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Cervical cancer is the most common cancer among women in the southern African nation of Eswatini, while globally it's the fourth most common. Despite this, a vaccination program in Eswatini that aims to prevent cervical cancer is meeting resistance. Nokukhanya Musi reports from Manzini, Eswatini.

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THE Hague, Netherlands — Polls opened in the Netherlands on Thursday to kick off four days of voting in European Union parliamentary elections across the 27 member states that are expected to deliver gains for the hard right. Geert Wilders, of the far-right Party for Freedom, or PVV, was among the first senior politicians to cast his ballot. Having sent shockwaves around Europe six months ago by becoming the biggest party in the Dutch national parliament, he now wants to build on that popularity and set the tone for much of the bloc, with calls to claw powers back to national capitals and away from the EU so member states have more autonomy on issues such as migration. Paradoxically, like many hard right parties across the bloc, he wants to get more powers in the European parliament, so he can weaken the EU institutions from within. “You also need to have a strong presence in the European Parliament and make sure that, if necessary, we will be able to change the European guidelines in order to be in charge of our own immigration policy and asylum policy,” Wilders said after voting in The Hague. That is why he was immediately calling for a broad alliance of hard right parties to break up the traditional coalition of Christian Democrats, Socialists, pro-business Liberals and Greens. “Making a larger group in the European Parliament," Wilders said, ”that gives us power to change all those European regulations in order to be more in charge of it ourselves — here in the national parliaments."   Wilders, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French opposition leader Marine Le Pen stand in stark contrast to much of the left and many center parties, which call for a more united European approach on anything from climate change measures to defense, arguing individual nations only have a weak voice on the global stage. “It is important that the European Union is a good and strong partner,” said Gerard Kroon, a 66-year-old who works for the Hague municipality and voted in city hall for pro-Europe party Volt. “We have to get things done all together. Not only in Europe but in the Netherlands too." Since the last EU elections five years ago, populist, far-right and extremist parties now lead governments in three EU nations, are part of governing coalitions in several others, and appear to have surging public support across the continent. The EU elections are the world’s second-biggest exercise in democracy behind the election in India, and the stakes are high. Almost 400 million voters will be electing 720 members of the European Parliament from beyond the Arctic circle to the edges of Africa and Asia. The results will have an impact on issues ranging from global climate policies and defense to migration and geopolitical relations with China and the United States. There was some early voting in some countries, but the Netherlands is the only EU country to start its single-day vote so early, followed by Ireland and the Czech Republic on Friday and the rest of the EU nations over the weekend. Europe-wide results will be announced Sunday night after all member states have completed voting. Since the last European elections in 2019, war has broken out on the fringe of the bloc following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a country that desperately wants to join the EU. A founding member, the Netherlands was long unwavering in its support of EU policies. Research from the Clingendael think tank, though, suggests dissatisfaction with the EU among Dutch people, and that while most believe that the Netherlands should remain in the bloc, many also believe it should be more self-sufficient. While many voters are predicted to lurch to the right, the Christian Democrat-dominated European People’s Party, led by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, is currently the EU legislature’s biggest bloc and is bound to be the coalition kingmaker when the dust settles on the election results. In the Netherlands, Wilders’ PVV could build on its domestic success and surge, possibly overtaking the combined Labor Party and Green Left. Labor topped the Dutch EU Parliament election in 2019 with 19% of the vote for six seats while the Greens took 11% and three seats. Wilders’ party at the time only managed 3.5% and no seats. Wilders and one of his likely coalition partners, the Farmer Citizen Movement, are popular among farmers in the Netherlands who have staged regular protests to call for an easing of EU legislation they say is crippling their livelihoods. Wilders has in the past called for the Netherlands to leave the EU as Britain did, but his party’s manifesto for the election starting Thursday makes no mention of a so-called Nexit. Instead, it urges voters to back the PVV so it can change the EU from within, similar to plans of many other hard right parties across the bloc. The number of members elected in each country depends on the size of the population, ranging from six for Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus to 96 for Germany. In 2019, Europeans elected 751 lawmakers. Following the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU in 2020, the number of MEPs fell to 705. Some of the 73 seats previously held by British MEPs were redistributed to other member states. The lawmakers, known as Members of the European Parliament, or MEPs, can vote on a wide range of legislation covering banking rules, climate, agriculture, fisheries, security and justice. They also vote on the EU budget, which is crucial to the implementation of European policies, including, for instance, the aid delivered to Ukraine. After the election, MEPs will elect their president at the first plenary session, from July 16-19. Then, most likely in September, they will nominate the president of the European Commission, following a proposal made by the member states. In 2019, von der Leyen narrowly won a vote to become the first woman to head the institution. She is seeking a second term. 

