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If you want to make a statement about the new increased airport tax, here’s a petition to sign. Signatures are valid to 12^th March 2007.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Reduce Government Airport.

If you’ve ever visited the US, you may have shopped at a Target store – the Beetle likes them very much. Late December 2006, Target got into a bit of trouble for selling a CD carrying case with a picture of Che Guevara on it. US Critics said that the image represented a Marxist revolutionary, a murderer and a totalitarian symbol – in other words, the product was said to make fashionable a person partially responsible for bringing Fidel Castro’s Communist rule to Cuba. French owned Target apologised and withdrew the item from their US stores. Hhhmmm, did I say French? What’s going to happen to all those Che Guevara T-shirts students like to wear?

And still on the subject of images – this time on clothing – an Australian airline passenger stopped from boarding a flight for wearing a T-shirt labelling President Bush a terrorist (nooooo!) has threatened legal action against Australia’s Qantas. Allen Jasson, 55, an Australian IT expert who lives in the UK, was prevented from boarding a London-bound Qantas flight at Melbourne Airport last for wearing a T-shirt of Bush with the tagline “World’s number 1 terrorist.” Qantas said that the T-shirt could have upset other passengers and demanded it be changed for another. But Jasson, who had earlier travelled on a Qantas domestic flight wearing the Bush T-shirt, said his right to freedom of speech had been infringed by Qantas.

The Beetle wonders what would British Airways have made of the 1970 punk era’s favourite God Save the Queen T-shirt designed by British fashion icon Vivienne Westwood depicting the queen with safety pins?

Do you have a view on what you should be allowed to wear when boarding a plane? Write in and tell the Beetle.

Despite pleas for clemency from human rights groups, Singapore has executed a Nigerian man and another stateless man from Africa. One was arrested at Changi airport in Singapore in 2004, carrying almost a million dollars worth of heroin whilst the other man was convicted as the intended recipient of the drugs. Singapore is believed to have one of the world’s highest rates of execution per capita. The People’s Republic of China performed more than 3400 executions in 2004, amounting to more than 90% of executions worldwide. Texas conducts more executions than any of the other U.S. states that still permit capital punishment, with 370 executions between 1976 and 2006. Singapore has the highest execution rate relative to its populations, with 70 hangings for a population of about 4 million.

Only about a quarter of the population of the US (latest estimate 298 million as at July 2006) hold valid passports, and most Americans are used to being allowed able to travel to neighbouring countries with just a driver’s license or birth certificate. Things have changed: now Canadian, Mexican and Bermudan air travellers, as well as U.S. citizens flying home from those countries or the Caribbean, must carry their passports to enter the United States. The new rules do not apply to U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

For now, the rules affect only air travellers. Land and sea travellers will not have to show passports until at least January 2008. Air travellers who cannot produce a passport will have the delightful experience of being interviewed by customs agents, who will decide whether to let them into the country.

News comes of four women from the Highlands region in Papua New Guinea accused of using sorcery to cause a fatal road crash have been murdered. A BBC report says that it is believed the victims were tortured by fellow villagers in a remote highland region 400km (250 miles) north of capital Port Moresby. It is said that they were forced to confess to witchcraft after they were stabbed with hot metal rods. There is little precedent of prosecuting those involved in incidents such as this; communities are very tight knit and are often no go areas for the police. Human rights campaigners say it is not uncommon in Papua New Guinea for women suspected of witchcraft to be killed.

The zoo in Adelaide has put a group of humans on display to raise awareness about primate conservation. The humans will be locked in an unused orang-utan cage for a month, in pretty warm weather conditions with bananas for food. They will be monitored by a psychologist who hopes to use the findings to improve conditions for real apes in captivity. Audiences are encouraged to vote for their favourite “ape” via mobile phone text messages, in the style of reality television shows, and at the end of the month, a “super human” will be selected to represent the zoo.

US space agency NASA has said it plans to start work on a permanently-occupied base on the Moon after astronauts begin flying back there in 2020. The base is likely to be built on one of the Moon’s poles and will serve as a science centre and possible stepping stone for manned missions to Mars. NASA is also expected to ask other countries – and businesses – to help it build the base. According to venerable news resource Reuters, funds for building the lunar base will be diverted from the space shuttle programme, which is to be phased out by 2010. After the Columbia space shuttle accident, US President George W Bush announced plans to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020.

British train fares have increased yet again as from January 1^st 2007. The Association of Train Operating Companies said that regulated fares, including season tickets and saver tickets, would rise an average 4.3 percent. Unregulated fares, like cheap day returns and long distance open tickets, would rise an average 4.7 percent. And guess what, travelers, the largest average price rises, 7.3 percent, are on the Gatwick Express and Heathrow Express trains linking London to its two main airports.