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Tourists Flee Osama Shadow By Irfan Ahmed CHITRAL VALLEY, Pakistan, May 6, 2011 (IPS) - This is the time of year when picturesque Chitral Valley in the northwestern corner of Pakistan sees a huge influx of tourists. But local residents fear a backlash from the events in Abbottabad, some 300 miles southeast, as authorities put up an extraordinary security cordon throughout this tourist haven. Local officials and residents note a number of cancellations from tourists who have apparently heeded their embassies’ travel advisories to stay out of Chitral, which borders the Afghan province of Nuristan, a Taliban stronghold. Many countries,...

Last Tuesday, a man by the name of Chip Thoma filed a lawsuit against Governor Palin over an alleged “traffic conspiracy.” Yes, you read that right… If you’re thinking this sounds like some sort of ridiculous frivolous complaint, you would be correct. Mr. Thoma isn’t new to Governor Palin, nor is he new to filing frivolous claims against Alaskan Governors. However, you wouldn’t know much about this case if you got all of your news from the Associated Press. Becky Bohrer, the AP writer who covered the story, not only posted her story with an embarrassing grammatical error, but she...

SARASOTA COUNTY - Prosecutorial missteps and a series of communication problems led a judge to release 16-year-old Shawn Tyson from custody just hours before police say he shot and killed two British tourists in Newtown.

A British tourist was beaten to death by officers in a Dubai police station after being arrested for swearing, it was claimed yesterday. Lee Bradley Brown, 39, was on holiday at a £1,000-a-night hotel in the Arab state when he was thrown into a filthy cell. Police sources say he was ‘badly beaten up’ by a group of police officers, leaving him unconscious on the floor. Inmates told how they watched officers bundle him into a body-bag and drag him out of the building. During Mr Brown’s six days in Bur Dubai police station, guards refused to give him enough...

The company that produced Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s TLC reality show, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” received $1.2 million in state tax credits for filming in Alaska through a government program Palin signed into law as governor in 2008. The Anchorage Daily News first reported the story in February, but after an analyst at the Tax Foundation posted a blurb on the group’s blog linking to the piece Tuesday, Palin faced a fresh heap of criticism from Washington conservative pundits who may have been a bit late to the fight, but were not shy to throw punches. The state legislature passed...

Authorities have closed three upscale townhouses that were operating as a maternity center for Chinese mothers paying thousands of dollars to give birth in the United States so the children would automatically gain citizenship. Police and city inspectors found seven newborns and two mothers when they closed the homes for building code violations on March 8 in San Gabriel, a suburb east of Los Angeles that is home to a large Asian population. The women, who were Chinese and Taiwanese nationals and spoke little English, told officials their families had paid to send them to the United States to give...

Pär Kjellin, the CEO of leading Swedish travel package operator Apollo, has argued that travel and tourism to countries with authoritarian regimes helps to undermine them. Kjellin argued on Thursday that tourism can be a "good and democratic force," making a link between the high volumes of tourists to countries such as Egypt and Tunisia and the ongoing pro-democracy movements. "The fact that people travel and meet across cultural, religious and political boundaries is a good thing. Visits, even to dictatorships, I believe helps to destroy them. I would argue that tourism, major global travel, is in itself a positive...

When New York City’s health department revealed last weekend that three people had contracted cholera, it was a reminder that the city is not just a world capital of arts, business and the like — but also of exotic diseases. If a disease has cropped up in the world, there is a good chance it will eventually find its way to New York City through the diverse travelers who cross the city’s borders. For instance, several people every year are found to have a biblical disease, leprosy, though health officials say no one has to fear catching it in the...

The authorities that run San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge announced that next year, they will remove the crossing's human toll takers and replace them with electronic sensors. The switch has been sold as a triumph for efficiency and traffic flow but is potential budget disaster for tourists who now risk stumbling into fines or having to pay more money for e-pass equipment. Cities and states across the world have been moving to sensor-based tolling systems, from TxTag in Texas to E-ZPass in 14 states, without regard to the burden it places on tourists who either don't understand the system,...

New Orleans restaurants seem to have recovered after the BP oil spillBy Brett Anderson, The Times-Picayune Published: Sunday, December 26, 2010, 8:45 AM The days of explaining exotic species of Hawaiian finfish to puzzled locals have passed at Grand Isle restaurant. After struggling through months when the oyster bar would sit idle for weeks on end, supplies from Terrebonne Parish and Galveston Bay are now readily available. Grouper may still be more difficult to come by than usual, but at least it's not Chilean. Still, David Pearson, a partner in Grand Isle, a Warehouse District seafood restaurant, is not resting...

