UNESCO has picked China as the first country to set up its World Heritage Institute of Training and Research-Asia Pacific (WHITR-AP) under the World Heritage Center (WHC).

UNESCO has picked China as the first country to set up its World Heritage Institute of Training and Research-Asia Pacific (WHITR-AP) under the World Heritage Center (WHC).

For people seeking U.S. passports, faster service is getting slower. The summer’s maddening backlog in passport applications has forced officials to abandon the old standard of a week’s wait for people willing to pay $60 extra for speedy service.

The number of foreign tourists arriving in Argentina during the first half of 2007 increased 17.4 percent reaching 1.037.226, reported the Argentine Tourism Secretariat.

Captain Jurgen Raps is taking over as Executive Vice President Operations at Lufthansa Passenger Airlines, effective 1 September. Lufthansa’s 56 year-old chief pilot is succeeding Captain Carl Sigel (59), who is to concentrate at his own request on his duties as long-haul pilot pending his retirement next year.

Brazilian airline TAM and TAP Portugal, member of the Star Alliance, will initiate an operating agreement on September 1 for codeshare flights. The partnership will make it possible to offer several options for direct flights between Brazil and Portugal, which are already on sale in the TAM reservations system under code JJ.