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Muslim terrorists opened fire on an upscale hotel on Friday in the city of Bamako, the capital of the western African state of Mali. The jihadists used automatic weapons according to security sources, and apparently have taken people hostage in the Radisson Blu Hotel. Some reports indicate that at least three people have died in the attack. The luxury hotel, which has 190 rooms, is a popular site for Western officials according to French-language media. According to the French RFI radio, the attack was launched by three assailants who entered the hotel with diplomatic cars. Security forces have set up...

(Translated) Armed police converging on Hotel Pullman

AMMAN, Jordan — Just after nightfall Feb. 3, a warrant arrived at the city’s main women’s prison for the execution of Sajida al-Rishawi. The instructions had come from King Abdullah II himself, then in Washington on a state visit, and were transmitted from his private plane to the royal court in Jordan’s capital. A clerk relayed the message to the Interior Ministry and then to the prisons department, where it caused a stir. State executions are complicated affairs requiring many steps, yet the king’s wishes were explicit: The woman would face the gallows before the sun rose the next day.

President Obama and his entourage will break with tradition and not stay at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel during the United Nations General Assembly this month, the White House said. The iconic hotel was sold by Hilton Worldwide Holdings to a Chinese conglomerate in 2014, prompting concerns about espionage and security. Obama and his team of advisers will stay at the Lotte New York Palace hotel instead. “I can confirm the report that the president will stay — and the rest of the U.S. delegation will stay at the New York Palace Hotel,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said....

sources headed to the Toronto International Film Festival tell Page Six that some stars may boycott his branded Trump Toronto Hotel, which was buzzing with starry activity just a year ago. “No one’s staying at the Trump” this year, sniffed one showbiz vet. “People are not going back. Talent does not want to stay there. It’s like the Beverly Hills Hotel.” [snip] A Weinstein rep told us of its move: “It was simply based on convenience and logistics” rather than “anything to do with Mr. Trump’s politics.” Harvey Weinstein has joked to the Hollywood Reporter that his liberal mom is...

The sharing economy is changing the way we work, live and play. But nowhere have we better seen the benefits of this change than in our transportation and travel. In just a few years, we’ve added Lyft, Uber and SideCar to our zeitgeist for rides and turned to Airbnb for housing when visiting a city. We’ve lovingly termed this change “disruption.” It’s a disruption of industries that have remained relatively unchanged for decades and a disruption craved by us all. We’re turning our cars and homes into valuable assets and facilitating the type of customer experience we all want. Of...

I will be visiting Standford, CA for a few days while my daughter attends a camp. We wish to stay at a hotel within 10 miles or so of campus. I am unfamiliar with the area and do not wish to end up in a poor section of town. When I search for affordable rooms the service tries to put me in Fremont or near the San Jose Airport etc. AS I do not know these areas, I thought I'd ask the advice of some Freepers.

Plans have been unveiled to build the world's largest hotel, which could be open as early as 2017. The Abraj Kudai, will be located in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a city visited each year more than 15million Muslims. With twelve 44-story towers containing 10,000 rooms, the hotel, which is being created by multi-national design group Dar Al Handasah will have a total area of 4.6 million square feet.

The Ninawa International Hotel : ISIS propagandists want us to believe it functions almost like a ‘normal’ state, even opening a five-star hotel. But it’s all lies.

Sign me up for a crying room if we get Obama-redux in 2016. Japan is already bracing for Progressive Doomsday. Sure we got campus Safe Zones but nothing like the comfy cozy niches that Japan offers the weak-kneed, faint of heart, reality-averse denizens of the new millennium. I might even need a cuddle cafe to calm my nerves. There are even exciting extra cost optionals allowing you to lock eyes with and hair-stroke your lady cuddlemate. Or I can wander into the Owl Cafe where I can be soothed by fluttering birds or go to Maidreamin where pretty girls dressed...

If the ghosts of Frank Sinatra and Liberace were still hanging around the Riviera Hotel and Casino on Monday morning, they wouldn't have found a seat at the bar. Crowds squeezed onto barstools and milled about the casino floor saying goodbye to "The Riv," a classic that spent 60 years on the Las Vegas Strip and closed at noon. It's an age reached by few properties along the four-mile stretch of hulking casino resorts mimicking other worldly landmarks or beckoning passers-by with all their wants in one place that have replaced Sin City's recent past.

