Visitors to Asia and the Pacific should look out for the new SkyTeam Asia Pass that gives access to 61 cities in 21 countries through three major gateways: Guam, Seoul and Tokyo, on flights with Air France, Continental Airlines, KLM, Korean Air or Northwest Airlines. You need to buy 3 coupons, or a maximum of…

A sparrow shot dead after flying into the middle of a Dutch world record attempt, knocking over 23,000 dominoes with a little flap of its wing is to be given pride of place at Rotterdam’s Natural History Museum. The bird, whose killing last month in the northern Dutch city of Leeuwarden enraged animal rights activists,…

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…

British musicians claim to have set the world record by playing a gig at the world’s highest altitude – above Mount Everest’s Base Camp. The Everest gig was organised by British charity The Nepal Balabalika Trust (Trust for Nepalese Children) and lasted 40-minutes before about 100 mountaineers, and aimed to raise money for children victimised…