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Explanation: A starry night over the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is really not so starry. In fact, the Moon is the only celestial beacon to come close to competing with city lights in this night skyscape, a situation all too familiar to urban skygazers. The futuristic looking scene is dominated by the 800 meter tall Khalifa Tower, presently the tallest free standing structure on planet Earth. But for now you should also be able to make out a few of the very brightest stars in Earth's night sky. Capella is left of the tower and Aldebaran,...

SNIPPET: "Shanti was arrested by u.s. Customs and Border Protection in Blaine, Wash. ..." SNIPPET: "Both were from Morocco. It's unclear why Shanti would need to jump the border so often. But a LinkedIn account listed in Shanti's name lists a string of jobs in Canada, Dubai, and Jordan, so it may have been work-related."

DUBAI // Full-body scanners will not be introduced at Dubai International Airport, police have confirmed. Security teams will instead rely on well-trained personnel to provide screening, Brig Gen Ahmed bin Thani, the director of the Airport Security Department at Dubai Police, said yesterday. The airport had been considering purchasing the controversial machines - which create images of passengers' bodies through their clothing - as recently as December, when officials suggested they could be modified to protect privacy and health. However, Brig Gen Thani said that international standards adopted by the airport in 2007 were already adequate to ensure passenger safety....

Linky Here Gigapan Homepage Linky Here The GigaPanSM process allows users to upload, share, and explore brilliant gigapixel+ panoramas from around the globe. Anyone with a regular digital camera and stitching software can upload. Free to join and post.

A British tourist called the Islamic prophet Muhammad a terrorist in a heated row with an electronics salesman in a Dubai shopping mall, a court heard yesterday. Andrew Graham, 40, faces spending a year in a Dubai jail if he is convicted of insulting Islam. In a written statement produced before the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours yesterday, the Pakistani salesman said: ‘He laughed and said that I’m crazy and that prophet Muhammad was not a peaceful man but he is a terrorist.’ ‘I told him he was crazy because they were terrorists and they kill people and bomb each other....

Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, has a new project. ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Late one night last November, a plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touched down in this glittering seaside capital. Whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boarded an unmarked bus and drove roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand. The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million...

The September11 terror attacks in the US were staged to overcome disunity in al-Qa'ida, confidential computer records reveal. Alan Cullison reports on what happened after his laptop was wrecked while he was covering the combat in Afghanistan IN the autumn of 2001, I was one of scores of journalists who ventured into northern Afghanistan to write about the US-assisted war against the Taliban. After losing use of my computer in an accident, I scrawled stories by candlelight with a ballpoint pen and read dispatches to my editors at The Wall Street Journal over a satellite phone. When the Taliban's defences...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Saudi Arabia's rulers answered the Arab world's winter of rage with money: throwing $36 billion into housing and other social assistance channels in attempts to quell rumblings of dissent. Iran's president offered more bombast as Tehran tries to project sympathy for protesters. The two approaches this week — largesse versus rhetoric — captures the style and stakes for the region's heavyweight rivals as Iran hunts for gains and Saudi tries hard to stamp out any threats. Already, the region has been reshaped by the fall of decades-old regimes and growing pressures on others, including Moammar...

Sitting On Top Of The Burj Khalifa In Dubai

Missing a Father in Iran Daniel Levinson June 22, 2008 It has been 471 days since my father, Robert "Bob" Levinson, went missing in Iran -- more than the 444 days that 52 American diplomats were held hostage after they were seized in Iran in 1979. These past 15 months have brought my mother, four sisters, two brothers and me nothing but grief and sadness. We are no closer to finding answers than we were when our father disappeared March 9, 2007, on Kish Island, Iran. He was on a private business trip, and I emphasize "private" because, although he...

Gold seekers need look no further than Galeries Lafayette in Dubai, where nuggets of the precious metal can now be exchanged for cash at the emirate's first Gold to go ATM. Shoppers will receive a personalized Galeries Lafayette piece of gold that corresponds in value to the amount of money they put in. The first nugget was dispensed during a launch party on February 11, 2011 at Galeries Lafayette - Dubai Mall, the nation's largest luxury department store. Guests gathered round the machine, which is situated on the ground floor of Galeries Lafayette to watch as the ribbon was cut...

