U S Cities

Here is a list of selected national and international airlines that offer flights out of major cities in the United States. In some cases, an airline may not have its own mileage award program, but it may partner with another airline. Note: "FF" denotes "frequent flier." Aer Lingus (800) 474-7424 reservations/FF www.aerlingus.com Aero California (800) 237-6225 reservations Aeroflot Russian Airlines (888) 340-6400 reservations/FF www.aeroflot.

Office vacancies in U.S. cities dropped to the lowest rate in more than three years in the second quarter, with San Francisco, Miami and Washington increasing occupancies amid an improving economy. The vacancy rate for central business districts in U.S. cities fell to 13.7% from 14.2% in the previous three months and 15% a year earlier, according to data provided by New York-based real estate service provider Cushman & Wakefield.

Hotels eat up a major chunk of your travel budget. Let's take a look at some of the ways you can lower the cost. Urban hotels usually charge the most. Average room rates in New York City are more than $220 a night. You'll pay comparable amounts in San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C. In London and Paris, you'll pay far more. To avoid the high prices, some smart travelers rent spare rooms in occupied private apartments or homes.

One day last month in this normally sun-starved corner of the country, when the temperature reached into the low 60s, residents donned shorts and acted as if summer had come early. That bothered Mayor Greg Nickels -- not the shorts, but the warm weather. The temperature hit the 60s again this month, and with mountain snowpacks alarmingly low and scientists already predicting drought this summer, Nickels said he feared "the profound changes" associated with global warming had reached home.

Anaheim shouldn't feel it has lost any luster, even with its Angels trying to add "Los Angeles" to the team's name. After all, Anaheim has a prominent place in the new book "The Largest U.S. Cities Named After a Food, and Other Mind-Boggling Geography Lists from Around the World." Listen to this: Anaheim is the sixth most populous city in the nation to have a name that is unduplicated anywhere else in the world, author Brandt Maxwell says.

Extra tight security turned Times Square into a fortress Wednesday night as hundreds of thousands of revelers celebrated New Year's Eve with cheers, confetti, fireworks and a tribute to American troops in Iraq. At midnight, as the countdown ended and a huge crystal ball reached bottom, a blizzard of multicolored paper tumbled over the crowd. People kissed, sang, danced, shouted, waved and wished each other happy new year as 2004 was born.

Four times a day, when 13-year-old Mikey Albano injects himself with insulin from Canada to control his diabetes, his only concern is aiming the syringe. Mikey -- the son of this city's mayor -- knows that some people question whether the medication that comes by mail to his home in a refrigerated package might be outdated or otherwise unsafe. Mikey also has heard critics suggest his father is endangering his life to save a few pennies. "That is just wrong," the eighth-grader says.

The American doughnut was born in 1847, so the lore goes, when a Maine seaman urged his mother to shove a fork through the center of her "fried cakes." That solved the problem of the cakes' soggy middle and created the doughnut's trademark hole. Today, perhaps the most celebrated of the sweet treats are those fried up by Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., whose hot "original glazed" doughnuts have earned a cult-like following.

Should we look back nostalgically at the days when our leaders suggested that the Iraqis might welcome our troops with open arms? Were our leaders really that naive, or were they consciously deceiving us? The Iraqis are certain to remember the tens of thousands of Iraqi lives they lost to our bombs in the last war. They were never likely to see us as friends. In a way, we've created a twisted form of democracy. The Iraqis must choose between rule under Saddam Hussein's tyranny and rule by those who are brutally bombing their homes, destroying their water supplies, cutting off their power and killing their sons, brothers and fathers.