Plus: Hope for mountain chicken frog, and Europe's mullet festival ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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| Hello. Rafah has seen its population swell in the past seven months as Palestinians displaced by fighting elsewhere in Gaza have sought refuge in the southern city. The city is now emptying, after Israel issued evacuation orders as it expands its military operation. Elsewhere in this edition, we're following US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his surprise visit to Ukraine. There's also a story of death and vengeance from India, and one of hope for a Caribbean amphibian. | |
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TOP OF THE AGENDA | Exodus leaves parts of Rafah deserted |  | Fewer than 300,000 people lived in Rafah before the war, with more than a million having relocated there since then. Credit: UNRWA/X | Almost 450,000 people have been forcibly displaced from Rafah in the past week, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Pictures released by the agency show empty streets in the southern Gazan city. Rafah has been a target of Israeli air strikes for months as part of the country's retaliatory attack on Gaza over the deadly Hamas attacks on 7 October, but the city had yet to see a ground offensive. Last week, the Israeli government said its forces had started "targeted activity" in eastern Rafah, telling thousands of Palestinians in the area to evacuate. As Israeli tanks reportedly push deeper into Rafah, fighting has also been reported close to the European Hospital in southern Gaza. A UN vehicle was struck on Monday on its way to the facility, killing a member of staff and injuring another - both international workers. The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident.
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WORLD HEADLINES | - War in Ukraine: In a surprise visit to Kyiv, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reassured President Volodymyr Zelensky that military aid is "now on its way". Get the latest.
| | - Billboard collapse: At least 14 people have been killed in the Indian city of Mumbai, where an advertisement hoarding police say measured 70m by 50m (230ft by 164ft) fell onto houses and a petrol station.
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| Hope to save mountain chicken frog |  | Locals once considered the mountain chicken frog to be Dominica's unofficial national dish. Credit: Anselm Gibbs | An infectious disease has decimated the mountain chicken frog population in the Caribbean island of Dominica. Now, researchers believe that the critically endangered four-legged creature may have developed some type of resistance to the fungus. |
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| | | We set out to find one of the few surviving frogs in the wild, but were advised not to disclose the exact location to prevent poachers from targeting it. As we made our way through the pitch dark area, wildlife ecologist Jeanelle Brisbane alerted us to the distinct calling sound of a mountain chicken, prompting us to halt our trek and wait in silence, but we were unable to determine where the frog was located. As we continued along a river bank - after a couple of false alarms, seeing other frog species - there, on the other side of the river, sat a mountain chicken frog, illuminated only by the light from our headlamps. |
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BEYOND THE HEADLINES | A gruesome case of death and revenge |
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| |  | Anshu and Anshika Kesarwani had a lavish wedding in 2023. | India's crime data shows 35,493 brides were killed in India between 2017 and 2022 for bringing in insufficient dowry. But in the city of Prayagraj, police are dealing with a case unheard of: an alleged dowry death followed by a brawl between the two families that left the woman's in-laws dead. |
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SOMETHING DIFFERENT | Families on the move | A travel experiment takes parents on a four-month journey across the world. | |
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