Jaipur, Apr 25: A restaurant in Jaipur has initiated an awareness drive to motivate people to exercise their franchise in the ongoing elections.

The restaurant, ''Virasat'' apart from offering mouth-watering dishes, sends a unique mind-boggling social message with each dish served to its guests.

There is a separate team of cooks in this restaurant which makes special dishes and garnishes the message on the top of a delicacy which says "Cast Your Vote" and "Vote Do".

Singapore - Visitor arrivals in Singapore tumbled 13.2 per cent year-on-year in March to 790,000 as the global economic crisis puts the brakes on the city state's tourism industry, the Singapore Tourism Board said Thursday.

However, the decline was not as sharp as in February when visitor arrivals in Singapore fell 15.2 per cent to 689,000, the lowest number in four years.

Imphal, Apr 22: The ten-day long Manipur Tourism Festival 2009, organised by the state''s tourism department, witnessed a significant participation of visitors from across the country and abroad.

The festival, which concluded on Tuesday, was aimed at highlighting the art and culture of northeast Manipur state.

Visitors from Thailand, Pakistan, Vietnam and Myanmar expressed great enthusiasm and contributed actively to the festival.

Jim Csuthathip Thavesuk, a stall owner from Thailand hoped that she would get a good response in this festival.

Aberlour, Scotland  - The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival in north-east Scotland is marking its 10th anniversary this year with an expanded programme, Ros Lewis, the festival's coordinator, said in Aberlour.

She noted that the festival, from May 1-10, would be twice as long as usual. Its approximately 350 whisky-inspired events will range from whisky workshops and art exhibitions to cooking shows with the theme "whisky and food."

Leeuwarden, Netherlands  - The pride of Friesland, a northern province of the Netherlands, is a cross - the Eleven Cities Cross, to be precise. Arend Hansma, a 60-year-old Frisian, is among those who have been awarded one after reaching the finish line of the Elfstedetocht or Eleven Cities Tour, the world's toughest ice-skating marathon.

Aqaba  - Your heart beats faster as the shadowy object appears before you in the deep blue Red Sea - first the outlines of the bow, then the superstructures and mast pointing diagonally toward the water's surface, and finally the rail, overgrown with corals and sponges.

The Lebanese freighter Cedar Pride is lying on its port side in the Gulf of Aqaba like a beached whale, a feast for the eyes of wreck divers. It is the biggest gem in Jordan's glittering crown of reefs, which is what King Abdullah II, then Jordan's crown prince, probably imagined it would be when he had the damaged ship deliberately sunk in 1985.