Wigan-based Lupine Travel has had demand for its tours to Iraqi Kurdistan treble following the recent escalation of the threat to the region by IS, and has taken about 100 bookings in a few weeks.
The agency's owner, Dylan Harris, has filled the forthcoming tour in October and two trips in May and October next year, each taking 30 people. As there are a further 40 people on a waiting list, he is thinking of running two additional tours in December and February.
Don't meddle in Hong Kong, China warns foreign countries
China says foreign powers need to back away from getting involved in Hong Kong's political affairs. It comes ahead of a Beijing ruling on the governance of the semi-autonomous city.
China warned on Saturday that some people in Hong Kong were colluding with outside forces concerning the governance of the financial hub.
"Not only are they undermining Hong Kong's stability and development, but they're also attempting to turn Hong Kong into a bridgehead for subverting and infiltrating the Chinese mainland," said an article in the Communist Party's flagship newspaper, People's Daily.
"This absolutely cannot be permitted," it said, citing a unidentified Foreign Ministry official.
The article said Hong Kong's affairs were an internal matter for China, given its status as a special Chinese administrative region. It did not name any individuals or groups, but the US and Britain have previously voiced their wishes for genuine democratic reform in Hong Kong.
31 August 2014 Last updated at 09:16
Chinese authorities have ruled out open nominations for elections to choose Hong Kong's leader.
Authorities said two to three candidates will be nominated by a "broadly representative" committee.
The decision is expected to limit the selection of candidates to pro-Beijing figures.
The pro-democracy Occupy Central movement says it will launch a sit-in in the city's central business district in protest.
The election for Hong Kong's chief executive is due in 2017 and will be the first time the holder of the post is directly chosen by voters.
The Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress said in
its decision that while the election would represent "historic progress", "the sovereignty, security and development interests of the country are at stake," and therefore "there is a need to proceed in a prudent and steady manner".
African, Somali troops recapture town from al Shabaab
Working toward the insurgent stronghold of Barawe, African peacekeeping troops and Somali forces have regained several towns this year, capturing Bulamareer on Saturday.
By Abdi Sheik, Reuters
MOGADISHU — African peacekeeping troops and Somali forces recaptured a southern town from Islamist al Shabaab rebels on Saturday, bringing them a step closer to the insurgent
stronghold of Barawe, commanders said.
The assault was part of the second phase of an offensive launched earlier this year to drive the rebels out of towns which they have continued to hold since losing control of the capital
Mogadishu in 2011.
Al Shabaab ruled most of the southern region of
Somalia from 2006 until 2011 when African troops marched into the capital. African and Somali forces have regained several towns this year, but rebels still hold other centers and tracts of countryside.
It was already the worst Ebola outbreak in history. Now it’s moving into Africa’s cities.
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The dreaded Ebola virus came to the children’s hospital in the form of a 4-year-old boy.
His diagnosis became clear three days after he was admitted. The Ola During hospital — the nation’s only pediatric center — was forced to close its steel gates. Fear swelled. The boy died. The 30 doctors and nurses who had contact with him were placed in quarantine, forced to nervously wait out the 21 days it can take for the virus to emerge. And remaining staff so far have refused to return to work. They, along with millions of others, are facing the worst Ebola outbreak in history. Already, the hardest-hit West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have reported more than 3,000 cases, including the infections of 240 health-care workers.
Ebola is now spreading from the remote provinces and into the teeming cities such as Freetown, where 1.2 million people jostle for space. Previous outbreaks had been limited to remote villages, where containment was aided by geography.
By Shaimaa KhalilBBC News
A woman's headscarf is a garment which is heavy in symbolism in Muslim countries and, having finally decided to shed mine, I will have to don it again after being appointed as Pakistan correspondent.
My family's old
photo albums from the 1950s and 60s speak volumes about Egypt's
social and political change - not just because of the men, lots of my relatives in army uniform, but because of the women.
There they are in short-sleeved dresses, impeccably cinched at the waist. The dresses of some of the younger ones actually stopped well above the knee. And the hair!
The beautiful and complicated hairdos that my aunties and their friends pulled off just to go shopping or to their universities looked like something out of a vintage glamour magazine.
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