Pope Francis pops out of Vatican to buy new glasses

Pope Francis drew crowds for an unusual reason on Thursday - after slipping out of the Vatican to visit an optician.

While the optician normally delivers new glasses to the Vatican, Pope Francis insisted on travelling to the shop in central Rome this time.

Large crowds gathered outside the shop as he spent an hour inside, at the end of which he insisted on paying.

Pope Francis has reportedly expressed regret at not being able to walk freely on Rome's streets.

The Pope was accompanied by an assistant, a bodyguard and several police officers on his visit.

A German tourist, Daniel Soehe, said he had failed to see Pope Francis in the Vatican earlier in the day, but then spotted him in the optician's shop.

"I told my father, 'Hey, that was better than going to St Peter's dome: Seeing the Pope in a shop trying on new glasses'," he told the Associated Press news agency.

While archbishop of Buenos Aires, he was often seen travelling on public transport or walking through the city.

In a profile in National Geographic magazine this month, Pope Francis is quoted as saying: "You know how often I've wanted to go walking through the streets of Rome - because in Buenos Aires, I liked to go for a walk in the city.

"I really liked to do that. In this sense, I feel a little penned in."

The 21-year-old building India's largest hotel network

One night, 18-year-old Ritesh Agarwal was locked out of his apartment in Delhi. It was an unfortunate minor incident that was to change his life.

Forced to check into a hotel he found himself in a situation he had already experienced several times while travelling in India.

"The receptionist was sleeping," he says.

"Sockets did not work in the room, mattresses were torn apart, the bathroom was leaking, and at the end they wouldn't let me pay by card."

"I felt if this was my problem, this had to be a problem for many travellers. Why can't India have a good standard of hotel rooms at a reasonable price?''

Four years later, at the age of 21, Mr Agarwal is now the founder and chief executive of Oyo Rooms - a network of 2,200 hotels operating in 100 cities across India - with monthly revenues of $3.5m (£2.3m) and 1,500 employees.

The firm works with unbranded hotels to improve their facilities and train staff, rebrands them with its own name, and from then on takes a percentage of the hotel's revenues.

The owner of the hotel benefits from a higher occupancy rate, thanks to Oyo's branding.

And as part of the business, Mr Agarwal has also developed an app, which guests can use to book rooms, get directions to the hotel, and once they have arrived, to use the hotels amenities, for example to order room service.

Tough journey

Despite such rapid growth, he says the early days were "extremely difficult".

"No one would believe that this could be a technology business in the future," he says.

But some people did believe in him. A similar idea - which eventually evolved into Oyo Rooms - won him a coveted Thiel Fellowship - a programme sponsored by PayPal co-creator and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel - which pays for 20 teenagers each year to stop studying and try to set up a business instead.

He used the funding from the fellowship to start the business.

Russia: Government mobile app to help alcoholics

The Russian government is trying to tackle the country's notoriously high alcoholism rate with the launch of a free mobile app.

The app will provide information for "people battling addictions that are very hard to fight" in order to help them to stay clean, says Yevgeny Bryun, the health ministry's leading narcotics official. He tells the M24 news website that it will offer details of nearby support meetings for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts, medical advice on keeping the problem under control, and access to online radio programmes run by Alcoholics Anonymous.

The app should be up and running next year, but Mr Bryun says other resources are already being made available, including a new radio network for rehabilitation clinics, where "specialists and alcoholics will talk about recovering".

Experts are lining up in support of the plan, which they see as a serious attempt to tackle what Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called Russia's drinking-culture "national disaster". "Information technology can play a very important role here, as you can't change these patients with pills," Dr Oleg Zykov, a leading Moscow drugs specialist, tells M24.

Russian men are estimated to drink about 70% more pure alcoholthan their American counterparts, and United Nations figures suggest alcohol was the main culprit in 30% of all deaths in Russia in 2012. Government incentives, penalties and price hikes seem to be making little difference. But the ideas keep on coming. In Moscow, a pilot scheme will see the city's health department issue certificates to people who stay clean, and the head of Russia's anti-drugs service has evensuggested devoting a television channel to helping people beat their addictions.

S Korea: Incoming-only mobile phones for barracks

More than 44,000 mobile phones are being distributed to South Korea's military personnel - but they can only receive calls.

The phones are being given to members of all four branches of Korea's armed forces - the army, navy, air force and marines - to make it easier for them to stay in touch with friends and family while in their barracks,the Chosun Ilbo website reports. At the moment, urgent private calls have to be taken through an administration office.

Due to defence ministry budget restrictions, the scheme was initially only going to apply to barracks in remote areas or on the front line, the report notes. But after telecoms company LG Uplus stepped in to fund the cost of the handsets and the network maintenance, the number was increased to 44,686 phones, covering every one of the military's barracks. The company reportedly agreed to foot the bill after hearing that some patriotic conscripts delayed their discharge from military service until recent cross-border tensions with North Korea eased.

Until now, mobile phones have been deemed a security issue and have been forbidden to members of South Korea's armed forces, meaning a reliance on the dwindling number of public payphones in the country. Using the one-way phones will only be allowed during free time in the evening and before a 22:00 curfew. But perhaps to avoid service personnel waiting in vain for their phones to ring, they'll also be able to send certain preset text messages, such as: "Please call me today." The ministry says the scheme will "help ease anxiety" for both soldiers and their families.