It has nothing to do with sex" insisted Udo Schumacher 64 as he stood stark naked on a beautiful but bracing beach in Prerow in what was once Communist East Germany.

Larita Delacruz sits on the concrete base of a bridge pylon rubs her swollen belly and explains her predicament: she is five months pregnant with twins and wants to go home to give birth.

On Thursday Somalia's main Sufi movement Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa wrapped up an unprecedented conference in Nairobi to strategise its response to the rise and radicalisation of the Shebab group.

How did simple fun on a feast day fall to a taste for tat?

Reckoned to be Iraq's top expert on cement Anis Amjad does the rounds of factories during the week but nothing can stop him conducting the stamp auction in old Baghdad every Saturday.

Fashion week in Karachi will showcase 32 local designers over the fourday event though security fears have kept foreign models and designers away.

The sign hung at 12 rue Chabanais in the days when the building housed the most prestigious of Paris's infamous bordellos read 'Welcome to the Chabanais: The House of All Nations'.

After attacking the Afghan leader Hamid Karzai for months Barack Obama's administration faces the awkward task of finding a way to help boost his credibility.

Indonesia's new government has been badly shaken by a corruption scandal that has exposed fundamental flaws in its commitment to fight graft and damaged investor confidence.

Rocky' an interpreter has the combat record and desert camouflage gear of a US marine having already survived eight bomb attacks while on patrol in rural southwest Afghanistan.

Natalya Lepyoshkina smiled as she fed her threeweekold 'children' a meal of warm cow's blood rinsed them off with water and poured them into an array of glass jars.

Air raids may no longer target the highlands of central Sudan but heads still turn sharply to scan the skies at the sound of an aeroplane engine overhead.

Expat's Majorcan Pearls blogger Anna Nicholas has tried but can't see la corrida as anything other than an outmoded and voyeristic bloodsport.

Pensioners are losing out on millions in income because they are not aware of the retirement income options available.

Pensioners living in Europe have lost around €5.5 billion £4.9 billion in two years thanks to the strength of the euro against sterling.

November's Expat Bookclub presents a charming book about Greece introduced here by its author. Enjoy.

I have heard Africa described as the continent of abundant life and speedy death. Like many around the world who love Zimbabwe I am waiting for a resurrection.'

A gallery of National Trust properties in all their seasonal beauty.

Deepashree Joshi a Nepalese housewife says she used to queue for hours to have her fortune told. Now she only has to call her favourite television astrologer to discover what the future has in store.

Conical chimneys rise from the plain to the east of Kabul a light wind sending their thick black smoke at right angles into a deep blue sky like fat fingers smudging ink across paper.