Free Republic

THERE is a backlash growing across Asia against Western ‘begpackers’ who want the locals to fund their travels around the world. People across the continent are growing tired of the sight of seeing relatively affluent Westerns begging on the streets in the hope that locals help pay for their journey to the next destination.

TWO young Australian backpackers have told their horror account of being kidnapped, assaulted and robbed at gunpoint while travelling through Guatemala. Jayson Peter Kelly, 25, and Kirsten Smith, 25, from Cairns, Queensland were just eight weeks into their nine-month backpacking adventure — a trip they had planned for two years — when what was supposed to be a trip of lifetime turned into a living nightmare. Speaking to news.com.au from Costa Rica, a shaken Mr Kelly recounted the terrifying experience to warn other Australian tourists visiting the Central American country. The couple were on a shuttle bus, organised through a...

PHOENIX (KGUN9-TV) – Several Mexican men have been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison on drug charges. 29-year-old Antelmo Vega-Cristin of San Ignacio, Sinaloa, Mexico and 23-year-old Efrain Plata-Jimenez of Acaponeta, Nayaritt, Mexico were sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt. The pair pleaded guilty on March 16, 2010, to importing more than 400 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico. On November 12, 2009, Vega-Cristin, Plata-Jimenez and their co-defendants, Manuel Alberto Alvarado-Romero, Raymundo Nunez-Rodriguez, Tomas Payanez-Carrazco, Santana Ponce-Perez, and Jose Garcia-Angulo, were apprehended by Wellton Station Border Patrol agents as they made their way towards...

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Last month two men and their teenage sons tackled one of the world's most unforgiving summertime hikes: the Grand Canyon's parched and searing Royal Arch Loop. Along with bedrolls and freeze-dried food, the inexperienced backpackers carried a personal locator beacon - just in case. In the span of three days, the group pushed the panic button three times, mobilizing helicopters for dangerous, lifesaving rescues inside the steep canyon walls. What was that emergency? The water they had found to quench their thirst "tasted salty......"

PARIS (Herald de Paris et Cie.) - Before Laura Ling and Euna Lee became household names for entirely the wrong reason; before North Korean missile tests; before UN resolutions for violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Laura’s sister, investigative reporter Lisa Ling, sneaked into North Korea for The National Geographic Channel’s EXPLORER series, in 2006, posing as a member of a humanitarian eye surgery team. The end result was a documentary titled, “Undercover in North Korea.” Lisa’s hour-long Undercover in North Korea defied Kim Jong Il’s ban on outside journalists, and offered a glimpse of life above the 38th parallel...