Answers to Flag Quiz

1 Bahamas	2 Brazil	3 Croatia	4 Germany	5 Iceland

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Complaints from international visitors to the United States about hostile treatment by immigration officials have prompted them to clean up their act, the official in charge of border controls has said.  The complaints, many from Britons travelling for business or pleasure have forced the agency to institute a code of conduct to ensure officers treat visitors with respect.  Complaints had come from all over the world, but the department was particularly struck by the number from Britain.  One of the major issues is said to be the handcuffing, detention and deportation of some potential visitors who had committed “minor technical visa violations” previously, such as briefly or unwittingly breaching a 90 day permission to stay. “While we must — and will — secure our border against terrorists, we must treat all travellers professionally and courteously,” said the agency.

But meanwhile…

By subjecting most visitors to scans of their faces and fingers, the United States will this week expand a mass surveillance system that threatens freedom and race relations, a privacy watchdog says.

Now most visitors entering the United States will have to put each index finger in turn on a glass plate that electronically scans it, and to have a digital photo taken.

The United States says its US-VISIT program — already in place for travellers requiring visas and now being rolled out more widely — will add an average of just 15 seconds to entry checks and will enhance security.

It says the biometric data will be stored in databases, along with personal information such as full name, date of birth, citizenship, sex and passport number, and can be accessed by border, consular, immigration and law enforcement officials.

London-based rights group Privacy International said in a recent report that the scheme relied on flawed technology and opaque, error-strewn watch lists on which innocent people could find themselves wrongly identified as security threats.

Ryanair are advertising jobs: http://www.careerjet.co.uk/jobs_ryanair.html  We at Globetrotter Towers are idly wondering whether benefits include free flights located in the bathroom.

New routes added Ryanair airline announced last month it would begin flying on Oct. 31 to Riga from London, Frankfurt, Germany, and Tampere, Finland, after the Latvian government cut airport taxes in an attempt to lure more tourism and make Riga International Airport a regional hub.  It is Ryanair's first venture into one of the 10 new European Union member states.  Commentators have wryly noted that it is not clear who is most excited about the new route into Riga, travellers into Riga or Latvians looking to travel out.  Uhh… didn't Michael O Leary say that Ryanair would not be expanding into the new EU accession countries?

No unions, please  Ryanair is about to get into another spat, this time with SAS.  Ryanair is not unionised and promises to pay more than union rates if its employees negotiate their contracts directly with the company rather than join unions for collective bargaining.  Most SAS workers do belong to a union.  Swedish trade union HTF recently handed out sick bags to passengers flying on Ryanair from Nykoping, what Ryanair refer to as Stockholm, some 160 km south west of Stockholm as part of a wider campaign organized by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). The white bags were printed with claims that Ryanair staff had to work longer and for lower pay than rivals.  Speaking at a Stockholm press conference, Chief Executive, Michael O'Leary said that Ryanair paid more on average to staff and that its rules on the maximum hours staff could work were the strictest in the industry. “We are an embarrassment to a lot of trade unions,” he went on to say.  According to O’Leary, Ryanair staff earn an average of EUR50,582 a year, more than staff at airlines where staff are unionized, O'Leary added.  O'Leary also said Ryanair would sue Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter unless it retracted reports critical of some aspects of Ryanair's safety record.

Yet more pay as you go service Ryanair has been looking for ways to introduce new services they can use to boost revenues while keeping fares low.  Their latest attempt is to introduce in-flight entertainment such as movies, chart videos, cartoons and sitcoms on all its flights, but passengers will have to pay GBP£5, EUR7 (USD$9) per flight if they want to access movies, cartoons and television shows on the portable units, which will not be built into seats as on full-service carriers.  Ryanair said the system will be trialled initially on five Stansted based aircraft from November. If successful, it will gradually be rolled out across the airline's entire fleet over the winter.  Ryanair needs three percent of its passengers to use the units to cover its costs.  Each plane will initially carry 24 entertainment units which would be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.  The units, which look like a small laptop, are the brainchild of former aircraft baggage handler Bill Boyer who sold the idea to his then employer, Alaska Airlines.

Boyer later founded APS, based in the industrial city of Tacoma, south of Seattle. Ryanair is now APS's biggest customer.

