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Jacques Brinon / AP
A window cleaner works on the glass pyramid of the Louvre museum in Paris, on Tuesday.
Workers clean the Louvre
Maison Bonnet tortoiseshell glasses can cost thousands
Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images
Franck Bonnet uses a thermoforming technique on a pair of tortoiseshell frames in Maison Bonnet's Paris workshop.
Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images
An apprentice prepares a pair of tortoiseshell frames, looking at the turtle-shell's shades at Maison Bonnet's Sens workshop, south of Paris.
Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images
A pair of tortoiseshell frames and its fact sheet containing the information of the future owner is found in Maison Bonnet's Paris workshop.
Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images
Christian Bonnet and his apprentice Daniel work on pairs of tortoiseshell frames in the Maison Bonnet's Sens workshop.
Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images
A Maison Bonnet workshop employee works on a pair of tortoiseshell frames.
Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images
Franck Bonnet, adjusts a pair of spectacles on a customer in Maison Bonnet's Paris shop.
Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images
A pair of $39,000 tortoiseshell spectacles, called pure blond, made by Christian Bonnet in Maison Bonnet's Paris workshop.
Four decades after the trade in tortoiseshell was banned under the 1973 CITES convention, the fourth-generation family firm, Maison Bonnet, sees itself as custodian of a rare craft, fashioning made-to-measure spectacles from stocks amassed before the ban.
Frames made by these artisans isn't an easy or an inexpensive process. Depending on the material, frames from Maison Bonnet can cost hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars and require a series of interviews and fittings.
The purchase of each pair of glasses is the result of a three-month operation, involving 20 hours of hand labor, and a process that includes 10 stages, 12 fittings, interviews, personality assessments and face measurements. Continuing reading NYTimes.com article.
Photos in this blog post were shot by AFP's Joel Saget in November, but made available to NBC News today.
South Sudan catches gold fever
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A Toposa boy walks along the Singaita River where gold has been found in Namorinyang, South Sudan.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A Toposa woman looks for gold in the Singaita River in Namorinyang, South Sudan.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A man digs a hole in search of gold in Napotpot, South Sudan.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A Toposa boy takes a rest after digging for gold in Napotpot, South Sudan.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A trader weighs his gold in a shop in Kapoeta, South Sudan.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A Toposa girl pans for gold in the Singaita River in Namorinyang, South Sudan.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
Jackson Locheto from Kenya uses a gold detector in Nanakanak, South Sudan.
In South Sudan ordinary people have been extracting gold from artisanal mines and taking part in as-yet unregulated trade in the precious metal.
Reuters reports, dozens of Toposa tribesmen and women, festooned with plastic necklaces, brass piercings and beaded amulets, hack away at the red soil with metal poles and shovels, digging small craters in a boozy revelry.
"Everything is luck," said Leer Likuam on the edge of a shallow trench through a translator. On an average day he might dig up six grams, worth around 1,200 South Sudanese pounds ($270), he said. "Some days you're lucky."
Once he found a 200-gram gold nugget bigger than his thumb, boasts Likuam.
On the international market, Likuam's prize lump would fetch $11,000, an enormous sum in a country where the average teacher earns just 360 South Sudanese pounds, about $90, per month.
But now the government hopes to pass mining legislation that will formalize the industry, let them tax precious metal and mineral exports and sell concessions to large-scale investors. Read the complete article.
All images were captured by Reuters photographer Adriane Ohanesian in September and October 2012, but made available to NBC News today.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A shirt hangs in the window of a Sarko alcohol shop in Kapoeta, South Sudan.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A bowl holding small flakes of gold sits in the middle of Singaita River in Namorinyang, South Sudan.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A view of the Singaita River which flows down from the Lauro mountains and through Kapoeta, South Sudan.
1.6 million Egyptian children work, activists worry number will grow
Khalil Hamra / AP
An Egyptian child stands in front of a tire repair shop where he works in Cairo, Egypt. Photo taken on Oct. 2.
