Amidst renewed violence in Lebanon, reported to be the most serious since the ending of the civil war 17 years ago, the British Government has been slow to review its travel advice, and almost two days after the violence began there have been no amendments to the FCO website. This highlights the weakness of depending for business travel advice on open sources, which cannot be assumed to be current.In contrast, the equivalent Australian service, operated by http://www.dfat.gov.au/ and which prides itself on timely delivery of overseas travel advice, has been monitoring the situation closely and is urging travellers to reconsider their need to travel at this time. A useful extension of the Australian web site is a free email notification service, alerting subscribers to security changes within countries.
The clashes have occurred near the northern city of Tripoli between the Lebanese Army and radical militants belonging to the Fatah Al Islam group, a Palestinian splinter group which is alleged to have ties with Al Qaeda.
