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U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz introduced a bill Wednesday that seeks to expand Hawaii's national parks while preserving the state's special places and bringing in more tourism dollars. Hawaii has seven national parks, but Schatz wants to add more.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Long a cultural backwater, Rio de Janeiro has taken another leap toward becoming an art hot spot with this week's opening of a museum built around one of the world's premier collections of contemporary Latin American art.

PHILADELPHIA - A mounted wooden fish. Dog figurines. Colorful soap carvings of clowns and Santa. A wallet made of interwoven cigarette packs. It sounds like a bad garage sale — until you get to the shivs. And the century-old mug shot book.

NEW YORK, N.Y.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - A hotel boom is luring tourists out of Manhattan and across the East River to the Queens neighbourhood of Long Island City, where 15 hotels have opened since 2006, from boutiques to chains.

SAVANNAH, Ga. - For the second time in a year, a study has confirmed what Jekyll Island visitors and residents can easily see from the roadsides and golf course fairways: the island state park has an obvious abundance of deer.

HONOLULU, Hawaii - Popular travel sites are being told to pay Hawaii a $70 million penalty for skirting state general excise taxes over the past 10 years. A tax appeal court has ruled that online travel companies including Orbitz Worldwide Inc.

MADISON, Wis. - Wisconsin authorities announced Tuesday they will shut down one of nation's most popular nude beaches on weekdays after struggling for years to curtail sex and drugs on the sandbar and surrounding woods.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - The Statue of Liberty, closed since Superstorm Sandy damaged the island where it stands, will reopen to the public in time for Independence Day, officials said Tuesday.

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's top tourism official said the country may drop out of the world's top 10 tourist destinations, a spot it has held for years.