Port Sudan — A Sudanese pro-democracy activists' committee has reported "up to 100" dead in a single day in a village attacked by paramilitary forces, as the United Nations warned Thursday of mass displacement and starvation. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been at war with the regular army since April 2023, on Wednesday attacked the central village of Wad al-Noura in al-Jazira state "in two waves" with heavy artillery, the Madani Resistance Committee said. The committee said on Wednesday that the feared paramilitaries "invaded the village," causing widespread displacement and dozens of casualties. "Up to 100 people were killed," said the committee, one of hundreds of similar grassroots groups across Sudan, adding that they were "waiting for a confirmed toll of the dead and injured." On social media, the committee shared footage of what they said was a "mass grave" in the public square, showing rows of white shrouds laid out in a courtyard. In a little over a year, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, including up to 15,000 in a single West Darfur town. The war's overall death toll, however, remains unclear, with some estimates of up to 150,000, according to US special envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello. The RSF has repeatedly besieged and attacked entire villages across the country, and has been notorious for widespread looting as well as sexual and ethnic violence. In a statement late Wednesday, the RSF said it had attacked three army camps in the Wad al-Noura area, and clashed with its enemy "outside the city." Both the army and the RSF have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilians, indiscriminately shelling residential areas and looting or obstructing humanitarian aid. 'Looming famine' The U.N. migration agency warned Thursday that internal displacement figures in Sudan could "top 10 million" within days. Since the war began, over seven million people have fled their homes for other parts of Sudan, adding to 2.8 million already displaced from previous conflicts in the war-torn country of 48 million inhabitants. "The world's worst internal displacement crisis continues to escalate, with looming famine and disease adding to the havoc wrought by conflict," the International Organization for Migration said in a statement. Across Sudan, 70 percent of those displaced "are now trying to survive in places that are at risk of famine," it added. The U.N. says 18 million people are acutely hungry, with 3.6 million children acutely malnourished. Widespread hunger has haunted Sudan for months, while aid agencies say a lack of data has prevented the official declaration of a famine. If the current humanitarian situation continues, 2.5 million people could die of hunger by the end of September, according to recent estimates by the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch think tank. That figure is "about 15 percent of the population in Darfur and Kordofan," the country's vast western and southern regions which have seen some of the worst fighting, the institute said. The U.N. has accused both sides of "systematic obstructions and deliberate denials" of humanitarian access.

NEW DELHI — At least nine Indian trekkers died in the Himalayas after getting trapped during a blizzard, authorities said on Thursday, as rescue teams airlifted their bodies and five survivors to safety.   The Indian Air Force shared footage on Thursday that showed rescue teams working near a helicopter in the snow-covered mountains.   The group of climbers from the southern state of Karnataka were hit by heavy snowfall in the remote mountains of Uttarakhand state in north India, said Krishna Byre Gowda, a top Karnataka minister.   "Snow intensified into blizzard. By 6 PM, 2 trekkers succumbed to bad weather. Snow and wind made movement impossible. Visibility dropped to nil. They huddled together for the night on the route. Some more succumbed in the night," Gowda wrote in a social media post on Wednesday.   A guide with the group alerted rescuers about the situation on Tuesday evening after trekking for a while to find mobile network connectivity, and teams reached the spot early on Wednesday, the minister added.

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Johannesburg, South Africa — South Africa's ruling ANC party was holding internal talks on Thursday to decide how to form a government, after it failed to win an outright majority in last week's general election.   President Cyril Ramaphosa's African National Congress won 40 percent of the vote — its lowest score ever — and for the first time since the advent of democracy in 1994 needs the backing of other parties.    "What are you doing here?" Ramaphosa quipped to reporters, as he arrived at a hotel on the outskirts of Johannesburg where the ANC's decision-making body was meeting. "Are you that worried?"   The party of late anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela is divided over who to share power with, analysts say.    It will have only 159 members in the 400-seat National Assembly, down from 230 in 2019.    On Wednesday, ANC spokeswoman Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said the top leadership favored forming a broad coalition for a government of national unity.   "We want to bring everybody on board because South Africans want us to work together for their sake," ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula told reporters on Thursday.    But observers say this might be hard to pull off given radical differences between some groups that should be part of it.     "I cannot... see how it can really work," analyst and author Susan Booysen told AFP.    "There is just so much bad blood and ill feeling between different political parties."     Among them are the center-right Democratic Alliance (DA), which won 87 seats with a liberal, free-market agenda, and the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which secured 39 lawmakers and supports land redistribution and the nationalization of key economic sectors.     Bhengu-Motsiri said the ANC was in discussions also with the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which will hold 17 seats, and the anti-immigration Patriotic Alliance (PA) that will have nine.    The ANC also "repeatedly" reached out to former president Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which won 14.6 percent of the vote and 58 seats, but received no response.    Zuma, a former ANC chief, has long been bitter about the way he was ousted under a cloud of corruption allegations in 2018.    The MK, which was only established late last year, has rejected the election results and said it would not back an ANC-led government if Ramaphosa remains at the helm.    But the president's party plans to keep him.    'Outcry' Analyst Daniel Silke said the ANC was likely floating the idea of a "broad church" government to appease some members before veering towards a narrower coalition if national unity talks failed.    Many within the party oppose a deal with the DA, which is favored by investors and the business community but has policies at odds with the ANC's left-wing traditions.    Reports suggesting the ANC was considering forming a minority government with external backing from the DA caused a "huge outcry", said Booysen.      Outside the hotel where the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) was meeting, a handful of protesters held signs reading "Not in our name. #NotwiththeDA."     The South African Communist Party, an historic ally of the ANC, also said it was against any arrangement with "the right-wing, DA-led anti-ANC neo-liberal forces."    Together the ANC and the DA hold a comfortable majority in parliament.    Any agreement with the EFF would instead require the support of at least another party.     The new parliament is to meet in less than two weeks and one of its first tasks will be to elect a president to form a new government. 

