Author Archives: Heath Strickland

Semey Revisited: The legacy of nuclear testing in Kazakhstan

Nearly 30 years after the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan, local people are still suffering the consequences of four decades of exposure to radiation. FRANCE 24’s reporters Sophie Guignon and Miyuki Droz Aramaki went to meet them. From 1949 to 1989, the Soviet military conducted no less than 456 nuclear tests in Kazakhstan – both in… Read more »

Women barred from entering Hindu temple in India’s Kerala state

Sabarimala, one of Hinduism’s most holy temples, has become a symbol of the fight for gender equality in India as female worshippers continue to be denied access to the premises despite a Supreme Court decision striking down a longtime ban on women. For centuries, women of childbearing age have been forbidden from entering Sabarimala in southern Kerala state. In a landmark… Read more »

Old suspicions resurface as Afghans vote in parliamentary polls

A daring attack that killed an leading anti-Taliban Afghan security official while sparing the top US commander in Afghanistan has sparked Afghan suspicions about the US as Afghans vote in Saturday’s parliamentary elections. Afghanistan votes once again amid familiar scenes of tightened security following yet another violent campaign season and Taliban warnings to the Afghan people to desist from exercising their democratic rights…. Read more »

Afghans brave bombs, chaos to vote in parliamentary elections

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a polling station in Kabul, killing at least 13 people while poll-related violence killed or wounded more than 130 across the country as Afghanistan voted Saturday in parliamentary elections. Voters, election workers and police were among the victims of a suicide bombing in the northern Khair Khana district of Kabul, according to Afghan security officials, in… Read more »