FULLER, SMITH & Turner, the 154-year-old London brewer, yesterday launched a fierce attack on the national minimum wage and working time directive, saying the legislation was cutting into the company's profits.

Cairns - the Australian city in which outback intersects with residential sprawl. It's an odd place. It only has two seasons - wet and dry. And the urban rainforest is saturated with enough dangerous species to keep the Flying Doctor aloft all year round

Here's a depressing thought: backpackers don't like hot, crowded, dirty countries any more. These days they prefer cool, empty and clean ones.

"THIS CHAIR'S too small." "This one's too big." "This one's too hard." Serial diners are just like Goldilocks, always looking for the restaurant chair that's juuuuust right. The dining chair, after all, is the very foundation of the dining experience.

THAILAND, INDIA and Nepal are passe. Asia has been replaced by far-flung New Zealand, Chile and Namibia as the backpackers' favourites. And Stansted Airport in Essex has been voted the best European airport in a poll of 1,200 independent travellers.

Even `gap year' backpackers need the right insurance cover, says Paul Slade

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AN AMERICAN border patrolman shot and killed an unarmed British hitchhiker who had jumped over the fence from Canada, United States officials said yesterday.

RELATIVES OF a British postman killed on Bondi Beach, Sydney, wept and said they were outraged after an Australian court acquitted his assailant of murder.

Last week poor old backpackers were coming under the cosh again for their decadent behaviour whilst abroad. Far from immersing themselves in the cultures of the countries they visit, they have instead (shock horror) been consuming illicit substances and having sex with one another.

BACKPACKERS, far from being conscientious, culture-seeking explorers, are now little different to package holiday tourists, according to new research.

The Man Who Pays His Way

Hannibal