An enormous mound of bronze, rising from the rubble of Dakar. The pride of President Abdoulaye Wade - at a cost of 14 billion CAF (€21m) - is the outrage of the local residents. Read more...

An unemployed drunkard shot to fame last month in Cuba when a video of him storming a TV report to demand food began circulating on the Web. His outburst got him a prison sentence, making him a symbol of Cuban poverty and repression. Read more and watch the video

Luis Soriano, an unemployed Colombian schoolteacher, spreads knowledge and literature to places where no librarian has ever set foot. He brings his books by donkeys to Colombia’s poorest and most isolated provinces. Read more...

Some young Americans have launched an utterly sinister trend: organising fights between homeless people ("bum fights"), then posting the video of the clash on YouTube. Read More

Four years ago Gabonese rapper Lestat “wrote a letter” to late president Omar Bongo asking him to take more care of the country's problems. Now he's got a new message, this time for Gabon's future president: “Be careful to pay more attention to talent than ethnicity.” Read more...

Closing time in the Parisian markets, and the streets are not left bare. Increasing numbers of people come to look for fruit and vegetables left behind by stall owners. And you don't have to be poor to take part. Read more...

While Slumdog Millionaire received rave reviews in the rest of the world, in India itself critics are complaining that the British-made picture is unrealistic and full of clichés. Several of our Observers went to the slum where the film is set to find out for themselves. And the scenes are even more astounding in reality. See their photos...

The cliché of Saudi Arabia is that everybody drives around in Jaguars and spends their holidays at five star hotels in Beirut. But as this video proves, in the dark depths of the world's petrol state, poverty is lurking. Read more and see the video.

A blogger tell us how an ingenious idea got a group of shantytown residents to transform their quarters from a slum into a biological farm. Read more...

Former Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo has taken up office as Paraguay’s new president. Our Observers in the country cast light on Latin America’s latest charismatic left wing leader. Read more...