The Ukraine has announced the temporary implementation of the visa-free entrance regime for EU and Swiss citizens.

This means that from 1st May 2005 till the 1st September 2005 EU and Swiss passport holders will be able to enter the Ukraine without visas for the period up to 90 days. For more information, see:Ukraine Visa

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, (CPJ), murder is the leading cause of job-related deaths among journalists worldwide. The Philippines is the most murderous country of all, followed by Iraq, Colombia, Bangladesh, and Russia.

CPJ studied more than five years of death records starting January 1st, 2000, and found that the vast majority of journalists killed on duty did not die in crossfire or while covering dangerous assignments. Instead, 121 of the 190 journalists who died on duty worldwide since 2000 were hunted down and murdered in retaliation for their work, including for reporting on government corruption, crime, drug trafficking, or the activities of rebel groups.

Project IRIS is being introduced at Heathrow's Terminals 2 and 4 at the end of April 2005 before being rolled out to other UK airports, and is aimed at anyone not holding an EU passport who regularly travels through Heathrow. They will be invited to have their iris patterns photographed and stored in a database upon departure. Those passengers can then use special automated security check-points which scan their eyes, avoiding long lines for non-EU passport holders when they return to the country. The new security system aims to replace face-to-face passport control interviews and reducing long queues at the immigration counters.

A grey 10m long whale swam into an industrial part of Tokyo Bay in early May, causing much surprise. Only 12 sightings of the mammal have been confirmed around Japan since the 1960s. It is rare for grey whales to be sighted in Japan, much less in the capital's congested waterways a spokesman said. Grey whales travel about 20,000 km during their annual migrations between the sea off the coast of Vietnam to Russia's far eastern Sakhalin Island.

Be careful driving in Uganda's capital, Kampala. The pot holes in Kampala's roads are said to be so bad that protesters have started to plant banana trees in the middle of the potholes. One campaigner says he saw a fish caught in one of the bigger potholes that had filled with water.

Volunteer in Africa is an organization dedicated to disseminating information on voluntary work programs in Africa. We also organize volunteer programs and other programs including group tours in Ghana.

We place volunteers from worldwide on our own projects and on the projects of other organizations in Ghana for a period of 1 to 12 weeks. The volunteers stay with carefully selected, respectable, well screened, dedicated host families.

Our work is aimed at promoting environmental preservation, sustainable social and economic development, literacy, health care, international friendship and cultural exchange. For more information, see: http://www.volunteeringinafrica.org

Spotted by Webmaster Paul, here's a satellite photo from Google of Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace