NEWS
April 30, 2013 | By Brady MacDonald
By now, everybody knows what to expect from your standard-issue ho-hum water park: body and tube slide complexes with funnels and bowls, deluge-inducing water play towers for the little ones, undulating wave pools and relaxing lazy rivers. Photos: 20 best water parks in the world Pretty much everything you typically find at a Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, a Great Wolf Lodge resort or any Wet 'n Wild. The best water parks in the world, however, have been busy adding the latest cutting-edge attractions, such as magnetically propelled water coasters, inverted looping slides, stationary wave machines and interactive water games.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 4, 2013 | By Sharon Mizota
Over the past 40 years, photographer Connie Samaras has journeyed to some of the most extreme architectural sites in the world: a scientific outpost in Antarctica, the first private spaceport in the New Mexico desert, the artificial ski slopes and oases of Dubai, and ground zero in the first few days after 9/11. Always clear-eyed and rigorously composed, her images document spaces where collective imaginings become reality. As such, they attest to the human will (or hubris) to remake the world in the image of our fantasies, whether they are daydreams or nightmares.
AUTOS
March 6, 2013 | By Ronald D. White
Representatives from 11 specialty auto car equipment companies based in California are traveling to Dubai this weekend, hoping to export some of the state's signature car culture products to new markets in the Middle East. Most of the companies are manufacturers of specialty equipment designed to boost the performance of stock cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles. Some of the products enhance the experience of owning a car. Others help protect them. The companies are Coverking, located in Anaheim, EBay Motors of San Jose, Gibson Performance Exhaust of Corona, Injen Technology of Pomona K&N Engineering Inc. of Riverside, and McLeod Racing of Placentia.
NEWS
March 2, 2013 | By Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times staff writer
The brief announcement that Disney plans to add a Marvel-themed land to Hong Kong Disneyland in 2017 raises a host of questions: Will Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men be getting their own rides? When will the Marvel characters be coming to Anaheim, Paris, Tokyo or Shanghai? And why, of all places, Hong Kong? Many of the most basic questions remain unanswered, in part because the announcement was made by a Hong Kong government official rather than Disney.
SPORTS
February 21, 2013 | Wire Reports
Former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova overpowered defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-2, 6-4, Thursday to set up a semifinal against Caroline Wozniacki in the Dubai Championships in the United Arab Emirates. Wozniacki, once ranked No. 1, defeated Marion Bartoli, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, capitalizing on 14 double faults and 46 unforced errors by her opponent. Two double faults cost Bartoli games in the second set. Doubles specialist Roberta Vinci of Italy surprised former U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur, 6-2, 6-4, in their quarterfinal.
SPORTS
February 20, 2013 | By Chuck Schilken
Two days after becoming the oldest top-ranked women's tennis player, 31-year-old Serena Williams became the latest entrant to drop out of the Dubai Championships. Williams withdrew Wednesday 45 minutes before her scheduled match with 11th-ranked Marion Bartoli, citing a sore back and ankle she says she's had since the Australian Open. “I've just had some back problems the past couple weeks. It didn't get better,” Williams said. “I thought it would get better as the week went on, but it didn't.