Judge apologizes for detaining workers … Historic hotel may become sex club … Cuban retirees resell news as toilet paper … Woman arrested in air freshener attack … Watercooler stories from UPI.

MILTON, Fla., Aug. 27 (UPI) -- A Florida judge has apologized for having a pair of maintenance workers held because she felt the courtroom was too cold.

WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- The leader of the U.S. Coast Guard said Sunday that international law needs to be overhauled to help fight piracy.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- In the scrappy and often violent brand of rugby played at my school in South London, a "hospital pass" was a throw of the ball to a player when the opposition forwards were bearing down on him, guaranteeing him a bone-crushing place at the bottom of a pile of heavyset teenagers with big boots.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The background of President-elect Obama's pick to head the Department of Homeland Security will reveal a lot about how his nascent administration views the future of the troubled agency, according to Washington insiders.

BARROW, Alaska, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. Coast Guard officials say they are increasing their Arctic presence to increase safety in a region of melting icecaps and increasing maritime activity.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., March 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen says its new communications system is now ready.

WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) -- The head of the U.S. Coast Guard says in the five years since the agency's move to the Homeland Security Department more than 27,000 lives have been saved.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Cleaning up San Francisco Bay is likely to cost at least as much as the fine faced by the owner of a ship that spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel.