Features

  Soure / DPA After only a minute, sergeant Vitelli Cassiano’s patrol comes to an abrupt stop. There’s nothing he can do but wait. A huge, black cowpat splatters onto the sandy red track. Once his Asian water buffalo has relieved itself, however, it immediately returns to duty. For the last 23 years, the Brazilian policeman has been a proud ...

  Stade / DPA When David Betker left the army, he wondered what to do next. The corporal had spent eight years in the German military, including time in Kabul, Afghanistan. Then he came across a newspaper article about training as a butler in England. That might sound like a drastic change of career, but as Betker, 29, says of ...

  Wittenberg / DPA You might have thought disposable cups were a modern invention, but in fact they’ve been around for hundreds of years – and back in the day they had a lot more style than today. Archaeologists at Wittenberg Castle in eastern Germany found layers of broken cups at a recent dig, which they believe were simply thrown ...

  Dusseldorf / DPA An empty, dimly lit railway station somewhere out in the suburbs, in the middle of the night. Safe or not? “It’s a classic example of a place that can make people feel anxious,” says Udo Diederich, who spent 41 years in the German police. Despite being retired he’s still keen to help people. The 61-year-old is ...

  New York / DPA Tourists Rob and Mary Ann Gorlin are delighted. Ignoring the many attractions that New York City is famous for, they have come early to 72nd Street Station, the newly opened subway station on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “It’s immaculate and beautiful inside,” says Mary Ann, who hails from Detroit. After inspecting the new network diagram ...

  Geneva / DPA For more than 60 years, scientists from all over the world have been coming to CERN, the high-tech laboratory that straddles the Franco-Swiss border. You might not know this, but studious CERN is also a kind of playground for brainy people who work hard and play hard. The fun side makes it easier for particle physicists ...

  Wellington / DPA New Zealand’s alpine parrots live life at full throttle, perching on car roofs as they surf down mountain highways, hanging out at ski-field cafes and vandalizing cars just for fun. But the same keen intelligence that has enabled the kea to survive in the extreme environment of the Southern Alps is placing them in danger. Many ...

  Jungingen / DPA Low-stress cattle consultant Phillip Wenz doesn’t care for the label “cow whisperer.” “That would imply that I whisper,” he says. In fact, Wenz, 47, communicates with cows by entirely silent means, walking beside them very calmly, his mouth shut, hands in his pockets. “Fidgeting around makes the animals nervous,” he says. Wenz is an expert in ...

  Frankfurt / DPA It’s too soon to sound the all clear, but international conservation organizations have recorded a modest rise in the number of mountain gorillas in the volcanic mountains of central Africa. Estimates put the number in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda at 800. This means that they are still highly endangered, but the population has risen from just ...

  Cologne / DPA Dietmar is one of the bestsellers today. The youths listen spellbound as he tells them how 35 years ago he robbed a bank — because he needed money so he could marry his girlfriend. He almost got away with it, escaping for a whole year before he was arrested, charged and sentenced to four years in ...