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I'll be traveling to Baltimore next week with my wife. Can anyone please recommend a safe hotel somewhere near Cromwell Street? If there are no safe areas near there, can someone recommend a hotel out of town or in the suburbs? Thanks.

Some years ago, a British engineering firm Atkins proposed an extravagant design for a five-star hotel located deep within a 100-meter, abandoned and half flooded pit near the base of Tianmashan Mountain in the Songjiang District of Shanghai. Construction on the 19-story, 380-room Shimao Intercontinental Hotel finally is already underway. Initially the hotel was expected to be completed by May, 2009, but construction commenced only in March early this year. The innovative design of the luxury resort hotel stands two levels higher than the rock face of the 100 meter deep quarry and includes underwater public areas and guestrooms. Instead...

Officials warn DNC visitors of hotel, ticket scamsBy Meghan Cooke The Charlotte Observer Posted: Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 **SNIP** Better Business Bureau of Southern Piedmont President Tom Bartholomy said credentials to see President Barack Obama deliver his acceptance speech at Bank of America Stadium, which were handed out recently, will likely go on sale on Craigslist and eBay. But the BBB warns that some credentials sold by third parties could be counterfeit. Bartholomy said legitimate credentials have security features. People with fake tickets will be turned away, he said.

Dear Austin area Freepers, please inform me as to a fairly nice hotel in the Austin area in which one could stay for the weekend and be in a pleasant environment. Thanks in advance.

Penny Pritzker, the billionaire heiress whose family owns the Hyatt hotel chain, took a ride on Air Force One this afternoon from San Francisco to Portland, Ore., where President Obama was making a series of fundraising stops. The ride came hours after the announcement of a global boycott of Hyatt Hotels by Unite Here, the nation’s largest hospitality workers union. That boycott has been joined by the National Organization for Women, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Black Justice Center, and the National Football League Players Association. Pritzker was the national finance chair of Obama’s 2008 campaign....

Looks like I'm going to be going to Panama City FL on business and have to stay overnight. Unfortunately I won't get to go to the beach! :-( The closest hotel to where I'm going looks to be the Wingate in Lynn Haven. It seems to have good reviews on line. Is this a decent part of town for a woman alone? Inquiring minds would like to know. Thanks!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty or 21 women were brought back to the hotel in Colombia by U.S. Secret Service agents and members of the U.S. military in an incident last week involving alleged misconduct with prostitutes, U.S. Senator Susan Collins said on Tuesday. Collins was briefed by the director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, on Monday evening. "There are 11 agents involved. Twenty or 21 women foreign nationals were brought to the hotel, but allegedly Marines were involved with the rest," the Republican senator said in comments emailed to Reuters by her spokesman. (Reporting By Susan Cornwell; Editing by...

TRT television says hotel cleaners discovered a bag outside the hotel early Monday and notified police. It said bomb squads determined that the bag contained a bomb, closed all adjacent roads and set it off in a controlled-explosion. (AP)

Five suspected terrorists were reportedly killed during police raids at two different locations in Bali late on Sunday. Police have yet to issue an official statement on the nature of the raids and details on the casualties. The first raid took place at around 10:15 p.m. in a budget hotel, Laksmi, on Jl. Danau Poso 99X, Sanur. The area is known as one of the most famous red-light districts in Bali, where people can easily obtain a cheap room from staff at budget hotels who rarely ask for valid identification from their guests. Neighbors said that they heard a burst...

Suspected Iranian Blew Off His Own Leg In A Botched Terror Attack In Bangkok Robert JohnsonFeburary 14, 2012 One day after bombs targeting Israeli embassy staff went off in India and Georgia, another botched attack played out this morning in Bangkok. Through several reports, the incident appears to have played out something like this: Saeib Morabi, a suspected Iranian, was fleeing an explosion that rocked through his rented home in central Bangkok. While he was on the road looking for transportation, another explosion went off "on a nearby road." When Morabi finally managed to flag down a cab, the driver...

