Vilcabamba / DPA Death among the middle-aged is a rare surprise in the Ecuadorian town of Vilcabamba. “She was just 43. Brain tumour. Very few die that young here,” muses William Benítez as the coffin containing Rosa Torres is borne down the street to the cemetery. Benítez is there to vend ice cream to the sweating pallbearers. “Actually, 100 …

  Kaiserslautern / DPA When Professor Sabine Hoffmann invites you to sit down, there’s a surprise in store: the individualized office chairs she’s helping to develop can ventilate you from below. At the push of a button, their little built-in fans can blow air on the back or bottom. Men in particular like this feature, she says, as it helps …

  Bloomberg Natural gas prices may have faltered in the first trading day of the year, but some analysts are still bullish on the outlook for 2017. With demand for the power-plant fuel surpassing coal for the first time in the US and exports soaring, a years-long glut from shale formations has finally been erased. Now, all natural gas needs …