Behind the image

AFP Photo/Behrouz Mehri
Photo diary: a sister battles breast cancer
Between February and April, photographer Behrouz Mehri from AFP’s Tehran bureau documented his sister’s battle against terminal breast cancer. “My goal was to document the extraordinary hardships this disease inflicts on both patient and family,” he told bureau chief Cyril Julien, who explains here the story behind the pictures. Fair warning: some of the images show painful and personal moments.
Above the fold
Fast & Furious in Hong Kong
Friday 24 May 2013 - Eye witness
It took a lot of networking and a bit of luck, but AFP correspondent Preeti Jha angled a passenger-seat view of real-life ‘Fast & Furious’-style street racing in Hong Kong. Buckle up, and join her for the ride.
A new life for baby Roona
Thursday 16 May 2013 - Eye witness
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).
Cannes: Game of Badges
Tuesday 14 May 2013 - Debriefing
Journalists do a lot of waiting in Cannes. Until we rush frantically like someone trying to catch the last train to Salvation. Then we wait some more. And that’s the way it is during the world’s most glam film festival: bouts of downtime punctuated by adrenaline-pumping excitement of the highest caliber. Anne Chaon, AFP's cinema correspondent until earlier this year, looks back on what it's like to cover Cannes.
Class war in Spain's puppet theatres
Monday 6 May 2013 - Eye witness
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.
Syria: deadly for journalists too
Thursday 2 May 2013 - Decoding
Gathering news in Syria has become a dangerous, and sometimes deadly, assignment, whether for foreign correspondents, Syrian reporters or a growing legion of 'citizen journalists' who relay what they witness via Facebook and Twitter. AFP has recently tightened its rules for fielding reports from Syria, part of an effort to avoid undue risk. (AFP Photo/HO/Youtube)
Short stuff
1981: Francois Hollande strides towards his future
Friday 8 June 2012 - Short Stuff
A picture taken on May 26, 1981 shows French President-elect François Hollande, then a public servant at the "Cour des Comptes", a quasi-judicial body of the French government charged with conducting financial and legislative audits of public institutions. On May 6 Hollande was elected France's first Socialist president in nearly two decades, promising change in Europe after dealing a defeat to incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. In the photo, Holland is seen crossing the street in front of the headquarters of Agence France Presse. (AFP Photo/Michel Clement)
US reporter who broke WWII embargo gets apology
Friday 4 May 2012 - Short Stuff
A US war correspondent fired from his job for breaking a military embargo and scooping the world on the German surrender in World War II finally got an apology Friday, 67 years after the fact. The Associated Press offered the mea culpa to reporter Edward Kennedy, who defied military censors and filed a dispatch May 7, 1945 on the surrender ending the war in Europe.
WWII codes, on Twitter, thwart French election law
Monday 23 April 2012 - Short Stuff
To get around a tough French law banning the broadcast on any public media of election results before the closing of voting urns, people on Twitter resorted to coded language -- such as used during broadcasts from London during World War II on “Radio Londres” – to transmit exit poll figures from the first round of presidential elections on Sunday. AFP's Charles Onians explains. (AFP PHOTO/BBC)
