Features

  Lagos / AFP Balogun Shakirat woke up with a start at 3:00 am and put on the light in her workshop in a crowded working class district of Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos. In the following three hours, she was able to sew shirts, trousers and a jacket. Then the electricity supply went off again. “No light the whole day ...

Monrovia / AFP After almost 200 years of Western influence on their clothes, Liberians are revelling in a style revolution, designing and tailoring their own edgy creations with prints and cuts influenced by their African neighbours. Until 2003, when a peace deal ended 14 years of devastating civil war, tens of thousands of Liberians had been living as refugees in ...

  Dakar / AFP When farmer Isaac Tondo fell on lean times in Liberia’s long rainy season, his brother in the capital sent 8,000 Liberian dollars (US$87) to his Lonestar mobile money account, ensuring his children’s school fees would still be paid. Across Africa more and more people — from urban start-ups to hard-up villagers — are now spending, saving ...

  Rennes / AFP The ad on the French finance ministry website is deadpan and succinct: “For sale: late 19th century prison in the centre of Grasse, 1,277.42 square metres (13,750 square feet). No garage or parking space. Needs renovating.” Prospective buyers of the site in southeast France are required to lodge a deposit of 50,000 euros ($56,000). There are ...

  Emirates Business The new Mercedes-Benz SLC (previously SLK) takes the roadster’s driving pleasure to a new level thanks to an unrivalled combination of sportiness and comfort. Just in time for the 20th birthday of its segment, the archetypal compact roadster enjoys a new evolution — with a new name, optimised technology and an enhanced look. Comprehensively refined, and with ...

  Bloomberg How much cleaner are electric cars than the fossil-fuel powered alternative? The answer depends on exactly where you charge the batteries. In places that use low-carbon energy sources like renewables and nuclear, electric vehicles dramatically reduce emissions. There’s less of a difference in regions where most of the power comes from coal, like China. While an electric vehicle ...

  Los Angeles / AFP Festering alongside mountains of stinking trash under the sweltering South American sun, Cateura is a long way from the conservatories of Prague or Vienna. Yet the township which grew out of Paraguay’s largest dump is gaining an unlikely reputation as a hothouse for musical talent — and for its youth orchestra that plays instruments made ...

  Hitra / AFP In a peaceful bay off Norway’s Hitra island, massive nets teem with salmon destined for dinner tables worldwide — an export boon for the Nordic nation that comes with a long list of environmental side-effects. As an industry, the ocean-farming of salmon is only about 40 years old. But the harm it causes has been widely ...

  ROCHESTER / AP All is not well in cranberry country this harvesting season, the 200th anniversary of the world’s first known commercial cultivation. In the birthplace of the industry, many Massachusetts growers whose families have tended bogs for generations are in “dire straits,” facing challenges that include rising production costs, decreasing crop values, changing consumer habits and increasing competition ...

  Rio de Janeiro / DPA Carlos Saman is a 54-year-old library employee in the city of Nilopolis, not far from Rio de Janeiro, but oftentimes you will find him sifting Copacabana’s sandy beaches, hunting for treasure. Not pirate treasure, but the valuable objects that beach-goers drop. Very early on a recent morning on the beach, Saman and his 31-year-old ...