For the first time this decade, AAA estimates a decline in the number of Americans traveling during the Fourth of July holiday travel period.  AAA projects 40.45 million Americans will still travel 50 miles or more from home during the July 4th holiday weekend, down 1.3 percent, or nearly 550,000 Americans, from the 41 million who traveled last year.

This is the second consecutive travel holiday in 2008 where a year-to-year decrease is forecasted. AAA projected a nearly one percent drop in holiday travelers for Memorial Day.   “Despite skyrocketing gas prices and a lackluster economy, it's important to note that millions of Americans are still planning to travel," says AAA Oregon Public Affairs Director Marie Dodds.  "More than 13 percent of the U.S. population will still be on the road this holiday weekend.  Many will be putting a little fireworks into their summer thanks to travel bargains being offered to boost last minute business."

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While most articles for young professionals provide tips for work, an all-too-often ignored aspect of work is not working at all. After graduating from college, working 40 to 60 hours a week is tough! When I graduated, I had two weeks to move before starting my job, and I'm sure I'm not the only one in a similar situation. It's only when you've worked for a few months that you realize how much free time you had in college. For most newly corporate types, two weeks a year and holidays are all the time we have to free ourselves from our cubedoms. We've all heard that Americans don't take as much vacation as the rest of the world; in fact, surveys report 35 percent of Americans don't even use all of their meager allotment!

As an American corporate worker, I was pretty used to my two weeks of paid vacation and eagerly awaited receiving more. After relocating to London, suddenly vacation took on new meaning with five weeks to use up. The fact that my U.S.-based manager has been working 15 years longer than me but still has less vacation makes me think a little more tactfully about how, when, and where I take time off. I've come up with a few tips that I think you can apply to your vacation scheduling to benefit yourself and your company.

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More than five weeks after public health authorities on the Caribbean island of Curaçao (Netherlands Antilles) impounded the Scientology cult's 440-foot luxury liner "Freewinds," the ship remains locked down. Experts advise that decontaminating the ship would cost millions of dollars and may not even be possible. Meanwhile, the cult continues to solicit funds for cruises that will not happen.

After the ship was quarantined on April 26, the Curaçao Drydock Company was contracted to carry out refurbishment and repairs. The contamination was so extensive that the company decided that the risk to its workers was too great, and ceased operations. At that point Scientology sent a team of its "Sea Org" paramilitary force to clean the ship themselves. They are bringing the blue asbestos by the truckload to dump at the island's landfill site at Malpais. The Sea Org is Scientology's internal paramilitary force.

Incredibly, top leaders of the Scientology cult were informed of the pervasive contamination back in 1987, but chose to do nothing. Until the 1960s, when the Freewinds was built, blue asbestos was often used in shipbuilding (it was not known at the time to be so carcinogenic). Former Scientologist Lawrence Woodcraft, a licensed architect by profession, supervised interior remodeling work on the ship in 1987 when the cult first purchased it. According to a legal affidavit made after Woodcraft left the cult in 2001, Woodcraft had notified Scientology officials immediately about the widespread blue asbestos and the dangers it posed. The response he received was that he should carry on with the work, and leave the asbestos where it was. Since Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had never mentioned that asbestos was dangerous, they were not going to worry about it. Scientologists believe that disease is caused not by microbes or toxic substances, but by the presence of "suppressive persons" (SPs), or people who disagree with Scientology and its goals. Moreover, Scientologists believe that high-level Sea Org members cannot get cancer or any other disease.

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The Victorian Government says it does not know whether its early bird train travel plan in Melbourne is helping to relieve overcrowding.

An extra 2,000 people a day are travelling before the morning peak since the scheme was introduced.

The Public Transport Minister, Lynne Kosky, has told a parliamentary committee it is not clear whether people are changing their travel times or whether drivers are switching to trains.

"We still don't know how many of those are transfers and how many of those are new, new passengers, but that's the equivalent of more than two six-car sets, so it is making a significant difference,"

Finding accommodation that suits both adults and children isn't always easy. Leonie Glass suggests 10 hotels that everyone will enjoy in five of France's most family-friendly regions.

