Days before the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, which anti-government protesters are planning to disrupt, the authorities are taking precautions in an attempt to stop them from succeeding. No more burning of bins in the dark of the night - the standard plastic containers are being replaced with metal ones. Read more....

Tiny hidden cameras, rigged cell phones wired into cash points... These are just some of the sophisticated devices used up by scammers to steal an unsuspecting victim's bank account details. As credit card users become increasingly aware of these hard-to-spot frauds, bloggers are taking to the Internet to alert others of the hidden dangers when at the cash point. Read more...

Numerous Web users in Pakistan reported problems in trying to access YouTube on Sunday evening. When the website returned an hour later, one video had mysteriously disappeared - a clip showing President Asif Ali Zardari shouting "Shut up!" at a rally crowd. Read more and see the video...

Volunteer Kuwaiti divers have been busily cleaning up their country's polluted seabed for nearly a decade, but the debris they remove is not just an old shoe or tyre. Dozens of guns, canons and shells litter the crystal blue waters surrounding the island of Um al-Maradim. Read more...

Independence celebrations in DRC in 2009. Source: Radio Okapi on Flickr.

Twenty-seven African countries celebrate 50 years of independence this year. If you live in one of those countries and you, or someone close to you, witnessed that historic day, tell us your story on the FRANCE 24 Observers. Read more...

Electrocutions are becoming increasingly common in Kinshasa, where on rainy days, pedestrians risk their lives just crossing the street. The reason: electrical cables lie exposed on the ground. Read more...

Lacking support from both voters and politicians in Ukraine's 2010 presidential election, second-place candidate Yulia Tymoshenko has turned to the blue people of "Planet Pandora", ie, James Cameron's imagination, for support. Will the avatars win her the second round on Sunday? Read more and see the unlikely campaign clip...

UK police are hopeful in their search for a group of far-right hooligans who beat up a police officer at an anti-immigration protest in Stoke-on-Trent after an amateur video of the incident was posted on YouTube. Read more and see the clip...

Na Nachs" travel around Israel by truck with the aim of bringing joy and happiness to everyone they come cross... their method for spreading this joy is encouraging people to dance to "spiritual" techno music. And while they're at it, they also try to enlighten people about their particular brand of Judaism. Read more...

Costa Rica has long been regarded as one of the most politically and economically stable countries in Latin America, but its presidential elections this year seem to have run awry due to a heavy dose of negative campaigning. Voters have never seen a political campaign like it. Read more and watch the videos...

For two and a half years, under heavy blockade by Israel, Gazan flower-growers were forced to give away their produce as cattle feed. The crippling embargo – on flowers at least - has now been lifted. Read more...

On January 1, Bangladesh began cleaning one of the dirtiest rivers in the world, the Buriganga. But while the government congratulates itself on this initiative, the local residents continue... to pollute. Read more...

Farmers in the Andes are more than resourceful when it comes to mastering the mountain range's near-impossible terrain. To get from steep hill to steeper hill, they use "garruchas" or "tarabitas" - a prized form of transport in the mountainous regions of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, but not without its design faults. Read more...

Russia's westernmost city staged the biggest anti-Moscow protests in a decade on Sunday. But while similar demonstrations across the rest of the country saw the swift deployment of riot police, in the distant Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad Oblast, the authorities were left helpless in the face of an estimated 10,000 protestors. Read more...

Barack Obama has announced a trip to Indonesia, where he lived for four years as a child. But will he be welcomed with open arms? Just a week ago, a group of local Facebookers furious at the decision to erect a statue of Obama as a child in Jakarta filed a lawsuit against the local council for putting it up. Read more...