Features

  Dhaka / AFP Many of Bangladesh’s most significant political prisoners have been incarcerated within the walls of the two-century old Dhaka Central Jail. Now the prison that has borne witness to much of the country’s brutal history has opened to the public as a museum. The last inmates of the 228-year-old prison in the capital’s old Mughal quarters were …

  Soamahamanina / AFP The mine had not yet opened, but Madagascans were already seething with rage and the Chinese management finally quit Soamahamanina, leaving behind empty tents and cigarette butts. For months, this small city in central Madagascar was engulfed by protests targeted at a Chinese gold mining company, Jiuxing. Every Thursday, city residents would take to the streets …

  Nairobi / AFP It was one of the most momentous events in the battle against poaching: 11 giant pyres of elephant tusks going up in flames in Kenya as the world looked on. The largest-ever destruction of ivory, which took place in April, was the pinnacle of efforts to jolt mankind into stopping the slaughter of wildlife, while sending …

  Ouagadougou/ AFP Thrusting their arm into a box full of hungry mosquitoes, a group of brave volunteers in a Burkina Faso laboratory test an innovative weapon in the fight against malaria — soap. The team behind the “Faso Soap” project aims to create a cheap, accessible product to repel mosquitoes and protect people from a disease that claimed nearly …

  Prague / AFP The giant Slav Epic series by Art Nouveau icon Alfons Mucha is caught in a legal tug-of-war between the city of Prague and the Czech painter’s grandson, triggered by plans to send the work on tour to Japan. Though the late artist seduced early 20th century Paris with his floral posters of actress Sarah Bernhardt, Mucha …

  Yangon / AFP Moshing and sweating, the crowd of headbangers scream their angst into the sultry Yangon night, a rare glimpse of a defiant musical subculture now crashing into the open remain off the song sheet. Half a century of repressive military rule virtually silenced Myanmar’s heavy metal scene and today its musicians are still shunned by most people …

  Abidjan / AFP A mother from a working-class district of Abidjan watches fearfully while the physiotherapist presses down on the thorax and abdomen of her crying, struggling baby to help him breathe. Under the health worker’s expert hands, the infant gradually expels the secretions clogging up his lungs through his nose and mouth. His mother looks astonished and the …

  Gulf of Thailand / AFP Piercing the water’s surface with its almond-shaped mouth, a giant Bryde’s whale opens wide for one, two, three seconds, gulping in anchovies as a boatload of awed tourist look on in the Gulf of Thailand. It’s a rare glimpse of marine life in its natural habitat, in a kingdom overrun with mass tourist attractions …

  Concarneau / AFP They came all the way from Japan to France with a crazy idea: establishing a factory for authentic dried bonito flakes, a key ingredient in Japanese cuisine that is very rare in Europe. Dried bonito fish, also known as katsuobushi, has a distinct umami flavour and is the main ingredient in dashi, a traditional stock which …

  Cairo / AFP In an endless cacophony of car horns, Mostafa Ekram each day confronts the frenzy of Cairo’s traffic jams: pedestrians darting out into the street, swerving tuk-tuks and even donkey carts. At the wheel of his SUV, in the heart of Egypt’s bustling capital, he doesn’t bat an eyelid as he narrowly dodges a black tuk-tuk, a …