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The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has this advice to visitors:

Around 5,000-7,000 British nationals visit Azerbaijan every year, mainly on business. Azerbaijan has a large expat population who work mostly in the oil and gas sector. Visitors are generally welcomed. Crime against foreigners is generally low, but does occur. Corruption is an every day aspect of life in Azerbaijan, despite regulations prohibiting corrupt activities by public officials and others. We do not recommend the payment of bribes under any circumstances.

Crime levels in Baku are generally low, but muggings do occur from time to time after dark in the centre of town around the western bars and clubs. Some incidents have also occurred near dimly lit entrances of private apartments.

We advise against all travel to Nagorno-Karabakh and the military occupied area surrounding it. This area is the subject of a continuing dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia and although a cease-fire has been in place since 1994 there are regular exchanges of gunfire across the Line of Contact. Some areas may be heavily landmined.

You should not attempt to enter or leave Azerbaijan via the land borders with Russia (i.e. Dagestan) as these are closed to foreign nationals. If you hold a valid visa it is possible to cross the Iranian border at Astara.

A member of Globetrotters Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?

Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?

Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we’ll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!

A gym in Amsterdam is offering “Nudfit” training sessions for nudists. The Sunday morning sessions were added by popular demand and “anyone who shows up just to ogle will be thrown out,” said the gym manager. So, if you find yourself in Amsterdam feeling the need for exercise and don’t mind baring all, sessions start on March 4. Interestingly, the gym staff will remain clothed during the sessions, and in the interests of hygiene (someone was going to ask,) machinery and bikes will be covered with towels or disposable covers.

A group of U.S. tourists, including a former Marine from a cruise ship got into a bit of trouble whilst ashore at the Caribbean port of Limon. ON being held up at gun point by one Wagner Segura, 20, the cruise ship passengers somehow snapped the neck of one of their attackers. Regional police director Luis Hernandez said, “One of the tourists was a former Marine and he was probably the one who broke (Segura’s) neck,” Hernandez said. “His neck was completely snapped.” Strangely, two other unidentified thieves, one of whom was armed with a knife, fled the scene. No charges will be filed against the tourists because police viewed the incident as an act of self-defence. Police questioned and released the group, which rejoined the cruise and left Cost Rica.

Fewer planes crashed worldwide in 2006 than in any year since 1963, but the 1,292 death toll was in line with the average of the past 10 years, reported a Geneva-based monitoring agency. In 2006, there were 156 plane crashes, 22 fewer than in 2005, while the number of people killed in accidents fell 11 percent compared with the previous year, the Aircraft Crashes Record Office (BAAA) said in a statement. North America saw the most crashes, with 32 percent of the total, followed by Africa with 18 percent and Asia with 17 percent. The worst accident occurred in Ukraine, where 170 people were killed when a Tupolev-154 crashed on August 22 2006. The agency included only planes capable of carrying at least six people.

For the fourth year in a row, the United Nations has ranked Norway as having the highest standard of living in the world. Sweden, Australia and Canada are next in line, while the United States is further down the scale. The annual ranking is based largely on average levels of education and income, combined with expected length of lifetime.

The report measured standards of living in 177 countries around the world. Other Nordic countries also ranked high, with Iceland in 7th place, Finland 13th and Denmark 17th.

Did you know that it is the Chinese year of the pig which is supposed to bring good luck and prosperity. But this time it is a golden pig year, which happens once every 60 years. Some soothsayers warn that the pig can bring turbulence, and warn of a rise in natural disasters and conflict in 2007.

Ivad, a small village in the north east of Hungary is offering people – anyone – the opportunity to have a street named after them. If you are interested, the cost is 100,000 forints ($511) per metre. The eight streets of Ivad are up for grabs. And the village’s website says that the name will not be altered for 300 years.

“If, for example Barbra Streisand, whom I like a lot, has no street named after her, she may decide to have one in our village,” said Gabor Ivady, mayor of Ivad where most of the 400-strong population are related. There is one catch – the law in Hungary states that roads cannot be named after the living, so your street won’t be named after you until you are long gone and dead. Ah yes, and the website goes on to say, “The person must be or have been prominent in their sphere of life.”

Northern Ireland has been tipped by a top travel guide as one of the “must-see” countries to visit in 2007.

The Lonely Planet Bluelist featured NI in the “Go List” section of its guide – a chapter dedicated to detailing the hot destinations for the coming year.

In another section of the book, Belfast was listed as one of the top 10 “cities on the rise”.