Egypt

Editor’s Note (26 December  2015): BBC Capital brings you one of our most-read stories on where you can live well on a budget. Paying for the roof over your head is eye-wateringly expensive, and economising is getting you nowhere fast. So, could there be a simpler, easier life? We went to question-and-answer site Quora to find  the best place in the world to live cheaply — with great weather and reliable internet  of course. After all, no idyllic paradise is complete without speedy wi-fi. South East Asia was top of the list for many Quora users. Jingcho Yang  suggested Bali, Indonesia, for “rockstar living on backpacker budgets”. The weather is balmy and beaches are “pretty awesome,” Yang wrote. “There's a few hundred beaches around the circumference of the island. Most are still 'undiscovered' by outsiders.”  Two-bedroom homes in good neighbourhoods cost about $200 per month, Yang wrote, and luxuries such as top-flight French cuisine cost a third of t...

STOCKHOLM — Parishioners text tithes to their churches. Homeless street vendors carry mobile credit-card readers. Even the  Abba Museum, despite being a shrine to the 1970s pop group that wrote “Money, Money, Money,” considers cash so last-century that it does not accept bills and coins. Few places are tilting toward a cashless future as quickly as  Sweden , which has become hooked on the convenience of paying by app and plastic. This tech-forward country, home to the music streaming service Spotify and the maker of the Candy Crush mobile games, has been lured by the innovations that make digital payments easier. It is also a practical matter, as many of the country’s banks no longer accept or dispense cash. At the  Abba  Museum, “we don’t want to be behind the times by taking cash while cash is dying out,” said Bjorn Ulvaeus, a former Abba member who has leveraged the band’s legacy into a sprawling business empire, including the museum. Not everyone is cheering. Swe...

Jump media player Media player help Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue. Media caption Zhou Yongkang is the most senior Chinese politician to be put on trial for corruption China's ex-security chief Zhou Yongkang has been jailed for life - the most senior politician to face corruption charges under Communist rule. He was found guilty of bribery, abuse of power and "intentionally disclosing national secrets", China's official Xinhua news agency reports. Until his retirement in 2012, Zhou was one of China's most powerful men. He was put under investigation one year later as part of President Xi Jinping's major anti-corruption campaign. State TV showed a clip of Zhou, 72, pleading guilty at a closed-door trial in the northern city of Tianjin. When responding to the judge, he said he would not launch an appeal. "I've realised the harm I've caused to the party and the people. I plead guilty and I regret my crimes," he sa...

There are still major differences between creditors, Greece in most key areas By   IAN TALLEY  and   GABRIELE STEINHAUSER Updated June 11, 2015 12:28 p.m. ET The International Monetary Fund said it was halting bailout talks with Greece in a stark signal of its exasperation about a lack of progress toward a deal needed to avert a Greek default, as European leaders suggested negotiations were nearing their endgame.