News Watch

In May, the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua reported two separate incidents in which groups of travelers were kidnapped and robbed at night while driving on the Tipitapa-Masaya Highway from the Managua International Airport to Granada. They were robbed at gunpoint, then released in a remote location.

Travelers are warned not to drive along that highway at night. Visit www.nicaragua.usembassy.gov.

 

As ITN went to press, the State Department had travel warnings on 28 destinations: Somalia, Lebanon, Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, Haiti, Burundi, Syria, Yemen, Eritrea, Algeria, Central African Republic, Kenya, Israel/West Bank/Gaza, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Pakistan.

For details, call the State Department at 202/647-5225 or visit http://travel....

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The Department of State reports a heightened risk that extremist groups will conduct terrorist acts within China in the near future. Travelers are advised to be alert at all times, including at hotels, in restaurants, on public transportation and where there are demonstrations and other large-scale public gatherings.

Authorities have increased security in China’s airports, implementing tighter restrictions. On any flight out of Beijing, passengers are prohibited from bringing any...

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For decades, Egypt has provided its citizens subsidies for gasoline and public transportation and, for the poor, food staples as well as a type of flat, round bread. Unsubsidized bread can cost 10 to 12 times the subsidized price of less than one cent.

Recently, high food prices and the unavailability of staples such as rice, flour, sugar and cooking oil have led to long lines and waits of hours for the bread, with violence breaking out at some sites in poor neighborhoods. In early...

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The Department of State continues to strongly urge that Americans defer travel to Lebanon.

Groups such as Al-Qaeda and Jund al-Sham are present, and concerns remain about the threat of terrorist attacks against Western and Lebanese government interests in Lebanon. There have been several assassinations of military and political figures in Lebanon within the past year.

Land mines and unexploded ordnance pose significant dangers throughout southern Lebanon.

Since 1979, the United States has designated Syria a State Sponsor of Terrorism due to its support for organizations such as Hizbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In addition, other extremist groups are present that oppose U.S. policies.

These groups have the potential to be either the targets of or perpetrators of acts of violence. On Feb. 12, 2008, an explosion in the residential Kafer Soseh neighborhood of Damascus killed Imad Moughniyeh, a senior Hizbollah operative....

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The Department of State recommends that American citizens defer nonessential travel to Yemen. Nonemergency American employees of the U.S. Embassy were ordered to depart following the April 6, 2008, attack on the Hadda residential compound in Sanaa in which three explosive rounds were fired into the compound. A mortar attack on the embassy on March 18 injured several Yemeni citizens in the vicinity.

At press time, Zimbabweans were still awaiting the results of the March 29 presidential elections. Security forces as well as war veterans were creating a climate of intimidation and fear across the country. There were attacks on opposition supporters, renewed farm invasions and arrests of election officials.

Travelers should note that using still, video or telephone cameras in any urban setting or in the vicinity of any political activity could be construed by authorities as...

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