A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Anne Frank’s apartment to open for a day
The apartment where Anne Frank lived with her family before they went into hiding during the second World War will open to the public for a day next month. The Ymere housing corporation bought the apartment on Merwedeplein, in southern Amsterdam, in 2004 and restored it to 1930s style with the help of the Anne Frank Foundation. A Dutch foundation now uses it for a writer-in-residence programme for foreign writers oppressed in their home country.
Ymere said a maximum of 300 paying guests will be allowed to wander through the apartment where Anne and her family lived from 1933 to 1942. It will be opened on December 10th and tickets, sold only by the nearby Jimmink bookstore, will cost €7.50. (PA)
Top five items for astronomy tourists
A colander, rubber bathmat, hole-punch, colander spoon and a sink-plug strainer. These are the top five items most likely to be found in the luggage of astronomy lovers chasing an annular eclipse.
Astronomy specialist Explorers Astronomy Tours, which organises eclipse-focused trips, says its customers travel the globe with these items because they facilitate the pinhole effect which allows people to follow the eclipse’s progress safely by projecting the sun’s image through a hole.