An old woman had died. Before burying the her, the residents of the village of Obo – in southern Central African Republic, just north of the Congolese border – gathered around a campfire to eat, drink, cry and sing in celebration of the woman’s long life. It was a night in March 2008, just another beat in the slow rhythm of existence in this farming community of 13,000 people. More »
A routine flight in the Democratic Republic of Congo turned deadly when a crocodile escaped from a passenger’s duffle bag. According to the flight’s sole human survivor, panicking passengers fled into the cockpit and caused the pilot to lose control. More »
Foxconn is often held up as the poster child for tainted gadgets, but there’s far worse in war-torn Congo, from whence many of the minerals that ultimately make up the innards of our smartphones come. More »
A recent spate of suicides at Foxconn factories brought scrutiny to the working conditions in the factories where big-brand gadgets are manufactured. But tracing gadget guts to their mineral sources reveals that Foxconn overtime is far from the ugliest link of the supply chain. More »
A bunch of great netbook upgrades are on the way—next-gen Intel processors in January; smooth HD video playback—but to spare you the brain hemorrhage of keeping track, we’ve laid it all out. Here’s what you need to know. More »
Hudson River water landings? That’s so yesterday, man. Somewhere in the Congo today there’s a pilot who, after a slight, um, miscalculation, crash landed his plane in a lava field. More »