Hotel rates zoom for Democratic National ConventionBy Celeste Smith Posted: Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011 Room rates are going up in a big way at some area hotels during the Democratic National Convention. The markups - quadruple or more in some cases - don't affect the convention's official attendees. DNC organizers already reserved rooms and locked in rates for 6,000-plus delegates, VIPs and others during the Sept. 3-6 convention. **SNIP** Among the most expensive spaces: Holiday Inn Express Suites East Matthews, charging $849.15 to $1,014 per night during the stretch of Aug. 31 to Sept. 7 and Aug. 24 to Aug....

Clinton Foundation facilitates $45 million Haiti hotel dealNovember 28, 2011 | By the CNN Wire Staff Two years after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake leveled Haiti's capital, a deal brokered by former President Bill Clinton's charitable foundation will add new lodging for aid workers and other travelers to Port-au-Prince -- in the form of a $45 million hotel. With only about 500 operable hotel rooms, the city has limited space to house aid workers, potential investors and other visitors, according to a news release Monday by the future hotel's owner and its operator. Caribbean cell phone provider Digicel will own the hotel,...

SNIPPET: "ZAMBOANGA CITY (2nd update, 1:56 p.m.) -- A powerful blast killed at least 3 people and wounded 27 others in a budget hotel packed with wedding guests in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday. The explosion, suspected to have been caused by a bomb, ignited a fire that gutted the two-story Atilano Pension House in downtown Zamboanga city late Sunday." SNIPPET: "Zamboanga city, a predominantly Christian trading hub 540 miles (860 kilometers) south of Manila, is located in a volatile region long troubled by a decades-long Muslim insurgency, extortion gangs and kidnap for ransom syndicates."

Why isn't someone tracking down Sharon's claim that Herman Cain upgraded her room at the Hilton 14 years ago???? Seems to me that if they can de-bunk that claim by her, he is home free as her story will completely crumble. The double standard our people face is unbelievable and highly depressing.

Falls Church, Virginia (CNN) -- Garrulous and active, 79-year-old Joy Bricker presides over her hotel suite in a manner befitting a grander home. She offers tea to the staff and media with the ease of a person schooled in proper etiquette. Like many hotel guests, Bricker has learned to make herself feel comfortable, making her room a home away from home. Only, Bricker has called the Towne Place Suites by Marriott, in Falls Church, Virginia, home for more than 10 years. A former pilot, the 5-foot tour de force is finally turning in her key card, as movers wait to...

A Lincoln Park man was ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail after being charged with killing a LaCrosse, Wis., woman found stabbed to death in a boutique hotel this week, police said. Christopher Love, 23, has been charged with first-degree murder and soliciting for a prostitute in connection with the slaying of Sarai Michaels, 31, police said. A judge this afternoon set bond for Love at $1 million.

SNIPPET: "Dan Folk (21), an Israeli who was invited to the event in which over 100 students took part, ended up getting a business card and memento from Ahmadinejad. "It was at his hotel in Manhattan, we got there and had to wait in the security check line for nearly an hour," said the student, adding, "we gave them our cell phones and any kind of camera we were carrying. During the security check I showed them my Israeli driver's license and the Iranian security officer smiled at me." Folk said he had mixed feelings over the question of whether...

Afghanistan's National Intelligence Directorate (NDS) recently disclosed that it intercepted communications on June 28 between fighters who were assaulting the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul and their Haqqani Network handlers based in Pakistan. In an intercepted phone call, Badruddin Haqqani, a top leader of the terror network, is heard directing one of the fighters and laughing during the attack that killed 11 civilians and two Afghan policemen as well as nine members of the attack team. On Aug. 31, NDS officials briefed reporters in Kabul on the phone intercepts between Badruddin, another Haqqani Network commander known as Qari Younis, and two...

A Muslim hotel valet in the United States has sued, saying he was barred from working on floors in which a delegation from Israel was staying, according to the Washington Post. Mohamed Arafi, a U.S. citizen from Morocco, says he was unable to work on two floors of the hotel in December of last year. All Arabs and Muslims were kept of the floor due to the Israelis' security concerns, Arafi claims. He is alleging unlawful discrimination.

Prosecutors are reportedly set to ask a judge to abandon the case against Dominique Strauss Kahn. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is preparing to ask that all charges against the former head of the IMF accused of attempting to rape hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo are dropped Tuesday. Such requests from the DA 'are never denied', an expert told the New York Post meaning Strauss-Kahn could finally return to his home country after being forced to remian in the U.S for months.