- Record-breaking Root, Brook both pass 200 as England pile up 658-3
- Football mourns Greek defender George Baldock's shock death at 31
- Uniqlo owner reports record annual earnings
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as markets track Wall St record
- Indonesia biomass drive threatens key forests: report
- Home is far away for Madagascar in AFCON qualifying
- Two months on, Donbas soldiers begin to question Kursk offensive
- Rugby Australia to counter-sue in dispute with Melbourne Rebels
- Mumbai mourns Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- Philippines challenges China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
- Mets advance on Lindor blast, Dodgers stay alive in MLB playoffs
- Injury-ravaged Krygios aiming to return at Australian Open
- Greek international Baldock, dead at 31: family
- EU talks deportation hubs to stem migration
- Deaths and repression sideline Suu Kyi's party ahead of Myanmar vote
- S. Africa offers a lesson on how not to shut down a coal plant
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Mets advance on Lindor grand slam, Yankees and Tigers win
- Taiwan President Lai vows to 'resist annexation' of island
- China's solar goes from supremacy to oversupply
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
- Zelensky on whirlwind tour of Europe ahead of US vote
- Youth facing unprecedented wave of violence, UN envoy warns
- 'A casino in every kitchen': Brazil's online gambling craze
- Nobel chemistry winner sees engineered proteins solving tough problems
- Lindor powers Mets past Phillies into NL Championship Series
- Wildlife populations plunge 73% since 1970: WWF
- 'Sleeper agent' bots on X fuel US election misinformation, study says
- Death toll rises to 109 after Haiti gang attack, official says
- Tigers beat Guardians and on brink of advancing in MLB playoffs
- Argentina MPs back Milei's veto of university funding
- Man City sink Barca in Women's Champions League as Bayern outgun Arsenal
- Greek international Baldock, 31, found dead in pool: state agency
- Florida seaside haven a ghost town as hurricane nears
- Pharrell Williams to co-chair Met Gala exploring Black dandyism
- Wall Street indices hit fresh records as Chinese shares tumble
- Taiwan's president to deliver key speech for National Day
- Sea row on the menu as ASEAN leaders meet China's Li
- Injured Kane won't start England's Nations League clash with Greece
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Mozambique starts tallying votes in tense election
- Zelensky moves to court European leaders in drive for military aid
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- Rodgers rejects 'false' suggestions of role in Saleh dismissal
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Lebanon facing 'catastrophic' situation as 600,000 displaced: UN
Senior Czechs refine Wikipedia as retirement hobby
A frail 80-year-old retiree does not fit everyone's idea of a tech-savvy Wikipedia writer, but Jirina Kadnerova is a devoted contributor to the online encyclopedia.
On a sunny Sunday morning, Kadnerova, a former librarian and bibliographer, snaps away with her cell phone in the village of Sobehrdy south of Prague.
She is gathering material on a local Protestant church for her next article, scuttering around the building with a curious look and talking to locals leaving a morning mass.
That's quite a difference from the average Czech Wikipedia contributor, whom Klara Joklova, chief executive at the Czech unit of the Wikimedia Foundation, describes as "a man aged 15-35 with a tech background" -- exactly what Jirina Kadnerova is not.
Kadnerova has been writing articles for the open-source encyclopedia since taking a course training elderly people under the "Seniors Write Wikipedia" project, a Czech initiative launched in 2013.
"Of course I used Wikipedia for many years, because librarians work with it, but I never thought I would like to contribute," she told AFP.
After retiring as the head of a scientific library, Kadnerova never became a typical pensioner -- a label she insists she hates.
Instead, she started attending university courses, took a bibliographer's job at the Czech Academy of Sciences and does occasional stints as a tourist guide.
Seven years ago, her grandson suggested she might contribute to Wikipedia.
"He said I had a decent expertise, that I can formulate pretty well, that I have written a few things and above all that I can find my way in databases and catalogues."
- 'A promising group' -
Her first entry focused on a Gothic church in the small southern town where she is a tourist guide, one of around 100 articles focused mostly on historic sites that she has published since.
She has also edited more than 1,500 existing articles, often adding information about libraries in the region around her home city of Prague.
The Czech Wikipedia has over half a million entries and registers about 600 regular and thousands of occasional contributors -- comprising an ever-growing group of Czech seniors.
Leading a workshop at a senior centre in Prague, university student Jan Mysak said elderly contributors were "a promising group".
"They have the time in the first place," he told AFP after guiding Jirina Kadnerova through the tricks of inserting an infobox in an article.
"But they also have the life experience and they know what they want to write about," he added.
So far, around 700 have passed the free courses for seniors, according to the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation managing the encyclopedia.
Wikipedia attracts over a billion users each month, offering more than 62 million articles in over 300 languages.
- 'Lay my hands on it' -
A passionate tourist, Kadnerova relishes the opportunity to travel out of Prague and learn new things.
"When I write about something, I want to lay my hands on it," Kadnerova added in her elegant Czech.
She has recently recruited a friend -- another retired head librarian -- to write for Wikipedia and share the passion.
"I'm happy when I can take a look at a piece of history and find out someone has praised the entry or even added something. That's what makes me happy," Kadnerova said.
"A friend of mine once told me I wasn't doing enough for mankind. So I finally am."
F.Schneider--AMWN