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NATIONAL/WORLD/TRAVEL NEWS


The Sun /Sunday, April 6,2014


 NEWYORK (AP) No
rent collection while in
jail, double the dough
for landing on Go and
clean out Free Parking if
your luck takes you there
are among five made-up
Monopoly rules Facebook
fans voted in for future
editions of the board
game.
 Several thousand peo-
ple weighed in on "house
rules" over 10 days of
recent debate and a year
after Hasbro Inc. added a
cat token and retired the
iron in a similar online
stunt aimed at keeping
the 79-year-old game
fresh.
 "Our goal is to stay
current and deliver
Monopoly in a way that
they want to engage with
it and that means some-
times being new and
having modern takes on
the brand," said Jonathan
Berkowitz, vice president
of marketing, ahead
of Friday's house rules
announcement.
 New means old all
over again in this case
since house rules are
often passed on through
generations. Some casual
players may have thought
a few of the 10 in the
running before debate
ended Thursday were
already in the official rule
book. And some, even
regular players, might not
have heard of others.
 Did you know some
people play that moms
get out of jail for free?
Always. No questions
asked. That one didn't


 AP FILE PHOTO
This 2013 photo shows a cat token, the newest Monopoly token on the game board at Hasbro
Inc. headquarters, in Pawtucket, R.I. Hasbro has released a limited"house rules" edition of the


popular board game.

make the cut. Nor did
buying houses for a prop-
erty without an actual
monopoly (a complete
color set of properties), or
starting the game by plac-
ing half of all the money
on the game board for a
cash-grabbing free-for-all
on the count of three.
 Hasbro's house rules
debate came after the
company received results
of a survey showing
nearly 70 percent of 1,000
respondents reported
never having read all
Monopoly rules and
34 percent said they had
made up rules more than
once.


 The winning house rule
for landing on Go means
players get 400 Monopoly
dollars instead of the
official 200. As for Free
Parking, official rules call
for absolutely nothing to
happen when a player
lands there. Under the
house rule, any taxes and
fees collected are thrown
into the middle for a
lucky someone who lands
on that corner square.
 Rounding out the five
winners are players must
travel around the board
one full time before they
can begin buying prop-
erties, and collecting 500
bucks for rolling double


ones.
 To appease hardcore
players not interested in
new rules, the Pawtucket,
R.I., company will put
the winners into a special
House Rules Edition to
be released in the fall
and add them to classic
Monopoly's game guide
next year as unofficial.
 "There are a lot of
Monopoly purists who
want to play by the classic
rules and don't want to
change it, but we love the
idea of there being some
optional rules in there
that can mix up the game
a little bit," Berkowitz
said.


 (Washington Post) -A
new U.S. Army regulation
that bans an array of
natural hairstyles has
sparked some backlash,
with African-American
women arguing that
the rule has a racial and
cultural component.
 Released on Monday,
Army Regulation 670-1,
includes multiple rules
that specifically address
hairstyles such as corn-
rows, twists and braids
that are popular with
African-American wom-
en. Among the unautho-
rized styles are dreadlocks
and twists, which have
been banned since 2005,
and braids must be small
in diameter.
 Army officials told
the Army Times that the
revisions were approved
after a focus group and
a survey of hundreds of
senior enlisted women
reviewed the changes
and that it's premature to
discuss the new regula-
tions, which sought to
clarify some rules that
were already in place.
 The move has
prompted aWhite House
petition that has gathered
over 10,000 signatures
and asks that the Army
reconsider the ban.
The petition states that
30 percent of women
serving in the military are
non-white, and "these
new changes are racially
biased and the lack of
regard for ethnic hair
is apparent. This policy
needs to be reviewed


