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WEEKLY UPDATE
World’s best travel organizations
WASHINGTON: Tour groups operating in South Africa, Thailand and Italy are being honoured for balancing environmental conservation and cultural preservation with social responsibility and commerce, according to the latest issue of National Geographic Traveller.
The three groups will receive the 2002 World Legacy Awards at a ceremony hosted by Queen Noor of Jordan.
South Africa’s Rivonia-based Wilderness Safaris group was accorded the Nature Travel Award for helping to maintain some one million hectares of natural habitat in southern Africa.
The REST (Responsible Ecological Social Tours) Project received the Destination Stewardship Award for its work on Thailand’s tropical island of Koh Yao Noi, in the Phuket region.
The British group ATG Oxford was honoured with the Heritage Tourism Award for its organized tours of Tuscany, which traverse rural roads and trace the routes of ancient pilgrimages, bringing a fresh source of income to those rural areas once the harvest is over.
“These winners are perfect examples of the way the travel and tourism industry should operate,” Queen Noor said in the statemen — AFP
Babies really watch TV
WASHINGTON: Babies are not just passing idle time when they stare goggle-eyed at the television screen — they are actually learning about the world, US researchers said on Tuesday.
Parents may want to limit what their infants see on television, based on the study, said Donna Mumme, assistant professor of psychology at Tufts University in Boston, who led the research.
“Children as young as 12 months are making decisions based on the emotional reactions of adults around them,”She explained.
This means that adults might want to think twice before they speak in a harsh or surprising tone or let an infant see television programmes meant for an older person. —Reuters
A victim of fashion
TOKYO: This season’s fad for extra long scarves claimed another fashion victim when a Japanese woman fell from her motorcycle after her two-metre long muffler got caught in the bike’s rear wheel, police said Tuesday.
The 20-year-old college student was in a coma after the accident but regained consciousness on Tuesday. Still her condition remains serious as her scarf almost choked her to death.
“Long, long scarves became fashionable among young women after (Hidetoshi) Nakata, the football player, wore one that almost touched the floor,” a spokesman said.
The motorcycle accident followed a similar incident in November, when a 26-year-old Japanese woman suffocated to death after her long scarf was caught in the engine of a go-cart. —AFP
US skiers killed in avalanche
MONTREAL: Seven US skiers were killed Monday when an avalanche swept over them in the Canadian Rockies, rescuers in the western province of British Columbia said.
The victims were among 20 skiers that earlier had been dropped off by helicopter on the Durand glacier, near Revelstoke, said Bob Pearce, spokesman for the British Columbia Ambulance Service.
The other 13 were rescued, though one required hospitalization, Pearce said.
“We understand that it was a group of 20 American skiers heli-skiing for the day,” said the spokesman. —AFP
Poachers killing migratory birds
BHUBANESHWAR: Poachers are killing thousands of migratory birds, including protected species, at one of Asia’s largest lakes, conservationists said.
Local villagers have joined hunters in killing the wild game, mostly from Siberia, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, said Biswajit Mohanty, the state coordinator for the Indian Bird Conservation Network, a non-governmental organization. The hunters, who until recently were armed with nets and guns, have now started using pesticides and opium to kill the birds that use the picturesque Chilka Lake in eastern Orissa state as their winter abode.
Until the 1980s, local residents occasionally hunted migratory fowl. Large-scale poaching began in the 1990s to meet the growing demand for bird meat. — APP
Golden Globe TV awards
BEVERLY HILLS: Top US stars Jennifer Aniston, Donald Sutherland and Uma Thurman, scooped up Golden Globe awards for their television work.
Aniston took the statuette for best actress in a musical or comedy television series for her role as the quirky Rachel Green in Friends.
Uma Thurman took the award for best actress in a mini-series or movie made for television, for her role in Hysterical Blindness.
Veteran movie actor Donald Sutherland also won a gong for his television performance as best supporting actor in a series, mini-series or movie made for television, for Path to War. —AFP
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