Travel Advisory For No-Go Areas For Tourists

As Australia said recently, every country has its own routine travel advisory for its citizens; so, nothing else too deep should be read into when a list of no-go areas worldwide is issued locally.

I have a few of mine, too, apart from Canada - for fear of the rabies epidemic in Toronto and the Ontario region recently.

For reasons of terror attacks, the US Homeland Security has put out the following highest-risk cities on its cautionary 'watch-out' list:

[....Last year the department made 45 cities or regions eligible for a competitive counterterrorism grant program. This year, the list has been expanded to 60 areas....

Los Angeles, New York and Washington ...

Some regions on the list in the past were dropped more recently. For instance, Albany, N.Y., was put back on the list this year after being dropped in 2003.

Other regions added to the list this year are: Rochester, N.Y.; Syracuse, N.Y.; Austin and Round Rock, Texas; Baton Rouge, La.; Bridgeport, Stamford and Norwalk, Conn.; the Hartford, Conn., region; Louisville and Jefferson County in Kentucky and an adjoining area in Indiana; Nashville, Davidson County and Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Richmond, Va.; Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario, Calif.; Salt Lake City; San Juan, Caguas and Guaynabo, Puerto Rico; and Toledo, Ohio.]

In other related news, the top-ten most dangerous foreign destinations in the world have been identified by Forbes.com. Even the most adventurous people on Earth are advised to avoid them because they'd likely provide an unforgettable holiday in a very negative/regrettable way.

Forbes' list includes the following, in a specifically rated order from most dangerous to least comfortable:

[....Somalia...Iraq....Afghanistan....Haiti....Pakistan....Sudan....Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)....Lebanon.....Zimbabwe....Palestinian Territories....]


Soon, you may need to add Kosovo to that list, if the UN Protectorate dares to declare independence from Serbia. Nowhere seems to be completely safe any more.

The baton of violence appears to be passed on from region to region as silently brewing conflict zones erupt from time to time unpredictably.

Even the great escape from reality provided by the Internet is under threat because

'Finger-thin cables tie Internet together:'

[....The two cables — FLAG Europe Asia and SEA-ME-WE 4 — were cut on the ocean floor just north of Alexandria, Egypt.

By an accident of geography and global politics, Egypt is a choke point in the global communications network, just as it is with global shipping. The reasons are the same: The country touches both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, which flows into the India Ocean.

The slim fiber-optic cables that carry the world's communications are much like ships, in that they're the cheapest way for carrying things over long distances. Pulling cable overland is much more expensive and requires negotiation with landowners and governments.

So fiber-optic cables that go from Europe to India take the sea route via Egypt's Suez Canal, just as ships do.

Another Mediterranean cable makes land not far away, in Israel.

But there's no cable overland from Israel into Jordan and to the Persian Gulf, which could have provided a redundant connection for the Gulf States and India. Going overland would have been more expensive and politically difficult — Israel and Arab countries would have to cooperate.

There is also no route that goes through Russia, Iran and Pakistan to India. The terrain is rugged, Pakistan is politically unstable, and India and Pakistan are not on good terms.

With two of the three cables passing through Suez cut, traffic from the Middle East and India intended for Europe was forced to route eastward, around most of the globe.....]