Since 2001, in Swaziland, teenage girls have had to wear large
\n woollen tassels as a sign of their chastity. Now news comes that
\n Swaziland's King Mswati III has ended a five-year sex ban he
\n imposed on the kingdom's teenage girls a year early and there
\n is to be a ceremony where all tassels are burned. The sex ban was
\n allegedly imposed to fight the spread of HIV\/Aids.<\/p>\n
The king fined himself a cow for breaking the ban by marrying again
\n – he married a 17-year-old girl as his ninth wife just two months
\n after imposing the sex-ban in September 2001, sparking
\n unprecedented protests by Swazi women outside the royal palace.
\n Swaziland has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates,
\n at about 40% of the population. Meanwhile, the health ministry has
\n released new figures which show that 29% of Swazis aged 15-19 are
\n HIV positive and for pregnant women, the figures were 42%.<\/p>\n
British airline bmi plans to launch daily services to Mumbai. Bmi,
\n which hopes to compete with larger rivals British Airways and
\n Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic, starts the four-times-a-week
\n service from London to Mumbai this Saturday.<\/p>\n
Kenya Airways will start direct flights to Istanbul in June 2005,
\n hoping to serve an increasing number of African traders visiting
\n Turkey. The twice weekly flights to Istanbul will make Kenya
\n Airways the only airline from sub-Saharan Africa to fly to Turkey,
\n the airline said.<\/p>\n
Mexico's government is privatising top carriers Mexicana and
\n Aeromexico, and has recently handed out concessions to low-cost
\n airlines. A Mexican billionaire called Carlos Slim and broadcaster
\n Televisa are joining forces in a new low-cost airline to be called
\n Vuela. Vuela already has a concession to operate and expects to
\n begin flights in the first half of next year from the international
\n airport in Toluca, west of Mexico City. Earlier in July 2005,
\n Brazilian airline Gol said it planned to launch a low-cost carrier
\n in Mexico. Another new airline, ABC Aerolineas, also plans to begin
\n service in the low-cost market, which has quickly grown in the
\n United States and Europe with mixed results.<\/p>\n
Yes, it is possible to tour one of the most famous television
\n centres in the world. The tour lasts up to 2 hours. You'll see
\n into the studios, visit BBC News, play in the interactive studio
\n and be shown around by well-informed, entertaining guides.<\/p>\n
Please note that Television Centre is a working building so no two
\n tours are ever the same.<\/p>\n
Pre-booking is essential. Regular tours Monday to Saturday. They
\n are open to anyone over 9 years old.<\/p>\n
Prices – Adult £8.95 Concession £7.95<\/p>\n
Students £6.50<\/p>\n
Children (over 9 years) – £6.50<\/p>\n
Family ticket (2 adults & 2 children or 1 adult & 3
\n children) £25.00<\/p>\n
Group rates available
Prices valid until 31st March 2006<\/p>\n
To book tickets:<\/p>\n
Please call: 0870 603 0304<\/p>\n
Outside the UK call: +44 28 9053 5904<\/p>\n
Textphone for hearing-impaired callers: 0870 903 0304<\/p>\n
If you have any special interests or requirements please state them
\n at the time of booking.<\/p>\n
The Inka Porter Project has issued a new set of environmental
\n guidelines for trekkers on the Inca Trail in Peru and other Andean
\n hiking circuits. Visit their website at www.peruweb.org\/porters for the full
\n guidelines, which give advice on dealing with rubbish, washing with
\n biodegradable soap, using refillable water bottles, toilet
\n etiquette while trekking, and how best to respect flora and fauna.<\/p>\n
Reunion Kingston London Sunday 11th Sept 2005 for any member of In a speech accusing the South African government of failing to According to the South African Law Commission, only 6% of violent Spotted by Webmaster Paul, here's a satellite photo from Google French President Jacques Chirac has again urged world leaders to Chirac, who told the World Economic Forum in January that a tax of “I offer you to associate yourselves with the establishment of The Group of Eight industrialized nations have decided to consider Chirac's idea has received support from Germany, but even Every September the annual Open House Two former America West pilots have been convicted of operating a Judge David Young sentenced Thomas Cloyd, 47, to five years behind The pilots' Airbus A319 aircraft was being towed to the runway Unusually high concentrations of jellyfish have appeared along France<\/b>: water-rationing is in place across more than half of Spain<\/b>: is suffering its worst drought since records began in Portugal<\/b>: Portugal faces its worst dry spell since the Italy<\/b>: the temperature