Young wildlife vet Constantinos Antoniou, known in his country and among animal lovers as the "Birdman of Cyprus", passionately takes care of hundreds of wounded or sick wild birds every year before releasing them back to their natural habitat.

The Taliban have seized major cities in Afghanistan as they race to take full control of the country, inching closer to Kabul. Meanwhile, the United States and Britain are deploying thousands of troops to evacuate their citizens from the capital. The conflict has escalated dramatically since May, when US-led forces began the final stage of their troop withdrawal. Ahead of the end of the NATO and US military mission on August 31, AFP spoke to war veterans about their time in Afghanistan.

Facilities to encourage visitors to avoid the use of single use plastics are installed by several NGOs and the municipality at the Ayia Triada beach in Paralimni. The beach is now equipped with a water station for cold, filtered and free water. It includes an area for smokers and signs with information on how the visitors can become part of the solution, not the problem are also found at selected points.

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus is now the European country that receives the most asylum seekers relative to its population. In 2020, this nation of 875,000 registered 7,000 applications for asylum. With borders on the Balkan route largely closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and migration policies tightening, Cyprus now finds itself on the frontline. More and more migrants from Syria, Lebanon and sub-Saharan Africa are taking great risks to get to the island in the hope of reaching Europe.

The United States has completed its evacuation mission, allowing the Taliban to take full control of Kabul airport. The departure comes almost exactly 20 years after the US and allied troops invaded Afghanistan.

Fans of ABBA in Stockholm outside a museum dedicated to the group say they are thrilled after the Swedish superstars announced a musical comeback with a new album and a London show featuring their performances captured by digital avatars.

North Korea escapee Hiroko Saito says she and 97,000 others were deceived into relocating to the North in the 1960s with promises of "paradise on Earth." Instead, she suffered starvation, repression and loss.

Priests in Cyprus bless pets and their owners as they mark World Animal Day, an international day of action for animal rights and welfare celebrated annually on October 4.

Between 1991 and 2002, the small West African nation of Sierra Leone was ravaged by a decade of war, which left between 50,000 and 200,000 people dead. The conflict was also marked by rapes, mutilations and the forced use of child soldiers in both the rebel and regular armies. Twenty years on, the country is still trying to recover from the civil war, one of Africa's most brutal. Sierra Leone remains deeply divided and plagued by corruption. And despite its many riches, it is one of the poorest countries in the world.

Anti-government protests have broken out in Cuba, with thousands of people voicing their anger over shortages of food and other basic goods. The country is grappling with the worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union and a record number of COVID-19 cases.

A young couple from Cameroon has been stuck on the narrow border strip of the island of Cyprus for months. Their destination was the EU, but Cyprus wants to prevent any new escape route from forming and refuses to bend.

The new year began in Kazakhstan with the government lifting its price cap on fuel, virtually doubling the cost for people to fill up their cars. Protests spread across the nation of 19 million inhabitants and soon transformed into violent unrest and a bloody crackdown. Over 100 people were killed and thousands were arrested. At the request of Kazakhstan's president, Russia sent paratroopers to help "stabilise" the country. We take a closer look at the former Soviet republic.