Features

  Vilcabamba / DPA Death among the middle-aged is a rare surprise in the Ecuadorian town of Vilcabamba. “She was just 43. Brain tumour. Very few die that young here,” muses William Benítez as the coffin containing Rosa Torres is borne down the street to the cemetery. Benítez is there to vend ice cream to the sweating pallbearers. “Actually, 100 ...

  Kaiserslautern / DPA When Professor Sabine Hoffmann invites you to sit down, there’s a surprise in store: the individualized office chairs she’s helping to develop can ventilate you from below. At the push of a button, their little built-in fans can blow air on the back or bottom. Men in particular like this feature, she says, as it helps ...

  Tokyo / DPA Visitors landing in Japan often take a while to realize what they haven’t brought enough of in their luggage: presents. Gift-giving plays a huge role in Japan throughout the year, not just at New Year. At weddings and funerals, on holidays or as part of business, presents in the world’s third biggest economy are a courtesy ...

  Worpswede / DPA When a child first announces they want to be an artist, the parents are often aghast – “Why don’t you learn a profession first?” they say. And their scepticism is justified. The vast majority of artists cannot earn a living income from art and most need a more prosaic second job. Even in Germany, where modest ...

  Mexico City / DPA Many people think of archaeologists as people who excavate dry earth at scorched sites, or dust off relics with small paintbrushes under piercing sunlight, perhaps donning hats in the style of Indiana Jones. This is not the case with Pilar Luna’s team. Their gear consists of air tanks, wetsuits, diving fins and dive tables for ...

  Frankfurt / DPA There was a time when postal services were about gathering heavy sacks full of letters, painstakingly sorting the mail manually and delivering letters on heavy-duty bicycles. Not any more – with everything from drones and self-driving cars coming up, postal services are rushing into a robotic future. In some nations, today’s sorting offices are dominated by ...

  DPA We are not alone. Fluffy, sharp-featured little creatures scamper inquisitively over the red sand towards us. The meerkats are awake. The sun shoots its fiery rays into the cold morning air, as we stand sleepily on the edge of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park in northern South Africa, near the border with Botswana. “Watch out for your ankles,” ...

  Bulawayo / AFP From jobless youths hired to dig wells to illegal sellers supplying water in buckets and large tanks, some enterprising Zimbabweans are cashing in on the country’s desperate water shortages. Zimbabwe’s long-standing water supply problems have been worsened by a severe drought ravaging the southern African region. Taps in large parts of the country run dry for ...

  Yakawlang / AFP “I make my money for me,” declares Afghan beekeeper Jamila pointing emphatically at her chest. Her small honey-making business provides not only an income, but a sense of pride. In the mountainous central province of Bamiyan, one of the country’s least developed but most liberal regions, beekeeping complements its only other commercial crop, potatoes, and gives ...

  Washington / DPA There’s a certain desk on the right-hand side of the US Senate where a drawers is always stuffed with sweets and chocolates for the taking. Whoever has a sweet tooth or a craving simply has to stop by the ‘Candy Desk,’ though unfortunately for the Democrats, it’s on the Republican side of the chamber. The tradition ...