Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Guide to understanding rude Parisians issued

PARIS (Reuters) - You don't need to speak French to understand the Parisians. You just need to know how to gesture. Or so claims a new guide issued by French tourism officials to help foreign tourists understand Parisians with a list of commonly used gestures with meanings like "shut up".

"Blend in by using them the next time you're in Paris. People will start mistaking you for a native in no time," says the online guide issued by the Ile-de-France regional committee of tourism at www.cestsoparis.com.

Complete article from Reuters

Scots dump 40m poo in Edinburgh field

Giant Poo as seen from space

Oslo hotel bans Cuban guests

January 5, 2007
Associated Press

Oslo — An Oslo hotel owned by the U.S.-based Hilton Hotel Corp. faced protests, a boycott and a police complaint this week after refusing to book rooms for a Cuban delegation because of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

The Cuban delegation, set to attend a travel fair in Oslo this month, planned to stay at the Scandic Edderkoppen Hotel in the city centre, as they had on five previous visits.

However, the 140-hotel Scandic company was bought by Hilton in March, and the Cubans were informed in December that they would have to find another hotel due to the American boycott.

On Friday, the 300,000-member Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees announced that it was boycotting all Scandic hotels in Norway, joining a wave of protests that started when the ban on Cuban guest became news on Thursday.