1 KM Kingdom Tower

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal unveiled plans Tuesday to build the world's tallest tower in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, signing a 4.6 billion riyal ($1.15 billion) contract with Bin Laden Group.

The proposed tower, which will rise more than 1,000 metres and take just over five years to complete, is the centrepiece of the planned Kingdom City development being built outside Jeddah by Prince Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding.

When completed, the tower would replace Dubai's 828-meter Burj Khalifa as the tallest tower in the world. The Burj Khalifa was built by Emaar Properties for a total cost of $US1.5 billion ($1.4 billion).

The Jeddah tower, which is to include a hotel, serviced apartments, luxury condominiums and offices, will be designed by US architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill.

Prince Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, said the Jeddah tower would eventually top 1,000 meters, but the final height is a closely guarded secret.

The Kingdom Tower and Kingdom City, estimated to cost 75 billion riyals and to take around 10 years to complete, are among other projects to transform Jeddah into a city with high rise buildings to rival Dubai.

World's highest proportion of millionaires are Singaporeans

About 15.5% of the households in Singapore had more than US$1mil (RM3mil) of investable assets in 2010, the highest proportion in the world, a report said.

The latest global wealth report released by the Boston Consulting Group showed that the number of households with more than US$1mil assets, aside from properties occupied by the owners, grew by almost 33% from 2009, Xinhua news agency quoted local media report Thursday.

Switzerland came second with 9.9% of its households joining the millionaire club, followed by 8.9% for Qatar, 8.7% for Hong Kong and 8.5% for Kuwait.

The United States was ranked seventh at 4.5%, but has by far the largest number of millionaire households, about 5.2 million. In terms of the total number of such households, Japan was the second and China, the third.

For the world as a whole, the proportion of millionaire households was about 0.9%, but they owned about 39% of the world's wealth, up from 37% in 2009.

The Straits Times quoted an economist as saying that a number of factors contributed to the surge in the proportion of its millionaire households.

"Singaporeans saw their wealth surge because of the stronger Singapore dollar, sharp economic rebound and soaring asset prices, including property," said Chua Hak Bin, Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist.

"Openness to foreign talent and wealthy 'new' Singaporeans probably also expanded the number of millionaires."

At.Mosphere is the world's highest restaurant

Dubai opened a restaurant on Sunday which is 422 metres up in the sky on the 122nd floor of the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa, its developers said.

At.Mosphere in Dubai's 828 metre building is "one of the finest luxury dining and lounge experiences in the world", said Emaar Hospitality Group, an arm of giant property developer Emaar.

At two levels below the tower's observation deck, the "world's highest restaurant" can host "over 210 guests and features a spacious arrival lobby, a main dining floor, private dining rooms and display cooking stations".

In addition to apartments, offices and Italian designer Giorgio Armani's signature hotel, the building has an observation deck on the 124th floor, open to visitors at an entrance fee of at least 100 dirhams ($27) per adult.

Emaar spent $US1.5 billion ($1.52 billion) on the tower, named after Abu Dhabi's President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan who came to the aid of Dubai, hit by the global financial crisis.

Oil-rich Abu Dhabi extended a lifeline of $US10 billion ($10.14 billion), on top of the same amount from the UAE central bank, to bail out Dubai's heavily-indebted state firms in 2009.

via AFP.

Antilia - World's Priciest Home

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani has hosted a lavish house-warming for his new 27-storey residence, believed to be the world's most expensive home.

About 80 people attended the party in Mumbai on Friday, reported the Times of India. One guest described the house as "the Taj Mahal of the 21st Century".

Mr Ambani, said to be India's richest man, moved into the house last month with his wife and three children.

Reports suggest the residence is worth more than $1bn (£630m).

The skyscraper in Mumbai (Bombay), which overlooks sprawling slums, is said to have a cinema, swimming pools and a helicopter pad, and is named "Antilia" after a mythical Atlantic island.

Local newspapers said the house would require 600 members of staff to maintain it, and according to the Times of India, the first electricity bill, for September, is costing Mr Ambani 7m rupees (£98,000).

The house has sparked some controversy, with anti-poverty campaigners underlining the contrast between the luxury of the house and the plight of those who live in Mumbai's slums, which house about half of the city's 18 million people.

