Free Republic

The pink plastic flamingo, a Florida-inspired icon that has been reviled as kitschy bad taste and revered as retro cool, is dead at age 49. The pop culture symbol met its demise after its manufacturer, Union Products, of Leominster, Mass., was socked with a triple economic threat -- increases in costs of electricity and plastic resin combined with loss of financing. Production ended in June, and the plant is scheduled to close Nov. 1, according to president and CEO Dennis Plante. Union Products made 250,000 of its patented plastic pink flamingos a year in addition to other garden products.

10 British tourists hurt by bombs in Turkey By Stephanie Condron and James Burleigh (Filed: 28/08/2006) Ten Britons were injured last night in a series of bomb explosions in the Turkish Mediterranean holiday resort of Marmaris. Another bomb exploded in Istanbul. In all 22 people were hurt. All 10 Britons were taken to hospital and four were said to be in a serious condition. It is believed that at least one of the Marmaris bombs went off on one of the many dolmuses - minibuses that serve as a taxi service for holidaymakers. Residents said one exploded near a McDonald's...

(VIDEO) Bus carrying Israeli Arab tourists on organized tour overturns near Egyptian town of Nuweiba. MDA crews prepare to receive casualties at Taba Terminal on Israel-Egypt border VIDEO - Several Israeli passengers were killed Tuesday afternoon and dozens were injured as a bus overturned near the Egyptian town of al-Saada near Nuweiba in Sinai. Official sources in Sinai and Israeli passengers reported that about 50 people were injured and several were killed in the accident. The Egyptian authorities reported that 11 people were killed in the accident, some of them Israelis from Arab communities in northern Israel. The accident occured...

OSLO, Norway - A bus carrying 40 elderly French tourists toppled into a ditch by a motorway in central Norway on Tuesday after passengers demanded the driver get closer to a moose grazing by the roadside so they could take snapshots, police said. One woman suffered minor injuries in the accident on the motorway about 174 miles north of Oslo, the Norwegian capital. Eager to photograph the moose "in its natural environment," the tourists had asked the driver to get closer to the animal, after which the bus skidded off the edge of the motorway, district police officer at Gudbrandsdal,...

CBGB Owner Relocating Club — Urinals Included — To Vegas This Spring Hilly Kristal vows to put on finale shows at NYC venue. Hilly Kristal's got an awful lot of packing ahead of him. The owner and operator of New York's legendary CBGB club says by mid-October, the last drinks will have been poured and the last unsigned band will have taken the stage inside the punk-rock landmark. In compliance with an agreement Kristal reached with the club's landlord last December (see "CBGB Owner, Landlord Reach Accord: Club To Close On Halloween '06"), CBGB will no longer exist on the...

A medical team worked through the night to rebuild the bodies of two conjoined twins who were successfully separated after a daylong operation, a hospital spokesman said. A calm feeling filled the operating room at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles after surgeons gently cut the last pelvic bone connecting the sisters and moved on to the reconstruction phase of the marathon operation, said hospital spokesman Steve Rutledge. "They seem to be doing fine," Rutledge said. Ten-month-old Regina and Renata Salinas Fierros spent their first moments apart when one of them was wheeled to another room late Wednesday so plastic surgeons could...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alarmed by the relentless rise of anti-Americanism around the world, a business-backed group is trying to change the behavior that spawned an enduring stereotype of Americans abroad -- loud, arrogant, ill-dressed, ill-mannered and lacking respect for other cultures. For many years, much of the rest of the world distinguished between the United States and the American people. Americans tended to get better ratings than their country and its policies. But recent surveys show that favorable perceptions of Americans have been shrinking while views on the world's only superpower grow increasingly hostile. Enter Business for Diplomatic Action Inc....

An elderly woman has been killed in South Africa in a bush fire raging out of control on Cape Town's landmark Table Mountain. The flames are being fanned by strong winds. Thick smoke has engulfed the centre of the city as the fire spreads rapidly across the lower slopes. Firefighters are struggling to contain the blaze and a number of hikers are trapped on nearby Signal Hill.

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...