News In Brief

now he wants a REFUND

Moldova isn't exactly one of the world's leading tourist destinations. And its cause isn't helped by the fact that some folks who really do want to go there are defeated by their own travel agencies. Case in point: Kahlil Abdulaziz Muhammad. Now a resident of Hannover, Germany, he bought a ticket to the former Soviet republic in order to visit friends. But when his flight landed and he made his way to a phone to call them, their number didn't work. It seems an agent had mistakenly sent him to Molde, Norway - 1,400 miles off course. A sympathetic airline attendant helped him catch a return flight so he could try again.

SO LOG ON ALREADY

How essential are computers to American society? So essential, says the Bureau of the Census, that just under half of the US population 18 and older used one in 1997, the latest year for which data are available. Lowering the age threshold all the way to 3, the same study found that 1 in 5 Americans had surfed the Web.

Sierra Club rates states on success in curbing sprawl

After a new, comparative study of state efforts to prevent urban sprawl, the Sierra Club has concluded much remains to be done. The states it identified as leaders in various fields:

Open-space protection

1. Maryland

2. New Jersey

3. Illinois

Land-use planning

1. Oregon

2. Vermont

3. Maryland

Transportation planning

1. Rhode Island

2. New Jersey

3. Hawaii

Community revitalization

1. Vermont

2. North Carolina

3. Maryland

- Associated Press

Compiled by Robert Kilborn Lance Carden, and Ross Atkin

(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society