has topped 35C (95F) in cities According to the Nepal Tourism Bureau, in the first four months of The Maoist insurgents, who have been fighting the government since Many foreigners have stayed away from Nepal. Peace Corps activities Huge parts of the countryside are effectively no man's land, Sometimes a tourist hotel is bombed, but it is said that this some Educational travel conference at York St John College in York, UK A practical day of advice and guidance to help prepare and support Young travellers, educators and parents are Full programme of experts including former BBC war correspondent For further information, see: When the first modern humans evolved in Africa, they lived mainly Need to convert currency?<\/p>\n Take a look at The Potential good news for those wishing to travel to Spain. According Since 2001, in Swaziland, teenage girls have had to wear large woollen tassels as a sign of their chastity. Now news comes that Swaziland's King Mswati III has ended a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","css_class_manager_body_classes":"","css_class_manager_use_in_post_loop":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sidebar"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n Globetrotters who travelled overland to India or on the rail tours
\n organised by Butterfields. Please e-mail butterfieldashley@yahoo.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n
\n
\n make crime a priority issue, a South African politician claims that
\n the murder rate in South Africa is roughly the same as the death
\n rate from terror attacks on civilians in Iraq. “The murder
\n rate in South Africa, at about 43 murders per 100 000 people, is
\n roughly the same as the death rate from terror attacks on civilians
\n in Iraq” were the figures quoted. “So, despite the
\n government's claims that crime is 'stabilising', South
\n Africans are still living in what amounts to a state of civil war
\n between criminals and law-abiding residents.<\/p>\n
\n crimes reported to police result in a conviction, and 75% do not
\n even make it to court. South Africa's overcrowded prisons were
\n described as “universities of crime”. and said they are
\n not rehabilitating criminals. An alarming recent trend is the rise
\n in crime involving youths. “Forty-four percent of the children
\n under 14 who were taken to Durban mortuaries in 2004 had been shot
\n dead, for example.” Young people are also, increasingly, the
\n perpetrators of crime. “The number of children convicted of
\n violent crime jumped by 5% from 2003 to 2004, according to the
\n National Institution for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of
\n Offenders.<\/p>\n
\n
\n of the
\n Lake District<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n
\n impose a levy on airline tickets to finance extra aid for Africa.
\n If accepted, the tax would be imposed on tickets of planes leaving
\n from airports in participating countries.<\/p>\n
\n USD$1 per airline ticket could raise USD$10 billion a year to fund
\n campaigns against diseases in Africa, pressed his case in a letter
\n he wrote to more than 140 world leaders.<\/p>\n
\n an international solidarity contribution on plane tickets, aimed,
\n particularly, at financing the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and
\n malaria”.<\/p>\n
\n imposing a levy on airline tickets to finance extra aid for Africa,
\n a proposal which has run into opposition in Europe and the United
\n States.<\/p>\n
\n though talks so far have centered on a voluntary tax, some other
\n European governments, including tourist destinations Greece and
\n Italy, have given the idea an icy reception.<\/p>\n
\n
\n London event takes place and this year the dates are 17th &
\n 18th September 2005. Over 600 buildings are opening their doors to
\n everyone and turning the capital into a living architectural
\n exhibition. And it's absolutely free!<\/p>\n
\n
\n packed passenger plane while drunk and sent to prison on Thursday
\n by a Florida judge, who called their crime “outrageous and
\n horrendous.” <\/p>\n
\n bars — the maximum term — and Christopher Hughes, 44, to 2-1\/2
\n years in prison for trying to fly from Miami Airport on July 1,
\n 2002, after a night of beer drinking.<\/p>\n
\n for takeoff to Phoenix with 124 passengers and three flight
\n attendants aboard when it was ordered back to the terminal. A
\n security screener had reported that the pilots smelled of alcohol.
\n They had spent the evening before playing pool and drinking at a
\n Miami area bar. They left the bar around 5 a.m. after running up a
\n tab for 14 jumbo glasses of beer — the equivalent of nearly 22
\n pints (10.5 litres) — and showed up late for the 10:30 a.m.
