Widely touted as the Middle East’s very own Orlando, "Dubailand", a cluster of mega-billion-dollar projects, is gradually emerging across the desert sands of the booming Gulf emirate. Faced with a dwindling wealth of oil, Dubai has taken on a new challenge of larger-than-life projects in line with its ambition to become the region’s main business and leisure hub.
Breakfast at an upmarket hotel in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, begins at 6.30am. Nearly three quarters of an hour later, the tables are still set and pristine, the buffet untouched. "There is no one," the restaurant manager said, shaking his head. Beirut should be buzzing, if only with expatriates returning to holiday in their homeland.
Perhaps the most famous photo of Jack Nicklaus as a father came from the 1973 United States PGA Championship. He had just completed a 68 in the second round at Canterbury when four-year-old Gary, the fourth of his five children, ran onto the green and into his arms.
Last year was one of the worst on record for refugees and the crisis is deepening in 2007 thanks to conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan’s Darfur region. But the accelerating return of refugees to their homes in south Sudan in 2007 — some after more than two decades — is one bright spot in the otherwise bad year.
A strike in Africa’s top oil producer began on Wednesday after unions rejected government concessions on fuel prices as too little too late. The offices of Western oil companies operating in Nigeria were closed along with most other businesses, but oil production and exports were uninterrupted, company officials said.
Thousands of Eritreans marched through the streets on Wednesday to a cemetery atop a hill overlooking the capital to honour tens of thousands of people killed in two wars against their former Ethiopian masters. Some holding orange flowers, Eritreans bowed their heads in silence to celebrate an estimated 90 000 people killed in a 30-year independence struggle.
The electronic National Transport Information System (eNatis) is operating well countrywide, the National Road Public Management Corporation said on Wednesday. The corporation manages eNatis on behalf of the Transport Department.
Kimberley will soon get its sparkle back when the State Diamond Trader (SDT) is established in the Northern Cape city. PW Saaiman, provincial minister for economic affairs, said on Wednesday the establishment of the SDT should have many developmental spin-offs for the city.
A Beijing hospital is preparing to treat injuries that might occur if next year’s Olympics are hit with a ”terrorist nuclear attack,” the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. Beijing municipal officials said a drill would be held next month to test readiness to handle a dirty bomb attack.
In the spacious, top-floor office of Gaza’s former police chief, the television was tuned to al-Aqsa TV, the Hamas channel, and at lunchtime half a dozen well-armed, bearded Hamas commanders rose in unison and knelt in prayer. On the streets there were no policemen to be seen.