Balancing on a bamboo platform suspended dozens of meters up in the Madai cave in Malaysian Borneo, a man vigorously tears cup-shaped protrusions off the rock wall. They’re bird’s nests and will soon fetch hundreds of dollars in the market.
“Madai is God’s gift to Idahan people,” says Jafaar bin Abdullah, a local harvester. For centuries, the Idahan tribe has subsisted from this lucrative, if death-defying, trade. This should be their time to cash in, since a booming Chinese middle class has shot demand for the nests through the roof. Read More...
Complete List - Top 10 Famous Disappearances - TIME Missing Persons ncG1vNJzZmibn6PBprrTZ6uipZVjsLC5jq2gpp1fqL2mr8iao6xnoJawrK3Gnqpom5%2Biva2x056joqukZH1tfphubXJkYW2Bd4KWaWNpaF6dwa64
Frank Pellegrini
October 12, 1999 12:00 AM EDT
Citing suffocating competition in the “eater-tainment” business and its own overaggressive expansion, Planet Hollywood is closing nine U.S. locations ahead of a planned filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Gone are its glittering towers of sterno in Chicago, Houston, Miami, Phoenix, Fort Lauderdale, Indianapolis, Maui, Gurnee, Ill., and Costa Mesa, Calif.; the chain will also upgrade several of its 70-plus remaining restaurants worldwide and revamp its menus, according to CEO Robert Earl. Read More...