Mamma Mia!: ABBA The Museum opens in Stockholm

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  May 6, 2013: Swedish music group ABBA memorabilia seen during a press preview of 'ABBA The Museum' at the Swedish Music Hall of Fame in Stockholm, Sweden.AP

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  Posters and photos of Swedish music group ABBA at the new museum.AP

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  Monday May 6, 2013: Bjorn Ulvaeus, former member of the Swedish music group ABBA, is photographed during a press preview of 'ABBA The Museum' at the Swedish Music Hall of Fame in Stockholm, Sweden.AP

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STOCKHOLM –  You can thank ABBA for the music. And so much more.

A museum devoted to the pop superstars opening in Stockholm on Tuesday will celebrate the band's long list of hits. But it will also show off paraphernalia, including the helicopter featured on the cover of its "Arrival" album, a star-shaped guitar and dozens of glitzy costumes the Swedish band wore at the height of its 1970s fame.

Some gear is definitely not on show. With a smirk on his face, band member Bjorn Ulvaeus says certain items are "mysteriously ... forever lost," conceding only that among them are "embarrassing" tight costumes he wore when he was "slightly overweight." He declined to say more on the matter.

Some 40 sets of the trademark shiny flares, platform boots and knitted hats are on display in the museum. But visitors can also see digital images of what they would look like in costumes, record music videos and sing such hits as "Dancing Queen" and "Mamma Mia" on a stage next to hologram images of the band members. A telephone also has been placed in a corner and ABBA members have promised to "Ring, Ring" and speak to visitors occasionally.

But the museum also shows a less glamorous, more everyday side of the history of a band that has sold 400 million records and consistently topped the charts in the decade after winning the 1974Eurovision Song Contest with "Waterloo." The band -- made up of Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad,Benny Andersson and Agnetha Faltskog -- started out as two married couples, and continued performing after their divorces, before eventually drifting apart in the early 1980s.

The collection includes models of the band's kitchen, a cottage where they used to compose their songs and the small, rustic park venues Bjorn and Benny played when they first met in the 1960s. Visitors can listen to the band members' recollections and one section is dedicated to the breakup and the story of the divorces.

"It (touches) on those things as well because we think they are important in telling the story," Ulveaus said.

The museum also includes a Swedish Music Hall of Fame, detailing other Swedish artists.

It was a long time coming, eagerly anticipated by fans and visitors to the Swedish capital. Ulvaeus said they needed the time to reflect on their careers. "You need some distance, you need perspective to be able to tell a story like that and I guess you can say that we have perspective now, 30 years on," he told reporters.

Outside the newly built wooden museum scores of international ABBA fans gathered Monday, singing the band's songs and hoping to get a glimpse of their idols arriving for a gala dinner. All were expected except Faltskog, who is currently promoting her comeback album "A'' in Britain.

Nikita Stolyarov, a 21-year-old student from Russia said he got a glimpse of Lyngstad on Sunday when she came by for an early view of the museum.

"It was so exciting, I can't describe my feelings," he said.

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Greek bill opens way for civil service layoffs

Published April 28, 2013

Associated Press

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  Public servants shout slogans during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundreds public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)The Associated Press

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  A protester burns an effigy depicting a Greek worker during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundred public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers voted on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)The Associated Press

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  A protester (not seen) waves a labour union flag during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundreds public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers vote on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)The Associated Press

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  Public servants cast their shadows on a banner of a labour union during a protest in front of the Parliament in Athens, Sunday April 28, 2013. A few hundred public servants protested peacefully outside the Greek Parliament as lawmakers voted on new austerity bill.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)The Associated Press

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ATHENS, Greece –  The Greek Parliament is debating, and will vote on by midnight Sunday, an emergency omnibus bill that will ensure continued disbursement of bailout aid by the country's creditors.

The bill contains many unrelated provisions, from the payment of owed taxes and social security contributions to the end of bakeries' monopoly in baking bread, but the most politically contentious one is the provision for the immediate firing of 2,000 civil servants by the end of May and a further 13,000 by the end of next year.

To shorten debate and to present the bill as a sort of confidence vote, the government has bundled 110 pages of legislation into a single article. Debate in committee lasted a single day and so will debate in the full Parliament.

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Best Western opens hotel in impoverished Haiti

Published March 28, 2013

Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti –  A U.S. hotel chain opened a hotel in Haiti on Thursday for the first time in 15 years.

Best Western International has completed construction on a $15 million, seven-story hotel that features 106 guest rooms and several suites.

The towering facility is located in the hillside district of Petionville and is targeted at the business traveler.

The new hotel is part of a larger hotel boom in Haiti that has taken hold since the earthquake in 2010 destroyed thousands of buildings.

To date, developers are building or planning at least seven hotels and many hope that the businesses will create thousands of jobs in a country where unemployment hovers around 60 percent. Together, the projects add up to more than a $100 million investment.

In December, the Royal Oasis, run by Spanish firm Occidental Hotel & Resorts, opened as an upscale hotel a few blocks from the Best Western Premier now stands. The Marriott International, also in December, began construction on a $45 million hotel that's scheduled to open in 2015.

Even before the earthquake, which officials say destroyed more than 800 hotel rooms, it was difficult to find hotels in Haiti that met international standards. Those that did were often filled with diplomats and humanitarian workers.

The last U.S. hotel chain to run a hotel in Haiti was the Holiday Inn. It closed in 1998 because of political instability.

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China opens world's first panda hotel

It's pure panda-monium.  A Chinese hotel in the country's Sichuan province has claimed to be the world's first hotel dedicated expressly for pandas.

The Haoduo Panda Hotel, which lies at the foot of Emei Mountain near the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding facility, has decked out its rooms with panda pictures, cuddly panda toys and furniture decorated with the endangered animal.  Like other theme hotels, such as at Disney resorts, the staff even dress in panda costumes so guests can have a real-live panda experience. 

The themed guest rooms have panda painted on the walls, and one appears to show a scene from the "Titanic" movie where Kate Winslet stands on the bow of the ship while Leonard DiCaprio stands behind her. 

The hotel, which officially opens in May, have room rates that range from US$48 to $80 per night.

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