Retired ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 looks to be headed for South Africa as a floating hotel for next summer’s football World Cup. The current owners, Nakheel, a subsidiary of Dubai World, planned to refurbish the QE2 and have it berthed at the man-made Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai, but the recession has hit the company just like many others. As a result, they are looking for ways to make additional...
An agreement with striking workers means that construction work on the 2010 Soccer World Cup stadiums is back on. The SA Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors, (Safcec), the employer body, and the unions representing the workers signed the agreement after a week-long strike had brought all work on the stadiums to a halt. Also affected were major infrastructure projects, including the Gautrain high...
The 2009 Lusophone Games are currently taking place in Portugal, and run from July 11th through the 19th. These games are for the Portuguese-speaking National Olympic Committees of the world, and this is the second staging of the games. The first Lusophone Games took place in 2006 in Macau, China, a former Portuguese colony. The 2009 games are being held in Lisbon and surrounding communities, with nine...
The Crown Estate and the Homes and Communities Agency have partnered with the goal of developing 15,000 sustainable homes across the UK over the next 10 years. The agreement foresees some 10,000 homes being developed in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Norfolk, with the remaining 5,000 homes coming in Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Wiltshire, Lincolnshire, Dorset and Leicestershire. The agreement will focus...
Talks between the two sides of Cyprus aimed at reunifying the island are under way and it is hoped that a settlement will be reached by the end of the year. The Turkish Cypriot President Mehment Ali Talat said recently that he would like to conclude talks with the Greek Cypriot leaders and reach a deal soon. “We have no solid agreement as to when to conclude the talks but the goal is to devise...
Bulls are let loose every day for the eight days of the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain, and people can run alongside them. This ancient tradition has helped the San Fermin to become one of Spain’s best known festivals. Every year visitors from all over the country and world come to see the bulls –and people- run through the streets of the northern Spain city. On Sunday, July 12, four runners...
The Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) of Dubai has suspended the license of a property broker and is warning that other such companies will face the same fate if they do not register with the agency. The broker – Sulehri Real Estate – was advertising for leasing units in DiscoveryCity and InternationalCity and had not registered with RERA. RERA Brokers Licensing Department Director Yousif Al...
The Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has selected the TornadoTower in Doha, Qatar as the best tall building in the Middle East and Africa Region. The CTBUH announced the winner for each of its four regions recently and will crown the “2009 Best Tall Building Overall” at the 2009 awards dinner in October. The other regions are Asia & Australasia, Europe, and the Americas. The...
A 5,500 square foot penthouse at the top of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York City is set to sell for a reported US$18 million. The unit was owned by Italian film mogul Vittorio Cecchi Gori, but was foreclosed on and is being dealt with through US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. There is one interested buyer, but if more emerge then it will probably be sold through an auction at the...