Star Clipper is a 115m Tall Ship, carrying just 170 guests in pampered comfort. She cruises out of Phuket during the southern summer, relocating to the Med in March to cruise the Med during the northern summer.

Onboard for an Indian Ocean crossing, Fiona Harper will join Star Clipper in March 2010 on her repositioning cruise. Contact Fiona (fiona@fionaharper.com.au) to confirm in principle support in commissioning an article based on this voyage.

Images will be available from Fiona Harper and Star Clipper.

                                                                                                                                     From village roots: Across problem-plagued Africa, a quiet revolution is taking place. Microcredit at the village level is enabling villagers to install solar panels to recharge their mobile phones. "What is going to permanently change Africa will be the iPhone", says a British educator currently resident in Malawi. "People will be connected via the Internet as never before." Other development achievements include hand-operated water pumps, which have seen a near-total eradication of cholera. Take a trip by pickup, minibus and train from northern Zambia to coastal Mozambique, and experience how life in this region of Africa is finally changing for the better. See image preview: http://www.photographersdirect.com/simmons/search.asp?lb=8978

Everyone recognises a World Heritage site or two, and many pass one every day, like the thousands of Sydney commuters who steam past that thing with the sails every time they embark from Circular Quay: the Sydney Opera House won its place on the World Heritage List in 2007.

Many World Heritage-listed sites are the obvious icons (Taj Mahal, Tower of London, Uluru), a few are regrettably lost to us already (the Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan), others are indeed little-known gems (Australia's desolate and inaccessible sub-Antarctic islands) and a handful appear to be politically inspired (the monuments of Kosovo?).  Closer examination even turns up a few surprising omissions, like the cultural monuments of Burma. This article examines the World Heritage concept, its genesis,  its successes and challenges.

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Regardless of the always 30-something temperatures, and the steamy climate that sends people searching for pools, or forces them to chill-out in air-conditioned bars or restaurants, the visitors just keep coming to Singapore. And what do they do when they get there?
Well, they happily stay with the Ss. They sightsee, stay in one of the country's hundred hotels (a thirty percent increase in the past three years) and shop, adding  yet another 's' – spending. Singapore's statistics tell us that over seven million tourists from around the world visit Singapore every year and they can expect to exchange quite a bit of currency during their average 3.3-day stay.
Whichever way you look at it, that's plenty of S$s – and Ss.
©Sally Hammond 2007

IF the idea of travelling the globe without leaving home appeals - avoiding jet lag, queues at the airport and the hassle of packing and unpacking - then an apartment onboard the world’s first ever residential ship may just be the ticket.The Norwegian ship, the 40,000 ton, 12 deck World of Residensea, is the brainchild of Knut Kloster, former chairman of Royal Viking Line and Norwegian Cruise Lines and a member of the renowned Kloster family that pioneered the modern cruise industry in the early 1960s. While cutting of the steel for the World took place in March 2000 at the Fosen Mek. Verksteder (FMV) shipyard in Norway, rumours of Kloster’s radical vision had been circulating in cruise industry circles since the early 1990s. Kloster’s dream was to build a ship where residents could live and sail the world year round in pursuit of fair weather, natural attractions and ring side seats at some of the world’s most glamorous and prestigious events - the US Open, Americas Cup and the Cannes Film Festival to name a few. Today his dream has become reality.

This article runs to approximately 1000 words but can be tailored to individual editorial requirements. Images available.

I’d come to see for myself why the Swiss Riviera, and other European Rivieras in fact, dotted throughout the Mediterranean, have long been a stamping ground, not just for the well heeled, but writers, celebrities, artists, composers, musicians and nosy parkers like me.

Not only do they come but surprisingly often, as was the case with Charlie Chaplin and Audrey Hepburn, they set up permanent digs at their favourite seaside or lakeside towns. Brigette Bardot, Tina Turner, Elton John and Bono to name just a few, have holiday homes in the French Riviera while Antonia Bendaras and Melanie Griffiths prefer the Spanish Rivieria. Either way you look at it it’s a glamorous way to avoid winter altogether.

While the Swiss Riviera was the celebrity hot spot in the early to mid 1900s, smart money invested in the French Riviera in the 1950s and 1960s. In the seventies it was the Italian Riviera while Spain came into its own in the 1980s and 1990s. Today the spectacular coastline of new hotspots Croatia and Montenegro are  where the likes of Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kerry Packer and Apple supremo Steve Jobs like to hang out.

Explore the mystique, the adrenaline rush, the paranoia even, which characterise border towns around the world, from Narva, Estonia, to Ivangorod, Russia; across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, USA to the sprawling Mexican metropolis of Ciudad Juarez; from Mae Sai at Thailand’s northernmost point into Tachileik, Burma.

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(The Arabic term, Islam which literally means surrender, underscores the fundamental principal that the believer surrenders to the will of Allah, Arabic for God.) 

At the appointed times of just before sunrise, just after noon, in the late afternoon, immediately after sunset and two hours after that a robed muezzin traditionally climbs a circular staircase to the top of a minaret, or mosque tower, to call the faithful to worship.

From Malaysia, Abu Dhabi and Turkey to India, Afghanistan and China, people from diverse countries and backgrounds unite in a common faith at prayer time.  Found throughout much of the world, mosques may differ in architectural style but not their spiritual importance. 

This lavishly illustrated photo essay showing mosques from across Asia is a graphics driven feature with a minimum of text.  However, a feature of 1000 - 1500 words can be written to suit specific editorial requirements.