Category: Sidebar

Love ‘em or hate ‘em (the Beetle prefers Café Nero in London,) Starbucks is coming to town. Starbucks is planning to increase its long-term store expansion target to 40,000 outlets around the world, more than triple the existing number. They currently have 12,000 global outlets, and envisage that half of the planned 40,000 stores will be in the US and the other half overseas – they are aiming to expand into China, India, Egypt, Brazil and Russia.

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

Spotted by webmaster Paul: the show will appear in Calais 28 September – 1 October) and in Le Havre 26 – 29 October 2006.

Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) is set to launch two low-cost carriers — one for international services, one for domestic — by sometime in the first half of 2007, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun daily.

The move by ANA, Japan's second-largest airline, would aim at competing with other low-cost carriers ahead of a planned expansion of Tokyo's Haneda Airport, which is scheduled to complete a fourth runway in 2009.

US President George W Bush has signed a controversial bill into law that will pay for a 700-mile fence (1,125km) fence along the border with Mexico.

The barrier, equipped with hi-tech surveillance equipment, will be built in areas where many illegal immigrants cross over into the United States. The outgoing Mexican President, Vicente Fox, has called the fence shameful, and compared it to the Berlin Wall.

An outbreak of dengue fever has so far killed 38 people in and around the Indian capital, Delhi. Nearly 3,000 dengue cases have been reported, three of them close relatives of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Health officials are playing down the threat, telling people not to panic and to develop better sanitation.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease which affects Indians every year in the weeks following the monsoon, when mosquitoes breed in pools of stagnant water. Dengue is easily cured but can be fatal if not treated in time.

People you care about can benefit from the wealth of information about travel available on the Internet. Help them learn how to do it by forwarding them this issue of the Globetrotters eNewsletter!

Washington, D.C. (AHN) – The U.S. Department of State has updated its travel warning for Sudan, citing a “continued threat of terrorism” as the main reasons Americans should steer clear of the country.

According to the warning, Americans should cancel all travel to Sudan “particularly in the Darfur area where there is a continuing buildup of Government and rebel military forces and where violence has increased significantly.”

“The U.S. Government has received indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and Western interests in Sudan. Terrorist actions may include suicide operations, bombings, or kidnappings.”

The State Department explains, “sporadic fighting instigated by militias is often reported in the southern parts of the country. Travel outside of the capital city of Khartoum is potentially dangerous. Threats have been made against foreigners working in the oil industry in Upper Nile state.”

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!!

A scheme under which gunmen in the Democratic Republic of Congo are given bicycles in exchange for their weapons is being extended due to its success. Ngoy Mulunda, a pastor in the south-eastern Katanga region, says he has been given some 6,500 weapons in the past year, which he has destroyed. A BBC correspondent says it has proved more successful than the UN disarmament exercise, following a five-year war. The BBC's Jonathan Kacelewa in Bukavu says a bicycle, worth about $50, makes a big difference to the lives of local people.