We have seen four fatal plane crashes this month in Europe and South America claim the lives of hundreds of people.   On 6 August at least 13 of 39 passengers and crew were killed after a Tunisian passenger plane made an emergency landing in the sea off the Italian island of Sicily.  On 14 August, all 121 passengers and crew on a Cyprus airline flight bound for Prague died when it crashed into a mountainside near Athens.  Two days later, a Colombian plane operated by West Caribbean Airways crashed in a remote region of Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board.  In the latest crash, a passenger plane came down in Peru's Amazon jungle, causing the deaths of at least 40 of the 100 people on board.  Investigations continue into what went wrong on these flights. 

The Operations and Safety editor of Flight International magazine says that airline safety worldwide is now six times better than it was 25 years ago.  In 1979 there were three fatal accidents per million flights, compared with one fatal accident per two million flights by last year, according to International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) figures.  Safety improvements are due to better technology, compulsory industry audits and tougher competition, he said.  When compared with all other modes of transport on a fatality per kilometre basis, air transport is the safest, insists the Civil Aviation Authority.

In some parts of Nepal, particularly the western parts of the country, there is a tradition of keeping women in cow sheds during their menstrual cycle.  Nepal's Supreme Court has ordered the government to declare the practice as evil and have given one month to stop the practice.  Women's rights activists have said that this is a positive move but a change in the law alone is not enough, that people need to be educated against such a scourge of society.

Clarence House stands next to St James's Palace and was built between 1825 and 1827 to the designs of John Nash for Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence.  He lived there as King William IV from 1830 until 1837.  During the second world war, the War Organisation of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John of Jerusalem for the duration of the war. Two hundred staff of the Foreign Relations Department maintained contact from Clarence House with British prisoners-of-war abroad, and administered the Red Cross Postal Message Scheme.  In 1949 Clarence House was returned to Royal use, when it became the London home of Princess Elizabeth, elder daughter of George VI, following her marriage to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten on 20 November 1947. The couple could not move in straight away since the building needed complete refurbishment. Wartime restrictions on building work made progress slow. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, as they were then known, moved to their new home in June 1949.

It was the London home of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother from 1953 until 2002.  A story goes that she once (probably often) rang down to the butlers after getting no response from her bell pull and said in a very camp way: “I don't know what you old queens are doing down there but this old queen up here is dying for a glass of gin.” For a time Princess Margaret lived there too.  After the death of the Queen Mother, Clarence House became the official London residence of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. It is open to the public during the summer months each year.

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The latest in a series of setbacks for the $1.8bn (£1bn) Hong Kong Disneyland occurred after Health Inspectors were called in after three cases of food poisoning.  The two health officials were asked to take off their uniforms to avoid scaring clients.  Hong Kong officials, angered that food inspectors were asked to remove their uniforms told Disney it is “not above the law”.  Disney has apologised and has promised to comply with local laws.

An editorial in the Ming Pao Daily News says Hong Kong residents suspect Disney “wants to engineer special rights and turn the theme park into an independent kingdom that Hong Kong laws can't reach”.

The park faced criticism from animal welfare groups in July, after reports local officials had been called in to destroy at least 40 dogs roaming the site.  A month earlier, it withdrew shark fin soup from planned banquet menus after campaigners condemned the dish, a local luxury, as cruel and ecologically destructive.

Strange Facts

• Swedes and Norweigans rank top 5 for both providing aid and exporting weapons.
• On the probability of not reaching 40 graph, the top 34 countries are all African.
• Former enemies, the Americans and Russians now have a great deal in common – they both lead the world in locking people up .
• English speaking kids are the biggest novel readers but are the least enthusiastic comics readers.
• Japanese and South Korean kids are the best at science and maths.
• Three quarters of Japanese kids read comics.
• Around 1992, Saudi Arabia overtook the United States as the world's largest oil producer.
• Danish workers strike 150 times more than their German neighbours.
• Many Americans live alone – America leads the world in one person households.
• Libya is the only country with a single-coloured flag.

Source:

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office advise against all travel to Uganda.  This is what they have to say:

We advise against all travel to northern and north eastern Uganda because of rebel insurgency and tribal clashes.  In July 2005, there was an armed attack on a vehicle in the northern part of the Murchison Falls National Park. We strongly advise people not to visit this park.

There have been no incidents in Mgahinga National Park and those parts of Kisoro District that border the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since early December 2004, but we advise travellers to this region to continue to check our Travel Advice regularly.

Most visits to Uganda are safe. Kampala is a relatively safe city. By day you can walk the streets and visit local markets. But opportunistic crime such as burglaries, muggings and drive-by bag snatches is on the increase in Kampala. We strongly recommend that after dark, you avoid going out on foot. Do not make yourself an obvious target for muggers and pickpockets. Do not carry large sums of cash in the streets or wear expensive looking jewellery or watches.

In urban areas keep car doors locked and windows shut at all times. There have recently been a number of thefts of personal property from cars and taxis while stationary in traffic. If stopped by armed men, do not attempt to resist. Avoid travelling outside main towns after dark.

Take care of your passport: theft of EU passports has increased in recent months.

We strongly advise that you obtain comprehensive travel and medical insurance before travelling.

The Great Express, a luxury overnight train for rich Russians and foreign tourists is now running between Moscow and St. Petersburg.  The cost ranges from 3,150 roubles, or $110, for the nine-hour overnight trip in a first-class seat to 12,500 roubles for a luxury compartment with a bed and bathroom.  All compartments are fitted with flat-screen televisions showing satellite channels and have wireless Internet connections.

The US government is dropping plans to collect data from commercial data bases to identify potential terrorists on passenger lists. The main reason cited is concern over privacy.