A belated entry to the e-newsletter; this was passed to me by Padmassana whilst the Beetle was working away in SE Asia. Padmassana heard on the radio that a Thomsonfly a stewardess said she needed “eight fat people” to sit nearer the front because the captain of a half-full London-bound Thomsonfly flight was unhappy about…

Speak Chinese and travelling to Africa? You may get a chance to try it out. Zimbabwe’s government hopes to see Mandarin Chinese taught in universities as the school year starts in February. This is part of mad crazed dictator Robert Mugabe’s “Look East” policy of building closer economic links with China amid worsening relations with…

If you were thinking of going to work in Saudi, be aware of a “Saudi-isation” program that is edging foreign workers out of the country in favour of local people. According to press reports late last year, the Saudi Labour Ministry has banned the renewal of work licenses of expatriate workers who reached 60 years…

After a series of quarrels with his wife, an Indian man left his home to live in a tree and has been there for the past 15 years. Kapila Pradhan, 45, a resident of Nagajhara village in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, now lives in a tree-house 7. 6m (25 feet) above the ground.…

According to the Transportation Security Administration Air travellers in the United States will soon be allowed to carry small scissors and tools on planes, but will face more random security searches that focus more on detecting explosives at airports as part of an effort to thwart potential terrorists. The new focus on random searches will…

Kew Palace in south-west London once a royal palace that was once home to “mad” King George III is to open to the public after being shut for 10 years. The king used Kew as a place to convalesce during his bouts of mental illness, which are believed to have been caused by the hereditary…

The Beetle read a touching account from the BBC News on-line about women in Afghanistan having freedoms but not being free to enjoy these. This is what it said: Girls can go to school, at least in the big cities like Herat and Kabul, and a fragile peace now exists in a war-torn country that…

Need to convert currency? Take a look at The Globetrotters Currency Converter – get the exchange rates for 164 currencies The Globetrotters Currency Cheat Sheet – create and print a currency converter table for your next trip.

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

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office advise against all but essential travel to Eritrea. We advise against all travel to the border areas with Ethiopia and Sudan. In recent weeks, restrictions placed on the UN Monitoring force by the Government of Eritrea have further heightened tensions along the Ethiopia/Eritrea border. This advice includes Tesseney, near…