Omaha Beach, France — Western leaders Thursday on the beaches of northern France marked 80 years since the D-Day landings to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation, mindful of the over two-year war raging again in Europe after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. U.S. leader Joe Biden, King Charles III of the UK and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, representing the Allied powers, paid tribute to the immense sacrifices made by the tens of thousands of troops on the sandy beaches and cliffs of Normandy, often far from their homes, under intense German counter-fire. "We recall the lesson that comes to us, again and again, across the decades: free nations must stand together to oppose tyranny," King Charles III said at the British memorial at Ver-sur-Mer that overlooks Gold beach, one of the landing sites for British troops. "Let us pray such sacrifice need never be made again," he said. "Our gratitude is unfailing and our admiration eternal." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the world must continue to stand up for democracy. "Democracy is still under threat today. It is threatened by aggressors who want to redraw borders," he said at the Canadian ceremony in nearby Courseulles-Sur-Mer. "Our way of life did not happen by accident, and it won't continue without effort." 'Obligation to remember' With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joining the Western leaders in Normandy for an international ceremony, the events will provide a hugely symbolic backdrop to talks on how Ukraine can gain back ground after Russian advances. No Russian official has been invited, underlining Moscow's pariah status in the West after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 despite the decisive Soviet contribution to defeating Nazism in World War II. The most honored guests are surviving veterans. Around 200 are expected, a number that is dwindling every year with most at least in their late 90s and some older than 100. This may be the final major anniversary where they are present. British veteran Cecil Newton, who spoke to AFP at the British Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, said he was upset that so many young men were killed. "All those who were in action will always be with me, with us. I can see them now," Newton, 100, said. King Charles noted that veterans were becoming ever fewer in number but added: "Our obligation to remember them, what they stood for and what they achieved for us all can never diminish." French President Emmanuel Macron, attending the British ceremony, added: "Nobody here in France can forget your sacrifice." 'Shying away' Biden, born in 1942 during World War II, was expected to promote the United States as a defender of democracy and international alliances, contrasting himself against election rival Donald Trump during a state visit that will last until Sunday. He was meeting surviving American veterans one-by-one at the American memorial to its victims. Macron has already sought to break taboos by refusing to rule out sending troops to Ukraine, a position that unsettled some EU allies. But there have been shifts in recent weeks, with the West showing readiness to allow Ukraine to use Western-provided weapons to strike targets in Russia, and France pushing for the deployment of European military instructors in Ukraine. During a meeting with foreign news outlets in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday evening, Putin shrugged off the lack of an invitation for Russia, saying "let them celebrate without us." "They are shying away from inviting Russia, which is the legal successor of the Soviet Union, which has sustained such huge losses," he said, stressing that the Soviet Union lost around 27 million civilians and soldiers in World War II. The landings by Allied forces, backed by airborne operations that parachuted troops directly onto occupied soil, were the biggest naval operation ever in terms of the number of ships deployed and the troops involved. In an operation kept secret from the Germans, the Allies landed on five beaches spread across the Normandy coast: Omaha and Utah for the Americans, Gold and Sword for the British and Juno for the British and Canadians. By the end of what became known as "the longest day", 156,000 Allied troops with 20,000 vehicles had landed in Nazi-occupied northern France despite facing a hail of bullets, artillery and aircraft fire. The landings marked the beginning of the end of the Nazi occupation of Western Europe, though months of intense and bloody fighting still lay ahead before victory over the regime of Adolf Hitler.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.