If you have a travellers tale that your aching to tell. Then why not visit the “Travel Sized Bites” section of the Website and share it with the world. Travel Sized Bites

If you want to make a statement about the new increased airport tax, here’s a petition to sign. Signatures are valid to 12^th March 2007.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Reduce Government Airport.

If you’ve ever visited the US, you may have shopped at a Target store – the Beetle likes them very much. Late December 2006, Target got into a bit of trouble for selling a CD carrying case with a picture of Che Guevara on it. US Critics said that the image represented a Marxist revolutionary, a murderer and a totalitarian symbol – in other words, the product was said to make fashionable a person partially responsible for bringing Fidel Castro’s Communist rule to Cuba. French owned Target apologised and withdrew the item from their US stores. Hhhmmm, did I say French? What’s going to happen to all those Che Guevara T-shirts students like to wear?

And still on the subject of images – this time on clothing – an Australian airline passenger stopped from boarding a flight for wearing a T-shirt labelling President Bush a terrorist (nooooo!) has threatened legal action against Australia’s Qantas. Allen Jasson, 55, an Australian IT expert who lives in the UK, was prevented from boarding a London-bound Qantas flight at Melbourne Airport last for wearing a T-shirt of Bush with the tagline “World’s number 1 terrorist.” Qantas said that the T-shirt could have upset other passengers and demanded it be changed for another. But Jasson, who had earlier travelled on a Qantas domestic flight wearing the Bush T-shirt, said his right to freedom of speech had been infringed by Qantas.

The Beetle wonders what would British Airways have made of the 1970 punk era’s favourite God Save the Queen T-shirt designed by British fashion icon Vivienne Westwood depicting the queen with safety pins?

Do you have a view on what you should be allowed to wear when boarding a plane? Write in and tell the Beetle.

Despite pleas for clemency from human rights groups, Singapore has executed a Nigerian man and another stateless man from Africa. One was arrested at Changi airport in Singapore in 2004, carrying almost a million dollars worth of heroin whilst the other man was convicted as the intended recipient of the drugs. Singapore is believed to have one of the world’s highest rates of execution per capita. The People’s Republic of China performed more than 3400 executions in 2004, amounting to more than 90% of executions worldwide. Texas conducts more executions than any of the other U.S. states that still permit capital punishment, with 370 executions between 1976 and 2006. Singapore has the highest execution rate relative to its populations, with 70 hangings for a population of about 4 million.

Only about a quarter of the population of the US (latest estimate 298 million as at July 2006) hold valid passports, and most Americans are used to being allowed able to travel to neighbouring countries with just a driver’s license or birth certificate. Things have changed: now Canadian, Mexican and Bermudan air travellers, as well as U.S. citizens flying home from those countries or the Caribbean, must carry their passports to enter the United States. The new rules do not apply to U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

For now, the rules affect only air travellers. Land and sea travellers will not have to show passports until at least January 2008. Air travellers who cannot produce a passport will have the delightful experience of being interviewed by customs agents, who will decide whether to let them into the country.

News comes of four women from the Highlands region in Papua New Guinea accused of using sorcery to cause a fatal road crash have been murdered. A BBC report says that it is believed the victims were tortured by fellow villagers in a remote highland region 400km (250 miles) north of capital Port Moresby. It is said that they were forced to confess to witchcraft after they were stabbed with hot metal rods. There is little precedent of prosecuting those involved in incidents such as this; communities are very tight knit and are often no go areas for the police. Human rights campaigners say it is not uncommon in Papua New Guinea for women suspected of witchcraft to be killed.

The zoo in Adelaide has put a group of humans on display to raise awareness about primate conservation. The humans will be locked in an unused orang-utan cage for a month, in pretty warm weather conditions with bananas for food. They will be monitored by a psychologist who hopes to use the findings to improve conditions for real apes in captivity. Audiences are encouraged to vote for their favourite “ape” via mobile phone text messages, in the style of reality television shows, and at the end of the month, a “super human” will be selected to represent the zoo.

US space agency NASA has said it plans to start work on a permanently-occupied base on the Moon after astronauts begin flying back there in 2020. The base is likely to be built on one of the Moon’s poles and will serve as a science centre and possible stepping stone for manned missions to Mars. NASA is also expected to ask other countries – and businesses – to help it build the base. According to venerable news resource Reuters, funds for building the lunar base will be diverted from the space shuttle programme, which is to be phased out by 2010. After the Columbia space shuttle accident, US President George W Bush announced plans to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020.

