Moeko Heshiki is no ordinary tattoo artist: she is one of the few people keeping the once-banned tradition of hajichi body art alive for the Indigenous Ryukyu people of Japan's Okinawa region. . Heshiki, born to a father from Okinawa and a mother from Japan's main island Honshu, stumbled across hajichi while researching possible tattoos.
In a forest in northern Japan's Hokkaido, Atsushi Monbetsu kneels on the moss in the thick morning fog and begins to pray in a language that has nearly disappeared.. Monbetsu belongs to the Ainu Indigenous group that traditionally lived in what is now northern Japan, as well as in territory now part of Russia.
The top US diplomat to Afghanistan on Thursday apologized for tweets that suggested struggling Afghan women might find inspiration in African American history and culture -- particularly the #BlackGirlMagic social media movement.. #BlackGirlMagic is a movement born on social media that celebrates Black women with millions of uplifting and laudatory posts.
The death toll from the earthquake that has devastated parts of Turkey and Syria exceeded 41,000 on Friday as the United Nations appealed for $1 billion to address a growing humanitarian crisis.. Turkey has suspended rescue operations in some regions, and the government in war-torn Syria has done the same in areas under its control.
Panamanian authorities said Thursday it would "take time" to identify the dozens of migrants who died in one of the country's worst-ever road accidents while trying to make their way to the United States. . Despite the dangers, the number of irregular migrants arriving in Panama en route to the United States nearly doubled in 2022 to a record 248,000, immigration authorities reported on January 1.
Two members of a scientific panel that investigated the mysterious death of Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda told AFP that they could not determine whether or not the Chilean poet and diplomat had been poisoned.. Neruda was a celebrated poet, politician, diplomat and bohemian figure, and also a prominent member of the Chilean communist party when former military dictator Augusto Pinochet took power in a 1973 coup.
With the estimated death toll still mounting, the massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6 is among the 10 deadliest of the past 100 years, with over 41,000 dead as of Friday. - 1976: 242,000 dead, China - A quake measuring 7.8, according to the Chinese authorities, (7.5 according to the US Geological Survey), strikes near the industrial city of Tangshan in northeastern Hebei province.. A further 3.5 million are displaced. - 1932: 70,000 dead, China - On December 25, 1932, a 7.9-magnitude quake kills around 70,000 in Gansu province, in northwest China. - 1970: 67,000 dead, Peru - On May 31, 1970, a 7.9-magnitude quake off Peru's north coast leaves some 67,000 dead, many in the mountain city of Huaraz that was buried by a mudslide. - 2023: already 41,000 dead, Turkey and Syria - On February 6, a 7.8-magnitude quake strikes near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border.
Colombia's government on Thursday said it would submit a bill to parliament offering reduced sentences and other benefits to drug traffickers who quit and compensate victims.. Among the other benefits the government is offering to repentant drug traffickers is keeping up to six percent of their ill-gotten gains.
The United States on Thursday voiced opposition to a proposed UN Security Council resolution that would demand Israel end settlements in the occupied territories, despite Washington's criticism of its ally on the issue.. But the State Department made clear that the United States, which wields veto power at the Security Council, would not back the resolution reportedly initiated by the United Arab Emirates, a US ally which has normalized relations with Israel.
Action star Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with untreatable dementia, his family said Thursday, less than a year after he retired from acting because of growing cognitive difficulties.. "Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces," the family statement said.
