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Who are the Oromo Liberation Army?

A meeting with the secretive Ethiopian armed group at a desert training camp.

As rebel TPLF forces advance towards the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, other armed groups say they are forming an alliance with them. These include the secretive Oromo Liberation Army, which first appeared in the 1970s. The 麻豆社's Africa correspondent Catherine Byaruhanga was the first international journalist to meet them, at a desert training camp.

The dispute over Scythian gold
When Russian forces seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a unique collection of Scythian treasures from museums in Kyiv and Crimea was being exhibited in Amsterdam. Last week, a Dutch court ruled that the objects were part of Ukraine鈥檚 cultural heritage and must all return to Ukraine, not Crimea. The 麻豆社's Daria Taradai tells us what this Scythian heritage means to Ukrainians.

The banana jokes that stopped being funny
A social media craze in Turkey involving Syrian refugees filming themselves with bananas quickly turned sour. What began as a joke has inflamed tensions between Syrians and Turks, and led to the arrest and threatened deportation of some of those taking part. Dima Babilie of 麻豆社 Arabic has been investigating.

Pakistan's Taliban problem
When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, neighbouring Pakistan experienced a rise in extremist Islamist activity in its tribal border areas. Violence and extortion have become commonplace, as 麻豆社 Urdu鈥檚 Abid Hussain discovered when he visited Orakzai and Bajaur districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

Climate change and the threat to Thailand's durians
With COP26 in full swing, the 麻豆社's language services have been looking at the impact of climate change in their own regions. 麻豆社 Thai picked an item close to their hearts - the famously pungent durian fruit. Changing weather patterns are now interfering with the growing season, as Thanyaporn Buathong explains.

Image: A member of the Oromo Liberation Army
Credit: 麻豆社

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