大象传媒

How a Scottish couple came to live with an 8ft tall, half-tonne Grizzly called Hercules. He lived with Maggie Robin and her husband, Andy, in the 1970s and '80s. Our attitudes towards keeping wild animals have changed a lot since then, but at the time, Hercules was something of a celebrity, starring in films and TV shows all over the world. Speaking from Perthshire in Scotland, where she lives, Maggie told Jo Fidgen how her relationship with Hercules began.

As part of the 100 Women season here on the 大象传媒 World Service, young women from around the world have been talking to us about how society expects them to behave. They have each been asked about the pressures they face to be "a good girl". Today we hear what it means to be a "good girl" if you are part of the nomadic Khanty tribe in western Siberia. Twenty-two-year-old Lubov Russkina has been speaking to Olga Ivshina from the 大象传媒 Russian service.

Imagine being a woman who has had to flee her home. You have lost all your possessions along the way, landed in a refugee camp - and then on top of everything else you get your period, and you don't have any sanitary towels. This thought struck a British woman, Amy Peake, and it made her want to do something to help. She heard about a woman, Swati Bedekar and her husband, Shyam, who are working with a machine in Gujurat to help women support themselves by making and selling cheap pads. Amy travelled there to meet Swati.

Award-winning novelist Justin Cartwright has a famous, and very controversial, ancestor - Piet Retief. Retief was murdered in 1838 by a Zulu tribe, along with dozens of his followers, and his 13-year-old son. It was a defining historical moment for many Afrikaaners, for whom Piet Retief became an icon. In his latest novel Up Against the Night, Justin explores this connection - and his relationship with South Africa, a country he left almost 50 years ago to move to Britain.

(Photo: Andy and Maggie Robin celebrate Christmas with Hercules the Bear. Credit: Maggie Robin)