Looks like rapper DMX decided to cause trouble on a flight between New York and London and ended up arrested when the flight landed at Heathrow International Airport.

Police arrested rap star DMX after he refused to put on a seat belt and became abusive on a flight from New York to London, authorities said Monday.
The rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons, received a caution and was released after his American Airlines flight landed at Heathrow Airport on Saturday, police said on condition of anonymity in line with departmental policy.
A caution means a person has accepted responsibility for the offense, and a record will be made.
The artist has had brushes with the authorities in the past. via AccessAtlanta.

It looks like the cruise ship Calypso had an engine room fire in the English channel as it left Zeebrugge in Belgium on its way to Guernsey. There are no reports of injury on the vessel carrying mostly Dutch passengers.

A cruise liner was under tow in the English Channel after it caught fire in the early hours of Saturday with more than 700 people on board. None of the mainly Dutch passengers or the crew of the Cyprus-registered Calypso were injured.

Lifeboats and a coastguard helicopter were scrambled but the crew had put out the blaze in the engine room before they arrived.

The boat had been making for the Channel island of Guernsey from Zeebrugge in Belgium.

It was expected to arrive in Southampton on Saturday evening.

A team from the newly-launched Maritime Incident Response Group was lowered on to the vessel to investigate the fire. It was their first live job.

The ship had to be towed to port by a tug because its engine could not be restarted.

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: Cruise liner towed to safety after Channel fire.

Freedom of the Seas, the largest cruise ship ever built, is about to head out on it’s maiden voyage and enter service for Royal Caribbean International as it’s Flagship. The Freedom of the Seas is a spectacular vessel, with such amenities as a surfing pool, a skating rink, and a rock climbing wall. The picture on the left is the ship in Hamburg, Germany as the Freedom of the Seas finishes getting outfitted for its maiden crossing.

The Finnish-built vessel - flagship of Royal Caribbean International - will have a thorough check and final polish at Germany’s Blohm and Voss shipyard.
It boasts the world’s first on-board surfing pool, called “Flow Rider”, a skating rink and a rock-climbing wall.
It will take up to 4,375 passengers at a time on Caribbean cruises.
The 160,000-ton ship is 339 metres (1,112 ft) long, 56m (184 ft) wide and has a cruising speed of 21.6 knots.
The crew had to carry out a tricky manoeuvre in Hamburg, as the ship’s berth was only three metres wider and 12m longer than the ship.
The ocean liner Queen Mary II is six metres longer but 15m narrower than the Freedom of the Seas, which will be based in Miami, Florida.
The Freedom of the Seas will leave Hamburg on 25 April for a stopover in Oslo before crossing the Atlantic and starting Caribbean cruises in June. via BBC NEWS

It looks tike Disney Cruise Line will be entering the European Market by offering cruises that will be visiting the Mediterranean Sea and visiting France, Italy, and Spain in the summer of 2007. This may be a great opportunity for those with small children to visit the Mediterranean ports.

The Disney Magic will offer eight alternating 10-night and 11-night Mediterranean cruises, departing from Barcelona, Spain, and stopping in eight European cities.

Traveling through Europe can be daunting, especially with small children, company President Tom McAlpin said. A Disney cruise takes the guesswork out of what cities to hit, where to eat and what shows to see, he said.

“The cruise takes care of all of that and people trust Disney. At the end of the day you know you’re coming back to the ship and having five-star dining, great entertainment and you know your kids are going to have a good time,” he said.

Disney is considering expanding beyond its two ships, which have been successful since they began operating Caribbean voyages in 1998. But “it’s not the right time now,” McAlpin said. via MSNBC.com.

The Government of Australia today issued a travel warning for those planning on traveling to France in the near term. The riots and demonstrations by the French are  creating an unsafe environment and have forced the Australian government to issue this warning. I wonder how many other countries will have the good sense to warn  their citizens about France. The  country is becoming more and more unstable.

“Recent demonstrations in major cities against the French Government’s new employment law for young workers have attracted large numbers of protesters and some have turned violent,” DFAT said on its website.
“You should monitor the media and other local information sources for information about further planned demonstrations and avoid relevant areas.”
Between one and three million people have taken part in the fifth day of strikes across France, protesting against a controversial new youth employment law. via NEWS.com.au.