British train fares have increased yet again as from January 1^st 2007. The Association of Train Operating Companies said that regulated fares, including season tickets and saver tickets, would rise an average 4.3 percent. Unregulated fares, like cheap day returns and long distance open tickets, would rise an average 4.7 percent. And guess what, travelers, the largest average price rises, 7.3 percent, are on the Gatwick Express and Heathrow Express trains linking London to its two main airports.

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

Hello everyone, my name is Kamila. I’m planning to trek in National Parks of the Andes in December 07 for several months. And I’m looking for someone to join me because as everyone knows walking alone is not that safe. I’d like to ask anyone reading this if they are planning or just considering going to South America around December to drop me an email. The more people the more fun. My email is: abrakadabra.7@hotmail.com

News from the China Daily that taxi drivers in China’s financial capital of Shanghai are to be issued with “spit sacks” to curb their habit of rolling down their windows and hawking into the road. Spitting cabbies will soon have a sack fixed to the metal grill that surrounds the driver’s seat, so that both (delightfully) they and their passengers can make use of it. The special sacks will be distributed to 45,000 taxis by the Shanghai Patriotic Sanitation Committee to reduce spitting in public places, a habit Chinese authorities say they have long been trying to discourage. Perhaps this is pre-planning for the 2008 China Olympic games, though reports say that it is designed “to make people give up the ugly and unhygienic habit and present a healthy city for the 2010 World Expo.”

The value of having a photocopy of the first page of your passport proved to be true for a lady military friend of mine. On a Saturday getting off tour bus in Dublin gypsies stole her purse in which she had passport, military ID, plane ticket (she was due to leave London the next day to come back to the States) baggage checks etc etc but she did have a photocopy of

first page of her passport in a separate location on her from the passport. The tour bus driver drove her immediately to the American Embassy and it was amazing what she got done on a Saturday afternoon just before they closed. They gave her an emergency temporary passport and I

think she had numbers on her airline ticket written down separately too

although she had to pay a fine to get ticket reissued. While you don’t

want to lose our passport it you have photo copy of first page of your

passport not all is evidently lost.

Police recently arrested a Kazak man trying to smuggle 500 parrots in his car from neighbouring Uzbekistan. Border guards are said to have discovered a live cargo of 500 parrots in his Audi. It was unclear how the parrots fit into the Kazakh man’s Audi. Trade in wild parrots is banned around the world, according to the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Most EU citizens are not aware of their rights to seek help from fellow- members’ embassies when traveling abroad. A recent EU survey found only 23 percent of those questioned knew they could turn to other EU national embassies. Plans are afoot to increase awareness and protection of travelers.

A 41 year old Australian abalone diver recently told rescuers how he was partly swallowed head-first by a Great White Shark off Cape Howe, near Eden on Australia’s southeast coast but managed to fight his way free after trying to punch the shark in the eye. He escaped suffering a broken nose and bite marks around the chest. The diver told fellow divers he didn’t see the 3 meter (10 foot) shark coming as the water was so dirty that visibility was severely limited.

Spotted by webmaster Paul, here’s a great link to a Fodor website which outlines just some of the world’s great train journeys.

Guides aimed at the discerning traveller who wants to do more than simply tick off the sights. 15% discount to GT members when shopping online or via our mail order service. Enter/ quote the coupon code GT/07 at time of ordering. Shop at www.bradtguides.com or +44 (0) 1753 893444.

A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in Sydney, Australia managed to land 13,000 kilometres away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking web site. Dressed for the Australian summer in t-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany for a four-week holiday. Instead of arriving “down under,” Gutt found himself on a different continent and in the chilly state of Montana. “I did wonder but I didn’t want to say anything,” Gutt told the Bild newspaper. “I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States.” Gutt’s airline ticket routed him via the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, to Billings, Montana. Only as he was about to board a commuter flight to Sidney — an oil town of about 5,000 people — did he realise his mistake. Mr Gutt, who had only a thin jacket to keep out the winter cold, spent three days in Billings airport before he was able to buy a new ticket to Australia with 600 euros in cash that his parents and friends sent over from Germany.

If you would like to sign an electronic petition to campaign against a proposal which inserts Islamic Sharia into the constitution of Kurdistan – go to this link. The petition organisers consider the inclusion of the Sharia clause as t a major attack on the basic rights and liberties of the people of this region. In particular, they say, it will have worrying consequences for the rights of women and for the space for secular and progressive opinion in Kurdistan to find a voice. We want to make the world aware of this threat and mobilise to counter it.