As the Middle East violence continues, we move on to Bahrain for a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Saudi forces are battling Shiite protesters in the streets. Naturally the media is misreporting this as government atrocities against democracy protesters. When actually it's another Sunni-Shiite civil war in another Sunni country with a Shiite majority. If this reminds you of Iraq, you're pretty close. Except that Bahrain is more like Dubai with its own royal family, a business culture built on its proximity to Iran, and much of the country is actually foreign workers brought in by oil revenues....

A new book by David Horowitz and Richard Poe has enraged the Left and alarmed many conservatives. It exposes the machinations of a radical clique working at the highest levels of government and finance to undermine American power. That book is The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party. It hit the New York Times bestseller list in its first week in print. Here to tell us about The Shadow Partyis co-author Richard Poe, our esteemed colleague at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, where he serves as director of research. Mr....

DUBAI (Reuters Life!) – Dubai's boom may have fizzled, but you can still live the high life perched atop the world's tallest building as the glitzy Gulf emirate unveils one of the world's highest restaurants. Atmosphere, on the 122nd floor, is one private elevator ride up the glass and chrome Burj Khalifa...

It exemplified the booming property market and ambition of Dubai’s entrepreneurs. But after the global financial crisis led to the collapse of the emirate’s home-building market, a unique development known as ‘The World’ is reportedly facing Armageddon. The project, a man-made archipelago designed to resemble a map of the planet, is facing disaster as its islands have begun sinking, a tribunal heard this week. The development, which sits a mile and a half from the mainland, is all but vacant after investors who bought up its ‘nations’ saw their finances collapse after the economic crash.

Dubai World Down the Drain by Tammy January 22, 2011 I just read a great article over at Hillbuzz.Apparently Dubai World, a man-made metropolis of islands in the Gulf of Oman, is SINKING. You may have caught the 60 Minutes interview with the King of Dubai as he explained this insane construction project. A project that was being built at the hands of slaves.Yes, slavery survives and thrives in the Middle East. Anyone who thinks these Islamic jerks have one iota of civility in their blood is sadly mistaken.And now these islands, built on slave blood are melting away. Karma...

Recent events in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt spell a dangerous new trend in the region. There have been major developments in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt, each of which is of tremendous importance. In Tunisia, a popular uprising fueled by unemployment, economic suffering and long-term discontent has overthrown the dictator, but not necessarily the dictatorship. In 55 years of independence, the country has been governed by two dictators, the current one being Zine al-Abedin Ben Ali, who has been president for 23 years and was a key power in the regime even before that. Is this going to spread? Does it...

For centuries people living in the Middle East have dreamed of turning the sandy desert into land fit for growing crops with fresh water on tap. Now that holy grail is a step closer after scientists employed by the ruler of Abu Dhabi claim to have generated a series of downpours. Fifty rainstorms were created last year in the state's eastern Al Ain region using technology designed to control the weather.

BEIJING – The 121-story Shanghai Tower is more than China's next record-setting building: It's an economic lifeline for the elite club of skyscraper builders. Financial gloom has derailed plans for new towers in Chicago, Moscow, Dubai and other cities. But in China, work on the 2,074-foot (632-meter) Shanghai Tower, due to be completed in 2014, and dozens of other tall buildings is rushing ahead, powered by a buoyant economy and providing a steady stream of work to architects and engineers. The U.S. high-rise market is "pretty much dead," said Dan Winey, a managing director for Gensler, the Shanghai Tower's San...

A court in India has sentenced to death seven men convicted of attacking the American cultural centre in Calcutta in January 2002. Those convicted include Aftab Ahmed Ansari, who the judge said had planned the attack in which five policemen were killed and nearly 20 others injured. Two other men were acquitted for lack of evidence. The attack heightened tensions in South Asia, coming just weeks after a bloody raid on India's parliament. India accused Pakistan of having a link to both attacks which was strongly denied by Islamabad. Although India still supports the death penalty it is rarely carried...