AFP In Russia, elderly women are usually expected to forget about fashion and watch their grandchildren. Not 71-year-old Olga Kondrasheva, who is fighting stereotypes by modelling for a glossy magazine. “I’m over 70 now but my life is just beginning and it’s so interesting,” says Kondrasheva, slim and sporting wavy white hair, a few minutes before a studio photoshoot …

  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 …