TRAVEL INDUSTRY NEWS AND WARNINGS

I read today that the ‘naked rambler’ Stephen Gough (how easy for me to mistype his name) was back in court and then immediately back in prison for insisting on wearing no clothes in public. I have to admit that I hadn’t heard of his case before, but he says he will choose to spend the rest of his life behind bars if necessary to defend his right to walk around in his birthday suit. Here is the background to his story from last year when it made headlines, and here is the latest development – released from prison again, but arrested again in just 60 seconds.

There is something fascinating about nudity as it plays strange tricks with the invisible boundaries we create or discover inside our minds: childhood and adulthood; sex, of course; intimacy and space; friendship and familiarity; comfort of the body; decoration of the body; health and hygiene for the body … and then death, when we return to the nudity from which we came. There is undoubtedly a strong streak of prudishness behind a lot of our reactions to nudity, yet ironically most of us would agree that some clothing is actually sexier than top to bottom, unadorned flesh. And we see threadbare bikinis and pulled-low underwear on a daily basis all around us.

I’ve just returned home from Marrakech where I tried a couple of the traditional Hammam treatments. The extraordinary thing for a Westerner in a Muslim country is their absolute demand for non-nudity. Even in a shower situation in a single-sex environment the fully naked body is totally unacceptable. I was given the skimpiest, paper underwear to wear – a fig-leaf barely large enough to hold a fig – but it was apparently enough to satisfy the traditions. It reminded me of when I was at the main Hammam in Istanbul a few years ago and, walking from the shower to my locker, seeing a panic-stricken attendant race towards me with a huge towel and a look of horror, as if he had been about to damp down a raging fire. Mind you, female visitors to churches in Latin countries have been turned away because their arms were exposed, only to find the buxom woman behind them let through without a problem.

The Stephen Gough case is admittedly rather eccentric. I feel sorry for the man, but I also feel sorry for those of us who have such a problem with his eccentricity – not to mention an annoyance at his unnecessary occupation of a prison cell for a year.

Olga Moskalyova, 19, from the village of Termalniy, near Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy in far eastern Siberia, gave her mother an horrific hour-long commentary of her own death over her mobile phone.

She had witnessed the bear attack her stepfather, Igor Tsyganenkov, as they were fishing by a river, and fled.

But the mother bear chased her for 70 yards, before catching her by the leg.

Olga, a trainee psychologist, managed to call her mother, Tatiana, several times during the attack.

According to the Daily Mail, she screamed: 'Mum, the bear is eating me! Mum, it's such agony. Mum, help!'

Tatiana revealed that she initially thought her daughter was joking, but then heard the bear growling and 'chewing'. She added: 'I could have died then and there from shock.'

Olga called back a couple of times until, an hour later, she made her last call when the bears had apparently left her, saying: 'Mum, it's not hurting any more. I don't feel the pain. Forgive me for everything, I love you so much.'

Her distraught mother called the police, who arrived at the scene half an hour later with six hunters sent in to destroy the bears, only to find them still feeding on Igor's body.

Tatiana described her daughter as 'fun, warm and friendly', saying she had everything to look forward to.

Bear attacks are on the rise in Russia, where the hungry animals are searching out food in areas where humans have moved into their space.

The attack happened in the most unlikely of places - 10 metres off the idyllic Anse Lazio beach in the Seychelles.

Ian Redmond, 30, was snorkelling off the island of Paslin when he was attacked by a 2m shark, thought to be a "rogue" stalking swimmers.

Less than a fortnight ago, a French diver was also killed, the first such death in the region for almost 50 years.

Redmond's wife, 27-year-old Gemma Houghton, saw the attack and watched helplessly from the beach with onlookers as her husband screamed for help.

Some other holidaymakers rushed to help him in an inflatable dinghy.

"I saw the swimmer, who was missing a huge chunk of flesh from his left leg, so much so that I could see the bone of his thigh," one tourist told the UK's Telegraph.




"He was sickeningly pale, but still had his flippers on both feet.

"At this point a woman ran over and started screaming. She said: 'That’s my husband!'"

Redmond was taken to hospital by helicopter but died of massive blood loss.

It was the couple's second week on honeymoon. They were due to fly out on Friday to the main Seychelles island of Mahe for the weekend before heading home.

All of the surrounding beaches have been closed and swimming banned until the shark problem has been dealt with.

Some 19,000 British tourists visit the Seychelles every year.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge recently had their honeymoon on the same islands, where officials say shark attacks are very rare.

IT doesn't take an international relations expert to compile a list of the most dangerous countries in the world.

Even someone with a limited knowledge of world news would be able to guess that because of civil unrest, war or maniacal dictatorships, nations such as Iraq, Afghanistan - and the UK at the present time – should be avoided.

That’s not to say a bit of ‘danger’ puts off the average traveller. Thousands of tourists travel safely to places like South Africa, Colombia and Brazil every year despite some pretty damning statistics about your chances of returning untouched by some type of crime.

