WORLD
October 13, 2005 | Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer
When Salem Moosa looks out over the skyscrapers spreading like a metallic rash over the sand, this is what he sees: The Eiffel Tower. The Pyramids. The Taj Mahal. He's angling to build all of them -- but bigger than the originals. And, if you ask Moosa, perhaps even better. Moosa's constellation of head-scratching oddities would join the marvels already cropping up like mushrooms across Dubai. The man-made islands in the shape of palm trees. The indoor ski resort. The underwater hotel.
BUSINESS
March 14, 2008 | Peter Pae, Times Staff Writer
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.
WORLD
November 27, 2008 | TIMES WIRE REPORTS
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.
SPORTS
February 22, 2009 | KURT STREETER
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.
BUSINESS
January 7, 2008 | Peter Pae, Times Staff Writer
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.
NEWS
April 5, 2009 | Brian Murphy, Murphy writes for the Associated Press.
Be warned: Spitting here could get you deported. We're not talking just any kind of spit. In this case, it's the red-tinted juice of a popular Asian leaf that's causing the fuss as Dubai tries to buff the image of its less-posh districts. The crackdown -- announced last month amid a broader effort to stem behavior deemed offensive -- has stirred an unusual Arab-Asian culture clash in a city where the friction is often between Western ways grating against conservative Gulf sensibilities.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2007 | Scott J. Wilson, Times Staff Writer
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.
BUSINESS
January 23, 2008 | From Times Wire Services
Dubai will be first country in the Middle East to test General Motors Corp.'s "green" cars as the United Arab Emirates seeks to cast off its reputation as the world's biggest polluter. In Abu Dhabi, GM executive Mary Beth Stanek said the company would bring 10 hybrid cars to Dubai next month for testing by police and taxis. The U.A.E. emits more pollution per capita than any other country, according to the World Wildlife Fund's "Living Planet" report of October 2006.
TRAVEL
March 8, 2009 | Chris Vedelago
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.
ENTERTAINMENT
June 28, 2009
Christopher Hawthorne's interesting and insightful piece on Dubai ("Desert Ripple," June 21) did us a service in separating the forest (the emerging urban form of clusters of unified development) from the trees (the individual buildings). More critical thought is needed to understand this emerging form of urbanism that is so different than is practiced in large U.S. cities. The Dubai experience is sometimes called the new "Middle East urbanism." This urbanism is expressed through large-scale projects, under single sponsorships, occurring all over the world being driven by the need to accommodate the urban growth rates in non-Western countries.