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Hello, Dolly!: Latest Hurricane News

Hurricane Dolly made landfall earlier today in the coastal region of Texas and northern Mexico. While locals brace for gale-force rains and winds, a  [...]

Big In Kosovo: Passports

It’s been five months since Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia - an act that sparked violence between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in t [...]

What would you do with $100 billion?

In Zimbabwe, the answer is: not much. The troubled country has just introduced a $100 billion banknote - according to this CNN story, it is equivalen [...]

Sleepless in SEA? (or JFK, LAX, or ORD?)

If you’re a regular Pulse reader, then you know that every few weeks or so I’m due a new rant on the American airline industry. ItR [...]

What have you watched on YouTube lately?

Photo by Shht! (Creative Commons) Thanks to a U.S. district court, media megalith Viacom Inc. could be about to find out. Last week, in the latest r [...]

From Diplomat’s Daughter to FARC Hostage: Ingrid Betancourt Timeline

1961: Ingrid Betancourt is born in Bogota, Colombia. Her father, Gabriel Betancourt, was Colombia’s Minister of Education, assistant director of [...]

Ingrid Betancourt: LIBRE!!

I couldn’t have been happier to come home last night to the news from journalist and Colombia-based Matador member Richard McColl that Ingrid Be [...]

Bye-bye backpacker, hello flashpacker?

Guest Editorial by Matador member Matt Kepnes Somewhere before my bus broke down in Australia, I was called a flashpacker. Despite being on the road  [...]

Police Blotter: News from Mexico City

Every week is a big news week as far as the police of Mexico City are concerned, and the MCPD’s PR folks clearly have their jobs cut out for t [...]

Save Our Archives!

Photo by moriza (Creative Commons) ‘Wow,’ someone said to me the other day, after I’d finished telling him about my recent career  [...]

Megabus or Megabust?

If you’re a budget traveler, I’ll bet you’re already hip to the cheap tickets for the so-called Chinese buses that run between Chi [...]

Reality Check: South Africa

Photo by Lollie-Pop (Creative Commons I can still remember the first time a college professor opened my eyes to the way ‘Africa’ (and, o [...]

Afro-Latins: No Longer the Silent Minority

A few years back, my husband and I had some Spanish teachers over for dinner. They were lovely people and we’d enjoyed a spirited conversation [...]

Picks of the Week: Update from Zimbabwe

The grim ins and outs of the Zimbabwean ‘elections’ this spring have been tough to keep up with. Vote-rigging, intimidation and violence, [...]

You can bet your bottom dollar…

that I’ll be avoiding all these new bag charges that US airlines are imposing. After the April announcement that they’d be charging a & [...]

SOBRO, Represent!

SOBRO, in case you didn’t know, is the hip new name for the South Bronx (or, if you prefer ‘Da South Bronx). Imagine my surprise upon fin [...]

On Bad Terms with Tourism?

I’ve just cleaned out my mailbox after being on the road for six weeks, and a bundle of magazines and review copies of travel related books now [...]

‘It all starts with respecting yourself’

Adam Beach isn’t just one of the more high-profile Canadians in Hollywood these days - he’s also almost certainly the most high-profile Ab [...]

Call Me Cynical…

I’m an airplane seat scavenger, picking up the newspapers and magazines other travelers have left behind. That’s my only excuse for readi [...]

Big in Canada: Vegan KFC

Photo by bigbold (Creative Commons) Check your calendars, folks: April Fool’s Day was more than two months ago. So, yes, this is for real. Aft [...]

Sunshine Guaranteed…or Your Money Back

So, you’ve plugged away in your cubicle all year and can FINALLY see your vacation days on the horizon. Your bags are packed, you’re on y [...]

NY Times: Manitoba is a Must-See

Photo by Matt Callow (Creative Commons) Imagine my surprise when, scanning the New York Times list of 31 closer-to-home places to visit this summer, [...]

“Oh give me a home…”

If you’re a writer, you don’t need me to tell you about that creeping feeling of anxiety that swells up at the end of each month when yo [...]

Here’s one way to spend your ‘economic stimulus check’…

Photo by babasteve (Creative Commons) I came across this grim story on TheRoot.com yesterday about fistula - a potentially life-threatening conditio [...]

Can Cell Phones End Poverty?

That’s the question Sara Corbett asked in a recent New York Times Magazine article about the varied uses of cell phones around the world. Corb [...]

How To Get Aid To Burma

Photo by khaipi (Creative Commons) One of the more agonizing aspects of the Cyclone Nargis aftermath has been watching Burma’s military rulers [...]

Battle Over Border Searches Heats Up

Photo by androog (Creative Commons) An unlikely coalition of activists is warning travelers to think twice about the data on their laptops before cr [...]

Attn. All Wired Travelers!

Photo by Jace (Creative Commons) For those of you who travel fully wired, the airport internet service provider, Boingo, is offering a promotion for [...]

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