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Sunday, 10 July 2011

21 dead as Taliban storms Kabul hotel

21 dead as Taliban storms Kabul hotel

Nine attackers target top hotel hosting security conference

ISAF sends in attack helicopters

Karzai praises Afghan troops

KABUL: Heavily armed Taliban militants stormed a top Kabul hotel, sparking a ferocious battle involving Afghan commandos and a NATO helicopter gunship that left at least 21 dead including the nine attackers.

Officials said all of the gunmen were killed during the night-time raid on the hilltop Intercontinental Hotel, frequented by Westerners and Afghan officials, part of which was left in flames as tracer bullets lit up the sky.

The state-owned 1960s hotel was hosting delegates attending an Afghan security conference and a large wedding party when the insurgents struck late on Tuesday.

The Interior Ministry said nine Afghan civilians — mostly hotel workers —and two police officers were killed in the brazen assault and another 18 people were wounded. It said a ninth dead Taliban militant had been identified. The Ministry and the government in Madrid said a Spanish man — reportedly a pilot working for a Turkish airline — was also killed at the hotel.

Among those staying at the hotel were provincial government officials who were in Kabul for a conference on the handover of power from foreign to Afghan security forces. The process starts next month.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, praised the work of the Afghan troops and reiterated support for the transfer of responsibility for security from foreign to national forces, due to begin next month.

“This incident and ones like this will not stop the transfer of responsibility to [national] security forces,” he added.

The attackers steered clear of the normally heavily guarded road snaking up to the hotel, instead picking their way through the trees on the northern slope towards the building around 11:00 pm on Tuesday, said police.

Panicked guests were told to stay in their rooms as the attackers, thought to have suicide vests, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, roamed through the building for about four hours before the raid was quelled.

Major Tim James, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said ISAF deployed one helicopter at the request of Afghan authorities.

“It flew over the hotel, circled it a few times. They were able to clearly identify a number of insurgents who were armed and wearing suicide vests and then they engaged the individuals with small-arms fire,” Major James told AFP.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the militant Islamist group was behind the attack, which comes weeks before foreign forces are expected to start withdrawals from Afghanistan. — AFP

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Friday, 8 July 2011

Free hotel stay – if your names are Will and Kate

Sadly for the Red Lion Hotel Anaheim, which is a mouse’s whisker away from Disneyland, Prince William and his bride Kate Middleton will not be visiting the Magic Kingdom during their California stopover.

But if you’re married and your names are William and Kate, you’re in luck: you can get a free three-night stay at the hotel during July or August.

There are, of course, some eligibility rules you’ll have to meet. Among them: you’ll need an ID showing that your first names (not middle, second, third or last) are William and Kate or Catherine. (Exact spellings required) and a valid U.S. marriage certificate.

You can see all the rules here.

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Anti-snoring hotel rooms

Do you wish you could sleep like a baby, even though you have a sleeping partner that snores?

Photo courtesy National Media Museum, via Flickr Commons

You could wear earplugs, go sleep in another room or go on vacation and check-in to a “snore absorption” hotel room.

This past week nine Crowne Plaza hotels in Europe and the Middle East, including the properties at Schiphol, Brussels and Madrid airports, were invited to test special anti-snoring rooms featuring sound absorbing headboards and egg-box style foam wall padding designed to reduce and muffle the snoring noise reverberating in the room.

Other anti-snoring amenities include a white noise machine, a bed wedge to encourage snorers to sleep on their sides and an anti-snoring pillow that, according to the hotel chain, “uses magnets to create a natural magnetic field, opening the airways and stiffening the upper palate that vibrates during snoring.”

No word on when – or if – these anti-snoring rooms will become permanent fixtures in all Crowne Plaza hotels around the world, but like the British Travelodge chain which installed sleep wardens at their hotels, it’s a silence-inducing step in the right direction.

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