AMATEUR photographers are queuing up to pay $25 each for a 2 ½-hour tour of homes destroyed in the Black Saturday bushfires, in a move that has angered Tourism Victoria.

Jo-Anne Kasch has started tours of the bushfire-ravaged town of Narbethong, about 15km from Marysville.

The Malaysian-based airline's decision to turn up the heat came as it sold out its four times weekly services between the Gold Coast and KL until early next month.

In the cockpit of Colgan Air's Bombardier Dash 8-Q400, Captain Marvin Renslow, 47, and his co-pilot, 24-year-old Rebecca Shaw, chatted about job goals, personal problems and their fears about ice accumulation while flying in winter.

Guinea pig meat is described as being similar to rabbit and Peruvians consume an estimated 65 million each year.

Seventeen-year-old Russ Henshaw of Jindabyne proved once again why he's one of the most talked about up-and-coming skiers in the country when he turned on a gold medal winning double back flip.

But the scene could also reveal young sophisticates drinking coffee in outside cafes, chatting by the El Alamein fountain or sipping cocktails in a stylish new bar.

Mr Keelty has also defended the speed police reacted to last Sunday's bikie brawl at Sydney airport in which Anthony Zervas, 29, was killed.

"Machine guns at Sydney airport would be an overreaction to the current situation,'' Mr Keelty told the Channel 9 today.

"You are... Read More

Stunning high rise hotels overlooking pristine beaches and the warm turquoise waters of the Persian Gulf has made Dubai an emerging favourite with tourists. But it's not just the holiday makers who are having all the fun.

Kaziranga National Park director S.N. Buragohain said the man was part of a group looking for birds and rare monkeys when they saw a wild male elephant yesterday morning.

He says eight other tourists ran for safety, but the Dutch man tripped and was trampled to death.

Although ra... Read More

The tour involves solving puzzles and enigmas and decoding secret messages hidden in ancient sculptures and texts. It is based on the popular Dan Brown novel Angels and Demons, which was turned into a film starring Tom Hanks.

The A330-200 aircraft bound for Osaka was due to take off from Sydney International Airport at 11.30am (AEST) today, a Jetstar spokesman told AAP.

"A hydraulic-related issue meant we had to ask passengers to disembark," he said.

"Qantas engineers are addressing th... Read More

A STREET rages into a wild river, a road melts to the earth's core and a pier falls into an icy crevasse – Edgar Müller did it all.

The drug, which has a hallucinogenic effect, would be banned from December said the Dutch health ministry.

Bareback horse riding on the beach conjures up images of gliding gracefully through the waves, beast and bikinis as one. But horses have bony spines and so I discovered the very good reason why professionals insist on saddles.

The archipelago of the Maldives is southwest of India in the Indian Ocean and comprises almost 2000 islands and atolls. But my destination is a 30m motorboat called Haveyli, where I'll join a so-called surfari around North Male Atoll.

The elusive street artist has painted six provocative new images – including a dove of peace strapped with a bulletproof vest and a young girl with pigtails frisking an Israeli soldier – on buildings around the West Bank town.

Would you consider visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau to see for yourself the evil that humans are capable of? Do you admire the volunteers who flew out to the areas affected by the tsunami in 2004? And if you were in New York, wouldn't you want to see Ground Zero to decide for yourself what changed... Read More

The Pacific nation has organised its first openly gay “rainbow party” for wealthy gay tourists from around the world in a bid to bolster tourism, Tahiti Presse reports.

”I want Tahiti to become a gay-friendly destination”, said party organiser Arnaud Anjou.

And how could it not - when this temple offers you indulgence to the nth degree?

For starters, there are whiffs of frangipani and jasmine from lush tropical gardens wafting through our balcony doors at dusk.

A vast topaz lagoon pool glimmers below, fires flaring from eight pilla... Read More

While there have been no confirmed cases of the virus in Australia yet, in Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has activated the state's pandemic plan after 16 people presented with suspected cases of the disease.

There are 10 suspected cases under investigation in NSW.

”The fro... Read More

Garuda, along with 50 other Indonesian airlines, has been banned from next week after European Union air safety experts deemed the airlines to be unsafe.

The decision comes after four recent crashes in Indonesia, including one in Yogyakarta in March in which 21 people died, including... Read More

Two minutes on land proves the point but tourist maps press the case in bold print, just in case.

But wait a minute. How do you know your credit card is giving you the best transfer deal on frequent-flyer points? Is blowing those points on a return trip to Perth the best value you can get out of them, or would they be better saved for an international flight?

Briohny Gillespie, 21, Katherine Govey, 23, Adrienne Tawagi, 24 and Sophie Lane, 22, were ready to embark on their six-week backpacking venture around South-East Asia on Friday, the Northern Territory News reported .

They were expecting to catch a flight to Bangkok yesterday, and... Read More

Two Belgian entrepreneurs, David Ghysels and Stefan Kerkhofs, have come up with a way to host a dinner party while suspending diners 50m above the ground.

The Dinner in the Sky 'restaurant' has already served diners in Paris, Brussels, Lisbon and London.

"It's a very creati... Read More

THE male impotence drug Viagra may be useful for treating jetlag and shift work as well, according to Argentine researchers who gave it to hamsters made to feel like rodent globe-trotters.

In those days, when it was not unheard of to travel for up to 20 hours, passengers sat around in comfortable lounges, dined on elaborately prepared meals at tables covered with white linen, then retired to the luxury of private sleeping cabins.

Airlines fuel surcharges have all but destroyed the mega-cheap airfare, while petrol price hikes are forcing Aussies to holiday at home, literally, rather than hitting the open road.

Work on a $700 million domestic terminal expansion and a $1 billion parallel runway were due for completion by 2015 but are likely to be pushed back by several years.