London cocoa futures hit a 23-year-high as it proves to be the most lucrative commodity in 2008.

The chocolate company Mars has announced that it is to decode the genetic structure of the cacao tree.

British soldiers are used to surviving for long periods on monotonous rations. But with most of the fighting now being done in the searing heat of Afghanistan and Iraq, the MoD is creating new hot weather ration packs that rely less on the staples of beans, biscuits, cocoa and custard.

Key facts, figures and dates

A cup of enriched cocoa may help improve the working of blood vessels in diabetic patients, research suggests.

A daily blog on the probe into whether rodents escaped to St Kilda from a stricken trawler.

Cocoa workers in the Ivory Coast go on strike for a second day in a dispute over pay and conditions.

Like your cocoa beans? So did the Mayans. They were using them in chocolate drinks in 1000 BC.

The Archbishop of York urges people to stop eating any chocolate which is not Fair Trade.

Fire crews deal with a blaze in a cocoa silo at the Cadbury factory at Chirk, near Wrexham.

President Gbagbo orders an official inquiry into the cocoa and coffee sectors.

A chocolate craving may be all in the mind, say scientists, with little evidence of any physical compulsion.

Revenue from the cocoa trade has fuelled years of conflict in Ivory Coast, says an international campaign group.

Eight years after reports of child labour and slavery on West Africa's cocoa fields first emerged, progress in eradicating child labour has been slow.

Travelling deep into the plantations of the Ivory Coast - the West African nation that produces half the world's cocoa - children carrying machetes are a common sight.

A cocoa nutrient cuts the risk of four common killer diseases - at least in the Kuna people in Panama - work suggests.

Fifty years ago, Ghana celebrated its independence from Britain. How was this achieved - and at what price?

Chocolate can help guard against blood clots in much the same way as aspirin, research shows.

BBC listeners and readers describe who or what you could not live without on the African continent.

Ivory Coast's main cocoa farmers trade union says it suspends a three-day strike that has paralysed the country's cocoa industry.