Several hundred people joined a handful of exotic dancers in front of the New Jersey Statehouse tonight to protest the US state’s new indoor smoking ban.

DEMOCRATS cleaned up in off-year elections from New Jersey to California, sinking the candidate who embraced US President George W Bush in the final days of the Virginia governor’s campaign.

A CORPORATE jet hurtled off the end of a runway yesterday while attempting to take off from Teterboro Airport, speeding across a highway and slamming into a warehouse.