Khalil Hamra / AP
An Egyptian girl fills water containers at a pottery workshop in old Cairo. Photo taken on Oct. 18.
The Egyptian government estimates that 1.6 million minors work - almost 10 percent of the population aged 17 or under. Other experts put the number at nearly twice that.
Some child labor activists worry that protections for children could be loosened further under the new constitution still being written. Earlier this month, the Egyptian Coalition for Children's Rights warned that early drafts of the document did not include as firm prohibitions on child labor as past constitutions.
Khalil Hamra / AP
An Egyptian child helps his father to load a donkey cart with hay in a farm at the outskirts of Qalyobiya, 27 miles north of Cairo, Egypt. Photo captured on Oct. 17.
Khalil Hamra / AP
An Egyptian child loads a cart with cement bricks in a brick factory at the outskirts of Qalyobiya, 27 miles north of Cairo.
Khalil Hamra / AP
An Egyptian child carries a clay roof tile in a pottery workshop in old Cairo. Photo captured on Oct. 18.
Khalil Hamra / AP
An Egyptian child takes a tea break during his work at a mechanics workshop in Cairo, Egypt. Photo captured Oct. 4.
Date harvest time in Gaza Strip
Ali Ali / EPA
Date picking season is underway in Deir al Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Oct. 16.
Ali Ali / EPA
A Palestinian picks dates from palm trees during the date picking season, in Deir al Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Oct. 16.
Ali Ali / EPA
Dates have been a staple food in the Middle East for thousands of years.
Ali Ali / EPA
Dates have been a staple food in the Middle East for thousands of years.
Garment factory fire victims mourned in Karachi
Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images
A Pakistani man mourns as he waits in the EDHI Morgue to identify his relative who was killed in a garment factory fire in Karachi.
Athar Hussain / Reuters
Relatives and residents carry the coffin of a woman, who was killed in a fire at a garment factory, for burial during her funeral in Karachi on Sept. 13.
Fareed Khan / AP
People comfort a woman who lost a family member in a garment factory fire, during a funeral in Karachi, Pakistan on Sept. 13.
Shakil / AP
Maryam Aslam weeps while enquiring about her missing brother who worked in a garment factory, in Karachi. Pakistani officials say the death toll from devastating factory fires that broke out in two major cities has killed hundreds.
Two separate blazes in Pakistan broke out Tuesday night, one at a garment factory in the southern port city of Karachi and another at a shoe manufacturer in the eastern city of Lahore.
Pakistan registered murder charges against factory bosses and government officials over the deaths of the more than 289 people in the country's worst industrial disaster, police said.
- Pakistan: A nation in turmoil
- 'We were trapped inside': Pakistan factory fires kills hundreds
- 'Screaming for their lives': Pakistan factory fires kill hundreds
EPA
People survey the undamaged area of a garment factory which was hit by a fire in Karachi on Sept. 13. The devastating fire on Sept. 11 in Pakistan's commercial hub of Karachi killed at least 280 people, as the deadly blaze raised fresh concerns about workplace safety.
Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images
The hand of dead Pakistani garment factory worker is seen at a hospital following a fire in a garment factory in which at least 280 people died in Karachi. More than 310 people have perished in fires that gutted factories in Pakistan's two largest cities, in tragedies that prompted calls for an overhaul of poor industrial safety standards, officials said.
Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images
A Pakistani man weeps for his relative who was killed in a garment factory fire in Karachi on September 13, 2012.
Muhammed Muheisen / AP
Pakistani brothers, from right, Harith , Farouq, Ishaq and Mohammed Khan, arrange bricks in a brick factory where they work with their father, not pictured, on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 9.
