Online travel booking websites including Expedia and ZUJI Australia both removed the fees on all flights.

Expedia has announced that fees will be dropped for a six week period and expressed that it could make the change permanent if one million people visited their website by October 18.

ZUJI Australia said customers will pay the cost of the flight without any further travel agency booking fees.

Expedia has already scrapped booking fees on its US and Canadian websites, with marketing manager Louise Crompton saying that it was time for Australians to enjoy the same benefit.

ZUJI Australia’s general manager, Peter Smith, said the removal of booking fees is a turning point for the industry and a vote of confidence for the Australian economy.

He believes that charging booking fees for online transactions is now outdated and is unfair to travellers given the tough economic times.

Presently the system is struggling to cope with the number of women seeking tests; however breast cancer survivors say the move will risk lives.

Wendy Bryant, credits the free breast cancer screening for saving her life three years ago when she was tested.  Despite having no symptoms when her mammogram came back positive.

Ms Bryant, like many others, was prompted to undergo a mammogram following several high profile Australians including Belinda Emmett and Kylie Minogue being diagnosed with breast cancer, both under the age of 40.

However the system cannot cope, so experts have recommended free testing for women under 45 and over 75 to be scrapped.

They believe the best way to improve detection rates was to focus on the high risk group, women aged 50 to 69.

A spokeswoman for the National Breast Cancer Centre said that there is no question that breast cancer occurs in younger women, but screening mammography is not the best means of identifying cancers early on.

Ms Bryant believes that if the system is overcapacity, detecting cancer should make it more worthwhile.

She added that if those people have got the cancer, it is worth it.

Ms Bryant credits Kylie and Belinda as one of the reasons that she had the test.

Figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade figures show that deaths overseas jumped up from 994 in 2007 to 1038 in 2008-09.  This is a massive leap from 2004-05 when 642 travellers died abroad.

An increase in the number of Aussies arrested overseas has also increased, topping 1000 in 2008-09.

The latest figures reveal Thailand, The US, Indonesia and China were the most common destinations where Australians were finding themselves on the wrong side of the law.

The safest place for Australians to travel was New Zealand, with only 22 deaths amongst almost 1 million visitors

Thailand was the fifth most popular travel destination with 378,000 visitors, but recorded 105 deaths, the highest of all countries.

The number of Australians convicted overseas has also increased, up by 60 to 223 over the past 4 years.

Australian’s are advised by smartraveller.com.au that if they cannot afford to purchase travel insurance, they can’t afford to travel.

The text messages include a number to call to receive the alleged winnings from a company named Grand Sands.

Those who return the call are asked to provide their phone number which the Australian Communications and Media Authority claims the company uses to pester people for their banking details.

The ACMA, which has already received many complaints regarding the messages, said one mobile phone carrier had reported over 6,000 calls were made to one of the numbers before it was disconnected.

Chris Chapman, chairman of ACMA has urged anyone who received the SMS to report it to the authority.

He said that it may seem like you have hit the jackpot and reminds consumers that this is a scam.  He strongly advised against providing your banking details to the company.

However the overall proportion of Australians tying the not is down 5.5 per 1000 people from seven in 1989.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures also reveal that more couples are using a marriage celebrant, and three quarters of couples live together before walking down the aisle.

The statistics recorded a 20-year high of 118,756 weddings last year as only 47,209 couples divorced being the lowest number since 1992.

Saturday, October 4 was the most common day for a wedding, a week after the AFL Grand Final, which saw 2221 ceremonies, as well as on the 08/08/08 when 1444 weddings were recorded

Psychologist Dr Janet Hall welcomed the increasing strength of marriage, saying that she did lot of early marriage counselling and found that men were more willing to work on communication.

The statistics also show that marriages are lasting longer than they did 20 years ago, in 1989 the average time from marriage to divorce was 10.2 years, up to 12.3 in 2008, while the 2008 divorce rate was 2.2 per 1000 people, the lowest it has been in 20 years.

The bureau’s Survey of Labour Force Experience paints a darker picture of the job market than the official unemployment total of 664,100.

It was found that over the course of the year, 1.7 million Australians found themselves unemployed at some point, about one-in-seven of those prepared to work.  Less than 118,000were out of work for the entire year, but the chances of finding a new job depend on who is looking.

The survey revealed that teenagers were the quickest in finding new jobs, generally returning to work in eight weeks, but many found themselves out of work within a year.   Women are more successful than men when getting new jobs until they reach 55 years old

A woman who is out of work at the age of 55 is likely to take 16 weeks to find a new job.

Australia has lost 117,000 full-time jobs this year, offset by  109,000 new part-time jobs.

Thanks to the Sydney Morning Herald for the above quotes.  For more information on this article visit their website.