Henna painters, makeup artist and fashion designers - they all come together at the Zanzibar Wedding Festival. The event aims to promote Zanzibari culture - and promote the island as a wedding destination.

Offering a fresh, distinctive flavour and strong South African identity, wines produced in the vineyards of the Hemel en Aarde valley are proving popular with wine lovers near and far, despite restrictions on the sale of alcohol in South Africa due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The United States is "falling behind" China in their competition to lead the world in the field of renewable energy, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says during a speech in Annapolis, Maryland.

"I feel privileged to be 16 years old and get vaccinated in a Latin American country," says Eva, a resident of Panama's Taboga Island, where 90% of residents have now been vaccinated against Covid-19.

At 94, Saturnino Lopez says he can walk four kilometres in a day. Awake early in the morning, he cuts firewood at his home on the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, one of the areas with the longest-living inhabitants on the planet.

In the space of just a few years, the small Central American nation of Costa Rica has become a global laboratory for decarbonisation. Costa Rica is the world's only tropical country that has managed to reverse the process of deforestation: forests now cover more than half its surface. It’s also one of the few countries to get almost all its electricity (99 percent) from renewable sources. Costa Rica's inspiring and bold example reflects badly on major world powers, which have considerably more resources available to achieve their climate goals. Our regional correspondents Laurence Cuvillier and Matthieu Comin report.

The Dominican Republic markets itself as a tropical vacation paradise. But behind the scenes lie heaps of trash from mass tourism. People like Eddy Rosado and the UN environment program are trying to shrink the Caribbean nation's garbage dumps.

The EU is proposing to put nuclear power on its list of sustainable energy sources. But Austria is threatening to file a case with the Court of Justice of the European Union to get that text annulled. The country has never embraced nuclear energy and is even home to the world's only power station to have been built but never fired up. Austria produces more than 75 percent of its electricity from renewable energy and is a leader of anti-nuclear advocacy in Europe. Our correspondents report.

Costa Rica is considered a model country in Central America. But the pandemic and corruption have exacerbated inequality and poverty.

A number of wealthy cryptocurrency enthusiasts have dreamt up schemes to spend the rest of their days chilling on a Bitcoin beach or a crypto cruise ship, away from the institutions, currencies and taxes that govern the lives of everyone else. But only a few are determined enough to try to make it happen. On this week's Tech 24, Peter O'Brien takes us through some of the real-life attempts to create a utopian, libertarian, offshore paradise... and explains why they've all been doomed to fail so far.

The economist and former finance minister has been sworn in for a four-year term. Chaves wants to reinvigorate the country's ailing economy, but he also faces controversy over earlier sexual harassment allegations.

The world "missed a historic chance for a clean energy recovery", warns the sustainable energy network REN21. Despite growing investment, clean energy still lags behind fossil fuels when it comes to powering homes and businesses. FRANCE 24's Kate Moody talks to REN21's Executive Director Rana Adib.