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Yesterday Google launched Google Hotel Finder, a "search tool specifically designed to help you find that perfect hotel," explains Google software engineer Andrew McCarthy on Google's blog. This isn't exactly innovative on Google's part, plenty of hotel search sites exist--Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz, to name a few. And it's not like they're even the first search engine to integrate travel plans into their site. Bing has a travel section, where users can search for ideal lodging. What makes Google's new site different or better than what you're already using? We're here to help you figure that out, parsing the differences between...

The hotel maid who has accused former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of trying to sexually assault her in a New York City hotel room has broken her public silence in an exclusive broadcast interview with ABC News. "I want justice. I want him to go to jail," Nafissatou Diallo told ABC's Robin Roberts in an interview to air Monday on "Good Morning America" and "World News with Diane Sawyer" and Tuesday on "Nightline." "I want him to know that there is some places you cannot use your money, you cannot use your power when you do something like...

Last week, after a decade of U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, President Obama announced a plan to begin withdrawing thousands of U.S. troops from the country this year. The war has been expensive -- a Brown University research project released Wednesday estimates the total cost of the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq at nearly $4 trillion (a figure that includes the ongoing cost of veterans' care). The human cost is more difficult to quantify, as more than 2,500 coalition troops (1,644 of them American) have now been killed, and civilian casualties are estimated at well over 100,000. Canadian combat...

The atmosphere around the Downtown DoubleTree Hotel was in stark contrast this morning to the chaos that swirled at Third and Union after a Memphis police officer and a civilian were killed at the hotel Sunday night. Officer Timothy Warren, 39, and a still unidentified man were shot to death at the DoubleTree about 7 p.m. Sunday in what authorities say started as a "shots fired" call . A domestic dispute appears to have contributed to the incident.

The hotel maid who claims former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn raped her has been accused of working as a prostitute. Allegations have emerged that the 32-year-old cleaner was was taking extra money from male guests at the hotel for sex. 'There is information... of her getting extraordinary tips, if you know what I mean. And it's not for bringing extra f**king towels,' a source close to the defence investigation told the New York Post. The woman also had 'a lot of her expenses – hair braiding, salon expenses – paid for by men not related to her,' the source added....

Nature and extent of the blaze at Hilton on Park Lane is unclear Fire broke out Friday in a Hilton hotel in London, sending plumes of smoke billowing from the 28-story building. Photographs posted on social media sites showed people fleeing the London Hilton on Park Lane as smoke billowed high into the sky and at ground level. Sam Cunningham, a sports reporter for the Independent newspaper, said he was working in the hotel when the fire alarm went off and the building was evacuated swiftly. Cunningham told NBC News that a police officer said he had not heard of...

The sexual assault case against ex IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Khan is close to collapse, it was tonight revealed. The New York hotel maid who accused Strauss-Khan of raping her in his $3,000-a-night suite, lied to investigators, law enforcement sources told the New York Times. Despite a wealth of forensic evidence against the 62-year-old, prosecutors have dismissed a lot of what the maid said about the alleged encounter, according to the newspaper.

Just a headline for now. AP: The Taliban claim responsibility for the attack at the Intercontinental Hotel in telephone call to the AP. Gunshots heard from inside hotel.

Atlanta, Ga. - Saturday morning, two woman plunged 10 stories out of a window at the W Hotel in midtown Atlanta after a round of 'play fighting,' according to police. LaShawna Threatt, an aspiring model was celebrating her 30th birthday at the posh hotel when the incident occurred. She was killed as a result of the fall. Ciara Williams, the other woman involved in the 'play fighting,' also fell, but rolled off a ledge and then fell the remaining 20 feet onto the patio below. She remains in critical condition at Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta Police Department spokesperson Carlos Campos...

Summer is the season for Pride weeks around the nation, which potentially means travel for some members of the LGBT community. Seizing the opportunity, Millennium Hotels and Resorts, which partners with the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, sent out press releases reminding about the 15 percent discount it offers LGBT travelers who book lodging through a special page on the company's website ... The discounted rooms are limited but the rates are good at all 14 of the chain's hotels in cities across the United States.

