Features

  Jakarta / AFP Some fight with machetes three-feet long, others are armed with daggers curved like the claws of big cats, while other combatants rely on only their minds. This is the world of “pencak silat”, or Indonesia’s martial arts, which are now battling for greater global recognition — having secured a place in the Asian Games, the government ...

  Bulandshahr / AFP Indian farmer Zakir Khan should be sowing his winter crops now. Instead he is stuck at home after the government’s shock move to pull high-value notes out of circulation left him with no money to pay for seeds — or feed his family. Like millions of rural Indians, Khan lives far from a bank and relies ...

  JOHANNESBURG / AP The pangolin, a scaly anteater coveted by poachers, might have a new champion: rats that will be trained to sniff out trafficked pangolin parts in shipments heading from Africa to Asia. A pilot project to turn African giant pouched rats into conservationist sleuths is literally in its infancy — the 10 to 15 rodents being reared ...

  Dakar / AFP Above the sacks of seeds and coal, three kerosene lamps gather dust in the tiny shed that Kenyan chicken farmer Bernard calls home. He prefers to use solar energy to light up his evenings, listen to the radio or watch television, after abandoning a diesel generator he said was expensive to maintain and burned fuel too ...

  Paris / AFP Cutting food waste is an appealing social goal, but experiments in France found that measures to cut the amount of food being thrown out also saved supermarkets money. Like a number of other countries, France has recently adopted legislation that forces supermarkets to donate to charities food that is unwanted or past its sell-by date but ...

  Karachi / AFP Camped on the baking concrete outside a gleaming transplant centre, Karachi’s sick have come from miles around in desperate hope for a last chance at life. There, Dr Adibul Rizvi provides free medical care to hundreds of thousands of people each year, providing a much-needed alternative to Pakistan’s public health sector, which critics dismiss as chaotic, ...

  Kiziba / AFP Inside a red-brick building with a tin roof in western Rwanda, a group of young people are hard at work studying for a US-accredited university degree. But these are no ordinary students: they are Congolese refugees for whom such a qualification could spell an escape from stateless limbo. Over the past year, a Rwandan charity called ...

  Emirates Business Nissan has collaborated with UK-based design workshop Studio Hardie to transform its zero emission e-NV200 van into the world’s first all-electric mobile office — the e-NV200 WORKSPACe. This professional office environment on wheels features an integrated fold-out desk, touchscreen computer, wireless internet, smartphone-controlled LED lights, wireless phone charging, Bluetooth® audio system, mini fridge and barista-quality coffee machine. ...

  Emirates Business Nikon Middle East FZE has announced the Nikon D5600, a camera designed for photography hobbyists and content creators to explore different creative and artistic expressions. With convenient connectivity features, this latest entry-level DX-format DSLR, is designed for sharing and storytelling. “Instinctively, we enjoy sharing how we see the world in our creative means and experiences. The Nikon ...

  Wetzlar / DPA David Bowie had one, so does Scarlett Johannson, while Lenny Kravitz produced a book with one: a Leica camera. There’s no arguing that the Leica is the German camera everyone covets. Back in the days when German cameras led the world, a Leica was the ultimate. But then the firm in Wetzlar, eastern Germany began slipping, ...