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  • AFP / Kazuhiro Nogi
  • AFP / Str
  • AFP / Kazuhiro Nogi
  • AFP / Str

Remembering Japan's tsunami disaster

Saturday 13 March 2021

Tokyo - In March 2011, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off Japan’s northeast coast, causing a deadly tsunami that triggered a nuclear meltdown.

AFP’s Tokyo bureau mobilised quickly, and journalists have spent years reporting from the affected Tohoku region. A decade after the disaster, which left around 18,500 people dead or missing, AFP journalists returned to the area to report a series of stories ahead of the anniversary.

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AFP / Kazuhiro Nogi

Starting again in Japan

Tuesday 26 March 2019

"Every time I move countries, there comes a moment when I find myself saying or doing something that previously struck me as totally alien," writes Sara Hussein, a correspondent who has been posted in Japan for a year after eight years in the Middle East.

"In Tokyo, that moment came a few weeks ago, a year into my posting -- I seriously considered buying a medical face mask."

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AFP / Joseph Eid

Along on a Hezbollah tour

Tuesday 25 April 2017

"As our convoy turned onto a orchard-lined lane in Lebanon’s southern village of Naqura, the Hezbollah fighters came into view," writes Sara Hussein, a correspondent based in Beirut.

"They were hard to miss. Despite wearing military camouflage and smears of green and black paint on their faces, the fighters were clearly there to be seen. The men stood silently in the long grass between citrus trees, holding guns, RPG launchers, and anti-aircraft systems. They didn’t move."

"'It's like Madame Tussauds with Hezbollah fighters,' said one photographer, snapping frame after frame."

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AFP Photo / Joseph Eid

On tour with Hezbollah

Wednesday 27 May 2015

"The Hezbollah fighter grimaced as a bank of photographers kneeled in front of him, struggling to take pictures that complied with the group's strict media rules but would still have news value," writes Sara Hussein. "The interaction was part of an unusual media tour organised by the powerful Lebanese Shiite group of their positions in the Qalamun region on the porous Syria-Lebanon border."

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