Dubai news stories on Newser

Mystery Drinker's Bar Tab: $105K

Mary Papenfuss — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:00:53 CST

A jug of wine, a $105,000 bar tab, and thou. That could have been the bar manager's sweet ode to a mystery customer who paid the mammoth single-visit bar tab without blinking an eye. The tab—which included, among other goodies , a $35,000 six-liter bottle of Cristal Champagne,...

Zardari Leaves Pakistan, Sparking Coup Rumors

Kevin Spak — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:58:19 CST

Is Pakistan in the midst of a coup? Speculation is running wild that it is, after President Asif Ali Zardari left the country yesterday, flying to Dubai for unclear health reasons—a government adviser says he had a "minor heart attack," but a Zardari spokesman says he's just undergoing routine...

Emirates Airline Places Record Boeing Order

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 05:33:56 CST

Dubai's fast-growing airline, Emirates, kicked off the region's biggest airshow today with an order for 50 Boeing 777s, which the US-based aircraft maker described as its biggest single order in dollar terms in history. The list price for the deal is $18 billion, but airlines typically negotiate discounts for large...

Mideast Markets Dive on US Downgrade

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 10:00:23 CDT

Stocks tumbled across the Middle East today as most regional markets reopened following the historic downgrade of the United States' credit rating. The region's markets mostly operate Sunday to Thursday, meaning they were the first to react to Standard & Poor's decision late Friday to cut the US level to...

Man Leaps From World's Tallest Building

Rob Quinn — Wed, 11 May 2011 05:44:37 CDT

A suicidal Dubai man's final act earned him an unfortunate place in the record books. The man killed himself by jumping from the 147th floor of the emirate's 160-story Burj Khalifa tower, landing on a deck on the 108th floor. It was the first known suicide at the world's tallest...

'Spider-Man' Climbing Dubai's Monster Tower

Polly Davis Doig — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:00:27 CDT

Alain Robert, known as "Spider-man" for his penchant for illegally scaling the world's tallest skyscrapers, is on his way up the world's tallest: Dubai's dizzying half-mile-tall Burj Khalifa. The 48-year-old Frenchman set off just before 6pm local time, and the trip up was expected to take him six or seven...

Dubai's 'World' Is Sinking

Rob Quinn — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 08:12:05 CST

The end of the World is looming in Dubai. The "World" project—an artificial archipelago of 300 small islands arranged in the shape of a world map—is sinking back into the sea, according to evidence presented to a property tribunal in the emirate, the Telegraph reports. Only one of...

Dubai: Plane Bomb Looks Like al-Qaeda

Polly Davis Doig — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 05:42:32 CDT

The US-bound mail bomb discovered yesterday in Yemen had al-Qaeda's fingerprint on it, Dubai officials say, having been packaged in a "professional manner" and containing the same explosive as the failed Christmas bombing. "The plot style carries features similar to previous attacks carried out by terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda," Dubai...

Iranian Gang Tried to Sell Teen Girls in UK Sex Ring

Kevin Spak — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 10:14:57 CDT

British police have locked up an Iranian gang that they allege was prostituting teen girls to wealthy Arabs. Police got wind of the gang when it made the mistake of offering its services to Sheikh Mohammad al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, while he was staying in a London hotel. “I...