DENVER - High winds sweeping across Colorado's Front Range forced the diversion of 17 flights scheduled to land at the Denver International Airport. DIA spokeswoman Laura Coale says 11 flights were diverted to Colorado Springs Airport, five went to Cheyenne Regional Airport and one was sent to Fort Collins-Loveland Airport between about 9:40 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Friday. She didn't know how many airlines were involved. Coale says at one point, incoming flights were delayed by more than an hour and a half, while departing flights were delayed between half an hour and an hour.

Five snowboarders were killed Saturday when they were swept away in an avalanche in the Rocky mountains near the western city of Denver, local officials said. In the early afternoon a group of six snowboarders ventured into a backcountry skiing area known as Loveland Pass, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Denver outside the boundaries of the Loveland Ski Area, where they were struck by a wall of snow. "I can confirm that five snowboarders have been found dead at Loveland Pass," an official at the Clear Creek County's sheriff's office told AFP.

Police in Colorado were hunting a gunman Wednesday who shot dead the US state's prisons chief, even as its governor signed new gun laws into force following the Aurora theater massacre. Tom Clements, head of the Colorado Department of Corrections, was shot in the chest at point blank range, when he answered the front door Tuesday evening at his home in Monument, 50 miles (80 km) south of Denver, police said. Governor John Hickenlooper fought back tears at a news conference on Wednesday, saying Clements "dedicated his life to public service," according to the Denver Post.

Denver, Feb 14 (EFE).- Going to college has become a losing proposition for a growing number of minority youth in Colorado who find themselves burdened with student debt in an economy that is short on good-paying jobs. "I know several people, including two very close friends, who ... have degrees, but also have a lot of debt and because they can't find work, they end up mowing lawns," Jason Chavez, a business administration student at a Denver university, told Efe.