Uriel Sinai / Getty Images
Palestinian men keep warm around a fire as they wait to be collected by their Israeli employers after crossing from the West Bank town of Qalqilya to work in the Jewish state in the early morning of Feb. 19, near the Israeli army's checkpoint at Kibbutz Eyal in central Israel. With high unemployment the Palestinian economy is in a state of near-collapse resulting in increased pressure on the growing number of Palestinian workers seeking employment, illegally and legally in Israel.
Oil palm plantation workers harvest precious fruit
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Francisco Milcoc hoists an oil palm fruit to the top of a trailer truck at a plantation in Sayaxche, Guatemala.
Palm oil harvested from the African oil palm is a key ingredient in half of all packaged food, and Guatemala has been recognized as being one of the most efficient producers of this edible product.
It's also used in biofuel and Guatemala’s plantations have kept up with demand increasing production 146% since 2005 according to the National Institute for Agrarian and Rural Studies.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
An oil palm plantation worker sharpens his machete that he uses to loosen fruit bunches of the African oil palm in Sayaxche, Guatemala.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Felipe de Jesus, 20, hauls bunches of fruit from the African oil palm at a plantation in Sayaxche, Guatemala.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
An ox pulls a cart filled with the fruit of the African oil palm, along a plantation dirt road in Sayaxche, Guatemala.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Fruit bunches from the African oil palm are transported from a plantation to an extraction plant, in Sayaxche, Guatemala.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Oil palm plantation workers are transported back to their pickup point after a day of work in Sayaxche, Guatemala.
Workers risk their lives 'mining' in contaminated water at the bottom of Guatemala City's trash dump
Every now and then I see a set of pictures that reminds me of just how comfortable my life is. Rodrigo Abd’s photographs from “the Mine” in Guatemala City shows what life is like for the poor souls who eke out an existence by scavenging for scrap metal in a city dump. Their work, if you can call it that, is dangerous and dirty. I wouldn’t have believed it happens if Rodrigo hadn’t made the pictures.
All photos by Rodrigo Abd / AP
People search for scrap metal in contaminated water at the bottom of one of the biggest trash dumps, known as "The Mine," in Guatemala City, Oct. 19. Hundreds of informal workers descend daily into the mounds of the landfill and the rushing waters that come from a storm tunnel and a sewer at the bottom of a gorge to search for scrap metal to sell.
Every day, about 300 people hike to the bottom of the ravine and wade into the water in search of rings and bracelets made of silver or gold. The water sifts and carries away the lighter garbage, leaving heavy metals on the stream bed.
"I make more money coming here than going to a company where they would continually scold me," says 41-year-old Eddie Miranda.
He got lucky on a recent day. "I found a bracelet with 9 grams of gold. I got 2,000 quetzals ($256) for it." Read more...
(Left) David Flores digs for scrap metal in contaminated water at the bottom of "The Mine" on Oct. 14.
(Right) Men sort scrap metal they found at the bottom of "The Mine" on Oct. 17.
(Left) A man holds up a gold ring, Oct. 6, he found as he was searching for scrap metal in "The Mine".
(Right) A man, known as Ronnie, carries a sack of metal he collected on Oct. 14. Ronnie also works as a security guard to protect workers from thieves who steal the metal they collect.
A girl named "Baluquita," 15, searches for scrap metal on Oct. 4.
More PhotoBlog posts from Guatemala
Daniel Giles / TimesDaily via AP
Richard Randolph the Clock Doctor works in his home shop on a grandfather clock, in Sheffield, Alabama.
Repairman works on grandfather clock in home shop in Alabama
Could you work at fixing things like this all day?
Pakistan daily life
See more photos from Pakistan.
Muhammed Muheisen / AP
Afghan refugee girls react as they look at a herd of goats during a daily Islamic religious class in a mosque at a slum area on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010.
Muhammed Muheisen / AP
An elderly Afghan man, right, and a child stand by a railway track during the sunset in a slum area on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010.
Faisal Mahmood / Reuters
Girls collect tree branches with their shawls to burn later, in fire, on the outskirts of Islamabad on December 22, 2010.