Showing 1 - 10 of 114
'Empowering': Ireland's first female sumo wrestler blazes a trail
AFP, Published on 01/02/2026
» BELFAST - Sweat darkened the white "dohyo" ring mat as Ireland's first female sumo wrestler shoved and strained, learning a freshly-discovered sport.
Upstart gangsters shake Japan's yakuza
AFP, Published on 19/12/2025
» TOKYO - When Takanori Kuzuoka began climbing the criminal career ladder, he didn't fancy joining Japan's old-school yakuza, with their tattoos, rigid hierarchy and codes of honour.
From hair weaves to dagger-toting refs: five sumo facts
AFP, Published on 26/11/2025
» TOKYO — Ukrainian sumo wrestler Danylo Yavhusishyn celebrated his promotion to the ancient Japanese sport's second-highest rank on Wednesday by holding aloft a large sea bream.
All-women marching band livens up Taiwanese funerals
AFP, Published on 13/03/2025
» CHANGHUA — At a funeral in rural Taiwan, musicians wearing pleated mini-skirts and go-go boots march around a coffin to the beat of the 1980s hit "I Hate Myself for Loving You".
India’s vast Hindu festival draws to an end
AFP, Published on 26/02/2025
» PRAYAGRAJ, India — The Kumbh Mela festival wraps up on Wednesday, with final ritual river bathing ceremonies ending six weeks of celebration that organisers say have been attended by hundreds of millions of devotees.
Unfazed devotees shrug off stampede at India mega-festival
AFP, Published on 30/01/2025
» PRAYAGRAJ (INDIA) - Swarming throngs of devotees bathed in rivers at the world's biggest religious gathering in India on Thursday, undeterred by a stampede a day earlier that killed at least 30 people.
India readies for mammoth Hindu festival of 400 million pilgrims
AFP, Published on 10/01/2025
» NEW DELHI — The world's largest gathering of humanity begins in India on Monday with the opening of the Kumbh Mela, a six-week Hindu festival organisers expect to attract up to 400 million pilgrims.
'Third way': Turkey's whirling dancers celebrate mystic Rumi
AFP, Published on 19/12/2023
» KONYA, Turkey - The skirts of whirling dervishes twirl in a symphony of disco colours celebrating mystic Sufi poet Rumi at a cultural centre in central Turkey's Konya.
The dangerous rise of 'medicalised' genital mutilation in Kenya
AFP, Published on 12/12/2023
» KISII (KENYA) - As Edinah Nyasuguta Omwenga fought for her life after developing complications during childbirth, she overheard doctors in the Kenyan hospital describe her condition as a textbook example of the damaging -- even deadly -- effects of genital mutilation.
Indonesian dancers keep the beat for ancient drag tradition
AFP, Published on 17/10/2023
» JAKARTA - Indonesian dancer Rianto moves gracefully in front of a crowd of thousands in the capital Jakarta, whipping his orange sash and in full make-up as he performs a centuries-old folk dance frowned upon by conservatives.