Features

Rome / AFP One of Tuscany’s most famous villas is up for sale with its owners hoping to be smiling all the way to the bank thanks to its links to the Mona Lisa. The Villa Antinori was once owned by the family of silk merchant Francesco Del Giocondo, whose wife Lisa Gherardini is widely believed to have sat for Leonardo ...

  Relaxnews Located in the Zuidas area of Holland’s most vibrant city, the new hotel offers guests natural light, healthy, sustainable meal options and even complementary bicycles. Aimed at what Element brand owner Starwood Hotels describes as the “eco-minded” traveller, each of the building’s 160 studios and suites have their own kitchen and flexible living spaces so that they appeal ...

  SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE / Reuters Makers of private jets for China’s elite are shifting their focus from luxury to convenience, as a cooling economy and long-running crackdown on corruption prompt customers to demand smaller planes and even consider second-hand deals. Utility is the watchword, say industry insiders, as buyers who once enlisted Feng Shui masters to help them design cabin ...

  Hong Kong / AFP The world’s first museum dedicated to China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown is to close its doors in Hong Kong, with organisers saying they believe they are being targeted for political reasons. It comes at a time when concerns are growing in the semi-autonomous Chinese city that Beijing is tightening its grip. There has been keen interest in ...

  Cao Bang, Vietnam / AFP Long a bastion for cheap, fast-fashion manufacturing, a new crop of designers are trying to transform the Made in Vietnam label and save the country’s rich ethnic heritage in the process. In the remote hills of Cao Bang, some 300 kilometres north of the capital Hanoi, Vietnamese designer Thao Vu is gleefully dropping swaths of ...

  Relexnews The concept of gender-segregated transportation such as women-only ride-share schemes and trains is gaining steam around the world, most recently with the launch of an ‘Uber for women’ and calls for ‘pink carriages’ on Australian public rail lines. Though women-only buses, rail and subway cars have been in place for years in countries like Japan, Malaysia, India and ...

  San Francisco / AP The robots are coming — to help run your life or sell you stuff — at an online texting service near you. In coming months, users of Facebook’s Messenger app, Microsoft’s Skype and Canada’s Kik can expect to find new automated assistants offering information and services at a variety of businesses. These messaging “chatbots” are basically ...

Hamburg / Reuters In-flight Wi-Fi may sound like a great way to keep in touch with friends and family or catch up on work, but services are often so slow, you’re better off sticking to the in-flight magazine. New satellite-based Wi-Fi services promise to change that, prompting a grab for capacity and customers by companies such as Inmarsat Plc, Viasat ...

Braunschweig, Germany / DPA What’s the use of old-style telephone books when all the numbers can be looked up on the internet? Untold millions of people must have thumbed through the thin pages of directories seeking a plumber or a travel agent for a holiday. But today you can find all that information on the internet. No longer do you ...

Kathmandu / DPA Khwaja Asad Shah sits in his cramped beads shop in the heart of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, surrounded by the glitter of colourful pieces of glass. “We’ve been here for eight generations,” says Shah, explaining that Muslim families like his arrived from Kashmir some 500 years ago. They came during the Malla era, 1484-1520, as masons and ...