Another vacant season winds to an end for the grand hotel formerly known as Trump. The yellow and blue tower, one of the few modern structures in Broward County designed by a world renown architect, should have been the throbbing heart of the renaissance on Fort Lauderdale Beach. It’s empty. As empty, perhaps, as the Trump brand that was used to lure investors into a condominium-hotel scheme that would collapse before a single guest signed the register. The architectural flourishes of the 24-story building, with great portholes looking out over A1A, were meant to evoke the old fashioned “elegance and...

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - A domestic dispute at an Albany motel left two people wounded. Police say the boyfriend wouldn't let his girlfriend leave the motel. She says she shot him in self defense. Police responded to room 201 at Americas Best Value Inn on North Slappey boulevard before midnight. The victim, Tereka Green, says she shot Willie Curry in the right shoulder. Green tells police Curry got angry with her. He pulled out a knife and cut her chest just below her right breast and inside her right hand. Green said she got a handgun and shot Willie Curry...

Reporting from Las Vegas and Los Angeles — The Sahara hotel-casino, a Rat Pack-era jewel of the Las Vegas Strip that age and a prolonged recession had tarnished, will close in May, owner SBE Entertainment announced Friday morning. Chief Executive Sam Nazarian, the Los Angeles nightclub impresario who purchased the Moroccan-themed casino in 2007 and vowed to restore its hipness, said in a statement that running the property was "no longer economically viable."

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Small explosion in Davos hotel, nobody hurtBy Emma Thomasson Friday January 28, 2011 DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Left-wing activists claimed responsibility for a small explosion on Thursday that broke windows at a hotel in Davos, close to where top executives and world leaders were meeting, but nobody was hurt. Devin Wenig, CEO of Thomson Reuters' Markets division, was in a breakfast meeting of senior executives at the hotel when the explosion happened shortly after 9 a.m. (0800 GMT). "A huge boom went off. The whole ceiling lifted. Everyone was convinced it was a bomb," he said, adding participants were told...

A bridge-and-tunnel partier tragically plummeted to his death at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Herald Square this morning after becoming locked out in the cold on a lower-floor roof, cops said. Moon Nam, 23, of Jersey City had checked into the Manhattan hotel with pals after spending a night on the town with pals, sources said. He woke up at 6 a.m. to head home. But he inexplicably took a freight elevator in an attempt to get to the lobby, police said.

Muslim employees of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington said they felt discriminated against after being barred over the weekend from floors where an Israeli delegation was staying, a Muslim advocacy group said. One hotel worker whose duties involve going to all the hotel's floors said he was preparing for his shift Friday when his supervisor told him to steer clear of the eighth and ninth floors, where Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his delegation had booked rooms. "I said, 'Why?' said the worker, who is Muslim and wanted to remain unidentified to protect his job. He said his...

A 15-story hotel in Shanghai, China was built in six days, according to ArchDaily. What's even more impressive is that this building is apparently "Level 9 Earthquake Resistant." CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR VIDEO OF ITs CONSTRUCTION

A 23-year-old Crete woman who was killed in an accident at a Halloween party at a downtown luxury hotel was a Chicago public schools special education teacher who was "ready to make a difference," according to her family. The accident happened at 10:30 p.m. Saturday as Megan Duskey, of the 3600 block of Melanie Lane was attending the party at the Palmer House Hilton, 17 E. Monroe St., police said. While police have opened a death investigation into the incident, preliminary details indicate she was attempting to slide down a stair rail from the mezzanine level when she lost her...

President Obama's aides have booked the entire Taj Mahal hotel ahead of the president's high-profile visit to the Indian city rocked by a terrorist attack two years ago, The Economic Times reports. The newspaper reported that the Obama administration has reserved all 570 rooms, as well as the hotel's restaurants, to ensure airtight security when the president and first lady Michelle Obama visit Mumbai early next month. Dozens of other rooms have been booked elsewhere in the city. The Times reported that downtown Mumbai will be under heavy security while the president is in town