The town of Acquentico, in Imperia province, northwestern Italy, put temporary speed cameras up near a pedestrian crossing on the SS28 Nord highway in late October. Within two weeks, 58,568 speeding infractions were recorded. (The town has a population of 120.) The success of the cameras has caused the town council to install permanent cameras. The speed limit within the town is 50 kilometers (31 miles) per hour.
The short-term-apartment-rental company Airbnb announced on Nov. 19 that it would no longer list apartments for rent in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, effective immediately.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are a contentious issue, as Israel has been accused of illegally taking land from Palestine, something that Israel denies. An Airbnb spokesperson said that the decision was made because the settlements were at the "core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians."
The 12th Les Flora lies Internationales flower exhibition, held every five years in Nantes, France, will take place May 8-19 in 2019 at Parc des Expositions de la Beaujoire (Route de Saint-Joseph de Porterie, 44300 Nantes). More than 200 flower and plant experts from all over the world will create landscapes at the exhibition hall, on the banks of the Erdre River.
A ticket costs €20.50 (near $23). Contact Comité des Floralies (phone +33 02 40 14 58 60, comite-des-floralies.com/eng).
Commemorating 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci's death in France, a large collection of his drawings, paintings and sculptures are scheduled to be exhibited in autumn 2019 at the Louvre (Paris, France; www.louvre.fr/en), the dates yet to be announced.
Pieces include a large number on loan, including works from the Royal Collection of Queen Elizabeth II. (At press time, the Italian government considered the loaning of some da Vinci works held in Italy to be controversial, and it may withhold them from the exhibit.)
Carnival Cruise Lines (www.carnival.com) announced, on Nov. 26, that any passenger caught smoking in an undesignated area, including in his or her own cabin, will be fined $500, and he or she, and any other person staying in their cabin, may be removed from the ship at the next port of call. Anyone removed from a ship for a smoking violation will be banned from future Carnival cruises.
Previously, smoking violators only faced a cleaning fee tacked onto their bill.
After years of delays, the Maputo-Catembe suspension bridge, across Maputo Bay on the coast of southernmost Mozambique, was officially opened on Nov. 10. Two 450-foot-high towers suspend the roadway nearly 200 feet above the bay. The 1.86-mile-long bridge is the longest suspension bridge in Africa.
The king of Morocco inaugurated Africa's first high-speed train system, the Al Baraq, on Nov. 17. The trains connect Casablanca to Tangier, with stops in Rabat and Kenitra. Traveling at speeds of over 320 kilometers per hour (199 mph), each train can make a one-way trip in two hours, 10 minutes. (Previously, it took four hours, 45 minutes.) A one-way ticket costs MAD132 (near $14), second class, or MAD195, first class.
The former Cunard Line ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II, now a luxury hotel docked permanently at Mina Rashid Port in Dubai, began taking reservations in November. The 1,300-room hotel has 13 restaurants and bars plus a museum.
Room rates run about $100-$400 per night during high season (around January-May) and can be lower in off-season. Visit www.qe2.com or call +971 4 528 888.
While visiting Tokyo, you can leave your hand luggage or even full-sized bags in a shop or post office that has partnered with Ecbo Cloak (cloak.ecbo.io/en) and pick them up later. Participating shops are in many locations, including at rail stations.
Using Ecbo Cloak's website or phone app, create an account, then choose a location and date and indicate drop-off and pickup times and the number and types of bags to be stored. At the appointed place and time, leave the bag(s) with a clerk. An email, with pictures of your bags, will confirm the drop-off.
Beginning in 2020 in the Pacific island nation of Palau, a law signed on Nov. 1, 2018, will ban sunscreens containing any of 10 chemicals thought to be harmful to coral. The chemicals are oxybenzone, octinoxate, octocrylene, 4-methyl-benzylidene camphor, triclosan, phenoxyethanol and four parabens (preservatives).
Two of the chemicals — oxybenzone and octinoxate — have been proven in lab tests to be toxic to coral, causing bleaching and stunting growth.