NIGERIA – Back in January, Ms Loven found the boy after he spent eight months fending for himself and living off scraps. She bent down and gently began feeding him and giving him water from a bottle. She then wrapped up the disorientated toddler in a blanket and took him to the nearest hospital for treatment. When Hope reached the hospital, he was given medication to remove the worms from his stomach and daily blood transfusions to incorporate more red blood cells into his body, Ms Loven said. And two days after the aid worker asked for the community’s help with Hope’s costly medical bills, she received $1million in donations from around the world. Just eight weeks later, Hope is unrecognizable. He has gained weight and has been pictured smiling and playing with other children. (Daily Mail)…[+]

GERMANY – Players from a German football club have digitally altered their squad photo to make them appear to ‘black up’ as a show of solidarity to two team-mates who were racially abused.

Deinster SV, who play in the Kreisliga and are located in the Lower Saxony region, posted the picture on their official Facebook page in a demonstration against those who were accused of racially abusing two of their players, both of whom are Sudanese refugees. The caption alongside the picture read: “Violence against refugees is pathetic. Emad and Amar, you are one of us just like everyone else and we’re happy you are with us. Deinster head coach, Soenke Kreibich, claimed that the two players were verbally and physically abused during an Easter fete in the town centre, in which Emad was pushed to the ground and beaten. “We wanted to make a stand, amongst ourselves but also to the public,” Kreibich told Jetzt website.(The Independent UK)…[+]

FRANCE – A violent explosion has rocked the centre of Paris yesterday, destroying part of a building and sending smoke rising over the French capital. The cause of the explosion was unclear but witnesses suggested a gas leak may have been the cause. Residents living near the site of the blast in the 6th arrondissement were evacuated. Photos of the scene showed firefighters scaling ladders to fight a blaze on the upper floors of a historic apartment block, with wood, debris and shattered glass littering the street.

Emergency services had been called to a fire in a ground floor apartment on Rue de Berite before the blast at around 12.20pm local time, Le Parisien reported. “Firefighters were there for an hour-and-a-half trying to extinguish a fire on the ground floor, when a huge explosion shook the whole neighborhood,” a resident told the newspaper. “It’s terrible, I saw several firefighters taken away on stretchers.”

(The Independent UK)…[+]