AFP Video - Lifestyle & Leisure

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It's all in the family. Snake hunting. For generations the Mawjouds have been plying their dangerous trade in a town near Cairo. The job allows local labs to manufacture antidotes to snake venom and save hundreds of lives.

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Monaco will soon be getting bigger. Whether the sea extension planned by the principality takes the form of a cape or of a peninsula remains to be decided. And price could be as important a factor as quality.

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With Kenya's energy supply capacity dangerously close to its limit, the country is embracing geothermal energy - a green alternative to fossil fuel and which is allow the East African nation to preserve its rich environmental heritage.

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Poland, a traditional and renowned vodka producer, is now turning to wine-making following a change in its law facilitating the move.

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A battle-scarred building in the centre of Beirut - once a shelter for snipers during the bloody civil war - is to be saved and turned into a memorial for future generations.

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A look back on a week in which some of the world's top designers flaunted next season's styles in the French capital.

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Traditionally a nation of whisky drinkers, India is increasingly turning to wine. Breaking with taboo on consuming alcohol in public, young Indian women are fuelling the demand.

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Every year young Druze women from the Israel-occupied part of the Golan Heights marry young men from the Syrian side. Once they cross the divide, they can never go back.

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The Muslim festival of Eid, which ends the month of Ramadan, lasts for three days. But before it kicks off, Cairo is taken over by feverish shopping as Muslims stock up on food and gifts for the festival.

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Visitors are continuing to arrive in Egypt in spite of the recent kidnapping of a group of tourists in the lawless southwestern desert region.

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The New York Times has elected Istanbul as the gastronomy capital of 2008. Over the last year an array of restaurants have sprung up all over the Turkish city, such as Mikla, the popular restaurant run by Swedish Turk Mehmet Gurs.

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Like Venice and New York, Istanbul has discovered the delights of water taxis, which allow commuters in this metropolis of 13 million to beat the traffic across the Bosporus.

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Until the 1990's, Tarragona in Spanish Catalonia produced only mediocre wines but now it's competing with the likes of Rioja on the international stage. That's partly down to the commitment of the local winemakers - among them Spanish singer Joan Manuel Serrat.

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They¿re colourful, controversial and a bit cheesy, but Indian soap operas are wildly popular among viewers in Afghanistan. Yet their tales of forbidden love and family feuds are raising conservative eyebrows, with many in the government and religious leadership calling for the shows to be banned.

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Sturgeon, the fish that produces caviar eggs, are an endangered species in their native Caspian Sea but lovers of the delicacy need not fear: Israel is coming to the rescue. At the Kibbutz Dan, caviar production is now a multi-million dollar business.

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A television channel broadcasting a steady stream of music videos in the Middle East. At first sight, nothing new, but this channel will be the first channel to produce Islamic music videos: songs about the Koran, promoting Islamic conservative values.

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Thousands of pilgrims have gathered in Lourdes to hear the words of Pope Benedict XVI. But many more visit the town in the French Pyrenees to sample the water, in search of a miracle cure for various ailments.

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British artist Damien Hirst, who broke the mould by putting sharks in formaldehyde, has turned his attention to revolutionising the art market by selling his work direct at auction. On Monday and Tuesday, Hirst will sell 223 works with an estimated value of 82 million euros at Sotheby's auction house in London, bypassing the traditional route of the art gallery.

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No stone is being left unturned as Pope Benedict XVI visits the small town of Lourdes in southwest France this weekend. Thousands of security personnel and the military are on hand at the place of pilgrimage to make sure the Pontif's first visit to France goes smoothly.

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The fifth Singer Festival, named after the Jewish-Polish author who won the Nobel prize for literature, has begun in Warsaw. The festival, which attracts many non-Jews, is part of a wave of interest in a culture which has all but disappeared in Poland.

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A group of Beijing's dwarves are standing up for themselves, introducing the public to the ancient art of shadow puppetry.