But the most dangerous places to travel become more interesting when you scratch under the surface of “Top Ten” lists or “My mate was robbed there so I’m not going” hearsay.




There are some pretty compelling statistics to show that many ‘safe’ tourist destinations can be just as fraught with danger.
Here are just a few facts that throw conventional wisdom on its head:

There are more kidnappings in the UK than in South Africa
While South Africa has a reputation for being a dangerous country, the UK actually has a higher kidnap rate (just) – 22.3 per cent compared to South Africa’s 22 per cent.
Spain has had more terrorist attacks than Pakistan or Israel
Between 2000 and 2006, Spain recoded 732 acts of terrorism on home soil - compared to Pakistan (504) and Israel (463).

The Cook Islands is a more dangerous place to drive than Libya and Iraq
According to MSN Cars, the Cook Islands is the second most dangerous place to drive in the world, with a fatality rate per 100,000 of 45. Libya’s rate is 40.5, with Iraq a relatively safe 38.1.
 

Asia is the most dangerous place for natural disasters
Natural disaster statistics compiled between 1979-2008 by EM-DAT.org show Asia is the most dangerous region by far. Over 380,000 people died due to earthquakes, 230,000 from tsunami and 429,000 through storms.

Europe’s biggest killer? Extreme temperature, killing 103,000 people in that 21 year period.

Millions of us travel to the most dangerous country in the world every year - the US
200 million. No, that figure is not the number of tourists to America, but the number of guns in circulation in the US. With around 50 murders a day and a robbery recorded every minute, America might be the land of the free but it’s also the home of the depraved.

Of course, statistics can be skewered to meet any purpose – personally I’d take my chances when driving on the roads of Raratonga over Baghdad and I’d head to Berlin before Bogota.

But what these statistics do tell you is that danger can find you in any country.

Look at the events taking place in London at the moment. Many areas in one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations are effectively no-go zones after dark. Images of burning buildings and lootings in the English capital look eerily like those in Egypt and Syria over the last year. It makes you think which destination is more dangerous?

One observer of the riots summed up the situation in relation to travel quite nicely by tweeting: “Travel Advisory for Pakistanis headed to the UK: high levels of violence, arson and lawlessness. Please proceed with extreme caution.”

The bottom line is every country you visit is dangerous to some degree. I’ve yet to visit a place where there are no criminals, accidents or natural disasters. But if you’re sensible and vigilant – as well as having good travel insurance – there’s no reason to be put off going somewhere just because you’ve heard it’s dangerous.

Having said that, don’t expect me to be blogging about a working holiday in a Sierra Leone diamond mine anytime soon...

The number of Britons arrested overseas has fallen by over 10%, but despite this positive trend Foreign Office staff still handled 5,700 arrest cases last year.

Though down by 20% overall, drug arrests continue to be a significant problem for some countries, particularly parts of South America and the Caribbean where a high proportion of total arrests are drug related.

‘We work hard to warn British nationals about the consequences of breaking the law abroad so it is really encouraging to see the overall number of cases of arrests and drug arrests falling. Last year though, there were still 5,700 arrests of British nationals overseas,’ said Foreign Office Minister David Lidington.

He warned that prison conditions in some parts of the world can be very poor, overcrowded and, in some cases, dangerous and sentences can be much tougher than in the UK. ‘People are mistaken if they think the Foreign Office can get you out of jail. We can’t, but we will work hard to try and ensure your safety, and that you get a fair trial,’ he added.

Foreign Office research reveals that 43% of 18 to 24 year olds know someone who has taken illegal drugs whilst abroad. It also showed that two thirds of people in Britain don’t always find out about the laws of the country they are visiting before they go abroad, putting themselves at risk of unknowingly breaking the law.

It found that nearly a third, 32%, of people are not aware that they will always be prosecuted under local law if they break the law abroad with 6% of people thinking they will be prosecuted under UK law, 22% thinking it depends on the country they are in and 4% admitted to not knowing at all.



Aside from arrests, the British Behaviour Abroad report also shows that the number of Brits hospitalized abroad has increased to 3,752 cases, despite fewer people from the UK traveling abroad last year. Medical treatment abroad can be very expensive and to avoid being faced with large bills if taken ill or after having an accident, the Foreign Office is urging people to take out a comprehensive travel insurance policy. Previous research suggests that 15% of Britons travel abroad uninsured.

Spain continues to be the country where most Britons require assistance with 4,971 cases, but when you take visitor and resident numbers into account, you are most likely to need consular assistance in the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan.

The number of rape cases in Greece almost halved since 2009/10 from 27 to 15, although the numbers of sexual assault cases rose significantly.

The number of Brits hospitalized abroad has increased with Spain handling the most cases at 1,024, followed by Greece.  Proportionally Brits are most likely to be hospitalized in Thailand.

