International Travel News

News Watch

February 2016 issue | Appears on page 18

Sweden halts border rail

At press time, Sweden’s national rail operator, SJ, was planning to stop rail service to and from Denmark on Jan. 4, 2016, saying it didn’t have the manpower to comply with a new Swedish law requiring that all travelers to Sweden have their IDs checked.

Sweden’s government has temporarily suspended its participation in Europe’s Schengen Agreement, which allows for open borders between 26 participating countries, in order to stem the flow of refugees into the country. More than 150,000...

February 2016 issue | Appears on page 19

Extremist threats in Chad

The US Department of State continues to warn of the risks of traveling to Chad.

Violent extremist organizations in the region, such as Boko Haram and al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb, are intent on attacking Westerners and Western interests and are able to cross borders easily. On June 15 and July 11, 2015, Boko Haram conducted suicide attacks on a police station and a market in the capital, N’Djamena. The group also is targeting local security forces and civilians in the...

February 2016 issue | Appears on page 62

Ukraine civil war warning

The US Department of State continues to warn against traveling to Crimea and the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine.

Russia-backed separatists still control areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, where an ongoing civil war has left at least 9,000 people dead since February 2014. A cease-fire agreement in February 2015 established a de facto dividing line between Ukrainian government-controlled and separatist-held areas of Ukraine, with numerous checkpoints...

February 2016 issue | Appears on page 62

North Korea restrictions

Because of North Korea’s inconsistent application of its criminal laws, the US Department of State continues to strongly recommend that people not travel there. Without charges, visitors have been subject to arrest and long-term detention for actions that would not be cause for arrest in the US or other countries, including involvement in unsanctioned religious and/or political activities or unauthorized interaction with the local population.

February 2016 issue | Appears on page 62

Current warnings for February 2016

As ITN went to press, the State Department had travel warnings on 38 destinations: Afghanistan, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, El Salvador, Eritrea, Haiti, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Israel/West Bank/Gaza, Kenya, North Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Republic of South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela...

January 2016 issue | Appears on page 18

Paris terror attacks

Coordinated attacks by terrorists in Paris, France, on the evening of Nov. 13 left 130 people dead and hundreds more injured. The Islamist militant group ISIL, or Daesh, took credit for the attacks.

In the deadliest incident of the night, three men in suicide vests and armed with assault rifles took hundreds of people hostage in the venue Bataclan, where a concert was taking place. During the hostage situation and subsequent police action, 89 people were killed. Two of the men...

January 2016 issue | Appears on page 18

Russian flight bombing

A commercial flight from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to Moscow, Russia, operated by Russian airline Metrojet crashed in the Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31 killing all 224 people on board, mostly Russians.

Investigations indicated that the crash was due to an explosive device that had been placed on the plane before takeoff. Islamist militant group ISIL claimed responsibility, sharing an image of the bomb they reportedly used. Egyptian authorities arrested two employees of the Sharm el-Sheikh...

January 2016 issue | Appears on page 18

Boko Haram deadliest

Bombings executed by Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group based in Nigeria but also active in Cameroon, Niger and Chad, killed at least 60 people in northeastern Nigeria in November. On Nov. 17, a bomb in a market in the eastern city of Yola killed 32 people and injured at least 80 others. On Nov. 18, two female suicide bombers in Kano, in north-central Nigeria, killed at least 12 people, and on Nov. 27 at least 21 people in Kano were killed by a suicide bomber during a Shia Muslim...