Dubai

This fall, getting halfway around the world will be a lot easier, if you think 16 hours on a plane is easy. Emirates Airlines will start nonstop service between Los Angeles International Airport and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on Sept. 1, the carrier said Thursday. Emirates will use Boeing Co.'s new 777-200LR, which has the longest range of any jetliner. "L.A. represents Emirates' commitment to the American market," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, the airline's chief executive and the uncle of the ruler of Dubai.

The British luxury cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2 arrived in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where it will become a floating hotel moored off an artificial palm-shaped island. More than 60 naval vessels and private boats met the 70,000-ton ship. Officials said the ship's transformation would take two to three years. The Queen's Room, the captain's quarters and the bridge are to be preserved in their original form.

Venus Williams gathered in another big trophy Saturday, defeating Virginia Razzano to win the $2-million Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships in the United Arab Emirates. It was her 40th title, a wonderful feat, but if justice is the guide that it should be, this was a title nobody should have won. In fact, not a single match should have been contested at the Dubai tournament last week.

In the scorching deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, water is always precious, carefully rationed, never wasted. Possessing it separates life from death. What a difference a few miles -- and bucket loads of money -- can make. At Atlantis, the Palm, Dubai's latest and possibly greatest luxury hotel to date, water is an ornament and a plaything. It flows in ridiculous, seemingly endless quantities, simply for the pleasure of it.

Although little known in the United States, Emirates Airlines -- based in Dubai -- is the world's fastest-growing carrier and hopes to be the world's largest airline by 2015. "It's only a matter of time," said Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum, the chairman and chief executive of Emirates and the uncle of the ruler of Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates. Most of the airline's growth until recently has been along routes over the Atlantic and in the Middle East.

The developer of the $2-billion Grand Avenue project announced Friday that a sovereign fund controlled by the royal family of Dubai is investing a significant amount in the Frank Gehry-designed development, which includes residential housing, a five-star hotel and upscale shops and restaurants, all built on publicly owned land. The fund, known as Istithmar, will provide the developer, Related Cos.

Dubai, the Persian Gulf sheikdom forced to sell its U.S. port assets last year on security fears, aims to buy two U.S. aircraft repair companies operating in the U.S. and is wooing American lawmakers to avoid a political backlash. State-owned Dubai Aerospace Enterprise plans to buy Landmark Aviation and Standard Aero Holdings Inc. from Carlyle Group in "a couple of weeks," Chief Executive Bob Johnson said.

Dubai, the Western-friendly tourism boomtown, is building its own version of a Hollywood back lot using a familiar name. Tatweer, a United Arab Emirates developer, announced plans for a $2.2-billion theme park called Universal City Dubailand under a licensing agreement with NBC Universal Inc., operator of the Universal Studios theme parks.

Last week's announcement that Dubai will be the site of a new $2.2-billion Universal theme park is only the latest sign that the small Persian Gulf emirate thinks big. In just 15 years, with the help of hundreds of thousands of imported laborers, the rulers of Dubai have built a modern city of skyscrapers, gleaming hotels and 10-lane highways along its desert coastline. Some estimate that one-fifth of the world's construction cranes are working in Dubai.

The Cunard ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 has been sold for $100 million and is to become a floating hotel and museum to draw tourists to one of Dubai's man-made islands. State-owned private equity firm Istithmar is buying the QE2, the longest-serving ship in the Cunard line, which belongs to Carnival Corp. The liner will be anchored off the Palm Jumeirah, the smallest of three islands shaped as palm fronds that government-owned developer Nakheel is building off Dubai's coast.