BAA's expert Personal Shoppers are
there to help you find exactly what you're looking for,
every step of the way. For complimentary and
impartial advice on special offers and gift ideas, why not
ask for guidance from one of the team.
They're available on request in each
terminal, but you can also book their assistance in advance
by calling 0780 000 1 000
If you want to see the Three Gorges (the
Qutang, Wuxia and the Xiling) before they are lost for ever
– as a result of the controversial dam project on the
Yangtze, you should aim to see them before November
1st 2002. After this date,
there will be a diversion around the Three Gorges and the
Yangtze will not be navigable until after the flooding has
taken place in 2003.
Following a fire that killed at least 24
and injured 13 others in one of Beijing's internet
parlours, the mayor of Beijing has ordered the immediate
closure of all cyber cafes in the Chinese capital.
Mayor Liu Qi also suspended new licences
that are still waiting for safety inspections. An official
hi-tech police – nicknamed “the great firewall of
China” – keeps watch over the internet 24 hours a day.
A few weeks ago, a senior figure in China's Communist
government expressed concern about the amount of time young
people are spending surfing the internet and called for
tighter regulation of cyber cafes.
Tens of thousands of internet cafes have
sprung up in China in recent years, with many people –
especially the young – seizing the chance to explore life
in other countries through the internet. Journalists say
China's tight controls on the internet have driven many
operators underground.
One of the oldest indigenous peoples,
the Inuit, have turned to one of the most modern forms of
communication to tell the world about their culture.
The Inuit are a founding people of
Canada. Inuit hunters and their families started crossing
the 320-kilometres-wide (200 miles) Bering Land Bridge from
Siberia perhaps 30,000 years ago, then wandered slowly
across the Polar north, reaching Greenland 50 centuries
ago.
The Inuit were an entirely nomadic,
hunting people until about 50 years ago, when the central
government began an effort to bring them into mainstream
Canadian life. They now live across the Arctic
reaches of northern Canada, where they are struggling to
decrease high rates of alcoholism, suicide, teenage
pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
They have launched a website detailing
their 5,000-year-old history, cataloguing their origins,
when they first came into contact with white explorers and
their struggle for land rights. Part of the reason for
setting up the website was to tell the story of the Inuit
in their own words, as until now, most of the research on
Inuit culture and history has been done by others. http://www.tapirisat.ca/
India: the Canadian Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade lifted its travel
advisory for India on July 23, 2002, but maintains that
Canadians should still not travel to Jammu and Kashmir and
those areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Punjab close to the
border, and areas of Ladakh close to the Line of
Control. Some progress has been made in reducing
tensions between India and Pakistan. However, the
security situation remains unpredictable and could
deteriorate at short notice. This can be expected to
continue for the foreseeable future. Should there be
an escalation of hostilities, commercial travel could be
disrupted, limiting travellers' ability to depart on
short notice. All Canadian citizens are encouraged to
monitor developments and to register with the Canadian High
Commission in New Delhi. See the Department's
Travel Reports for destination-specific
information.
Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett has
reached Australia and finally succeeded on his 6th attempt
in becoming the first solo balloonist to circumnavigate the
globe, completed after covering nearly 20,000 miles (32,000
kilometres) around the southern hemisphere. It took
13 days in the air and his silvery balloon, often travelled
along at speeds up to 200 mph (322 km/h), at an altitude
more familiar to jetliners.
The British Museum, one of the greatest
museums in the world, tops the visitor charts.
Founded in 1753, it is also the oldest museum in the world
and its contents catalogue over two million years of world
history and culture. With over 94 galleries and
thousands of artefacts, the British Museum will have
something for everyone! The most famous exhibits
include the Elgin Marbles – sculptures from the Parthenon
in Athens, Egyptian mummies and the Rosetta Stone.
The Reading Room was recently incorporated into the Great
Court (a huge covered courtyard) has witnessed the likes of
Karl Marx, Mahatma Ghandi and George Bernard Shaw working
there. Admission is free and there are lots of events
and special exhibitions taking place throughout the
year.
The British
Museum opens daily 10:00-17:30 Sat-Wed, 10:00-20:30
Thurs-Fri (selected galleries). The Great Court opens
09:00-18:00 Mon-Wed, 09:00-23:00 Thurs, Fri and 09:00-18:00
Sat and Sun, closed 24-26 Dec and 1 Jan. Tube: Tottenham
Court Road, Holborn or Russell Square. Enquiries: 020 7323
8299
A disease which has devastated one type
of Caribbean coral, Elkhorn coral, has been traced back to
bacteria found in human faeces. On some reefs, 95% of
Elkhorn corals, which used to be the commonest coral in the
Caribbean, have been wiped out by the condition, called
white pox that shows itself as white spots on the coral,
which spread and kill the coral, destroying the living
tissue. On average, the disease spreads at a rate of 2.5
square centimetres of coral a day.
The problem is particularly bad in the
Florida Keys, where human waste is treated in septic fields
rather than extensively treated to kill bacteria. It
is thought to be the first time that a human gut bacterium
has been linked to coral disease.
Under 30? A member of Globetrotters
Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?
Know someone who is? We have £1,000
to award each year for five years for the best submitted
independent travel plan. Interested?
Then see our legacy
page on our Website, where you can apply with your
plans for a totally independent travel trip and we'll
take a look at it. Get those plans in!!
The FCO has just developed a web page of
advice for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
traveller. It starts by saying: “Attitudes
towards gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender travellers
around the world can be very different to those in the UK.
However, despite potential extra hassles, it is possible to
have a very positive and enjoyable travelling
experience. One thing's for sure: the better
prepared you are, the fewer problems you are likely to
have. We hope the following tips will help you.”
The page then goes on to give some
sensible and quite detailed advice on a range of advice
about how to avoid problems, down to how to obtain a new
passport with a new post operative trans-gender
identity. Visit:
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender