The Beetle is often asked for advice on how to go about getting a job teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) overseas. My best advice is to look up TEFL courses in your area and get qualified as an English teacher, and then get some experience. This website has a huge number of jobs…

In China, looking for an internet café? There will be fewer around. China has closed more than 8,600 cybercafes over the last couple of months because of fears that the Net could corrupt the minds of youngsters. This latest crackdown on unlicensed Internet cafes began in February after authorities warned that cybercafes can affect the…

Be careful using the internet in Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe has suggested the internet, widely developed in Zimbabwe, is a tool of colonialists. The Zimbabwean government is in the process of asking the country’s internet providers to divulge details of e-mails deemed offensive or dangerous. They would be required, in the event of an investigation,…

Over 2,000 people are believed to have died or disappeared as a result of huge storms and an earthquake on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Aid agencies say bad weather is hampering efforts to deliver supplies to the survivors of severe flooding in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Emergency teams are trying to recover bodies…

Are you passionate about photography? Taking pictures of family, friends and places you’ve been? Maybe you’ve captured a magic moment, an unusual situation or some humorous, crazy slice of life? Whatever it is, if you have a photo you’re really proud of, you should enter the Amateur Photo of the Year contest and you could…

If you are in London in June/July you might want to check these events out, you can get free tickets from culturalco-operation.org, Cultural Co-operation is an independent arts charity that promotes cross-cultural contact, dialogue and understanding. Their main activity is the international summer Music Village, Europe’s longest running festival of world culture.

MTV are looking for people who are planning to backpack around Europe this summer. If you are interested, see: and would like to be on the MTV show “True Life: I’m Backpacking in Europe” www.EuropeBackpack.com.

Take a look at modern day adventurer John Pilkington’s website. In this, you can see details of the latest and most exciting of John’s journeys which took him up the world’s twelfth longest river from the South China Sea to Tibet and beyond. Starting among the rice paddies of Vietnam, he made his way via…

A pilot for Japan’s All Nippon Airways fell asleep at the controls for several minutes while on a domestic flight and had to be awakened by a government inspector who was travelling in the cockpit. An official from the Transport Ministry, who was in the cockpit for a routine inspection, woke the pilot after he…