Trip World News

French President Nicolas Sarkozy jetted to famed monument to love the Taj Mahal on Saturday while on a state visit to India but without his supermodel-turned-popstar girlfriend Carla Bruni.
The 17th-century white marble mausoleum was sealed off to tourists for the brief visit, with Sarkozy writing in the visitors’ book that his trip was “unforgettable,” local [...]

APART from a few fine restaurants, George Parade in the city
houses nothing more than rubbish bins and rats. At lunchtime
yesterday, however, it was the scene of a lavish banquet inspired
by the cult food movie, Big Night.
The acclaimed 1996 film tells the story of two Italian brothers
who emigrate to the US in the 1950s to open [...]

A PLOT to lure a British Muslim soldier to his death and behead
him “like a pig” has been outlined to a jury.
The man behind the plot was Parviz Khan, 37, an unemployed
teaching assistant from Birmingham, central England, who wanted to
post film of the atrocity on the internet to “cause panic and fear
within the armed forces [...]

SOME of Australia’s most prominent politicians are linked to an
organisation blacklisted by the Federal Government because of
concern over its dealings with government and other agencies in
China.
The Australian International Trade Association says its board
includes federal parliamentary secretary Laurie Ferguson as a
“general adviser”, along with deputy federal Opposition leader
Julie Bishop and high-profile shadow minister Bronwyn Bishop.
The so-called [...]

Joanna Hall tours the eastern Mediterranean’s ancient
civilisations on board a luxury ship.
I’m looking through the lens of a camera at the Great Pyramid of
Giza, trying to fit its vast expanse into a single frame, when the
fast patter of flying feet warns of possible danger. From behind, a
camel is being driven towards me at speed. I [...]

OF ALL the world’s problems, which is most urgent: the
slow warming of the atmosphere coupled with the unhappy prospect of
longer droughts, devastating cyclones and rising oceans?
Or what US President George Bush this week called “the defining
ideological struggle of the 21st century”, fighting terrorism and
violent Islamist extremism?
Perhaps the most pressing challenge facing the planet is
finishing the [...]

Police officers have removed the pop star Britney Spears from
her home in Los Angeles and placed her on a “mental health
evaluation hold”, authorities said.
More than a dozen motorcycle officers and a Los Angeles Fire
Department ambulance swept through the front gates of the troubled
celebrity’s residence shortly before 1am yesterday, as a police
helicopter hovered.
Spears was rushed from [...]

Sacha Molitorisz and his extended family enjoy a
baby-friendly beach and dine by the light of a disco
ball.
The Arnott family is good at baking biscuits. The Kennedy clan
has a talent for dying young. We Molitoriszes have a special skill,
too: for bringing rain to the South Coast. Whenever a Molitorisz
even mentions a trip to Kiama or Batemans [...]

MISS Finland’s breeder and co-owner John Messara went to some
length late last spring to explain that the breeding barn was the
best option for the mare as, simply, she had little left to
achieve. Now, a few months later, the mare’s connections feel she
has unfinished business on the racetrack.
Miss Finland, a winner of $4.5 million in stakes, [...]

AUSTRALIA’S Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has told Tokyo that
federal police are “considering” prosecuting members of the
militant anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society when its
vessel docks in Melbourne today.
Mr Smith discussed the possibility in a meeting with Japan’s
Foreign Minister, Masahiko Komura, who has repeatedly urged
Australia to charge crew from the ship, the Steve Irwin, who
boarded a Japanese [...]