A list  has been announced by the European Union of airlines that have been banned from flying into these European countries. Many of the airlines are from Africa and have been banned in the individual countries but the EU has decided to create a common list for the countries to use.

 The ban applies to cargo and passenger carriers from Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Liberia judged to have an “inadequate system for regulatory oversight” or insufficient safety standards. It will be enforced by all 25 EU nations, plus Norway and Switzerland.

EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said the EU was barring 50 carriers from Congo alone, 14 from Sierra Leone and seven from Swaziland, virtually ensuring that all airlines operating from those countries were prevented from flying to Europe.

He said some planes used for flights to Europe and possibly elsewhere were “flying coffins,” adding that safety controls in the listed nations were too weak.

The EU moved to set up a single list after several fatal airline crashes in Greece and Italy last year and the fatal crash of Egypt’s Flash Airlines in the Red Sea in June 2004, which killed 148 people, mostly French tourists.

The Egyptian airline was not on the EU list, as it had gone bankrupt, Barrot said.

Barrot said the high number of listed Congolese airlines was partly due to years of civil war, after which old military planes, many manufactured in the former Soviet Union, were converted for civilian and cargo use.  via the Chicago Tribune

Ryanair has introduced a new baggage policy that went into effect this week that charges per checked in bag. The  goal is to reduce the amount of checked luggage on the flights to make room for more profitable freight or getting the fuel savings. The airline is also reducing ticket prices to account for the increase in checked baggage.

The benefits are apparent  for both the airline and the passengers, and RyanAir has the reputation of being strict with its policies on baggage so passengers are not expecting to tweak the rules as is often the case in the United States. If this baggage policy works with RyanAir, expect it to come across the pond and be a feature for American airlines.

The low-cost airline has implemented a €7 fee for each item of check-in luggage as part of what it says is a furtherance of its policy of reducing the cost of air travel.
The charge is reduced by 50 per cent if the customer gives notice of the baggage at the time of booking online or phoning Ryanair three hours before their flight.
The company is reducing prices by nine per cent in conjunction with the new measure and increasing luggage allowances from 25kg to 30kg.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary says passengers with a single piece of luggage will not find any difference in price and expects check-in baggage to reduce by 25 per cent within months.
The policy is part of Ryanair’s new online check-in facility which allows users print out their boarding pass, by-passing the need to check-in at the airport when travelling within the EU.
“We have no doubt that this pioneering development for checked in bags is the way forward, as it will encourage and incentivise more passengers on short-haul journeys to travel with hand luggage only,” Mr O’Leary said at the time of the announcement. via  Ireland-International

The European travel season tends to be tightly compressed into the summer months has travel agents nervous if the spread of the avian flu spreading and concerns over Muslim unrest over the Mohammed cartoons. Travel into Mediterranean regions and Turkey could be hurt seriously if people are afraid of outside factors.

With cases of avian flu having been discovered in Germany as well as parts of Europe, the Mediterranean and Turkey and extensive news coverage of the reaction to the Mohammed cartoons, TUI said revenue from summer bookings from Europe’s biggest economy stagnated year-on-year.
The group said total bookings for summer were running at just two per cent more in terms of revenues and client numbers compared with last year. via Expatica’s

Alpine ski resorts have had a over 2 feet of snow this past weekend, causing avalanches that have killed 4 so far. None of the deaths occurred in marked areas, but with this much new snow, skiing is much more hazardous than normal.

An American died Monday in the French resort of Tignes after apparently falling into a lake while off-piste skiing, rescue services said. The victim’s identity and the exact circumstances of the death were not immediately clear.
In nearby Val d’Isere, a 19-year-old Swede was swept away by an avalanche to his death after skiing off marked trails.
Avalanches also were responsible Monday for a number of injuries in France and Switzerland, where four skiers were hurt near the resort of Verbier after being caught up in a 1,000-foot-wide snowslide.
“People by themselves can continue to easily activate avalanches,” the Davos-based Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research said in its Monday evening bulletin.
On Saturday, a 45-year-old woman was killed while snow shoeing near the Alpine resort of Les Diablerets _ the season’s 17th avalanche victim in Switzerland.
A 28-year-old Norwegian tourist also died in a landslide on an Italian mountain while sightseeing.
Switzerland was just one of several European countries blanketed by blizzards over the weekend, when up to 2 feet of snow also closed roads, rail lines and airports in parts of Germany and France.  via BREITBART.COM