Hapless Sailor Takes A Round Trip

A man who thought he was sailing along the coast of southern England had to be rescued by emergency services after his motor boat ran out of fuel while repeatedly circling a small island in the River Thames estuary.

The man, who had no nautical guides and only had a roadmap to navigate by, had been trying to sail from Gillingham, about 35 miles east of London, to Southampton on April 19 by following the southern coast of England.

But he ended simply doing laps of the 36-square mile Isle of Sheppey a short distance away in the mouth of the Thames.

Eventually a lifeboat and coastguard were sent to rescue him after he used up all his fuel and ran aground, officials said on Wednesday. He told them he had been trying to navigate by keeping the coastline to his right.

“He was attempting to travel around the UK from Medway to Southampton and had somehow lost his bearings and ended up traveling around the Isle of Sheppey,” said Robin Castle, a member of the local lifeboat station.

“It seems he didn’t have the usual maritime charts or navigational equipment.”

Continental To Fly Into The History Books

United and Continental Airlines said Monday they have agreed to form the world’s largest airline in a deal worth about $3 billion.

The new airline would jump past Delta Air Lines in size and have flights reaching from Shanghai to South America. That should lure more business travelers, who pay higher fares. The United name will live on, although the planes will have the Continental colors and logo.

The airline will be run by current Continental CEO Jeffery Smisek. United CEO Glenn Tilton, a longtime advocate of consolidation in the airline industry, will be chairman for up to two years, with Smisek taking over as chairman after that.

The deal will first need approval from shareholders and antitrust regulators. It’s expected to close in the fourth quarter.

The new parent company will be United Continental Holdings Inc. It will be based in United’s hometown of Chicago and its biggest hub will be Houston. The companies say the combined airline will have revenue of about $29 billion and $7.4 billion in unrestricted cash.

Spirit Airlines Defends Carry-On Baggage Fee

The president of Spirit Airlines says there’s been no significant fallout from his new charge for carry-on bags.

Ben Baldanza defends his business model in a nationally broadcast interview while acknowledging it didn’t sit well in some quarters. He joked that he’d never consider charging for bathroom use.

Appearing with Baldanza on NBC’s “Today” show, Sen. Charles Schumer said Spirit set a bad precedent by charging up to $45 for carry-on bags and said he hopes competitors don’t follow suit. The New York Democrat said there might be legislation if the trend continues.

Baldanza said carry-on fees “can cause some outrage,” but said Spirit simultaneously lowered its air fare and its passengers aren’t paying appreciably more than before.

Volcano In Iceland Halts Flights Across Europe

Ash clouds from Iceland’s spewing volcano halted air traffic across Europe as authorities closed air spaces over Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries.

Tens of thousands of passengers were stranded in one of most disruptive events to hit air travel in years.

Authorities said it was not even clear when it would be safe enough to fly again. In one sobering prediction, a scientist in Iceland said the ejection of volcanic ash — and therefore the disruptions in air travel — could continue for days or even weeks.

Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority said non-emergency flights would be banned in all airports until at least 6 p.m. (1700 GMT, 1 p.m. EDT). Irish authorities also closed their air space for at least eight hours, as did aviation authorities in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

The move shut down London’s five major airports including Heathrow, a major trans-Atlantic hub that handles upwards of 1,200 flights and 180,000 passengers per day. Shutdowns and cancellations spread to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland.

Michelle Obama Lists Favorite DC-Area Destinations

Michelle Obama says the Newseum and historic attractions like Monticello are among her daughters’ favorite places to visit in Washington and the surrounding area, according to a cover story in the May issue of Conde Nast Traveler magazine called “Mrs. Obama’s Washington: Why the First Lady Loves Her New Hometown.”

The first lady said she created an informal “Camp Obama” last summer to expose her girls to attractions related to American history because she worried that they’d learned “more about history in Europe than they did here.”

In addition to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s estate, which she called “incredibly beautiful,” they’ve visited Frederick Douglass’ home and Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate.

She told the magazine that her daughters “love the Newseum,” an interactive museum about news history. They enjoyed Luray Caverns in Virginia, too: “Yes! We saw the egg,” she said, referring to a formation in the cave that looks like fried eggs.

Doner Kebab Becomes Germany’s Favorite Fast Food

Forget about bratwurst, currywurst and other kinds of sausages — doner kebab, or shawarma, has overtaken traditional German fast food as the country’s favorite snack on the go.

