Eideard

The Manneken-Pis, a bronze statue of a young boy urinating that is a symbol of Brussels and a major tourist attraction, has had to stop peeing because of sub-zero temperatures…

Officials turned off the flow of water through the statue, which has stood on a Brussels corner since the 1600s, out of concern the cold might damage its internal mechanism.

Temperatures in the Belgian capital were set to fall to minus 10 Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) Wednesday night, far below the average minimum for February.

“It all depends on the weather, if the temperatures go up again it will work again,” a tourist office spokeswoman said.

The statue, which is on the site of a 15th Century drinking fountain, has more than 800 specially made outfits which city officials use to dress it up during the year. It is one of Brussels’ most popular attractions.

I have been in circumstances when I worried about it being too cold to pee. Normal pressures won out over weather.

A man stands near the crowned head of a statue of Jesus being built in Swiebodzin, 110 km west of Poznan, western Poland, November 4, 2010. The statue, whose body is 33 metres high, is expected to be completed in November.

It’s being erected as a tourist attraction holy monument.

When an American woman recently traveled to Jerusalem, she was allegedly questioned by border security guards about content on her MacBook. Lily Sussman said her computer was confiscated, and returned to her with three bullet holes in it.

She documented the experience and provided photos on her personal blog. Although the MacBook was completely destroyed, Sussman said she was able to remove her hard drive intact and retrieve all of her personal data.

She said she was provided with a form that included phone numbers and addresses of Israeli government officials that might help her get a replacement for her destroyed laptop. Officials she reached said she could expect compensation deliverable only to an Israeli bank account within a month.

If the nutballs ever succeed in gaining complete control of the United States…this is the way Dick Cheney would run the TSA.

Tampa — The Rev. Alexios Marakis, visiting from Greece, had performed a blessing of a retired Greek priest in the West Shore area before accidentally exiting I-275 into downtown Monday evening, police said. Marakis followed cars into the Seaport Channelside Apartments on Twiggs Street and got out to ask for help.

Bruce, a reservist with a West Palm Beach unit since March, had his trunk open so he could get dry cleaning out, police said. Bruce, who lives in the apartment building, was not in uniform. He grabbed a tire iron from the trunk, hit Marakis four times over the head and chased him about three blocks before pinning the priest, police said…

When officers arrived, police say, Bruce told them he heard the man say “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is great.”

“That’s what they say before they blow you up,” Bruce said, according to police…

Marakis, 29, was treated at Tampa General Hospital and released. He told investigators he’s visiting St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs.

Marakis declined to comment today, saying he does not speak much English.

To their credit, Tampa coppers arrested Bruce – instead of the priest.

The light rail here, which opened in December, has been a greater success than its proponents thought it would be, but not quite the way they envisioned. Unlike the rest of the country’s public transportation systems, which are used principally by commuters, the 20 miles of light rail here stretching from central Phoenix to Mesa and Tempe is used largely by people going to restaurants, bars, ball games and cultural events downtown.

The rail was projected to attract 26,000 riders per day, but the number is closer to 33,000, boosted in large part by weekend riders. Only 27 percent use the train for work, according to its operator, compared with 60 percent of other public transit users on average nationwide.

In some part thanks to the new system, downtown Phoenix appears to be one of the few bright spots in an otherwise economically pummeled city, which like the rest of Arizona has suffered under the crushing slide of the state’s economy. The state, for years almost totally dependent on growth, has one of the deepest budget deficits in the country.

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A rescue team which failed to find a missing visitor at a tourist hotspot in northern China got a nasty surprise when it stumbled upon seven corpses instead.

The team had been scouring the peaks around Taishan Mountain in Shandong province for the Beijing tourist who vanished on April 28, the Qilu Evening Post said.

“We accidentally found seven corpses during our search over the past few days,” the newspaper quoted one of the rescuers as saying.

The report did not say, however, how the seven may have died nor who they were. The tourist is still missing.

Does that qualify as an “Oops!”

In El Alberto, a small village over 1000km from the border between Mexico and the US, tourists can pay to experience what it’s like being an illegal migrant. Jo Tuckman joins a group as they attempt to enter ‘America’

Some people love being hustled.

Some of life in Falluja is completely back to normal
Daylife/Reuters Pictures

“I am a tourist,” were his first words. The telephone line from Falluja was bad, but there could be no mistake. Falluja’s first western traveller was in town.

Not for long, however. An Iraqi checkpoint guard spotted the tourist, Luca Marchio, among Iraqi passengers in a public minibus heading from Baghdad to the once notorious – and still tense – city and alerted his superiors.

Soon, Marchio, 33, from Como, Italy, found himself in the Falluja police headquarters surrounded by bewildered Iraqi officers trying to figure out why a westerner would wander around this city without a translator or guards.

“I am a tourist. I want to see the most important cities in the country. That is the reason why I am here now,” he said. “I want to see and understand the reality because I have never been here before, and I think every country in the world must be seen…”

Police summoned Iraqi journalists to tell them about the wandering Italian, American marines were called in, the Italian embassy was notified. The police concluded that Marchio was not an Italian jihadist and was a risk to no-one but himself.

On Friday night he was being held for his own safety, the Iraqi police said.

If I lived in Como, I might never be tempted to leave.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures

This city played host Sunday to a Christmas celebration for its gay community that featured a Nativity tableau with a man in drag playing the part of Mary.

Frank van Dalen, chairman of the advocacy group Pro Gay that organized the event, known as Pink Christmas, said that it sought to raise Amsterdam’s profile as a capital for gays.

Van Dalen said the event cost €15,000, or $20,800, and that it had been sponsored by the City Council. He added that he hoped it would become a regular attraction, as is the gay pride parade that brings tens of thousands of visitors to Amsterdam each year.

Nevertheless, Christians for Truth, an independent religious group, asked the City Council to cancel the event, saying it made a mockery of Christian tenets. “By portraying Joseph and Mary as homosexuals, a twisted human fantasy is being added to the history of the Bible,” the group said in a statement.

A man who performs under the name of Wendy Mills wore a blonde wig and high-heel black boots Sunday to play the part of Mary, while the actor playing Joseph wore black leather trunks and a silver shawl. The five-person manger scene was staged in the courtyard of a nightclub and visitors were invited to be photographed with the group.

Of course, the Bible already is a “twisted human fantasy” purporting to be history.

Nadene Ghouri laments the collapse of Pakistan’s most famous tourist destination while spending time as the only guest in a 50 room luxury hotel.

A valley as green as the emeralds that lie beneath the mountains. Cold and clear rivers flowing from the snow-capped peaks of the Hindu Kush. A brilliant blue sky – it’s hard to describe the Swat valley without getting carried away.

It feels like one of the most beautiful and magical places on earth. But it’s also extremely dangerous as Pakistani security forces take on Islamic extremists.

Until recently Swat was a tourist destination, popular with both Western backpackers and Pakistani honeymooners. Here you could go trekking or ride a horse along mountain passes, ski pristine slopes, view ancient Buddhist sites or shop in bustling bazaars selling brightly embroidered shawls, folk jewellery and locally produced honey.

But today the sound of nightly gunfire echoes across the mountains, the hotels and bazaars are boarded-up, and the tourists long gone. The ancient monuments are at risk – caught in the crossfire of clashes between the Pakistan military and Taleban fighters.

The area is now deemed unsafe for Western tourists because of the fighting and threats of kidnap.

One of those classic British tales “from our reporter” – in this case, Swat, Pakistan.

Read through and imagine what you’ve missed by not visiting this lovely region. Before it became a center of confrontation with religious nutballs.