Poor South African Boys Find an Escape in Sandboarding

Photos by Schalk van Zuydam Every Friday afternoon, some South African boys head for the sand dunes that surround Atlantis, a poor area on Cape Town’s outskirts where drug gangs operate and shootings occur regularly.

Obama-Mania in Africa

Barack Obama, the United States’ first African-American president, has captured the imagination of people across the continent where his face shows up on billboards, backpacks, T-shirts and restaurants.

In Digital World, the Allure of Simple Games

In a simpler time, all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to be home before dark.

South Africa Township Golf

Photos by Themba Hadebe At first, the children only watched as the their retired neighbor hit a ball across an open field, but soon enough they joined in, forming an amateur golf school in a working class South African township.

Daily Life Roundup

For this week’s installment of AP’s Daily Life series, we feature photography from all over the world: People walk through an underground passage leading out of King’s Cross tube station in London, college graduates take part in the annual Toss Your Caps class photo in Philadelphia, and lights are switched on in apartments as dusk descends

World Water Day

It courses through Bangkok’s bustling canals and the world’s mighty rivers. It is the lifeblood of the desert oasis as well as North America’s Great Lakes.

Close Up: Photographer Ben Curtis

Ben Curtis is The Associated Press’ East Africa photographer based in Nairobi, Kenya.

World’s Abandoned Places

Our ghosts are with us, for all to see. All we need do is look carefully.

Close Up: Photographer Muhammed Muheisen

Muhammed Muheisen, Chief photographer, Pakistan, won the $10,000 Oliver S. Gramling Journalism Award for his work capturing the loss and hope in Pakistan and conflict zones throughout the world.