The house, which has a temple on the ground floor and a library on the top, was designed according to Vaastu principles, an Indian tradition similar to Chinese feng shui.

According to Forbes magazine, Mr Ambani, 53, has amassed a $27bn (£17bn) fortune.

He is chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, one of the largest conglomerates in the world, and also owns the Indian Premier League team, the Mumbai Indians.

Via BBC

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World's Tallest Statue of Jesus

A POLISH town is hoping a giant figure of Jesus will bring an economic miracle, but Poles are split over the controversial project.

The statue, similar in design to the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, was topped off at the weekend. It towers imperiously over the Polish town of Swiebodzin.

The 36-metre-high structure stands on a hill 16 metres high in the western Polish town.

Locals claim it is taller, just, than the 80-year-old Christ the Redeemer in Rio, currently the world's highest statue of Jesus.

The main body of Swiebodzin's Jesus is 33 metres high - a metre for each year he lived - and it is topped with a three-metre-high metal crown.

The project has split Polish society, with some expressing pride and others derision. Many practising Catholics are calling for it to be abandoned. The chief building inspector has received threats, including having a brick thrown through his car window.

Supporters of the project, which is being led by local priest Sylwester Zawadzki, hope the statue will attract pilgrims from around the country, turning the economically downtrodden town into a ''second Czestochowa'', a reference to Poland's most popular pilgrimage site and home of the Black Madonna shrine.

The 400-tonne statue has been five years in the making. Originally, Father Zawadzki wanted a ''small garden sculpture'', but over time his ambitions have grown.

The latest worries concern the sculpture's safety, after a crane collapsed when builders tried to install the head. As it fell, the head crushed a builder's foot, leading sceptics to call the accident a sign of God's disapproval.

When Father Zawadzki suffered a heart attack the same claim was made.

Building experts have voiced concerns that the statue's foundations are not deep enough. ''We'll give it 20 years, maximum, then it'll fall apart,'' one expert told Polish media.

Father Zawadzki stands accused of paying workers derisory wages, expecting them to carry out the work for next to nothing as a sign of their faith, and even of bringing in inmates from the local prison to work on the project, under an apparent agreement with the prison governor.

Waldemar Roszczuk, editor of the local newspaper Gazeta Swiebodzinska, has been leading a campaign against the structure, which has been compared to the type of communist-era icons that once commanded squares and public places.

''It's a monster of a statue which has nothing to do with Christian teaching,'' he said. "It's making us a laughing stock in the whole country.''

Indra Nooyi is the most powerful businesswoman in U.S

I have posted about the most powerful woman in world's politics and the most dangerous celebrity. Today is about most powerful woman in U.S. business.

Photos: Reuters/Mike Segar

According to Fortune magazine, PepsiCo Inc chief Indra Nooyi is the most powerful woman in U.S. business for the fifth year in a row, but Yahoo Inc boss Carol Bartz is the highest paid.

Bartz earned more than $47 million in 2009 and was ranked No. 10 on the 2010 most powerful women list, while Nooyi was the 10th highest paid with a salary of more than $14 million last year, Fortune said.

"Nooyi completed the purchase of PepsiCo's two largest bottlers, bringing revenues to a projected $60 billion," Fortune said. "Now she'll have to deliver the $400 million annual cost savings she promised. Investors seem assured: The stock is up 12 percent since September 2009."

The most powerful list ranked women in for-profit businesses. It was based on the size and importance of the business in the global economy, the health and direction of the business, the arc of the woman's career, her social and cultural relevance.

The second most powerful businesswoman was Kraft Foods Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld, who led a hostile $18 billion takeover of Britain's Cadbury, No. 3 was Archer Daniels Midland Chief Executive Patricia Woertz, followed by Wellpoint Chief Executive Angela Braly.

Avon Products Andrea Jung came in at No. 5, while media mogul and talk show host Oprah Winfrey was the sixth most powerful businesswoman, followed by DuPont Chief Executive Ellen Kullman, IBM Senior Vice President Ginni Rometty and Xerox Chief Executive Ursula Burns.

