Word: dubai
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...always possible that someone besides Mossad carried out the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a top Hamas military commander, in a Dubai hotel in January. Israel has refused to comment; on Monday Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman explained the silence by saying there is "no proof" Israel was responsible. But the Dubai police insist they are "99%" certain that Israel's famed intelligence agency did the deed. The Dubai authorities say they caught the 11-member hit team on videotape moments before and after they allegedly smothered Mabhouh with a pillow in his hotel room - some reports have...
...unlike such assassinations in the past, this one could have serious diplomatic consequences for Israel. It would appear that whoever was responsible underestimated Dubai's security capability. The city-state used sophisticated computer programs to quickly sift through its massive pool of security-camera footage and pinpoint the movements and travel documents of the alleged killers. More embarrassingly, the Dubai authorities are claiming that the hit team stole the identities of Israeli dual-national citizens, and traveled into Dubai using false British, Irish and French passports. Now the governments of those countries are promising swift investigations into the matter, while...
...Dubai's rulers know change is coming. No longer wowed by shopping malls with indoor ski slopes or hotels with gigantic aquariums, investors have begun to demand transparency. Last month, Barclays won the city's first foreclosure case. That could open the door to a flood of legal cases and more financial turbulence, but will also reassure investors that Dubai is learning from its mistakes. To keep attracting foreign residents with the skills to run a modern economy - and to better educate its own citizens so they can play a bigger role in that economy - the gulf's cities will...
Progress will be slow. A recent government reshuffle has moved power away from technocratic experts and outside consultants, and back into the hands of the royal family, especially the crown prince, Sheik Hamdan. But without oil money of its own, Dubai has little choice but to listen to its foreign creditors and stakeholders. And wealthy as they are, the leaders of the gulf countries also know their societies have to eventually change too, says economist Sfakianakis. Oil generates wealth, but the oil industry doesn't generate many jobs. Even in rich Saudi Arabia, unemployment is officially 11.6% - and that...
That won't happen easily. This week the owners of Burj Khalifa indefinitely closed its observation deck, the highest in the world, due to unspecified electrical problems. Like Dubai itself, the problem will, eventually, be solved. And the view then, say the city's boosters, will be fantastic. - With reporting by Maria Abi-Habib / Dubai...