At the heart of a vast construction site in the centre of Dubai is a cone-shaped building that is rising at the rate of one floor a week. When it opens in two years, the Burj Dubai — the flagship among a dozen lavish building projects in this boomtown emirate — will be the world’s tallest skyscraper and home to a Giorgio Armani hotel.
Former Liberian leader and fugitive war crimes suspect Charles Taylor was arrested on Wednesday in a northern Nigerian town near the Cameroon border, police spokesperson Haz Iwendi said. On Tuesday, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government announced that Taylor had disappeared from his plush villa in the southeastern Nigerian city of Calabar.
The long, traffic-clogged trip from John F Kennedy airport into the centre of New York — often undertaken in a state of jetlag — has a way of tempering the excitement of arrival. Now, though, visitors with enough money can evade both that trip and lengthy security queues on the way back, thanks to a new helicopter shuttle service that made its debut this week.
Three Airports Company South Africa officials have been arrested for the multimillion-dollar heist at Johannesburg International airport over the weekend, police said on Wednesday. The two men and a woman are among five people taken into custody for the robbery so far.
Swiss world number one Roger Federer and American fourth seed Andy Roddick advanced to the quarterfinals of the ,9-million ATP and WTA hard-court tournament in Miami with triumphs on Tuesday. Federer dispatched 37th-ranked Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-3, 6-3 in only 58 minutes.
Michael Schumacher said on Wednesday he is confident he can improve on his disappointing formula-one campaign of last year, thanks to his new, improved Ferrari. The seven-times world champion is hoping to bounce back at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
Arsenal moved halfway toward their first appearance in the Champions League semifinals with a 2-0 victory over Italian league leaders Juventus on Tuesday and showed Patrick Vieira they don’t miss him at all. Goals by Cesc Fabregas and Thierry Henry gave the Gunners a quarterfinals first-leg lead that they defend next week in Turin.
Astronomers and the simply curious have flocked to Libya, reputedly the best place in the world to view Wednesday’s total eclipse of the sun, as the former pariah state bids for tourist dollars. The north African desert nation opened its air and sea ports to 7 000 eclipse lovers from 47 countries.
Junior platinum miner Eland Platinum made its debut on the JSE on Wednesday after raising R525-million via a private placing. The capital is to go towards building the Elandsfontein platinum project at a cost of R1,4-billion, with peak funding of one billion rand.
There could be "inflationary consequences" for South Africa if economic growth was higher than the annual 4,5% rate shown by research to be the country’s potential output rate, according to South African Reserve Bank (SARB) governor Tito Mboweni.