National Post

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Republican lawmakers wonder how Beyoncé and Jay-Z got to go on a Cuban holiday
Two Republican lawmakers are questioning how Beyoncé and Jay-Z circumvented a policy that restricts Americans from travelling to Cuba.

According to CNN, the American musicians were seen celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary in Havana last week.

Americans are barred from visiting Cuba unless it is for educational reasons. (Ramon Espinosa / The Associated Press)

British grandmother to be executed by firing squad for smuggling cocaine after Bali court rejects appeal
An Indonesian court upheld the death sentence against a British woman convicted of smuggling $2.5 million worth of cocaine into the resort island of Bali, a court official said Monday.

The Bali High Court rejected an appeal from Lindsay June Sandiford, 56, who was convicted in January by a district court and sentenced to face a firing squad, said court spokesman Makkasau. 

Sandiford was arrested last May when 3.8 kilograms of cocaine was discovered stuffed inside the lining of her luggage at Bali’s airport. During the trial, she said she was forced to carry the drugs by a gang that threatened to hurt her children. (Sonny Tumbelaka / AFP / Getty Images files)

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Traditional “Falla” sculptures burn down on the last day of the “Fallas” festival in Valencia March 19,2013. The “Fallas”, the name for structures made of cardboard, wood or cork, are exhibited in the streets of Valencia for the duration of the festival and are set on fire on the last day of the event, as a tribute to St Joseph, patron saint of the carpenters’ guild.

Titanic the sequel: Would-be passengers offer up to $1M for passage on replica ship
Let’s hope the sequel is better than the original. Prospective passengers of the Titanic II have reportedly offered up to US$1-million for a spot on the vessel for its maiden voyage, reports the U.K.’s Sky News.

The full-size replica, a pet project of Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer, will be built in China, beginning in April.

“It’s difficult to replicate a luxury liner, but Jinling Shipyard has a history of 60 years of building various kinds of vessels with high quality,” the shipyard’s director, Ge Biao, told China’s Xinhua news agency.

npostlife:

Why would you take your beloved to a hotel located at a former German water treatment plant (like the one above)?
To forget the lovey-dovey, of course: This Valentine’s Day, consider some of the LEAST romantic places to visit on Earth in our travel destination countdown.
[Photo credit: Das Park Hotel by Andreas Straus]

Line towing disabled cruise ship breaks; vessel left ‘dead in the water’ within sight of shore
A Coast Guard official says the disabled cruise ship Triumph has stopped off the coast of Alabama because of a broken towline attached to one of the boats towing the vessel.

Petty Officer William Colclough says the ship will be “dead in the water” as the tugboat with the broken line is replaced with a useable vessel. He says the Carnival Triumph will be on its way once it is safely reconnected, but he did not given an estimate of how long the process would take.

The Triumph was being pulled by four tugs Thursday, and the Coast Guard said it had been moving about 8 kph. Before the towline broke, the ship and the 4,000-plus passengers were expected to arrive at the Mobile cruise terminal late Thursday night.

After a week at sea, much of it in conditions described as filthy and not at all the luxury cruise touted in brochures, most passengers aboard the crippled Carnival Triumph hoped to make it to shore Thursday night — only to then face an hours-long bus ride or other travel hassles to finally get back home. (AFP PHOTO / US COAST GUARD/PAUL MCCONNELL)

Stranded cruise passengers forced to ‘urinate in the shower’ and use ‘plastic bags in the bathroom’ as they wait for hours-long bus ride home
After days stranded in the Gulf of Mexico in conditions some have described as dismal, most passengers aboard the disabled Carnival Triumph can look forward to an hours-long bus ride Thursday after they reach dry land.

The company announced its plan for passengers late Wednesday as the Triumph was being towed to a port in Mobile, Ala., with more than 4,000 people on board, some of whom have complained to relatives that they have limited access to food and bathrooms. (Chris Shivock / U.S. Coast Guard / Getty Images)

‘The whole boat stinks’: Passengers on stranded cruise have little access to food or bathrooms, now won’t reach land until Thursday
Passengers aboard a cruise vessel stranded in the Gulf of Mexico after a weekend engine fire have limited access to bathrooms, food and hot coffee, but also a new destination: Mobile, Ala.

Carnival Cruise Lines President and CEO Gerry Cahill said in a statement Monday that the Carnival Triumph had drifted so far north of its original position that it will be towed to the southern U.S. port, instead of the original plan to take it to Progreso, Mexico.

Cahill said strong Gulf currents caused the Triumph to drift about 90 miles north of its original position off the Yucatan Peninsula. (Lt. Cmdr. Paul McConnell / U.S. Coast Guard / The Associated Press)

‘Strip search’ body scanners to be removed from airports after company fails to make images less revealing
Airport body scanners that privacy advocates have likened to strip searches are to be removed from U.S. airport because the company behind the machine couldn’t write software to make passenger images less revealing.

Airline passengers were offended by the revealing images, including those of children and the elderly. The Washington- based Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the U.S. Transportation Security Administration in July 2010, claiming the scanners violated privacy laws and has called use of the machines equivalent to a “physically invasive strip search.”

Under pressure from privacy advocates and some members of Congress, the TSA moved its screens to separate rooms away from airport security checkpoints. Officials monitoring the scanner images alert agents if they see a possible risk. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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Ringing in the Mayan new year on Dec. 21 without the doomsday nonsense
Will the world end in 2012? If you don’t think so & find yourself among Mayan ruins in Mexico or in Belize here are some ways to celebrate. And if you’re just at home, a few ideas, too
[Photo by Luis Perez/AFP/Getty Images]

Want to travel to the moon? $1.5-billion please — Private company plans lunar voyages
A team of former NASA executives is launching a private venture to send people to the moon.

The newly formed business is looking for countries willing to pay $1.5-billion for a two-person trip to the moon, either for research or national prestige.

NASA’s last trip to the moon was 40 years ago.

The Golden Spike Company said Wednesday that it’s aiming for a first launch before the end of the decade. (JENS BUTTNER/AFP/Getty Images)

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Edulis named Canada’s best new restaurant by enRoute magazine

Toronto’s Edulis was one of six Toronto restaurants to make the list of ten, which also featured two eateries apiece from Calgary and Montreal. Read more here: natpo.st/SxEnSp