MOUNT TABOR ~ The trail climbs through a pine forest carpeted with wildflowers, the call to prayer from an Arab village below mingling with the echoes of church bells from a monastery at the summit. To hike through the Holy Land is to wander a landscape of astonishing natural beauty, hills littered with the ruins [...]

DUBLIN ~ Irish budget airline Ryanair is looking at how it can introduce a “fat tax” after almost a third of travellers voted to penalize obese fellow passengers. Ryanair, which already charges separately for services like food onboard, asked customers to vote for their favourite “cost reduction” idea on its website over the last two [...]

BANGKOK ~ Thailand could lose US$5.35 billion in tourism revenue and millions of visitors in 2009 following its latest bout of political turmoil, a government spokesman said this week. Violent street protests, the storming of a regional summit being held in a Thai coastal resort and ongoing emergency measures have all hit the sector hard [...]

BEIJING ~ Visitor arrivals in Tibet rose 12 percent over the past six months, state media said this week, despite a security clampdown during the anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule. More than 430,000 tourists visited the remote Himalayan region from late October 2008 to late March, up 12 percent year on year, [...]

JAKARTA ~ The first Asian branch of the chic Paris-based Buddha Bar has dropped its name amid complaints by Indonesian Buddhists that it denigrated their religion, the management said Tuesday. The Jakarta franchise of the bar-cum-restaurant, opened in a historic colonial-era building last year, said in a statement it dropped its name “out of respect” [...]

JAKARTA ~ President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has denied he was responsible for error-riddled voter lists for April 9 legislative elections branded “fraudulent” by rival politicians. Yudhoyono’s administration has been accused of overseeing fumbled preparations for a nationwide poll marred by reports of legions of voters being left off electoral lists and delays in the distribution [...]

JAKARTA ~ Four Al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic extremists were found guilty of terrorism by a Jakarta court this week and jailed for up to 12 years. Abdul Rahman Taib and Ki Agus Mohammad Tony received 12 years each for preparing bombs to attack a cafe frequented by Western backpackers in Sumatra and for killing Christian teacher Dago [...]

COLOMBO ~ Sri Lanka ruled out an amnesty for the Tamil Tiger leader as troops pressed a final offensive against the cornered rebels, despite a global outcry over the plight of civilians trapped in the war zone. President Mahinda Rajapakse said Velupillai Prabhakaran, whose Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are fighting to prevent complete [...]

AMETHI ~ Millions of Indians voted on Thursday in the second and largest stage of month-long general elections, with security forces on high alert for attacks by Maoist rebels opposed to the polls. Polling stations opened across 140 constituencies in 12 states, from industrial Maharashtra in the southwest, to the heartland of the Nehru-Gandhi political [...]

NEWTON ~ President Barack Obama launched a push for a green energy revolution and to pass historic climate change legislation, making his pitch from a wind-energy factory on Earth Day. Obama argued in Iowa, the state that set him on the road to the White House, that bloated US energy consumption was inflicting an unacceptable [...]

MANILA ~ Endangered marine turtles and sharks are being killed each year by Southeast Asian fishermen who throw them away as “unwanted catch,” the World Wildlife Fund said this week. The international conservation group estimated in a new study that millions of kilograms (pounds) of marine species are caught in fishing nets and discarded every [...]

In these challenging economic times, when a middle-class guy like myself can’t get a federal bailout or an AIG bonus, even though my tax dollars are helping to pay for it all, it’s nice to know that there are some people who are willing to give me lots of money. I refer to those who [...]