Features

  DPA Sitting in a Mexican prison’s library, murder convict David Guzman tattooed a skull on a leather patch for a designer handbag to be sold in a luxury shop. Guzman, 34, took drugs and stole at a young age, falling into a “nefarious” world that landed him in prison, but five years into his murder sentence, he appeared at ...

  AFP Having to wear ski jackets in Riyadh is unheard of, but a new snow park in the Saudi capital has made them a must despite outside temperatures exceeding 45 Celsius. People are now donning thermal coats and cosy boots as they sit on sledges to scoot down the slopes of “Snow City”. Stretching over 5,000 square metres (53,800 ...

  DPA In the Ugandan capital Kampala, a pot-holed dirt road weaves through a cluster of shacks along a stinking stream until a helicopter made from scrap metal emerges into view. “Welcome to Wakaliwood,” movie director Isaac Nabwana says, stepping out of a group of actors dressed as soldiers or gangsters. Nabwana’s company, Ramon Productions — known as Wakaliwood — ...

  TNS If you’re planning to launch a mobile app to generate revenue, you won’t like the look of these figures. Research from Gartner estimates that fewer than 0.01% of apps will be considered a financial success through to 2018. With an average investment of $270,000 to design, build and launch an app, it’s not a small project by anyone’s ...

  DPA Freestyle Fairy is not in a good mood. “When they prick their ears back like that, they’re getting ready to bite you,” says Leslie Combs. The man with the southern US accent is standing in the stall of the two-year-old thoroughbred and wants to pet the horse’s snout, but the horse flinches. Freestyle Fairy can get away with ...

  TNS Well, this is a bit troubling. A new survey conducted by industry group The Alternative Board (TAB) found that nearly two out of every three small business owners (or 59%) think social media is not that essential to business operations. It’s an interesting result given how much social media has invaded every area of our lives. Tweets pop ...

  AFP Grain by grain, truckload by truckload, Laos’ section of the Mekong River is being dredged of sand to make cement — a commodity being devoured by a Chinese-led building boom in the capital. But the hollowing out of the riverbed is also damaging a vital waterway that feeds hundreds of thousands of fishermen and farmers in the poverty-stricken ...

  AFP Two years after devastating floods, banana planters in Ivory Coast have staged a comeback, eyeing an increase in production and new markets for the popular fruit. The west African country, which has grown bananas for more than 50 years, was annually exporting almost 300,000 tonnes of fruit before disaster struck. In Nieky, a vital banana-growing region, many have ...

  Bloomberg Kamleshkunwar, a mother of three living in a village in central India, first used cooking gas to prepare a meal about a month ago. Her family struggled for years with the ash and smoke that comes from burning wood, until they received a free gas connection from the government as it tries to change how India’s poor cook. ...

  AFP From Jakarta to Bali and Yogyakarta, the Indonesian art world is flourishing. Buoyed by a growing, affluent middle class at home as well as interest from international buyers, numerous boutique galleries and artists’ communities have sprung up, while events such as the Jakarta Biennale, the annual ArtJog fair, and Bazaar Art Jakarta have fuelled interest. But critics warn ...