prior to publishing to
allow for neat and main-
tained natural hairstyles."
 African-American
women are increasingly
embracing natural
hairstyles and forgoing
relaxers. A recent report
by Mintel, a consumer re-
search group showed a 26
percent decline in relaxer
sales over the last five
years, with an uptick in
sales of natural hair prod-
ucts. The September 2013
report also found that in
the past 12 months, nearly
three-fourths (70 percent)
of Black women say they
currently wear or have
worn their hair natural
(no relaxer or perm), more
than half (53 percent)
have worn braids, and
four out of 10 (41 percent)
have worn locks. Typically,
natural hairstyles are
often easier to maintain
than processed hair.
 In an interview with
USA Today, Sgt. Jasmine
Jacobs, who started the
White House petition
and wears her hair in two
twists, said she is "kind of
at a loss now with what to
do with my hair."
 "I've been in the
military six years, I've had
my hair natural four years,
and it's never been out of
regulation. It's never inter-
fered with my head gear,"
Jacobs, of the Georgia
National Guard, said.
 Army spokesman
TroyA. Rolan Sr. said the
regulation "is necessary to
maintain uniformity with-
in a military population."


Syria ordnance disarming will be huge task, UN


 GENEVA (MCT) -The
United Nations has re-
corded 37,000 incidents
of heavy weapons use
in the three-year Syrian
civil war, a staggering
frequency that the top
U.N. official for disarm-
ing mines and discarded
munitions warns will
plague civilians and
humanitarian aid groups
for years after the fight-
ing there ends.
 "Remember," Agnes


 LASER

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 REMOVAL
 CHRISTOPHER CONSTANCE, MD
 Board
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Marcaillou, the head
of the United Nations
Mine Action Service,
said in an interview with
McClatchy, "millions of
refugees and displaced
people must walk back
on contaminated roads,
and humanitarian
helicopters will have to
be used to deliver food
aid if the roads are not
cleared."
 The U.N. mine agency,
relying on news accounts
for its information, has
been plotting on a map
all reported incidents
where Syrian govern-
ment and rebel forces
have fought. The result is
a "clash database," which
will be used to search for
unexploded ordnance if
a peace arrangement is
ever negotiated.
 "We have right now


recorded 37,000 such
clashes," she said.
 "We must put mine
action on the Syrian
solution agenda,"
Marcaillou said, adding
that her agency already
has drawn up plans for
working in Syria and that
those plans had been giv-
en to Lakhdar Brahimi,
the U.N. peace envoy
to Syria and the moder-
ator earlier this year of
failed talks between the
government of Syrian
President Bashar Assad
and its opponents.
 How to deal with
what's left behind on
the battlefield when a
conflict ends has been
a problem of all wars.
The U.N. mine agency
estimates that about 10
times every day someone
in the world is killed or


maimed by a landmine
or other unexploded
ordnance. Friday was
the U.N.'s day for mine
awareness.
 The mine agency
is now active in 30
countries, including
Afghanistan, Colombia,
the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Libya, Mali,
Somalia, South Sudan
and Syria. While its name
emphasizes mines, it
focuses on all explosive
remnants of war un-
exploded artillery shells,
cluster bombs and
improvised explosive
devices, or IEDs.
 The whole point of our
work "is to prevent death
and injury," Marcaillou
said.
 The agency's activ-
ities include clearing
landmines, destroying


stockpiles of ordnance,
assisting victims and
educating people on
how to avoid being
maimed by a weapon of
war they might discover
lying by the side of the
road or half buried in
a field or in their back-
yards. That's especially
true for people living
in contaminated areas
and refugees returning
home, often after years
away.
 Training local govern-
ments in the program is
also part of the effort -
"to ensure that countries
can do it after we leave,"
she said.
 The work of the U.N.
Mine Action Service is
crucial in supporting
peacekeeping operations
and humanitarian relief
efforts in global conflict


zones such as Mali,
South Sudan and the
Congo.
 "We go back and forth
on the roads, and we
clear the roads, and we
assess the danger of
the roads," Marcaillou
said. In Mali, where
French forces last year
helped put down an
al-Qaida-inspired re-
bellion, "we are facing
mines, unexploded
ordnances from the con-
flict and also from the
interventions of foreign
troops, and increasingly
IEDs, roadside bombs of
suicide bombers, which
seems to be increasingly
used," she said.
 "We have an essential
role in allowing the
deployment of the
peacekeeping troops,"
she added.