\n flight. FAA rules bar pilots from consuming alcohol for eight hours
\n before a flight.<\/p>\n
\n
\n Spain's Mediterranean coast this summer. The Red Cross said its
\n lifeguards had treated almost 11,000 people for stings on beaches
\n so far this season in the north eastern region of Catalonia alone,
\n twice the number from the same period last year, when the jellyfish
\n count had already begun to rise. Factors like drought, heat and
\n over fishing contribute to a rising jellyfish count, according to
\n the international environmental group Oceana.<\/p>\n
\n
\n France, with the west particularly affected by drought. A plague of
\n locusts in the south of France, around Aveyron, has been put down
\n to the continuing dry, hot weather.<\/p>\n
\n 1947, with the east particularly badly hit. Temperatures have risen
\n to 40C (104F) in parts of Andalusia, in the south. Water is also
\n being rationed across half the country, including in major tourist
\n centres.<\/p>\n
\n 1940s. Some 97% of the country is suffering a severe or extreme
\n drought, ministers say. Shortages are particularly acute in the
\n Algarve region, where the population more than doubles during the
\n peak tourist season.<\/p>\n
\n including Milan, Florence and Turin. Several people have died in
\n northern Italy as a result of the intense heat.<\/p>\n
\n
\n this year, covering the peak spring tourist season, Nepal logged
\n roughly 72,000 tourists, a reduction of 34 percent from the same
\n period last year. The Tourism Board has also tried to lure back
\n trekkers, slashing fees by half – to about $5,000 for a team of
\n seven – for some prime peaks, including Kanchenjunga, which at
\n 8,600 meters, or 28,200 feet, is the world's third-highest
\n mountain. Government tourism officials have said that Nepal, after
\n King Gyanendra's emergency proclamation, is safer than ever
\n before.<\/p>\n
\n 1996, officially welcome foreign tourists. Well, they would – a
\n significant part of their income is derived from charges or tolls
\n extracted from individual tourists, lodges and other
\n tourism-related industries.<\/p>\n
\n were suspended in September because the U.S. government lists the
\n Maoist rebel group as a terrorist organization so American citizens
\n are forbidden to contribute funds, goods or services to or for the
\n benefit of the Maoists, according to the State Department.<\/p>\n
\n where the rebels or government troops may be found. On the
\n Annapurna trail, there are plenty of rebels who try to collect
\n their taxes from tourists and it is considered dangerous to refuse
\n the demands of the guerrillas. The Mount Everest trail from Lukla
\n onward remains untouched by fighting, according to trekking groups
\n that organize tours to Everest.<\/p>\n
\n of these attacks are staged because the hotel owner's payments
\n to the guerrillas have been regarded as unsatisfactory. The latest
\n incident came on May 20, when a hotel in Pokhara, in the foothills
\n of the Himalayas and a stop on the Annapurna trail, was attacked
\n with a homemade bomb, injuring two waiters.<\/p>\n
\n
\n on Saturday 15th October 2005 from 9.30 am to 5.00 pm. Tickets cost
\n £15 (£10 for students) including lunch and refreshments.<\/p>\n
\n young travellers on their gap year travels.<\/p>\n
encouraged to attend this one day Educational Travel Conference
\n & Exhibition which will provide information & options on
\n how to get the maximum out of travel experiences whilst keeping
\n safe.<\/p>\n
\n and independent MP, Martin Bell and Deidre Bounds, founder of
\n Leeds-based i-to-i the UK's largest company specialising in
\n volunteer travel.<\/p>\n
www.carolinesrainbowfoundation.org<\/a><\/p>\n
\n
\n on meat hunted from animals. Scientists had always thought the
\n exodus from Africa around 70,000 years ago took place along a
\n northern route into Europe and Asia. Now, according to a new
\n genetic study, it seems that early modern humans followed the
\n beach, possibly lured by a seafood diet. The study believes that
\n humans quickly reached Australia but took much longer to settle in
\n Europe. Dr Martin Richards of the University of Leeds, who took
\n part in the study, says the first humans may have moved south in
\n search of better fishing grounds when stocks in the Red Sea
\n dwindled due to climate change. The new research suggests they
\n moved along the coasts of the Arabian peninsula into India,
\n Indonesia and Australia about 65,000 years ago. An offshoot later
\n led to the settlement of the Middle East and Asia about 30 to
\n 40,000 years ago.<\/p>\n
\n
\n Globetrotters Currency Converter<\/a> – get the exchange rates for
\n 164 currencies The
\n Globetrotters Currency Cheat Sheet<\/a> – create and print a
\n currency converter table for your next trip.<\/p>\n
\n
\n to newspaper ABC, Spain's flag-carrier Iberia will launch a
\n low-cost airline at the beginning of next year. The new airline may
\n be called “Mediterranea” and will have its hub in the
\n Mediterranean city of Barcelona, the paper said. An Iberia
\n spokeswoman said it was still considering the option of a no-frills
\n sibling, but nothing had been decided yet. “We still don't
\n know whether we're going to do it or not,” the spokeswoman
\n said. “It's something that will be covered in the
\n strategic plan we'll unveil in September.” <\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"