Singapore has just lifted a 40 year ban on gambling to build two new casinos. One of these has caused public complaints as it is to displace Singapore’s only horse riding school.

Ministers from 23 countries in Africa and south-east Asia have appealed for international help to save the world's great apes from extinction.

Urgent action was needed to protect the great apes and provide sustainable ways of living for local communities, the UN-backed meeting in Kinshasa agreed.

Poaching and damage to forest habitats have led gorilla, chimpanzee, bonobo and orang-utan numbers to fall sharply.

Recent research from the United States publication Foreign Policy and the US NGO “Fund for Peace” has identified the twenty most vulnerable countries as: Ivory Coast, Congo, Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Chad, Yemen, Liberia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Rwanda, North Korea, Colombia, Zimbabwe, Guinea, Bangladesh, Burundi, Dominican Republic and Central African Republic. Ten Latin American countries out of the list of sixty that run the risk of becoming what is described as “failed states” are: Haiti, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras.

The “failed states” ranking is based on twelve economic, social, political and military performance indicators.  Other organisations have different views.  The World Bank has identified about 30 “low-income countries under stress”; the UK's Department for International Development has named 46 “fragile” states of concern.  A report commissioned by the CIA has put the number of failing states at about 20.

On Wednesday, 29th March 2006, the shadow of the Moon will sweep a band starting from Brazil, through Atlantic Ocean, Gold Coast of Africa, Saharan Desert, Mediterranean Sea, Turkey, Black Sea, Georgia, Russian Federation, northern shores of Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan; ending in Mongolia. The duration of totality will be less than 2 minutes near the sunrise and sunset limits, but will be as long as 4 minutes and 7 seconds in Libya, at the moment of greatest eclipse.  The partial phases will be witnessed by all of Europe. All Asia west of Yakutsk, Mongolia, central China and Myanmar, and north of the line joining Bombay and Calcutta will see some of the Moon in front of the Sun. Also, only the south eastern parts of Africa will miss the partial eclipse.

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Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, the third and fourth-largest US air carriers, both declared bankruptcy in September citing rising oil prices and low-cost competition among their reasons.

The Beijing Municipal Traffic Administration has launched a campaign to standardise road signs to make it easier for visitors to navigate the city.  Bilingual Chinese-English signs are to be displayed on streets as well as around the city's key tourist attractions. Many would agree that getting around Beijing can be difficult when you see signs saying “export” instead of “exit” for the word chukou and “scatter” instead of “evacuate” for the word shusan.

Indian Railways has announced that it plans to introduce electronic tickets.  Electronic tickets can be purchased for trains between New Delhi and Kalka, in northern India.  Passengers have to show an identity card and the printout of the electronic reservation.

Zimbabwe is said to be about to import four endangered Siberian tigers from China for captive breeding.  China had received zebras, elephants and impala as part of an “exchange programme”. Yes, this comes from a country that is rapidly imploding, people being displaced from their homes and land, rampaging inflation and there is not enough to eat.  A local biologist working in Bulawayo, said the plan was “a complete load of garbage”, adding that the country even lacked the resources to look after its own wildlife.

In some parts of Nepal, particularly the western parts of the country, there is a tradition of keeping women in cow sheds during their menstrual cycle.  Nepal's Supreme Court has ordered the government to declare the practice as evil and have given one month to stop the practice.  Women's rights activists have said that this is a positive move but a change in the law alone is not enough, that people need to be educated against such a scourge of society.

Campaigners organising Malaria Awareness Week say that British tourists are too complacent about contracting malaria as they travel to more and more far flung locations.  In particular, last minute bargain hunters are at risk because they don't leave time to arrange medication.  Last year around 5m travelled to risk areas, but 60% did not take the right health advice before they set out. Around 2,000 Britons get malaria each year, and deaths are low but rising.

In the past two weeks, there have been two major armed robberies at separate hotels in Zanzibar.  The first robbery took place at the Coral Reef Hotel about 28 miles north of Stone Town.  Eight men disguised as police officers, armed with submachine-guns tied up security staff and made off with nearly £15,000 in various currencies, watches and mobile phones. 

Less than a week later, six people armed with a gun and machetes arrived after dark at the Nungwi Village Hotel, an eco-resort in northern Zanzibar (where the Beetle passed a happy 10 days a couple of years ago.)  After threatening to kill staff and guests, the gang robbed them of their laptops, mobile phones and cash before stealing nearly £9,000 from the safe.

Four people have been arrested in relation to the first incident but no arrests have been made re the second robbery.

British health officials are concerned that UK citizens are not taking E111 forms with them when they jump on a plane to EU countries.  Form E111 covers medical treatment at public health centres at the 25 EU countries, plus Switzerland. The forms are currently being replaced by European Health Insurance Cards – the same system under a different name, with neater credit card-sized identification. The Department of Health website (www.dh.gov.uk) has information on the changeover, and how to apply for the new cards.

A restaurant in north east China was closed down for listing stir fried tiger meat with peppers for US $98 or a kilo of tiger meat for US $ 863.  Maybe it was the fact that the sale of tiger meat is outlawed in China or that the restaurant was less than a mile away from a Siberian Tiger Park that attracted the attention of local authorities.  Police raided the restaurant to find that actually the tiger meat was donkey marinated in tiger urine – to give it “a special flavour”.  Hhhmm, nice.

A monk has travelled from China to Ruabon, near Wrexham in Wales to help open a special temple to teach the ancient discipline of Shaolin.  Shi Xing Du will draft a syllabus for students to learn the Shaolin way, which includes kung fu, Chinese medicine, Buddhism and meditation.  The centre of the discipline's teaching is the Shaolin temple in the Henan Province of China, which is a Buddhist temple.  Shi Xing Du said he knew instinctively that north Wales was the right place to create a temple. “Wales is beautiful and I think it is the right place to set up a school,” he said.  Speaking through his disciple Pol Wong, he said the area surrounding the school in Ruabon was similar to the area around the Shaolin temple on the Song Shan Mountain.  To find out more information, see: http://www.chenloong.com/school.htm

Kofi Anan says that substantial increases in illegal fishing, tourism, bio-prospecting, climate change and depletion of the ozone continue to pose major challenges to the Antarctic, and governments should continue to make major efforts to secure the area as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science.  Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing for toothfish in the Southern Ocean still exceeds reported catches despite major efforts to address such activities.  Other major areas of concern are the increase in tourism over the last 10 years.  There is an increase by 308% in ship-borne tourists to the Antarctic Peninsula since 1993, up to 27,324 in 2004-5, from 6,704 in 1992-3.  An increase in high-risk, adventure tourism has also wrought havoc on the region, creating the need for new search and rescue missions and country liability assessments. 

Need help? Want a travelling buddy or advice about a place or country – want to share something with us – why not visit our Mutual Aid section of the Website: Mutual Aid

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According to a recent study, some 30% of European flights from London Heathrow were delayed in 2004.

The average delay per flight was 33 minutes.  Zurich and Vienna were the second and third most affected at 26% and 24% respectively.

The lowest number of delays was reported at Oslo, where 13% of flights were delayed more than 15 minutes, with an average delay of 38.5 minutes. Helsinki, Brussels and Copenhagen airports also reported low delays.

Worst airline performer in the survey was Turkish Airlines with 100% of flights delayed out of Paris Charles de Gaulle, with an average delay of 428 minutes