The entertainment units are Ryanair's latest push to tap new sources of non-ticket revenue. Ryanair passengers are also charged for drinks and food. “At the moment the ice is free, but if we could find a way of targeting a price on it we would,” O'Leary earlier told an airlines conference.

And finally… their blurb about themselves, Ryanair describe themselves as being like superman, up, up and away, they say.  It took us a week to stopped laughing, and if you don’t believe us, take a look at this: http://www.ryanair.co.uk/about/abouthome.html

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After a long trip via Kuala Lumpur and Phnom Penh finally got to Siem Reap. After dumping luggage straight out to Angkor Wat, spectacular place and surprisingly not many tourists. I had a driver and guide to myself, which meant we went at my pace as I was really tired. Luckily my driver provided endless bottles of cold water, as we wandered around the ruins. I got back to hotel and slept for 12 hours! 

Interesting hotel breakfast including croissant, bacon and chips! I think they had better get a bigger tea urn with me in residence though!  Went out to Angkor Thom, again very nice, but agree with you (Beetle) that Ta Prom is wonderful out in the forest with the jungle threatening to take over, a truly wonderful place.  Went up to see the sunset from a temple on top of a hill, but clouds arrived so had to go back down.  It’s the rainy season just beginning in middle of May and we had a big thunderstorm last night.

Then next day went to Banteay Srei, 30km from Siem Reap, quite interesting, especially with a musical accompaniment provided by a band of land mine victims.  Also took in some other temples as well Ta Keo and Banteay Samre.  A free afternoon after that, so I spent it exploring Siem Reap, a typical backpacker town, good fun and they have cheap CD shops.  Lots of souvenirs available, but only bought a few.

This was a great time to visit, as there were very few tourists, you could see everything and take photos without heads bobbing up in the way.

I wanted to go up in the static balloon over Angkor Wat, but I had to abandon that as we had a spectacular thunderstorm last night, so had a Thai massage instead while the heavens opened.

I was due to just transit Phnom Penh, but Malaysian Airlines cancelled my flight and put me on a later one, so rather than get bored in an airport for 6 hours my Angkor guide rang his mate in Phnom Penh, who picked me up from the airport and got me round the major sights in 3 hours, phew – the time I had between arriving at the airport and leaving for KL.  I visited the Royal Palace, which was closed, the National Museum, which was good as it has some of the carvings that are missing from Siem Reap, then to Wat Phnom and to Tol Sluong genocide museum and killing fields, which is gruesome, but has to be seen. I will never forget the “Skull map” of Cambodia or the cabinets full of skulls.

If you would like to contact Padmassana, he can be e-mailed on: Padmassana@globetrotters.co.uk

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Here’s a little Beetle quiz based on capital cities. See how many you get right! Go on, have a guess!

What is the capital city of the following countries:

1. Bulgaria
2. Ghana
3. Mauritius
4. Tunisia
5. Maldives
6. Yemen

For the answers, see at the end of the e-newsletter.

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he original author of Lonely Planet Cuba announces the launch of Cuba-Pictures.com, a 14-page collection of 126 travel photos of Cuba. All photos in this picture gallery are by David Stanley, who researched and wrote the first two editions of Lonely Planet Cuba, published in 1997 and 2000. Stanley first visited Cuba in 1975, and over the next four years he represented a Canadian tour company on Isla de la Juventud, at Varadero, and in Havana. Since then, he has revisited Cuba dozens of times.

A few of Stanley’s photos originally appeared in Lonely Planet Cuba, while the rest are published here for the first time. They offer a cross section of Cuba, with the emphasis on “real Cuban life” rather than the artificial world of tourism. The images are intended to convey the atmosphere of some very special places, and the warm, friendly people who call Cuba home.

Each page of pictures provides an introduction to a specific area, and all photos are fully captioned. The site also features a map of Cuba, a shopping mall with Cuban music, guides, and films, and a selection of travel links. http://www.cuba-pictures.com is now open to visitors.

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The winner of last month's Moon Guidebook on Peru is: Jane Thomas congratulations!

This month, win a Moon guidebook on Acadia National Park. See www.moon.com for info on Moon guide books.

Some people have said the quiz is difficult, we say do some research: try google.com or Ask Jeeves, if you need help with the answers.

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