The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office have the following to say about Indonesia: we advise against all non-essential travel to Indonesia. (Which is a great pity as the Beetle is going to Bali very soon).

There is a high general threat from terrorism in Indonesia. We continue to receive information that indicates terrorists are planning further attacks, including against Westerners, throughout the country. If you are already in Indonesia you should consider leaving if your presence is not essential. If you choose to remain in Indonesia you should exercise extreme caution in public places.

You should avoid large crowds and demonstrations, particularly in the run-up to the Presidential elections on 5 July and 20 September.

The dengue fever mosquito is found throughout Indonesia including in Jakarta. Visitors should be aware that there has been a significant increase in reported cases of Dengue Fever in Jakarta over the last couple of months. People should take elementary precautions against mosquitoes.

Rwanda is marking the 10th anniversary of the 1994 genocide, one of the worst atrocities of the late 20th century – alongside what happened in the Balkans. A bit of background – it was triggered by the shooting down of a plane with Rwanda’s Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana onboard on 6 April 1994. By amazing coincidence the wreckage landed in the garden of the presidential residence. The crash served as a signal to Hutu extremists, supporters of the government, to start the systematic extermination of minority ethnic Tutsis and any Hutu opponents of the regime. The former UN commander in Rwanda said Western states were “criminally responsible” for the genocide. Canadian General Romeo Dallaire said France, which led the small international peacekeeping force at the time of the genocide, the UK and the US in particular did not care enough to stop the killing. The killing continued for 100 days before a Tutsi-dominated rebel army seized control.

A drunken woman looking for a place to sleep slipped past security and onto an aircraft at Aberdeen Airport in Scotland where she dozed unnoticed for several hours, sparking a review of security.

BAA, the airports owners, said that it had launched a full investigation after the woman — reported by a newspaper to be a scantily clad stripper — scaled a fence and boarded a private jet. A UK tabloid said that 22 year old Soraya Wilson was discovered eight hours after she passed out in the plane’s cockpit. She is reported to have said: “I don’t know who was more embarrassed when they found me, the security men or me, because I was just wearing my knickers and a little top when I woke up.”.

New European low-cost airline WIZZ Air plan to start flights from Budapest to seven European cities from June 24. Destinations include London, Barcelona, Athens, Rome, Paris, Prague and Katowice from Budapest. From July 1 it would add Paris, Munich, Athens, Barcelona, Dortmund and Stockholm to its destinations from Poland, it added.

Qantas, Australia’s biggest airline has announced that it plans to start a new low cost Asian airline in November 2004. The new airline will be called Jetstar, the same name as Qantas’s new low-cost domestic venture. The new airline will be the fifth budget operator to fly to and from Singapore, following Thai AirAsia, a joint venture between Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia and Thailand’s Shin Corp, and Jakarta-based Lion Air, which both already operate flights. Valuair, owned by ex-Singapore Airlines staff, has just started flying. Tiger Airways, a budget venture between Singapore Airlines and Irish discount airline Ryanair is expected to start operations this year.

European travel agent Thomas Cook has said that its airline Condor planned to offer cut-price flights on long-distance journeys. Proposed services include flights to the US, Caribbean, Africa and Asia with prices starting at EUR99 (USD$120).