South Africa mourns death of rapper HHP

In the oldest soap factory in Marseille, French artist Frederique Nalbandian sculpts her latest work. Fabrics soaked in paste are taken directly from the oven and assembled into a body reminiscent of a Greek deity.

As Ivorian artist Aristide Kouame combs the beach dragging a trash bag of waterlogged flip-flops, he is aware other beachgoers in the commercial capital Abidjan think he is a desperate trader or a madman.

Music, spoken word and theatre are among the many artistic mediums that allow people from different backgrounds to connect. But spaces centering on the experiences of under-represented minorities can often be hard to come by, inspiring a variety of artists and activists hoping to change that. Among them is Irish-Nigerian artist Osaro Azams. She's the founder of the Fried Plantains Collective, which celebrates the voices of the LGBT and African communities in Dublin in a "cozy" and fun way. She joined us for Perspective.

South Africa's top court denies an application by Jacob Zuma to rescind his 15-month jail sentence. In a scathing rebuke, it accuses the former president of "litigious skullduggery". Also, virologists believe that a new treatment approved by the US FDA is a cure against Ebola. And more than 400 trucks sent by the UN to the Tigray region of Ethiopia have disappeared. The World Food Programme says that's having a direct impact on its humanitarian response in the area.

With just a knife, brush and pencil, 30-year-old Egyptian sculpture artist Ibrahim Belal is a master of his tools, creating miniature sculptures of the most prominent Pharaonic and Egyptian landmarks at his home in the city of Rashid, in the Beheira Governorate, some 300 kilometres south of Cairo. He dreams of creating one of the first first museum's of miniature sculptures in the Middle East.

Our guest is known for her classical paintings of beautiful Black women from another era. Not servants, or slaves, nor fetishized or exoticised, her opulent portraits are redefining the women of colour in art history. With her latest work, "Queenie, the godmother of Harlem", the French-born, New York-based artist Elizabeth Colomba continues to rediscover and represent Black people erased by history. The book retraces the life of Martinican Mafia boss Stéphanie St. Clair in 1930s Harlem.

A Kosovar artist creates a portrait of the outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel using some 100 kilogrammes of seeds.

The sculpture, named "Pillar of Shame," mourns those who were killed by Chinese troops at Tiananmen Square in 1989. It was installed at the University of Hong Kong in 1997, when the territory was handed back to China.

The ex-apartheid fighters locked the ministers in a hotel room after failed talks over a compensation deal. Police arrested a total of 56 people after the incident.

The ex-apartheid fighters locked the ministers in a hotel room after failed talks over a compensation deal. Police arrested a total of 56 people after the incident.

In a hot and stuffy room at her house in Hanoi, Tran Thanh Thuc holds up a delicate silk scarf and begins snipping it into tiny pieces, ready to paste onto her works of art. For four decades, Thuc has been recreating Vietnamese landscapes using vibrant shades of fabric cut from scarves, traditional ao dai -- or whatever material she could find during years of poverty in the 1980s.

Hailing from the Netherlands, artist Tessa Douwstra performs under the name Luwten, which means "a place without wind" in Dutch. Her music channels traditional indie songwriting through a kaleidoscope of modern pop and experimental R&B. She recently released her second LP entitled "Draft", which features 11 complex and well-crafted tracks. She tells FRANCE 24’s Florence Villeminot about wanting to writing about the transition from introspection to a more outward-focused life.