Features

  Los Angeles / AFP Vegan diets are considered by most as healthy and environmentally responsible, with celebrity poster children touting benefits like weight loss, clear skin and increased energy. But even vegans — who eschew all animal products like meat, eggs and dairy — crave junk food. As the movement becomes more and more popular, temptations including donuts, pizza …

  Bloomberg As Japanese prepare to climb the mountains on Thursday for their inaugural Mountain Day holiday, retailers and tourism operators are gearing up for an $8 billion windfall. They’re counting on customers like school teacher Ayako Kobayashi. The 33-year-old spent more than $700 on a sleeping bag, mattress, backpack and trekking food to climb Mount Kita near Nagano last …

  Mainz / DPA Archaeologist Daniel Markovic ascends from the dig in this ancient city on the river Rhine sweaty and covered in dirt. “I’m completely exhausted after a whole day of hacking, shovelling and carrying,” he says at the end of one of the hottest days in Germany this summer. Markovic has been exposing an ancient wall for scientific …

  Mount Lavinia / AFP Tourists have flocked back to Sri Lanka’s palm-fringed beaches since a bloody civil war ended in 2009, but environmentalists warn unchecked development means some areas are now so polluted, swimming there is a health hazard. Sewage from thriving hotels and guesthouses pours, often untreated, out into the water polluting the sea and shore. Even the …

  Montevideo / AFP Alvaro Brusti had never worked in his life before he wound up behind bars for armed robbery. Now after five years inside, the 34-year-old is running his own company, in an unusual scheme at a Uruguayan jail. The Punta de Rieles prison east of the capital Montevideo looks like many other penitentiaries from the outside, with …

  Pantai Cahaya Bulan / AFP Shafie Jusoh loves traditional Malaysian kites so much that he can’t get a good night’s rest unless he’s been working on them daily. “I need to make kites everyday, if not I can’t sleep,” the 69-year-old said. He began making them when he was a young boy, skipping classes to entertain his flights of …

  Bremen / DPA At the age of 78, Roswitha Wahl can do the splits, swing herself onto the parallel bars with ease and do a handstand. Indeed, in the German senior gymnastics championships, the trained nurse regularly comes top in her age group and has “a whole sack of medals.” She started doing gymnastics as a small child and …

  Bloomberg Last week, Unesco designated 21 new World Heritage Sites. They join a group of 1,052 protected places around the world that are awarded status for their “outstanding universal value” from either a cultural or natural standpoint. These include such iconic spots as the Giza pyramids in Egypt and the entire city of Venice. Not all this year’s inductees …

  DPA If you’re a parent, you know the importance of having college and wedding funds. Now, if you want to be on the cutting edge of financial planning, you’ll also want to invest in a travel fund. “We’re looking at a generation of parents who have been lucky enough to travel themselves, and they want to have that for …

  DPA The air above the field is shimmering in the summer heat. Locusts are buzzing in the trees. Gina Meyers doesn’t seem to notice while, beads of sweat forming on her forehead, she scrapes together a small pile of stones on a metal table using her credit card. “I don’t really know what I am doing here,” says the …