First brought to Berlin by Turkish immigrants in the 1970s, the grilled meat snack that comes wrapped in a pita bread with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, onions and different dressings, is now being sold everywhere in Germany from the Baltic Sea to the Bavarian Alps.

Students and late night revelers relish it as much as construction workers, children and foreign backpackers on a tight budget.

“We assume that doner kebab is the Germans’ favorite fast food by now,” said Yunus Ulusoy, an expert from the Center for the Study of Turkey in Essen, who has done extensive research on how the ethnic specialty conquered Germany’s culinary mainstream.

The secret behind the doner’s success story is not only its satisfying grilled taste, Ulusoy said, but also the big portions and its affordability — a regular doner in a pita costs only between (EURO)2.50 and (EURO)5 ($3.30 to $6.70).

Skeleton Sits In For Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid

A skeleton briefly sat in for Copenhagen’s beloved Little Mermaid, who left her spot in the harbour last week for China, the museum behind the April Fool’s prank said.

 

“Copenhagen will be deprived of its Little Mermaid for six months, and we thought we should replace it. It’s April Fools, after all!” Hanne Strager, the head of exhibitions at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, told AFP.

The replacement — which even had a skeleton fish tail — was placed in the same position as the Little Mermaid and sat in her vacant spot for two hours, to the delight of tourists.

“Half of the mermaid was built with a human skeleton, and the other with a swordfish” tail, Strager said.

“Many passers-by thought it was really funny and jumped in front of the mermaid to have their pictures taken,” she added.

Women Arrested For Taking Corpse Onto Plane

Police have arrested two women at an British airport after they reportedly tried to smuggle a corpse onto a flight.

Police said Tuesday the women were detained at Liverpool’s John Lennon airport “on suspicion of failing to give notification of death” of a 91-year-old man.

The BBC and other British media reported that the women placed the man, a relative of theirs, into a wheelchair and covered his face with sunglasses in a bid to get him aboard a flight to Berlin.

The women, aged 41 and 66, were detained Saturday and have been released on bail. They have not been charged and police say inquiries are continuing.

Saddam’s Villas To Become Tourist Attractions

Saddam Hussein made his palaces a desert paradise, but now his hometown is seeking foreign investors to turn the late dictator’s playground into a tourist mecca.

Local officials see the 76 abandoned Saddam villas sprawled across hundreds of hectares (acres) as a potential gold mine for Tikrit’s cash-strapped Salahuddin province.

“These villas only need rehabilitation and a few other things to turn the whole area into a wonderful tourism site,” Jewher Hamad al-Fahel, the head of Salahuddin’s investment commission, told Reuters Television.

Saddam built big at Tikrit, his tribal stronghold about 95 miles north of Baghdad. He put up six villas at his birthplace, the village of al-Awja, alone and made the Tikrit palace complex his largest.

Boasting artificial lakes and date orchards, the site totals 136 buildings and covers more than 1,000 acres, according to the U.S. Army. American troops used it as a base until turning it over to Iraqi authorities in November 2005.

Now many of the sand-colored structures, often domed and turreted and with marbled interiors, sit decaying near the Tigris River. Some still show heavy damage from the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that overthrew Saddam.

Salahuddin Governor Mutasher Hussein Allawi said he was eager to smooth the way for foreign investment in the villas since his budget was too small to rebuild decrepit infrastructure quickly.

Israeli Arabs Flock To Turkey

There have been many recent reports on a consumer boycott in Israel against vacationing in Turkey, traditionally a popular destination during the Passover holiday.

It seems, however, that more Arab Israelis than ever are traveling to Turkey following a set of Turkish soap operas aired in Israel that are particularly popular in the sector. 

With estimates that Israelis have largely forgotten about various calls to stay away from Turkish vacation packages and reports of “business as usual”, not enough light has been shed on Arab Israeli vacation choices. It seems they are traveling to the neighboring country more than ever.

One of the main reasons for Arab Israelis’ preference for Turkey is economic. With high rates of unemployment and poverty in the sector, many seek out relatively inexpensive vacation deals. 

“The Arabs turn to Turkey because of the low prices, because there are good brands there, and because they get good value for their money,” said manager of Nazarine Tours, Ghanem Abu Seif to Ynet.