Free Republic

Tourists queue for disaster trips in the ruins of New Orleans By Alec Russell (Filed: 07/01/2006) Every morning Isabelle Cossart sets off in her white minibus to pick up tourists from their hotels to take them on a tour of the Big Easy and its swampy surroundings. She has followed the same routine for 27 years. But in recent weeks her guests have headed into more controversial territory as they bump around an area that is not mentioned on any of the city's tourist maps: the Lower 9th Ward, the mainly black and poor neighbourhood that was all but levelled...

In a small corner of the world rocked by Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of people got to see the world differently now. They see it through a camera lens or a car window, up close for the first time. In a city fighting to preserve one of its top industries, Lakeview has become a new destination for tourists in New Orleans. It seems to be a pilgrimage for many to go to the hardest hit areas. Some hope all the attention brings help. "This is heart-wrenching is what it is; to actually see it for yourself in three dimensions,” said Morgan...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Visitors to New Orleans who once toured the graceful mansions of its Garden District or learned the history of its Mississippi River plantations have a new attraction: The Hurricane Katrina disaster tour. Gray Line New Orleans will begin on January 4 a "Hurricane Katrina Tour - America's Worst Catastrophe!" to show the ruin that befell the city when the storm hit on August 29, breaching a faulty system of river levees and flooding 80 percent of its neighborhoods. Gray Line New Orleans normally organizes trips through the city's historic districts as well as its swamps and...

ARAB RACISM & ISLAMIC JIHAD!!! Are Militant Muslims DECAPITATING Tourists in S. Philippines? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Sadistic Saddam attack Arab Kuwaiti 'brothers' tortured them horrifically? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Sadistic Saddam BUTCHER/GASSED/TORTURED HIS OWN PEOPLE? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Do Arab Muslim Militant Hamas/Islamic-Jihad/other 'Palestinian' Militants (& often Fatah - connected to the official 'Palestinian' authority) TARGET BABIES, (not as the West targets terrorists) Yes or no? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Arab Islamists attack French subways? (1985) IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM +...

MIAMI -- Opponents of a new Florida gun law are taking their protest to the skies. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, named after former President Ronald Reagan's White House Press Secretary Jim Brady, is handing out fliers at Miami International Airport in opposition to the new "No Retreat Law" that allows Floridians to meet force with force to prevent death or bodily harm in public places. The Washington-based Brady Campaign group is targeting tourists with fliers that advise them not to "argue unnecessarily with local people." They have also distributed the fliers at Orlando International Airport. Supporters of...

There are hardly any souls in this country who want to believe their eyes when they glance at the faces of the refugees that Hurricane Katrina left behind to fend for themselves in the once-great city of New Orleans. To see some of America's poorest residents, virtually all of them African American, scrap and fight for food, for water and for survival, only confirmed for many people that race and class divisions affect every portion of our nation's culture -- right down to providing emergency relief for people whose lives hang in the balance. And while officials in Washington, D.C.,...

One day after NASA brought the shuttle Discovery back from low Earth orbit, a private company plans to announce a more audacious venture, a tourist trip around the Moon. Space Adventures, a company based in Arlington, Va., has already sent two tourists into orbit. Today, it is to unveil an agreement with Russian space officials to send two passengers on a voyage lasting 10 to 21 days, depending partly on its itinerary and whether it includes the International Space Station. A roundtrip ticket will cost $100 million. The space-faring tourists will travel with a Russian pilot. They will steer clear...

AN ISRAELI cruise liner was diverted from Turkey to Larnaca port yesterday, again amid security concerns, Cypriot authorities have confirmed. Meanwhile Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Office issued a travel warning, urging Israelis to refrain from visiting the southern coast of Turkey, between Alanya and Kemer, due to "concrete terrorist threat". The strip includes the city of Antalya, which is very popular among Israeli tourists. The precise nature of the threat was not made known. The Mirage 1, with 650 people on board, sailed into Larnaca early in the morning, after being ordered overnight by Israel’s Transportation Ministry to stay away from Alanya...

Call it the terrorists' War on Tourism -- a war waged by jihadists that long predates 9-11, Afghanistan and Iraq. Last week's terror attacks on Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resorts left nearly 90 dead. The attacks also sent an economic and political shockwave throughout the rest of Egypt. Jihadist terrorists wage a war to create and maintain poverty. In Egypt, damaging the tourist industry does just that. Tourists climbing the Pyramids, sailing on the Nile and sipping coffee in Cairo are a source of very good jobs. In 1992, the jihadists launched an "insurrection" against the Egyptian government, and the tourist...

Two Britons reported dead in resort atrocity as tourists flee Egypt fearing fresh wave of attacks By Hugh Miles in Sharm el-Sheikh and Colin Freeman (Filed: 24/07/2005) Hundreds of British tourists fled Egypt last night, fearing fresh terrorist attacks after three bombs ripped through the popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Hospital officials said that two Britons were among 88 dead, though last night the Foreign Office confirmed only that two men were missing. The market place in Sharm el-Sheikh after the blast A further eight Britons were among the 120 wounded, including a 14-year-old girl and a 30-year-old...