In total Foreign Office staff handled 19,228 serious consular cases last year.

One of the British youths attacked by a polar bear in the Norwegian Arctic had to have its teeth removed from his skull, his father said, as the uninjured survivors prepared to return home Monday.

Patrick Flinders, 16, from Jersey in the Channel Islands, suffered a fractured skull in the attack Friday on Spitsbergen island, which killed 17-year-old Horatio Chapple.

"The bear attacked his head while he was trying to fight it off and bit into him, so the operation he had in Norway was to remove some bone and some of the polar bear's teeth from his skull," his father Terry Flinders told BBC radio.

"He can walk and he's starting to get back to his normal, cheeky self."

Flinders punched the 250-kilogramme polar bear on the nose in an attempt to fend it off, but he was smashed across the face and head by the animal, which also ripped his ear and damaged his eye.

The teenager is being treated in Southampton, but his father said he worried more about the mental scars than the physical ones.

"He can't really remember what happened. It's starting to come out now a little bit but I don't want to push him," Terry Flinders said.

"I think that's going to be the worst. The injuries, six months down the line, they'll all be gone.

"Whereas to me, I just don't understand how anybody can go through that, especially 16-, 17-year-old kids, seeing another lad ripped to pieces."

Flinders and another of the injured teenagers, Scott Bennell-Smith, 17, were transferred to hospitals in Britain over the weekend.

The two other injured party members -- including expedition leader Michael "Spike" Reid, 29, who shot the bear dead -- and the remaining eight who were not wounded were making their way back to Britain on Monday.

The teenagers were travelling on a British Schools Exploring Society expedition. They were camped on the Von Postbreen glacier on Spitsbergen, north of the Norwegian mainland.

According to Norway's TV2, Friday's attack was the first deadly polar bear attack in the Svalbard archipelago since 1995.

polar bear has mauled a young British tourist to death and seriously injured four others in a remote part of Norway.

A party of around 80 were on a trip with the British Schools Exploring Society near the remote Von Postbreen glacier when the attack took place.

The four injured, who included two leaders of the trip, were being flown to Tromsoe in Norway.

The governor's office in Svalbard district confirmed all those involved were male and had been camping.

She said one of the group shot the bear, and the rest were in shock.

The attack, about 25 miles (40km) from Longyearbyen, took place early on Friday.

Police interviews
The BSES, which is based in Kensington, west London, has not released the name of the dead person.

It said the injured men were trip leaders Michael Reid and Andrew Ruck and trip members Patrick Flinders from Jersey, and Scott Smith.

"There were about 80 people all told in the expedition. The young people are all between 16 and 23," a spokeswoman said.


Polar bears are, along with the grizzly bears of Kodiak Island, Alaska, the largest living predators on land.

They are also considered to be one of the few wild species that will actively hunt humans.

However, the chance to do so occurs rarely, due to the extreme isolation of their Arctic habitat.

Adult polar bears spend most of their lives alone, ranging over a vast icy landscape, using their acute sense of smell to locate their favoured prey of blubber-rich seals, whales and walruses.

If needs must, they will, like many bears, adapt their behaviour; polar bears have been seen feasting on goose eggs, while one bear has been recorded undertaking an epic nine-day swim to reach new feeding grounds.

As climate change reduces ice cover, there are concerns that more polar bears will become displaced and will move further inland to seek food, bringing them into contact with more people.

Four people injured in the mauling were flown to Longyearbyen hospital and are being airlifted to a hospital in Tromsoe, the governor's office spokeswoman said.

"We got a call via satellite phone from a British group of campers that there had been a polar bear attack and that one person was dead and that others were injured and they needed assistance," she said.

"There are no roads in the area of the Von Postbreen glacier where the incident happened so we scrambled a helicopter."

She also confirmed the five were part of a larger group camping at Von Postbreen and that police were at the scene and were interviewing witnesses.

She said the attack took place in an area popular with tourists, researchers and adventurers and urged those worried about their relatives to call 0047 7902 4305 or 0047 7902 4302.

Lars Erikis, vice-governor of Svalbard, said polar bears were common in the area.

"These days when the ice comes in and out like it does right now, it's not unlikely to encounter polar bears. Polar bears are extremely dangerous and it's an animal that can attack without any notice."

The BSES group was on a trip which began on 23 July and was scheduled to run until 28 August.

Earlier this year the office warned people about bear attacks after several were spotted near Longyearbyen.

At the time it reminded people that under local laws, it is illegal to seek out and disturb the animals - with violations punishable by jail or fine.

The UK Foreign Office has said its embassy in Oslo is urgently investigating.

BSES Expeditions is a youth development charity that organises scientific expeditions to remote areas to develop teamwork and a spirit of adventure.

It was founded in 1932 by a member of Captain Scott's final Antarctic expedition of 1910-13.

Polar bears are one of the largest land carnivores, reaching up to 8ft (2.5m) and weighing 800kg (125st).