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Bloomberg After disease ravaged his cocoa farm, Philippe Zongo walked into one of West Africa’s last remaining rainforests to hack out new acreage. Like thousands of young men from Ivory Coast and more arid neighboring countries, Zongo set out to find the best soil to plant new cocoa trees. He found it in the western Cavally forest, an area bigger ...

  Panama City / DPA Residents of Panama City are unlikely to say anything good about Henry Morgan, the well-known pirate who planned to stage his biggest raid there in 1671. With 1,800 men, he went from the mouth of the Chagres River, in the Caribbean, to Panama City on the Pacific Ocean, hoping to steal the gold and silver ...

  Pontianak / AFP A striking bird with monochrome plumage and a formidable “beak”, the helmeted hornbill is being hunted to extinction, one of the latest victims of a thriving global trade in exotic wildlife. For decades poachers in Borneo’s western forests focused on capturing orangutans and sun bears, but in the past few years a surge in demand for ...

  Harare / AFP They sleep outside banks, skimp on meals and sell flowers in hospitals. After long years of work, Zimbabwe’s pensioners are struggling to survive old age as the country’s economy collapses. With banks short of cash to pay out pensions, 80-year-old Gift Kaondera-Shava, a former truck driver, bus conductor and factory supervisor, now scrambles to feed himself ...

  Bloomberg The future of job interviews might horrify you. It horrified Jake Rosen. A recent graduate of UCLA, Rosen was applying to be a page at NBC (yes, yes, just like Kenneth) when he learned he wouldn’t be going to an office to talk to a human being about his skills. Instead, he interviewed by webcam, on a laptop. ...

  El-Jadida / AFP The equestrian art of tbourida, inspired by the historical charges of the feared cavalrymen of Morocco, fascinated Romantic painter Eugene Delacroix two centuries ago and still draws enthusiastic crowds today. At this week’s “Salon du Cheval” show in El-Jadida, western Morocco, thousands have been enthralled by the spectacle of groups of riders in colourful traditional dress ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business Lenovo (HKSE:992) has launched its latest smartphones with the pioneering devices, the Moto Z and the Moto Z Play, in the United Arab Emirates. With Moto Mods, Lenovo has entered the next era of mobile technology. Consumers can transform their Moto smartphone into exactly what they need it to be, and the possibilities are endless. ...

  Emirates Business Combining classical beauty with stunningly functional complications, the Classic Sonata makes its entrance. Mechanical complications that have been pared down to their most essential form are celebrated by the classical lines of this covetable piece in titanium and steel. The alarm function with its pleasant chime, and the Dual Time system with instant time zone adjustor, are ...

  QASR BSHIR / AP The helicopter door opens and Robert Bewley leans out hundreds of feet above the Hisban Roman ruins outside Amman, Jordan. Feet on the struts, the Oxford University archaeologist begins snapping photos as the chopper circles the ancient stones. Sheep flock far below amid marble columns from 1,700 years ago. After a few minutes, Bewley squawks directions ...

  Frankfurt / DPA Juergen Ebert’s four-wheel-drive vehicle rushes along a path, parallel to an airport runway. His blank gun lets off a loud bang and a flock of starlings flies off. Soon afterwards, a plane roars nearby and takes off: mission accomplished! Ebert is a biologist and leads the wildlife control team at Frankfurt airport, the third-busiest airport in ...