Correspondent / behind the news

In April, AFP distributed heart-rending photographs of 15-month-old Roona Begum, her head so swollen due to an untreated condition that she couldn’t even sit up. Offers of help poured in, and within days a fund had been created and a top surgeon in New Delhi offered to take her on as a patient without charge. AFP followed Roona into surgery on Wednesday, and the results are very promising (AFP Photo/R. Schmidt).

Madrid-based correspondent Roland Lloyd Parry has discovered that Spain's unfolding social drama is also being acted out on a much smaller stage, that of Spain's ever-popular itinerant puppet theaters. Parry recently caught a performance in the capital's Retiro Park, and the show - along with the reaction of audiences young and old - clearly echo rising class tensions, he says.  

Former AFP editor Martin Bennitt has just completed two months training up young graduates in the basics of journalism in Bhutan, a country where the doyen of private-sector newspapers is less than a decade old (AFP Photo/David Owen).

AFP’s Tokyo bureau chief Jacques Lhuillery heads to the French ambassador’s home to meet famed Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, who is returning to the musical scene after a long absence to fight cancer. (AFP Photo/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

It happens all the time: a newspaper publishes a photo of a child living in hard-scrabble poverty who is stricken by a disfiguring, possibly life-threatening condition or injury. The image is heart-rending, and people around the world ask: “How can I help?” CORRESPONDENT editor Marlowe Hood looks at recent photos from the AFP archives that have made a difference. 

When victorious Seleka rebels went to a residence used mainly by the wife of recently deposed Central African Republic leader François Bozizé, they were probably hoping to find hidden jewels, perhaps some gold, reports AFP correspondent Patrick Fort. But what they discovered instead were two skeletons hidden in the garage under the parking place of a Hummer. (AFP Photo/Patrick Fort)

French President Francois Hollande is under fire for a tax-fraud scandal and a moribund economy, but there is at least one place he can turn to for steadfast support: Mali. AFP’s Stephane Jourdain finds a wave of pro-French fervor in the former French colony, where French troops are leading a military offensive against Islamist rebels who less than a year ago controlled half of the country. (AFP Photo/John MacDougall)

Confronted with a plate of freshly butchered meat in Ethiopia, AFP’s Thomas Watkins broke his three-decade run as a vegetarian. He explains what it was like to take a walk on the fleshier side of life. (AFP Photo/Jose Cendon)

"I walked down the stairs from the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel, mechanically singing 'We Love you Saddam,' the song having been seared into my mind by Iraqi state-run television."  It was April 9, 2003 and AFP correspondent Ezzedine Said was covering the US invasion of Iraq. Exactly ten years after the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Firdos Square, foreshadowing the imminent fall of Baghdad, Said, currently chief editor for the Middle East and North Africa, recalls that historic day. (AFP Photo/Ramzi Haidar)

Two years ago Agnes Dupont de Logonnes and her four children, aged 13 to 20, were killed – shots to the body and head -- and then buried on the family property in Nantes, western France. The quintuple murder, still unsolved, has haunted the country ever since. Correspondent Alexandra Turcat, who covered the story for AFP, looks back. (AFP Photo/Jean-Sebastien Evard)

The looter is dragged several meters by a rebel in the Central African Republic capital Bangui, his cries of pain drowned out by a cheering crowd. The message is clear: the Seleka rebels -- who seized control of the capital in a weekend assault that forced President Francois Bozize into exile -- want it known that looting will not be tolerated. AFP correspondent Patrick Fort and AFP photographer Sia Kambou report. (AFP Photo/Sia Kambou)

Infested with rats and beset with chronic violence, the Baumettes prison in the southern port city of Marseille leapt onto France’s front pages in December after a shocking government report -- complete with photos -- was made public. AFP correspondent Wafaa Essalhi and AFP photographer Anne-Christine Poujoulat got a first-hand view. (AFP Photo/Anne-Christine Poujoulat)

In looking at Iraq ten years later, AFP has focused on big questions, revisited key landmarks: What about Iraq's Christian population? Where are the thousands of people still missing? What prospects for a durable stability? What became of the Palestine Hotel, home to global media during the invasion? But Correspondent asked AFP reporters who covered the decade to pick one standout detail – positive or negative – that has stayed with them. (AFP Photo/Joseph Barrak)

Once a modest showcase for local bands – we’re in Austin, Texas – SXSW has morphed into a mega-, multi-mashup of movies, music and cutting-edge digitalia. Part I: hungry app developers by day, indie documentary geeks by night. Then the performers take over. Wall-to-wall madness + cheap beer. AFP lifestyle correspondent Robert MacPherson took it in and is still digesting. (J. Kempin/Getty Images for Myspace/AFP)

The writing was on the wall when Mexico City correspondent Laurent Thomet landed in Caracas a week before Venezuela’s long-time leader Hugo Chavez succumbed to cancer. The country, and the world media, were on a death watch. Thomet reports on the atmosphere, and explains why he watched so much TV. (AFP Photo / Juan Barreto)

AFP's Tokyo bureau chief has taken in more than his fair share of official state ceremonies after nearly three decades as a correspondent. But the commemoration in Japan of the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011 tsunami that took some 19,000 lives was in a category of its own, he reports. (AFP Photo/pool/Junji Kurokawa)

Black smoke = no decision. White smoke = new pope. But what does it mean if it’s grey? Philippe Sauvagnargues relives a ten-minute eternity of anguish when, as AFP's Rome bureau chief in 2005, he called the election of Pope Benedict XVI and no other news organizations followed suit. Did he get it wrong? Holy smoke. (AFP Photo)

Tay Garnett. The name may not ring a bell, but you've surely seen at least one of the dozens of movies he made during Hollywood's golden age. "The Postman Always Rings Twice", perhaps? During a five-decade career, Garnett worked with Dietrich, Harlow, Heywood, Monroe, Bogart, Gable, Taylor, Mitchum and dozens of other single-name stars. And as a swan song, he compiled testimonials from the 20th century's greatest directors in a book as remarkable for what's between the covers as its back-story. (Photo/Tiela Garnett)

Two years later, the extent of the devastation wrought by the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is still hard to fathom. On a recent visit to the plant, where thousands toil seven days a week to clean up the poisonous mess left behind by the March 11, 2011 tsunami, AFP correspondent Karyn Nishimura-Poupee was struck, above all, by the region's utter desolation. (AFP Photo/Issei Kato/pool)

For as long as anyone can remember, rape and sexual violence against women in India has been commonplace, under-reported and neglected by the police. A few brave souls have dared to point accusatory fingers at a culprit lording above them in the caste system, and they generally pay a terrible price. And then, in mid-December, the case of a young woman fatally gang-raped in New Delhi breaks some invisible barrier, releasing a torrent of outrage. AFP's correspondent Beatrice Le Bohec, based in Delhi since 2009, has followed the story up close. (AFP Photo/Sam Panthaky)