FRANKFURT / Reuters Amazon is in talks with a consortium of German carmakers about taking a stake in high-definition digital mapping company HERE, two auto industry sources familiar with the matter said. Last August, BMW, Audi and Mercedes agreed to pay 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) to buy Nokia’s mapping business as part of plans to develop self-driving cars. Since …

Beijing / AP Stuffed into a tiny room off an alleyway are items that Wang Jinming readily admits were put out with the garbage: Paper string, a needle holder, a metal pancake maker built for thrusting into a fire. “These objects all look quite old and shabby,” he said. “But they record real history.” Wang’s Beijing Old Items Exhibition in …

St Albans / AFP Once a daily sight on every British street, a dwindling but resilient band of milkmen still go out at the crack of dawn to deliver bottles of fresh milk to the nation’s doorsteps. The overwhelming majority of milk used to be sold at the front door until the supermarket revolution all but wiped out this very …