Popalzai and Tara John, CNN

Updated 1322 GMT (2122 HKT) June 22, 2022

Afghanistan was rocked by its deadliest earthquake in decades on Wednesday when a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck the country's east, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more, according to a regional official.

The humanitarian disaster comes at a difficult time for the Taliban-ruled country, currently in the throes of hunger and economic crises.

The shocks hit at 1:24 a.m. local time on Wednesday (4:54 p.m. ET on Tuesday) around 46 kilometers (28.5 miles) southwest of the city of Khost, which lies close to the country's border with Pakistan, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

‘Honour killings? It should be called the devil’s work’: Bekhal Mahmod on the murder of her sister

Sirin Kale

Wed 22 Jun 2022 10.00 BST

After Banaz Mahmod was killed by her father, uncle and three other men in 2006, it was her sister’s testimony that helped bring them to justice. Before the release of her memoir she tells of her rage at what happened and why she is still living in hiding

Bekhal Mahmod, like an avenging angel, doesn’t forgive. To do so would be to betray her younger sister, Banaz. She has watched the film Law Abiding Citizen, in which Gerard Butler takes brutal revenge on the men who murdered his wife and daughter, 50 times. She fantasises about hurting those who murdered her sister in the same way they hurt Banaz. She wishes they would die in jail and their ashes would be flushed down a sewer. She hopes that the people who covered up Banaz’s murder will never see the light of heaven.

She has a long list of people she hates. Her father, Mahmod Mahmod, who arranged the murder of her beloved Banaz in an “honour” killing. Her uncle Ari Mahmod, who pressed Mahmod to have Banaz killed and fixed the murder. Mohammed Saleh Ali, Omar Hussain and Mohamad Hama, who spent hours torturing and raping 20-year-old Banaz, before strangling her to death on 24 January 2006. The south London Kurdish community, who blocked and resisted the Metropolitan police’s investigation into Banaz’s killing with its omertà.

Woman in Belgium elected mayor of Tokyo district more than 9,000km away in ‘huge surprise’ victory

Despite not having lived in Japan for several years, Suginami residents say Satoko Kishimoto is ‘a real Japanese person’

Sravasti Dasgupta

A 47-year-old woman living in Belgium for over a decade has become the mayor of a Tokyo district, more than 9,000km away, after she rose to prominence primarily with the help of a social media campaign during the Covid pandemic.

Satoko Kishimoto, 47, has been living in Belgium’s Leuven city with her husband and two children and is set to become the mayor of Tokyo’s Suginami district after winning polls with a narrow margin of just 200 votes.

“During the Covid-19 crisis, when everything happened online, Satoko participated a lot in online public debates in Japan from Leuven,” husband Olivier Hoedeman said in an interview with a local Flemish radio station on Monday.

ANATOMY OF A CRISIS

As global food crisis looms, Sri Lanka offers a cautionary tale

Sri Lanka’s government finally began bailout talks with IMF officials this week after a crippling delay exacerbated a longstanding economic crisis. But as food prices soar amid an impending global food shortage sparked by the Ukraine conflict, Sri Lankans are paying a heavy price for the government’s mismanagement, nepotism and lack of accountability, which went unchecked for decades.

Nethmi Rajawasam’s dreams for the future appeared to go up in smoke from the firewood stove the family was forced to adopt as the economic crisis went from bad to worse.

Like most urban Sri Lankan middle-class families, the Rajawasams used cooking gas cylinders – a kitchen essential that everyone took for granted – to prepare their meals. But that was before the South Asian island nation suffered its worst financial crisis since independence in 1948.

Using candy and jam to protect Brazil's Amazon rainforest

With young Indigenous people leaving the Amazon in search of jobs the rainforest is losing one of its best lines of defense. Could ensuring they have economic opportunities at home help protect biodiversity?

Tapirs, jaguars, and giant armadillos are some of the 430 species of mammals that share a home with Luiz Henrique Lopes Ferreira in Brazil's eastern Amazon.  

Ferreira makes and sells sweets, jams, and liqueurs from more than a hundred varieties of local fruit trees. The 22-year-old is part of a new generation showing how forest communities with economic opportunities can help promote biodiversity protection and prevent deforestation.  

Kate Bush says the 'world has gone mad' over Stranger Things song

Singer Kate Bush has said her sudden popularity with a new audience after her recent Stranger Things-inspired chart success has been "very special".

Running Up That Hill went to number one on Friday after being featured heavily in Netflix's sci-fi drama series.

"It's just extraordinary," she told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour on Wednesday.

"It's such a great series. I thought that the track would get some attention. But I just never imagined that it would be anything like this."