A 16-year-old high school student was ejected from a Continental Airlines flight because she was coughing. Rachel Collier's mother, who was eagerly awaiting her daughter's return in Hawaii, was infuriated when she got a call from one of the trip supervisors telling her that Rachel was not allowed to travel from New York because she was coughing.

Stephanie Collier, Rachel's mom thought that it was some kind of joke as April Fools Day is round the corner, but was shocked to discover the truth. Rachel, who was returning home to Honolulu after a class trip to Washington, D.C., and New York boarded the nonstop flight to Hawaii with 40 classmates and two teachers.

Picky travelers keen on comfort have rated a former flop house as one of the five best hotels in America for 2007. The 28-room Mansion on Delaware Avenue earned the Zagat guide's highest ranking for service and tied for the second-highest ranking for room quality in a hotel with under 100 rooms.

The Mansion was the only urban hotel in the U.S. to earn high rankings from travelers responding to Zagat's survey.

A Carson City barber and amateur painter has taken his rejected portrait of Nevada's outgoing governor and photographed it above capitol urinals in across 48 states.

Adam Baker, 42, had felt indignant that an out-of-state artist was selected to paint Gov. Kenny Guinn's official portrait.

hree Mexicans who spent nine months lost at sea are to be paid at least $3.8 million to turn their story into a movie.

The men, who hail from San Blas, were feared lost when their 25-foot (8-meter) fiberglass boat ran into trouble off Mexico's Pacific coast last November.

Passengers who were seated next to a German man with rather bad hygiene were forced to complain in order to have him kicked off the flight because he was 'too smelly.'

Before stepping on board the plane, Werner Brechtfeld, 46, spent the day sightseeing in Honolulu, Hawaii, in the hot sun and apparently had not showered before taking his flight back home.