Features

  PALORINYA / AP In the bushland of northern Uganda, a recently arrived refugee from South Sudan describes how soldiers detained and tortured him for two months back home for reading an article online. Tall and thin as a reed, dirt coating his tattered T-shirt and jeans, the young man is one of more than 100,000 people who have fled a ...

  Mexico City / AP The life’s work of Dona Queta is inconspicuous from the street, only the presence of a few flowers on the path in front of the white bars indicate there’s anything special behind them. But every day hundreds of people make the pilgrimage to the shrine, created by the 62-year-old to honour Santa Muerte in Mexico City’s ...

  Hanoi / DPA Pham Thi Minh Thinh, a 52-year-old Hanoi native, spent her early childhood amidst the backdrop of catastrophic American bombings against her home city. Born in 1965 at the onset of the US-Vietnam War, she clearly remembers hiding in underground shelters as explosions rocked the surface. “It was a very painful time because the bombs nearly killed ...

  KABUL / AP Raheem Rejaey was a drug addict for 17 years. He lived under bridges in Kabul or in the ruins of buildings. His clothes reeked. In his misery, he tried suicide several times, he said, once intentionally overdosing and lying unconscious in a street for two days, undiscovered. So he can feel the pain of other addicts ...

  LONDON / AP In a warehouse at London’s sprawling Heathrow Airport, a border officer pulls open a cardboard box he suspects contains contraband goods. Bingo — his instincts are rewarded. The box is packed with beige and black sneakers that to the untrained eye look identical to the limited edition Adidas Yeezy Boost, designed by rap star Kanye West, ...

  Sydney / DPA The Republic of Kiribati, a tiny archipelago nation in the Pacific Ocean, is of one of the poorest countries in the world – and it’s fighting for survival. The over 30 coral atolls and islands that make up the country face an existential threat, with scientists predicting that it could be one of the first low-lying ...

  AGUADILLA / AP The sun had just risen along Puerto Rico’s northwest coast when Paul Schmidt hopped off his surfboard and emerged from the water at Wilderness Beach, ending another session at a remote area that draws surfers from around the world looking for the next big wave. That day, he and only about 20 fellow surfers shared waves ...

  Frankfurt / DPA Russian tsars and Polish princes once hunted in the forest of Bialowieza, which stretches over a huge area now divided by the Poland-Belarus border. This primeval forest, prized for the variety of its wildlife, came to the attention of nature conservationists in the 20th century. In 1979 the national park on the Polish side of the ...

  LOS ANGELES / AP Like prom for movie stars, the Academy Awards is Hollywood’s most glamorous night. It’s also the most photographed celebrity event of the year, its starry images beamed instantly around the world and endlessly reproduced in fashion magazines. That’s why it takes about a month and a team of specialists to get an A-list actress red-carpet ...

  Edinburgh/Munich / DPA Dolly is looking a bit bemused at the visitors arriving these days at the Royal Museum in Edinburgh. It was 20 years ago – February 23, 1997 – that reports surfaced about the birth of an extremely exceptional lamb. Dolly – named after the country and western singer Dolly Parton – is now a stuffed specimen, ...