The plant has not strengthened electrical cables to withstand fire damage for one to three hours, a regulation established to provide necessary plant security in the event of an emergency.

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And the U.S. government has sued contractors for failures including developing a power plant in Kabul and providing security guards in Iraq.

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Two private Algerian TV stations and an online news site said security forces scouring the plant found five militants hiding out and learned that three others had fled.

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Security has now been tightened at the plant, which employs more than 2, 000 people and produces more than 1, 000 of Maruti's top-selling cars every day, accounting for about a third of its annual production.

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Those companies included Vivint in the home security space and SunPower, a solar panel maker and power plant developer.

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When Ford opened its giant plant at Dagenham in 1931, tens of thousands of jobs provided income security in the midst of profound economic depression.

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The Department of Homeland Security gave out the contract for the 87, 000-square-foot plant Thursday, DHS spokeswoman Nicole Stickel said.

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Mr Woolsey, who backed the Iraq war, is on the advisory board of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, which argues for subsidies to make cars more fuel-efficient and for plant-based alternatives to petrol.

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Until a few years ago, the adjacent coastline was closed to the public for national security reasons, but that all changed in 2010 when a graceful wooden bridge was built over the plant's mini-harbour.

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