Around the world
Maui dive shop now an attraction (AP)
AP - It started as a simple dive shop in 1958, taking tourists and locals on scuba tours in the Pacific Ocean off Maui. But a year after opening for business, Maui Divers workers found what resembled a black bush in deep waters off the Molokai Channel. Read more…
Hurricane Dean strengthens to Category 3 (AP)
AP - A strengthening Hurricane Dean tore through the eastern Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and Martinique on Friday, ripping the roofs from a hospital and homes, knocking out power, and flooding roads with rain and seawater. A 62-year-old man drowned, in the storm's first death. Read more…
Security push results in passport rush (AP)
AP - The State Department expects half of all Americans will have passports or an equivalent in four years — a huge boost caused by post-9/11 security rules that swamped government offices this summer and infuriated would-be travelers. Read more…
China reduces flights, bans new airlines (AP)
AP - China's aviation authority, citing safety concerns, has announced plans to scale back flights at overstretched Beijing airport and ban the creation of new airlines before 2010. Read more…
Detroit hopes casinos attract tourists (AP)
AP - Detroit is already the nation's fifth largest gambling market, according to 2006 statistics from the American Gaming Association. Now the city is hoping to position itself as a true gambling-based destination for tourists. The city's three casinos - Greektown, MotorCity, and the MGM Grand Detroit - are spending $1.5 billion to build sleek new hotels, expand their facilities, and inject some glitz into the gritty Motown landscape. Read more…
Passport rules snag child support cash (AP)
AP - The price of a passport: $311,491 in back child support payments for a U.S. businessman now living in China; $46,000 for a musician seeking to perform overseas, and $45,849 for a man planning a Dominican Republic vacation. Read more…
New spas look to history for inspiration (AP)
AP - Most spas take pride in providing a thoroughly modern experience, offering the latest product formulas, complex therapies and state-of-the-art facilities. But a half-dozen new spas have opened this year in landmark hotels and historic places, and are taking their inspiration from their surroundings' past. Read more…
Fall is the time to see the polar bears (AP)
AP - "Over there, I see something!" someone yelled. On a lakeshore a few hundred yards away, across a thin sheet of ice, a yellowish blob lay in contrast to the new white snow. Glenn Hopfner, our driver, steered closer, and everyone reached for their binoculars and cameras. Read more…
Frank Lloyd Wright house opens in Pa. (AP)
AP - Frank Lloyd Wright house opens to guests in western Pennsylvania Read more…
How old should kids be to travel abroad? (AP)
AP - Christine Louise Hohlbaum and her husband took their children to Venice when they were 2 and 4 years old. Looking back, she wishes she'd waited until they were a little older. Read more…