Hong Kong - The amount of cargo shipped through Hong Kong International Airport fell by 18.7 per cent year-on-year in November, officials announced Monday.

The airport handled 296,000 tons of cargo during the month and 3.8 million passengers, a 5.6 per-cent compared to November 2007.

The Hong Kong Airport Authority blamed the steep fall in cargo volume to the global slump and said the biggest declines had been in the North America market, followed by Europe.

Falling passenger numbers were attributed to a weaker tourism market and the one-week closing of Bangkok's main airport which led to the cancellation of 230 flights.

Crystal River, Florida  - Boo is convinced that manatees prefer chubby companions. The heavyweight aquatic mammals, sometimes known as sea cows, have no time for slender snorkellers "but they swam right up to me," enthuses the ample lady from Texas.

Perhaps a pot-belly encased in a matt black wetsuit presents the well-fed creatures with a mirror image of their bulky selves. In any case, this is the third time this week that Boo, a 50-something with a shock of red hair, has squeezed herself into a close-fitting, neoprene outfit for the pontoon boat trip across Crystal River, a warm water site off the Florida's Gulf Coast north of Tampa.

Meiningen, Germany  - In the southern part of the German state of Thuringia, between the Rhoen Mountains and Thuringian Forest, lies a mecca for lovers of old-time trains: the Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works.

Dozens of visitors arrive on the first and third Saturdays every month to admire the last of these old iron horses that still run, and to examine their exposed innards. In the small city of Meiningen, the engines undergo safety inspections to ensure that their boilers, pistons, and other component parts are in good working order.

Tozeur, Tunisia  - Two beeps issue from the backpack in the pebbly Tunisian desert. A text message says that the cell phone is tuned to an Algerian network. How marvellous to have cell-phone reception even in the middle of nowhere!

But wait... Algeria is nearby? A slight sense of unease arises. Did not the travel advisory on the website of the foreign ministry back home warn of dangers in Tunisian regions close to the Algerian border?

Tozeur, Nefta, Douz, and the mountain oases of Chebika, Tamerza and Mides are all on the edge of the Sahara Desert. In terms of tourism, this is not always a plus when many people nowadays associate desert tours with kidnappings.

Wengen, Switzerland  - It must be rather elevating for the train driver since the Wengenalp (WAB) rack railway from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, central Switzerland, is uphill nearly all the way.

Travellers can gaze out over sparkling, snow-covered roofs and pine trees, and as if to underscore the picture-postcard nature of this wintry scene in the Bernese Oberland, a brook alongside the tracks babbles into the valley below.

Brussels  - Culture ministers of the 27-member European Union recently agreed in Brussels to award an EU cultural heritage seal to significant European cultural sites in a bid to promote awareness of a common history.

"It's a matter of pointing out Europe's own, special identity," said Christine Albanel, France's culture minister and current president of the EU Council of Culture Ministers. This was especially important for Europe's young people, she said.