Why hotels are tempting targets for terrorists

Bomb attacks in Jakarta on Friday are the latest in a long line of deadly strikes on prominent hotels worldwide that show, despite stringent security measures, they remain a favorite target for terrorists. At least nine people were killed and more than 50 injured on Friday when bomb explosions ripped through the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the Indonesian capital

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Twitter hack raises questions about ‘cloud computing’

The recent hacking of a Twitter employee’s personal e-mail account is raising questions about the security of storing personal information and business data on the Internet. The Web has been buzzing since a hacker allegedly broke into a Twitter administrator’s personal e-mail account about a month ago and used that information to access the employee’s Google Apps account.

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12 slain in Mexico identified as federal officers

Twelve bodies with signs of torture found on the side of a remote highway in the state of Michoacan were federal police officers, an official with Mexico’s national security council said at a news conference Tuesday. The officers, 11 men and one woman, were “ambushed while they were off duty by an armed group,” said the security council’s Technical Secretary Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia.

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A New General, and a New War, in Afghanistan

The headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul looks more like a college campus than the nerve center of a military operation involving more than 90,000 troops from 41 countries, its staff officers roaming the halls in each nation’s distinct patterns of camouflage. On July 3, on a wooden deck at the back of his office in the compound, shaded by trees and a garden umbrella, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, who recently became ISAF’s commander, and that of U.S

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Lawmakers, celebrities targeted in alleged phone-hacking scandal

British lawmakers demanded answers Thursday after a newspaper reported that a UK tabloid illegally hacked the phones of thousands of public figures including Gwyneth Paltrow, George Michael and Elle MacPherson. The commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police said he asked his assistant to look into the allegations and determine whether to investigate. It comes after The Guardian newspaper reported Thursday the cell phones of “several thousand public figures” were hacked into by reporters and staff of the News of the World tabloid during one month in 2006

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More associates link Jackson to prescription drugs

Michael Jackson’s dermatologist said Wednesday that he was not surprised to learn that investigators found numerous bottles of prescription drugs in the singer’s home — adding that he had warned Jackson about their danger repeatedly. “I’m very shocked by it, but I have to tell you it’s not something that would be unheard of,” Dr. Arnold Klein said in an appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live.” Klein is the latest in a growing series of Jackson associates who have tied the singer to drugs in recent days

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A Little Quiz on Big Political Sex Scandals

When the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act on June 26, it was a landmark moment for environmental politics. If the bill passes the Senate to become law — no sure thing, given the 60 votes needed in the upper chamber — it would establish the first national caps on carbon emissions. It would also create what would almost certainly be the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas market, since companies would have the option to buy and sell carbon credits and offsets

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