Afghanistan's only five-star hotel is also a virtual fortress, surrounded by blast barriers, metal detectors, multiple reinforced gates and heavily armed guards.

ECONOMIST: A bombing in Kabul

The STAR programme is therefore designed to provide virtual and face-to-face training services and technical assistance to Adult Basic Education (ABE) instructors or teachers in order to enhance their knowledge about and capacity to effectively use evidence-based reading instruction strategies or practices to teach and assist adult learners to improve their reading skills.

UNESCO: STudent Achievement in Reading (STAR)

These ranged from jumping and flying games to a yoga simulator and Star Wars shooter, in which players control a virtual light sabre and use hand gestures to control action on the screen.

BBC: Microsoft unveils Xbox 'Kinect' motion controller

The group of folks bent on crafting a real-life version of Star Trek's "Holodeck" -- a virtual playground, essentially -- are getting official support from gaming hardware company Razer.

ENGADGET: Project Holodeck gets help from Razer, swaps Kinect for Move tracking

Released just prior to All-Star weekend, Adrenalyn allows kids to set up their own decks of virtual cards and use the stats to compete against the computer or each other in virtual basketball.

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