Russia / AFP Russian pensioner Anna Venderenko says her village wrestles daily with the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, dreading the moment when a lifeline provided by the government in Moscow is slashed. The 70-year-old lives in Starye Bobovichi, 180 kilometres northeast of the stricken nuclear plant in neighbouring Ukraine. On the night of April 26, 1986, a blast …

  Bloomberg Chernobyl, Ukraine|AFP: Defying radioactive contamination and a government evacuation order, Yevgeny Markevich returned to his beloved Chernobyl shortly after it suffered the world’s worst nuclear accident 30 years ago this week. The sturdy 78-year-old former teacher is among 158 people still living in the 30 kilometre (19 mile) exclusion zone around the Ukrainian nuclear power plant where reactor …

  Aden / AFP Yemeni troops have recaptured a key port city from Al-Qaeda militants who controlled it for a year, in what a Saudi-led coalition hailed on Monday as a major victory that saw more than 800 extremists killed. The assault on the southeastern city of Mukalla, home to some 200,000 people, was part of a wider counter-offensive against …