Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara, Nigeria, 2005The Hyena and Other Men by Pieter HugoText by Adetokunbo AbiolaAbdullahi Ahmadu was 15 years old when he joined his father’s business in the small town of Malumfashi in Katsina State, Nigeria. This meant that he had to acquire his own hyena, as his family made their living as entertainers accompanied by hyenas, snakes and monkeys, in addition to selling the fetishes and herbal medicines that are popular in Nigeria. Abdullahi’s grandfather, Nalado Ahmadu, taught him how to catch and control the animals, and introduced him to the charms that help subdue the creatures and protect their captors from harm. Today Abdullahi is an experienced animal handler in his early thirties, who travels across Nigeria as part of a ... Continue reading →

UNITED NATIONS | Thu May 17, 2012 4:44pm EDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria has complained to the United Nations that its tourism industry has been severely damaged by a 14-month conflict between government forces and rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, which has raised fears of civil war. In a letter to the 193-member U.N. General Assembly made public on Thursday, Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, said hotel occupancy had dropped from an average of 90 percent before the crisis began in March 2011 to less than 15 percent."In the cities and areas where there is tension, the impact of the crisis on the tourism sector has been totally disastrous: tourism activity has come to a complete halt and hotels have ceased to ... Continue reading →

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Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here. Continue reading →

By Murad Sezer All photographers make plans to deal with possible clashes. They are ready to protect themselves and their equipment when covering a potential riot (or a May Day demonstration as I did a few days earlier). But you don’t expect to be doing that before a soccer match, or any other sports events. While covering the May Day protests I don’t carry a camera bag or a laptop. I head out with my two camera bodies, spare memory cards, a gas mask and a wireless lan transmitter attached to the camera body to file my pictures – that’s all.. It’s more comfortable and easy to cover if any riots break out. But to cover a soccer match is a different story. If it’s ... Continue reading →

Editor’s choice May 16, 2012 07:00 EDT Our best photos from the last 24 hours. 24 PHOTOS Continue reading →

Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here. Continue reading →

By Suzanne Plunkett When Queen Elizabeth II makes a public appearance there is usually a long list of protocol rules for those handling the visit, but this clearly doesn’t include what to do when hailstones start showering down. The Queen was caught in a sudden hail storm on Wednesday while meeting the public in Richmond Park, southwest of London. Dark clouds overhead unleashed a torrent of ice on the 86-year-old monarch and a bitter wind tried to snatch away her umbrella. The burst of wintry weather caught many people off guard. There were squeals from school children gathered for the event. And around the Queen, officials hovered uneasily, unsure whether to breach rules on touching her as they ushered her to and from shelters. But ... Continue reading →

A foreign journalist kept in prison for almost a month in Zimbabwe has spoken of the 'hell' he faced during his 25 day detention. Robin Hammond, a renowned and award winning photo journalist from New Zealand, was released last week from Harare Central prison. He was arrested last month in Beitbridge, along with a Zimbabwean national, after being found taking photographs for a story on the irregular migration of Zimbabweans to South Africa. The pair was accused of not having proper accreditation, allegedly after entering the country on the grounds that they were on holiday. Hammond, who works for the UK Sunday Times newspaper, has explained that he was strip-searched and detained in a cramped and filthy cell with 38 other prisoners in Beitbridge prison. ... Continue reading →