If you’ve ever wanted to sleep with a giant lizard — and let’s face it, you only live once — one Japanese hotel has just the thing with its soon-to-be opened Godzilla Room. Hotel Gracery in Tokyo’s buzzing Shinjuku entertainment district offers the chance to catch some shuteye under the watchful gaze of a man-sized atomic mutant as he stomps on a miniature version of Tokyo in the corner of your room. For those extra-unsettling dreams, a giant Godzilla hand, complete with razor-like claws, looms over the twin beds to ensure you get maximum value from the ¥39,800 a night...

WASHINGTON — A senior State Department official is confirming the death of one U.S. citizen in Tuesday's attack on a Libyan hotel. The official isn't providing any further details. Libyan officials said four foreigners and five guards were killed Tuesday after gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The ensuring standoff ended when two assailants set off a grenade that killed them, officials said. The attack on the Corinthia Hotel, which sits along the Mediterranean Sea, started in the morning hours and included a car bombing, said Essam al-Naas, a spokesman for a Tripoli security agency.

Ottawa cops have sealed off an area in the east end due to a “possible threat” involving chemicals and/or explosives. Cops say they are at the scene at St-Laurent Blvd. and Joseph Cyr Street and asking the public to avoid the area. The original call came in at about 10:15 p.m., involving a vehicle possibly connected to an investigation in Nova Scotia, sources tell the Sun. “CBRNE and HAZMAT attended the scene to investigate a threat made by a suspicious male who had possibly checked in at the Chimo Hotel located in the 1100 block of Joseph Cyr,” police said...

During his time as a personal aide, Reggie Love developed a very personal bond with Barack Obama. The 'bodyman' stuck with him during the 2008 presidential campaign and during his first years in the White House. But there is perhaps one moment where their working relationship became slightly awkward. Love recounts how he was staying in a hotel during the presidential campaign when he had a female friend from college to stay - and the then Senator Obama barged in.

North Korea is so isolated that rather than bring the Internet to its hackers, it brings them to it—in a swank hotel in China. The luxury hotel that has been called a command post for North Korean hackers would make for a unique holiday getaway and give you lots to talk about back home. “Surprisingly Great Hotel - Clean, Tasteful.... and North Korean!” says a trip advisor review for the Chilbosan Hotel in Shenyang, China. For just $53, you get “a deluxe twin room,” including a North Korean breakfast considerably more substantial than those enjoyed by the vast majority of...

SKOPJE, Oct 9 (Reuters) - A British man with symptoms of the Ebola virus died in Macedonia on Thursday and authorities said they had sealed off a hotel where he stayed, keeping another Briton and hotel staff inside. A Health Ministry official said the man had arrived in the capital, Skopje, from Britain on Oct. 2 and had been rushed to hospital at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Thursday, where he died several hours later.

New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel holds a special place for many Chinese visitors — starting at the very top. The diminutive Chairman Deng Xiaoping stayed at the hotel during his first trip to the United States in 1974, where then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger threw a banquet in his honor. Deng’s handpicked successors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao followed his example, as have luminaries including Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma, who used the glamorous venue to launch his recent IPO roadshow, attracting hundreds of investors. The hotel has been sold to the Chinese, but the purchaser behind this week’s $1.95 billion...

Do you leave a tip in your hotel room for the maid? Marriott is launching a program with Maria Shriver to put envelopes in hotel rooms to encourage tipping. The campaign, called 'The Envelope Please,' begins this week. Envelopes will be placed in 160,000 rooms in the U.S. and Canada. Some 750 to 1,000 hotels will participate from Marriott brands like Courtyard, Residence Inn, J.W. Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and Renaissance hotels. The name of the person who cleans the room will be written on the envelope along with a message: 'Our caring room attendants enjoyed making your stay warm and comfortable....

Most defensive shootings do not occur in four star hotels.   But on the 6th floor of the Grand Hyatt in San Antonio last Saturday, the 12th of July, there was an exception. An occupant of the hotel, Moises Torres, 34, is said to have been creating a disturbance in the hallway, breaking light fixtures and banging on doors, saying "he was looking for someone to kill".  At least one person called security.   When the CHL (concealed handgun license) permit holder thought Torres was gone, he opened his door.   He reported that Torres charged him and the...