Features

  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 ...

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. has constructed a secret team to explore changes to the App Store, including a new strategy for charging developers to have their apps more prominently displayed, according to people familiar with the plans. Among the ideas being pursued, Apple is considering paid search, a Google-like model in which companies would pay to have their app shown ...

    Relaxnews The new H&M Conscious Exclusive collection debuting this month includes an array of whimsical wedding dresses made from sustainable materials and not hurting your pocket. Proof, if it were needed, of the retail giant’s fashion nous, because budget, off-the-rack bridal collections have never been hotter. We take a look at five designers shaking things up this season. ...

  Phnom Penh /AFP Packed passenger trains are rolling out of Cambodia’s capital for the first time in over a decade this week, as a railway service running down to the country’s southern coast resumes after years of suspension. The trains will be ferrying passengers from Phnom Penh to the southwestern seaport of Sihanoukville over a nine-day trial during the ...