If you’re keen to avoid the drudgery of self-catering family holidays, but are fed up with frosty greetings when checking into hotels with your children, you need to find somewhere to stay where you will all feel comfortable.

Not a snooty place, where staff or other guests shush your children if they run down a corridor, or somewhere full of precious objects that invite disaster. And not a hotel where the accommodation is so basic that all of you have to squeeze into a tiny airless box. Here are some genuinely family-friendly places that parents and children can both enjoy.

A city-state is an apt way of describing a country with an area of just 704 square kilometers. But when it comes to the economy and tourist attractions, it is at par with many bigger nations in the world. Singapore is a cosmopolitan city in true sense and when you are in the city you can find a lot of places to visit in Singapore.

Though the city does not have a good number of historical sites to attract tourists, you can find a lot of recreational places to visit in Singapore and which is why a good number of people come to the city to see and enjoy Singapore attractions. You can visit Jurong Bird Park, Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom, can enjoy night safari and can also visit Underwater World that showcases the awe-inspiring beauty of the world under sea. One of the biggest Singapore attractions is that it is a shopper’s paradise and that’s one of the prime reasons for tourists to visit the city.
The other places to visit in Singapore include Sentosa Island. It is one of the most beautiful of all the Singapore attractions and attracts about 5 million tourists every year. Its main attractions include two kilometer long sheltered beach, two golf courses and Fort Siloso.

There are a number of other places to visit in Singapore also and when you are in the city-state, you will never be short of activities to do.

Latvian authorities are preparing to evacuate nearly 1,000 people from a cruise ship stuck on a sandbank.

Tugs have been trying to free the Bahamas-registered Mona Lisa, which ran aground off Latvia on Sunday.

There is no immediate risk to the passengers, most of whom are German, coastguard officials say.

The Mona Lisa, which is German-owned, was sailing from the Polish port of Gdansk to the Latvian capital Riga when it hit a sandbank.

A total of 984 people are aboard the ship, 747 of them passengers.

NYLO Hotels LLC will build its fifth hotel, and first property in the Midwest, in Overland Park, Kan.

The Atlanta-based hotel chain plans to break ground on the hotel in mid 2008 with opening slated for mid-2009. The five-story, 160-room NYLO hotel will be within Corbin Park, a 96-acre mixed-use community now under construction. The community will house 1.1 million square feet of office, retail and hotel space.

The heart of NYLO Overland Park will be a custom-designed common area called "The Loft." On the main floor next to the lobby, the gathering spot will have a stylish 24-7 restaurant and bar, complimentary wireless Internet access, 24-hour business center, comfortable library, plush sofas, boutique shop and original artwork by local artists.

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Its exterior is uninspiring but the Luna Baglioni is top of our list because of the good reviews it receives from past guests. It's very close to the Grand Canal, St. Mark's, Harry's Bar and some of Venice's most expensive designer clothes stores. Ideal for a smart break in the tourist heart of Venice; the hotel can be your luxurious retreat from the hubbub of the lanes and waterways. The hotel has a private jetty for arrivals by water taxi; it's also very close to the Vallaresso (San Marco) waterbus stop.

Today, Shanghai no longer has the mystic atmosphere of the 1920s, when it used to be the Asian country of the millionaires and gangsters, casinos and brothels. However it is twice as fascinating through its almost unreal appearance: on one side old Art Deco buildings and on the other breathtaking skyscrapers.

Its airport resembles the filming studio of a sci-fi movie and the magnetic levitation train (MAGLEV) taking the tourists to the modern side of the city, levitates with the astounding speed of 429km/h. In Pudong, on the eastern bank of Huangpu river, where 11-12 years ago used to be a marsh, emerges the prooud vertical Shanghai, made of steel and glass. Dominated by the Oriental Pearl Tower, the 468 meters high television tower, Pudong comprises about 2000 skyscrapers.

Some claim that all Shanghai numbers about 5000 such buildings. But who’s counting! What matters is that it won easily the competition with New York, which has only about 1000 skyscrapers.