Word: dubai
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...celebrated in a different way in the Floating Mosque currently under construction off the coast of Dubai. Designed by Dutch firm Waterstudio.NL, the arresting building, which is due to be finished by 2011, resembles a futuristic submarine rising from the Persian Gulf with minarets so short and slender they could be periscopes. Built of floating modules of concrete and foam, it will be cooled by seawater pumped through the roof, walls and floors...
...Only you could understand me.” No, these characters aren’t supernatural or extra-terrestrial; they’re spies for the CIA and MI-6, respectively—fed up with their empty lives of artifice and loneliness. After a one-night stand in Dubai and a week of lovemaking in Rome two years later, they decide that they belong together and hatch an escape plan. All they need in the world is each other and a cool $40 million to finance their tastes in Italian hotels, beachfront villas, and flowing Moet. But this romantically...
...financial downturn. Rents, which were at unbearable highs last summer, have now plummeted at least 25%, and property prices are down as much as 50% since August of last year. But while there is some respite from the dawn-to-dusk hammering and drilling that came with Dubai's construction boom, some $8 billion in projects have now been either scrapped or put on hold. The city's notoriously brutal traffic jams have eased somewhat in recent weeks since the reported exodus of thousands of expatriates, who make up more than 85% of Dubai's population. The departures, however, could...
...city-state has its defenders. "Dubai-bashing is in fashion right now," says Hassan Jarrar, head of wholesale banking for Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai. "Like most governments, the U.A.E. wants to limit the fears of not just the people inside but also external investors. Are they understating the problem? I don't think so." He insists that "the difference between Dubai and Singapore or Shanghai is, in Dubai, when cranes leave site here, they leave when construction is finished." A trip down Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai's main thruway, named after the U.A.E.'s founder and first President, reveals...
...billboard has gone up just below Dubai's World Trade Center. It features images of Dubai's more recognizable landmarks, like the sail-shaped Burj al-Arab hotel and Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building. They are all adornments for the subject of the billboard: Dubai's leader, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. The sheik has been rumored to have suffered significant health problems from the strain brought on by the emirate's economic woes. The billboard is meant to belie those rumors; it shows the sheik, 59, looking sharp, vibrant and healthier than ever. Behind his picture...