It's no wonder Somali immigration officials in Mogadishu thought a 41-year-old man who described himself as a tourist was insane; they hadn't seen a tourist in the Somali capital since, well, ever. Canadian citizen Mike Spencer Bown is a seasoned traveler having visited more than 150 countries. But when he arrived in Mogadishu as a tourist, he was met with disbelief. "We have never seen people like this man," Omar Mohamed, one of the officials, told the AFP. "He said he was a tourist, we couldn't believe him. But later on we found he was serious. That makes him the...

The wind was so strong Saturday night it blew the Showboat Branson Belle aground during its cruise with guests onboard. The Belle and local authorities tell KY3 there's no serious injuries and only three people requested medical assistance as a precaution. A passenger told KY3 over the phone Saturday night, most of the 567 passengers are calm but some are panicking. The passenger also says the captain announced it's not safe to evacuate the boat where they came aground. He said the rocky shoreline is covered in ice. Fire crews are trying to create a gameplan but the captain announced...

Kayaker presumed dead after Congo crocodile attack By Jenny Gross - JOHANNESBURG | An acclaimed South African outdoorsman who was leading a kayaking expedition from the source of the White Nile into Congo was dragged from his craft by a crocodile as two Americans watched, horrified. The guide is presumed dead. The two Americans paddled to safety after the Tuesday morning attack on the Lukuga River in Congo. The International Rescue Committee helped evacuate the Americans to a nearby town after Tuesday's attack, said Ciaran Donnelly, the organization's regional director in the Central African country. The body of 35-year-old Hendrik...

(Oct. 29) -- It should have been one of the happiest days of their lives. The European couple had decided to renew their wedding vows in the tropical Maldives islands in the Indian Ocean and paid $1,300 for the ceremony to be conducted in the exotic local Dhivehi language. *** The couple -- who are thought to be either Swiss or French -- hold their hands up in prayer, and glance happily at each other throughout the 15-minute ceremony, blissfully unaware of the words' true meaning. "You fornicate and make a lot of children," the celebrant continued. "You drink and...

A decade of commercial space flight would have a devastating impact on climate change and global temperatures, according to a new study.Scientists believe that vast amounts of black soot created by a new generation of spacecraft could lead to temperatures in polar regions rising by as mush as one degree Celsius.The study comes as the dream of whisking tourists edged closer to reality with the official opening of the runway at the world's first commercial spaceport by Sir Richard Branson.The billionaire said he expects flights for space tourists to begin in nine to 18 months,

The “Oprah effect” might not be enough to help Sydney’s flagging tourism industry. Australia is spending more than A$3 million ($2.98 million) to bring billionaire talk-show Oprah Winfrey to the city for the first time and stage her show in December for broadcast to U.S. audiences, Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson said last month. While Winfrey is the city’s latest weapon in the battle to lure back visitors put off by the record-high Australian dollar, travel agents and advertising professionals say the money would be better spent attracting the Chinese.

A tourist is in intensive care after being bitten by a poisonous snake near a Florida resort's swimming pool. A Dr. P. Phillips Hospital spokeswoman said 45-year-old Eric Geisman of Pawtucket, R.I., was stable Tuesday. Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman John Mulhall says a crew responded to a 911 call Monday afternoon about a man bitten by a snake near a swimming pool at the J.W. Marriott Grande Lakes resort in Orlando. The fire rescue crew found and killed the water moccasin after transporting Geisman to the hospital. Geisman's sister-in-law tells the Orlando Sentinel that Geisman was bitten on the...

China Issues Japan Travel Warning By JEREMY PAGE in Beijing and YUKA HAYASHI in Tokyo China issued a travel warning for Japan, reflecting continued strains between the two neighbors despite efforts to ratchet down tensions. The National Tourism Administration's warning cited an alleged attack against a Chinese tour bus by Japanese right-wing activists in the southern city of Fukuoka. The statement, issued late Thursday, didn't give further details of the incident, but warned "Chinese tourists and tour groups currently in Japan or planning to go to Japan in the near future to watch their travel safety." The incident couldn't immediately...

Damascus, Syria When it comes to the Middle East, more than a few people might be surprised to learn of the region's latest achievement: stature as the fastest-growing tourism destination in the world. Greater political stability and stepped-up efforts to attract visitors are at the root of the trend – one that not only tends to shore up regional stability and increase countries' revenues, analysts say, but can also give countries marred by allegations of corruption, human rights abuses, and autocracy a better image on the international stage. “Tourism is an important new source of income for these countries and...

The Adirondack Railway Preservation Society was awarded $200,000 in federal stimulus funds to rehabilitate a stretch of the Adirondack Scenic Railroad in the western Adirondacks. Bill Branson, president of the society, said the seed money will let the group access about $1 million in other funds, already raised through private and state grants, to fix 14 miles of track from Carter Station, just north of Thendara, through Big Moose up to Beaver River in Herkimer County. The cost of the entire project will likely be about $1,350,000, so the society has a good start, Treasurer Ed Kennedy said. The group...