Discounts on first-class flights through mid-September


7-Day Caribbean Cruises Let's Go!
Tampa fr.$349
Miami fr.$299
Ft. Lauderdale fr.$449
Port Canaveral fr.$519
Grand European River Cruise
Visit Amsterdam, Kinderdijk, Cologne,
Koblenz, Melk, Passau, Nuremberg,
Vienna, Budapest & more!
15-Day Cruise... fr $3,662
Italian Silhouette
9-day guided tour to Rome,
Sorrento and Capri then cruise
to Ft. Lauderdale via Florence/Pisa,
Provenge, Barcelona, Tenerife
& Palma De Mallorca.
25-Day Cruise Package... fr. $2,269
Anniversary Cruise
Sail from Ft. Lauderdale to
St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan
& Labadee.
Bus, Cocktail Party & Gift!
9-Day Cruise Package... fr.- fr. $659


 By TOM PARSON
 DALLAS MORNING NEWS
 Last month we told
you about some great
first-class fares for travel
through July, and now
these sale fares have
been extended for travel
through Sept. 16.
 These first-class fares

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 since 1995


start as low as $481
round trip, and when
you consider what coach
fares can cost in peak
summer, it may not cost
much more to fly up
front and enjoy all of the
perks of first class.
 We looked at round-
trip fares from Dallas to
New York City. Summer
fares for coach class were
$314 when leaving and
returning on a Saturday,
and $449 when leaving
and returning on a
Sunday. That's a $135
savings for leaving and
returning on a Saturday.
 The first-class fare was
$532 round trip for travel
on a Tuesday, Wednesday
or Saturday.
 If you are checking
bags, paying for extra
legroom or paying for
advance boarding, first
class may be cheaper
than coach because
these things are includ-
ed in your ticket price,
especially since you get
three free checked bags
in first class.
 We checked other
first-class fares from
Dallas and found


round-trip prices
were $481 to Miami or
Orlando, Fla., $484 to
San Francisco, $500 to
Tampa, $509 to Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., $511
to LasVegas, $521 to
Chicago, $530 to West
Palm Beach, Fla., $550
to New York City or
Washington, D.C., $551
to Fort Myers, Fla., and
$567 to San Diego.
 Not all cities are as
budget-friendly, how-
ever, and once you get
north of San Francisco
and New York, the fares
jump. For example,
Portland, Ore., Seattle
and Boston are all in the
$800 range.
 The good news is that
the majority of the U.S.
is on sale.
 This summer, whether
you are traveling in
coach or first class,
flexibility will be the key
to getting the lowest
airfares.
 Most of these first-
class fares are cheapest
for travel on Tuesdays,
Wednesday and
Saturday, but during
peak summer Saturdays


may be a little higher.
 There may be other
days of the week with
low fares, too, so price
your route and find out.
 Delta offers the most
cities for these first-class
sales, but we are also
seeing them offered by
United. American has
them on limited routes.
 If you're thinking about
going to Hawaii in June,
July or August, first-
class fares on Hawaiian
Airlines can be over
$3,700 for a round trip
to Honolulu from Dallas.
Maui can be as high as
$3,916 round trip.
 With these discounted
fares, we have seen
first-class prices in the
$1,600 to $1,700 range.
These Hawaii first-class
fares were cheapest
for Monday through
Thursday travel. Friday
through Sunday travel
was considerably higher,
as much as $300 to $400
more a round trip.
 An insider travel
secret is that if you are
traveling with the family
and your kids are old
enough to sit in coach by


themselves, the adults
could sit up front and
enjoy the perks, includ-
ing three free checked
bags each.
 A family of four could
check six bags for free
if the parents fly up
front. Those six bags
would normally cost
$200 a round trip for
the first four bags, plus
$140 round trip for the
two additional bags if
everyone flies in coach.
That's a total of $340,
just for checked bags.
 If you've got three or
four kids, you'll definite-
ly want that free checked
bag allowance. Just make
sure you check all of the
bags under the first-class
passengers' names so
you benefit from the
baggage allowance.
 If the adults fly up
front, they can relax with
free adult beverages and
roomier seats with more
legroom, while the kids
entertain themselves in
the back of the plane.
 Now I can justify with
good conscience why I
should fly up front this
summer.


Hasbro picks 5 'house rules'


 for new Monopoly set


Army's hairstyle


bans spark calls


 of racial bias


says