TEHRAN, July 22 (MNA) -- The deputy director of the Qeshm Free Trade Zone Organization said on Thursday that a tourist and recreational complex for non-Muslims will be established on the Persian Gulf island of Qeshm. Islamic law and some restrictions will not be enforced at the tourist complex, Ali-Akbar Einollahi told the Persian service of the Cultural Heritage News (CHN) agency. He said that an agency named Marina, owned by an Iranian Christian woman, has obtained a license for the complex and a beach to be shared by men and women, which would be the first of its kind...

DUBAI — In coordination with the consulates, Dubai Police are seeking the cooperation and adherence of tourists in preserving and maintaining the norms of the country especially those that violate the very fabric of society such as expressing intimate feelings in the public places which is punishable by the country’s law. Lieutenant-Colonel Mohammed Rashid bin Seray, Director of the Tourist Security of the General Department of Criminal Investigation, told Khaleej Times that the force represented in the department is working towards building “clean tourism” and devising ways to imbibe inner respect in tourists for the country’s values and norms. “We...

Visitors should be aware of their surroundings at all times, even when in areas generally considered safe. Women traveling alone are especially vulnerable and should exercise caution, particularly at night. Armed street crime is a serious problem in all of the major cities. Some bars and nightclubs, especially in resort cities such as Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Acapulco, can be havens for drug dealers and petty criminals. Some establishments may contaminate or drug drinks to gain control over the patron. Victims, who are almost always unaccompanied, have been raped, robbed of personal property, or abducted and then held...

A bomb blast and gun attack in popular tourist areas of the Egyptian capital Cairo have left two people dead and at least 10 injured, including foreigners. The interior ministry said a wanted militant who was being pursued by police had detonated explosives in the city centre, killing himself. In a separate attack, two women opened fire on a tourist bus in a historic part of the city. One of the veiled attackers was then shot dead by the security forces. And reports are coming in of a third attack in the city. The BBC's Paul Wood, in Cairo, says...

Stickers ban free sex on tourist island BANGKOK, Apr 29 (TNA) - Tourists arriving on Thailand's southern resort island of Pha-ngan are to be issued with stickers stating the island's ban on 'free sex', following government concern over visitors having sexual intercourse in public places.The decision follows pleas by Khon Kaen Senator Rabiabrat Pongpanit to prevent tourists on the island having sex in public after the island's notorious Full Moon parties.Today Mr. Pramoth Supyen, Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)'s Southern Office Region 5, warned that although it would be difficult to ban the parties, which were...

Jan 20, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.comby staff reportsDavid H. Smith, Newsbriefs Correspondent ZIMBABWE WANTS FAT AMERICAN TOURISTS TO WORK OFF POUNDS ON PLANTATIONS FreeMarketNews.Com, Jan. 20, 2005 - Zimbabwe is lurching toward another in a series of domestic crises it has endured over the years, under the despotic rule of Robert Mugabe. Inflation is currently running at around 150%, interest rates exceed 100% and unemployment is over 70%. Even the IMF has refused to lend more money to the endless financial sink that this once economically vibrant and self-sustaining nation has become. In an interview with Zimbabwe Independent, President Mugabe presented...

PATONG, Thailand (AFP) - A second surge of tsunami terror is hitting southern Thailand, but this time it is a wave of foreign ghosts terrifying locals in what health experts described as an outpouring of delayed mass trauma. AFP Photo AP Photo Slideshow: Asian Tsunami Disaster Tales of ghost sightings in the six worst hit southern provinces have become endemic, with many locals saying they are too terrified to venture near the beach or into the ocean. Spooked volunteer body searchers on the resort areas of Phi Phi island and Khao Lak are reported to have looked for tourists heard...

Tourists run for their lives as the first of six tsunamis starts to roll towards Hat Rai Lay Beach, near Krabi in southern Thailand. One woman runs towards the waves. Photo: AFP The woman continues to run as the wave advances.Photo: AFP With the waves engulfing boats, the woman makes contact with her group. It is not known if they survived.Photo: AFP

‘Water started to go funny,’ 10-year-old recalls LONDON - A 10-year-old British girl saved 100 other tourists from the Asian tsunami having warned them a giant mass of water was on its way after learning about the phenomenon weeks earlier at school, a newspaper reported. “I was on the beach and the water started to go funny,” Tilly Smith told the Sun at the weekend from Phuket, Thailand. “There were bubbles and the tide went out all of a sudden. I recognized what was happening and had a feeling there was going to be a tsunami. I told mummy.”While...

PHUKET, Thailand - While volunteers struggled to collect bodies washing up on the once-pristine beaches of this upscale resort isle, ghoulish tourists rolled out their towels yesterday, doffed their bikini tops and vacationed like nothing had happened. On Patong Beach and Kata Beach - where hundreds died or disappeared four days ago - the smell of suntan lotion wafted from the shore as a new influx of tourists determinedly ignored the carnage around them, frolicking in the surf or reading under umbrellas. An indignant Russian who arrived at the Novotel Phuket Resort on the day after the tsunami loudly complained...