AFP Features

DHAKA (AFP) - Every morning, Ahmed Shariar Sarwar makes it his daily ritual to call number 3000 on his mobile phone to get lessons in English -- his passport to a better life in impoverished Bangladesh. Full Story »

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - As Chim Phan gracefully leaps for the ball on the dusty Cambodian volleyball court, it's hard to believe the star athlete is missing his lower leg -- until you notice his tell-tale prosthetic limb. Full Story »

BUZAU, Romania (AFP) - In December 1989, the collapse of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's regime revealed the plight of thousands of malnourished orphans locked away in filthy, unheated institutions. Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Lesotho-born Thato was brought to South Africa at age three, by a woman she knew simply as "granny". Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Miss Gibraltar Kaiane Aldorino was crowned Miss World 2009 on Saturday, outshining 111 other hopefuls at a glittering ceremony with a distinctly African flavour. Full Story »

BERN (AFP) - Some 500 protesters gathered outside parliament in Bern on Saturday to condemn a Swiss ban on the building of new minarets, approved in a referendum last month. Full Story »

ALMATY (AFP) - In less than six months Kazakhstan's best known opposition newspaper has been sued for almost half a million dollars, had its presses raided and an entire print run seized by the tax police. Full Story »

JAKARTA (AFP) - From Aceh to Bali, Indonesians have donated a truckload of coins in support of a woman jailed for criticising health care provision in an email to friends. Full Story »