Berlin - The Segen (Benediction) cloister lies amid the bustle of Berlin like an oasis in the desert. Schoenhauser Allee, a four-lane street, is right outside, but traffic noise stops at the cloister's doors. Behind its thick walls, quiet reigns.
"This is a place for people to recharge their batteries," remarked Georg Schubert, director of the Swiss religious fraternity Don Camillo. The group purchased the run-down Segenskirche (Benediction Church), situated in the eastern Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg, in 2007 and established the city's first and only Protestant cloister there last August.
Downshifters will now be able to train themselves to achieve inner peace in Germany's capital and largest city.
Sydney - Watch the pick-up points at Australian airports and women are behind the steering wheel when they arrive but usually relegated to the passenger seat when they leave.
Driving is still considered a man's job - if a man's available to do it.
"Australian men don't like to be a passenger when their partner is driving, and most don't believe women are good drivers," motoring journalist Stephen Corby said.
Hamburg - Intense social networking with family and friends helps improve your intelligence and memory more than any other method, according to German researcher Siegfried Lehrl of the University of Erlangen.
Quoted in the latest edition of the magazine Vital, Lehrl said that while mind games and puzzles such as Sudoku improve memory, social interaction activates the brain on several levels with the positive effects becoming especially visible during the course of a lifetime.
Several studies found that people who meet regularly with other people had much better cognitive abilities or brain-based skills needed for the simplest to the most complex task compared to a group with less social interaction, the report said.
Even pedigree dogs are happy to wolf down meat left over at the abattoir. But cats are often fed the fishmonger's best.
"Our pets seem to be eating better than their owners," said Giovanni Turchini, a researcher at Melbourne's Deakin University.
"These gourmet pet foods contain a significant amount of fish that may be suitable for direct human consumption. We don't have enough fish to feed the world."
Turchini would like to see pampered felines weaned off restaurant-quality grub and introduced to the by-products of the fish filleting industry.
Dogs thrive on leftover meat and it follows that cats could get used to offal.
Buenos Aires - Four couples move around the small dance floor to the tune of a tango coming from a CD player.
Students, who cannot yet dance well, wait their turn and sit on colourful plastic chairs lined up against the wall and watching their friends in the meantime.
One of these onlookers is Martina. She loves to tango, and she proudly shows off her new black leather, high-heeled shoes or real
Friedrichshafen, Germany - Shoe soles made of old tyres, breathable jackets which used to be plastic bottles and T-shirts derived from old rags.
The world of outdoor and sporting fashion has discovered that recycled products are not only kinder to the planet - they sell well too.
The latest advertising blurbs from many outdoor wear companies
boast that products such as garments, shoes and accessories are made exclusively or partly from reusable materials. Recycling and sustainability were also among the key themes at a recent outdoor clothing trade show in the southern German town of Friedrichshafen.
Sydney - Watch the pick-up points at Australian airports and women are behind the steering wheel when they arrive but usually relegated to the passenger seat when they leave.
Buenos Aires - Four couples move around the small dance floor to the tune of a tango coming from a CD player.
