Guns rule in America

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which 20 children and six teachers were killed in cold blood, has shaken the United States to the core. The December 14th massacre has reopened the debate on gun control, in a country where owning a weapon is an inalienable right. Supporters of gun ownership now want armed policemen in schools, but our reporters met critics who say the law has to change.

REPORTERS

IRAN

Iranians flocked en masse to celebrate thirty years since the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Shah's regime. But unlike their elders, some young Iranians seized on the occasion to go for a hike, taking their hookah pipe with them.

MADAGASCAR

From Ravalomanana to Rajoelina

FRANCE 24 reporters were able to follow Marc Ravalomanana's eventful last days as president of Madagascar and Andry Rajoelina's subsequent accession to power. The 34-year-old former DJ is now the youngest head of an African state.

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REPORTERS

Mexico's kidnapping nightmare

In 2008, a thousand people were kidnapped in Mexico according to official data, though the real figure is claimed to be at least three times more, and the phenomenon is increasing dramatically.

PIRACY

Hunting pirates with the French Navy off the Somali coast

The Victoria, a ship chartered by the World Food Programme, leaves the Kenyan port of Mombasa bound for Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, with French frigate Floreal in its wake.

REPORTERS

Economy, race at the heart of crippling social strife

While the economic situation provided the spark for the recent unrest in Guadeloupe and Martinique, racial tensions provided the fodder for the most serious strikes to have gripped the French Caribbean islands in 40 years.