For hundreds of years, people have flourished in the floating villages of Tonle Sap lake, a vast body of water in central Cambodia renowned as one of the world's most productive freshwater fisheries. Its riches once fuelled the growth of the empire that ...

Stainless steel is used in the manufacture of everything from sky scrapers to saucepans, and in recent years, demand for the alloy has soared. Producing it requires vast amounts ofchromeore, and with by far the world's largest deposits, South Africa is ...

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 Russian military personnel and other fighting forces are alleged to have committed numerous war crimes across the country. The list of charges is long and disturbing: deliberate ...

Kokpar, an ancient equestrian sport in which horse-mounted players attempt to advance a headless goat carcass towards the opposing team's goal, is said to have originated with Genghis Khan's 13th century mounted raiders, though it might be older still. ...

For over two centuries, the small Cumbrian town of Appleby-in-Westmorland has been the site of an annual fair where local farmers and breeders have sold their sheep, cattle and horses. Held in June on Gallows Hill, the site of a former execution ground, ...

Along the LA Wash in Los Angeles there is a hole in the fence called the 'rabbit hole'. It leads to a territory where trees and shrubs eclipse the endless concrete of the LA River, forming a natural hide-away for the people society does not want to see....

On a rainy Sunday evening the area around the Convention Centre in Sejong, where my guesthouse is located, is deserted. For miles around, there are no shops, no restaurants, nothing moving on the streets. The loud croaking of bullfrogs can be heard from ...

Cairo, Egypt's capital, is a sprawling metropolis of over 22 million people that traces its roots back to the 7th century following the Arab conquests. Yet a much older association - the pyramids of Giza - are located just across the Nile and connect the...

Asian elephants have had a special place in Thai culture for centuries and play a central role in the local tourism industry. With the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020, however, and the ensuing travel restrictions that prevented tourists from visiting...

Lima, Peru's capital, is one of the largest cities in the world located in the middle of a desert and gets less than an inch of rain a year. Recent migration from the countryside has started putting severe strain on its limited water resources. Of Peru's...

Development is an ambition of most societies, present since the appearance of our species. This is expressed in human efforts to adapt the environment, transforming habitats to ensure the survival of the group. Development is usually geared toward an ...

At the time of her birth in Guizhou province, during the height of Chairman Mao's reign, Mother Wu's family laboured futilely during the disastrous Great Leap Forward. A drive to boost agricultural productivity through quasi-science devastated crops for ...

The world population hit the 8 billion landmark this year driven by better medicine, sanitation and food production according to the United Nations. Yet China, which for millennia has been the most populous on earth, for the first time will see its ...

With a population of 200 million, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. About a tenth of people live in the former capital city of Lagos. To relieve it the overcrowded metropolis and to establish a national capital in a country deeply divided ...

The women had fled into the sprawling camps of Goma hoping they would find safety. As the M23 rebel group has swept his part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it has been accused of murders, rapes and kidnappings. Hundreds of thousands have left...

On 24th June 2022, the US Supreme Court surprised and shocked many when it upheld the ruling in Dobbs vs Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case brought in Mississippi which sought to ban all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In upholding the ...