Features

DPA Bicycle rental services are expanding and becoming easier with the introduction of such conveniences as reservations by smartphone, delivery of a bike to a user’s desired location, and payment via prepaid IC cards. In the past, bike rental services mainly targeted tourists, and most were based in well-known sightseeing areas. In recent years, however, bicycle rentals have become more ...

DPA The coach carrying tourists passes its third tractor, then a cyclist and horse-drawn cart on the six-lane highway running from Havana towards Vinales some 180 kilometres to the west. The driver brakes to give way to four cows crossing the wide strip of asphalt. “What a highway!” grins John Johnson, one of a party of tourists from California and ...

Dubai / EMIRATES BUSINESS Chuck E. Cheese has launched its second UAE destination at Ibn Battuta Mall, Dubai. Launched in the US during the 1970s, the life-sized animated mouse Chuck E. and his friends have been entertaining kids across the world for nearly four decades, thanks to the safe, family-friendly environment that kids and parents just love coming back to. ...

DPA The days of scribbling “I woz here” on Florence’s historic monuments are gone: from now on would-be vandals will be able to graffiti via app instead, with their messages kept for posterity. “Welcome to Giotto’s Campanile!” reads a message on a digital tablet for visitors scaling the Gothic white, green and pink marble tower by the famed Italian architect, ...

AFP From ready-to-wear knits manufactured instantly to customised dresses produced on inkjet printers, Japan’s apparel industry is turning to state-of-the-art technology in a bold bid to cut labour costs and secure its future. At manufacturing giant Shima Seiki’s factory in western Japan, garments materialise in minutes, thanks to digitally-programmed automated machines that can turn out a sample seam-free pullover in ...

RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business A little bird, with plumage brown, beside my window flutters down…… But we, in traffic’s rush and din, Too deep engaged to let them in, with deadened heart and sense plod on Nor know our loss till they are gone. While in school, I knew the above poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar by heart. Least ...

RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business Today, some plan to make her the breakfast, while others decide to take her for shopping, yet others might gift her that diamond pendent she always wanted. Whatever the gesture is, motherly love is in the air. Its Mother’s Day — an occasion of tribute to the dedication, love and discipline mothers bring to our ...

AFP Sitting on sofas with laptops balanced awkwardly on their knees as they sip from bottomless cups of tea and coffee, customers have turned an off-the-beaten-path café in Montreal into their personal workspace. And the owners couldn’t be happier. “Here, you are at home,” said Anti Café manager David Chevrier, talking up the new breed of coffee shop that charges ...

DPA Graffiti, broken windows, crumbling masonry: the former Gare Masséna railway station in south-east Paris boasts none of the French capital’s famous charm. Only the overgrown tracks near the station building and a small blue sign marked “SNCF” — the French national railway — hint at its former use by travellers and trains. The dilapidated building has become an object ...

AFP Zebra and antelope look on as clouds of white steam twist into the air at Hell’s Gate, where Kenya’s dream of providing cheap, renewable electricity is becoming a reality. Just over a third of the 45 million people who live in Kenya have electricity, and power cuts are frequent across the network, even in the capital Nairobi. But Africa’s ...