Features

  New York / AP Walking through most doors at the Tribeca Film Festival means taking a seat in a theater full of chattering moviegoers. But there are also darkened, cloth-wrapped chambers — like old carnival booths promising never-before-seen wonders — that offer nothing but a headset, headphones and perhaps some advice, like: “Watch for the dragon.” Virtual reality has steadily …

  London / AFP A plaque was unveiled in central London on Thursday, marking the place where William Shakespeare lodged in the city, in time for the 400th anniversary of the playwriter’s death. Actress Fiona Shaw read out Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 55”, while hand bell ringers and a children’s choir performed. “William Shakespeare had lodgings near here in 1604, at the house …

Johannesburg / AFP Hundreds of coffee lovers queued early Thursday in an upmarket Johannesburg shopping centre as international chain Starbucks opened its first cafe in sub-Saharan Africa. The US-based global brand plans to open 12-15 more stores in South Africa over the next two years, with a long term plan of up to 150 outlets. “The timing is right. We are …

  Doni, Ethiopia / AFP Outside a small store on a dirt track in the remote Ethiopian town of Doni, long queues wait for government cash handouts by the most modern of methods — mobile phone. Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country and one of its fastest growing economies, is pushing a new electronic payment service by phone — called M-Birr, …

  London / AFP The 200th anniversary of the birth of Charlotte Bronte, whose intense and passionate vision of rural life in “Jane Eyre” has haunted generations of readers, was marked in Britain. Fans hosted a birthday party in the house in northern England where Charlotte and her sisters Emily and Anne grew up and wrote their books. The anniversary highlights …

  Priboj / AFP Deep in a western Serbian valley, the town of Priboj despairs at the decline of a truck factory that was once its lifeblood — and is now symbolic of the country’s failing state-owned companies. A thriving manufacturer employing thousands under communist Yugoslavia, Fabrika automobila Priboj (FAP) is today one of Serbia’s loss-making enterprises whose future hangs in …

  Tan-Tan / DPA Abdallah has been sitting drinking tea since dawn; the wind blows unrelentingly against his Bedouin tent, a protective layer between him and the vast, inhospitable Sahara Desert. He and his camel caravan have travelled from the Atlas Mountains to do business in Tan-Tan, a desert city in southern Morocco. By selling a small camel, he can make …

  Tokyo / AFP Tokyo businessman Randal Furudera isn’t about to swap his German-made BMW M5 for a “boring” Japanese car, although he’ll give them some grudging respect for their ho-hum dependability. Deep-pocketed buyers like Furudera are driving sales in Japan of high-end foreign brands, which dominate the niche sector in a car market long seen as all but shuttered to …

  Amsterdam / Relaxnews European Union policy makers and European vehicle manufacturers have reached their first agreement on the future of self-driving cars and their place on the continent’s roads. The ‘Declaration of Amsterdam’ endorsed by the Informal Transport Council represents a first agreement among all parties regarding how potentially life-saving technologies are to be deployed on European roads. Tackling …

  Relaxnews To celebrate National Parks’ Service 100th anniversary, from April 16 to April 24, everyone is enjoying free admission to all national parks in US these days. The National Park Service usually offers free entry to national parks on certain days of the year, including President’s Day weekend and Veteran’s Day, however in honour of their anniversary this year …