Travelers to Italy need to be smart to avoid needless lines and expenses while enjoying its ever-popular treasures. Major sights in Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan have these changes for 2009.

• Rome, the Eternal City, can be eternally exhausting to sightseers with old information. The Vatican Museum, with the Sistine Chapel, is now open longer hours (8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. most days), so its notoriously long lines should be a little more merciful. And now you can book tickets...

After experiencing escalating political demonstrations in Madagascar since early January, with more than 100 people killed and residences and businesses looted and burned, on March 16 the army stormed the presidential palace in the capital, Antananarivo, while President Ravalomanana was in a palace outside of the city.

The president stood down the next day, and power was handed to 34-year-old opposition leader Andry Rajoelina. Rajoelina dissolved Parliament and the Cabinet and...

The Department of State recommends avoiding overland travel in Algeria. Terrorist attacks, including bombings, false roadblocks, kidnappings, ambushes and assassinations, occur regularly, particularly in the Kabylie region of the country. Since early 2007, the use of suicide bomb attacks, mostly vehicle-borne attacks, has emerged as a terrorist tactic, including in the capital.

Visitors to Algeria are advised to stay only in hotels where security is provided, to avoid predictable...