Bartz rounded out the top ten, with Fortune saying: "A year and a half into her tenure, this candid leader is accused of lacking a vision for Yahoo. Despite partnerships with Nokia and Microsoft, investors aren't impressed: The stock is down 15 percent this year."

Behind Bartz, Oracle President Safra Catz was the second highest paid woman, earning more than $36 million in 2009, followed by former Schering-Plough executive Carrie Cox with $23 million, Kraft's Rosenfeld with $22 million and Annaly Capital Management's Chief Investment Officer Wellington Denahan-Norris with more than $21 million.

AK1000 - World’s biggest tidal turbine

The world’s largest tidal turbine was recently unveiled in Pentland Firth, Scotland, weighing 130 tons, 74ft (22.6m) tall, with two 60ft (18.3m) diameter rotors and generating 1MW on both tidal ebb and flow. The Atlantis Resources AK1000 can supply power to 1000 homes, and is to be installed at the European Marine Energy Centre in the Orkney Islands, and has taken more than ten years to develop.

Atlantis Resources' chief executive Tim Cornelius explained that, " The turbines turn at six to eight revolutions per minute, so are incredibly slow turning and will have zero impact on the surrounding environment." Theoretically, the turbine rotors should not harm marine animals.

Why Pentland Firth

It is estimated that in the United Kingdom, there is 18TWh/yr of technically extractable tidal current resource. 40% of this technically extractable resource is concentrated in the far north of Scotland (Pentland Firth and Orkney Islands). Governments have recognized the immense potential of ocean energy and have begun significant incentive programmes to harness it. Ocean energy receives the highest number of renewable obligation certificates (ROCs) in the U.K in order to stimulate investment in projects that have high up front capital costs associated with developing turbine fields and power evacuation networks in some of the roughest waters on the planet.

via Atlantis Resources Corporation.

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World's Most Expensive Dog

Have you wondered what is the World's Most Expensive Dog? A $600,000 dog that is. Meet the Tibetan Mastiff. This breed can measure up to three feet tall and weigh up to 180 pounds. And in China, these large dogs are all the rage.

One couple said they forked over $600,000 for their mastiff, named Yangtze River Number Two, and transported him to their home via a fleet of Mercedes sedans. Their dog was worth the price, they said, because of his pure bloodline, which is extremely rare.

After all the money spent, these dogs may not have the qualities to be a perfect pet. Though loyal to their owners, they can be vicious to strangers — and all that hair must shed like crazy. Plus, they're used to breathing at high altitudes, which is a problem for those living at sea-level locations in China.

Tibetan Mastiff has thick, lion-mane-like hair, grows to 80 kilograms and is known for being fierce.

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DWC-Al Maktoum International - World's largest airport

Debt-laden Dubai opened its second airport yesterday, three weeks after its flagship carrier Emirates placed a major order for Airbus 380 superjumbos, enforcing its status as an air transport hub.

The first plane landed on the sole runway of the Dubai World Central-Al Maktoum International Airport -- named after the emirate's ruling family, Dubai Airports said in a statement.

Three air freight companies have begun operations from the new airport with 12 others due to follow, it said.

The first phase be confined to freight traffic, with a capacity to handle 250,000 tonnes annually while passenger traffic was scheduled to begin in March 2011, with an annual capacity of five million passengers.

"We have achieved another important step towards completing" the airport, said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, the head of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority.

Situated on the desert outskirts of Dubai and close to the Jebel Ali port and its large free zone, DWC-Al Maktoum International is touted to become the world's largest airport when completed at an undisclosed date.

But authorities said that when it is all up and running the new airport will be able to handle 160 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo, and have five runways.

Dubai, a city of around two million people, already boasts the biggest airport in the Middle East, which handled 42 million passengers in 2009 -- a figure expected to surge to 100 million by 2020, said Jamal al-Hai, Dubai Airports Senior Vice President for Strategic Affairs.

"Our development follows a strategy aimed at turning Dubai into the centre of the new silk route," linking east to west, he said.

Thanks to the strategic location and developed infrastructure of Dubai, which has established itself as a popular tourist destination and a regional business hub, air transport accounts for over 25 per cent of the emirate's gross domestic product, Hai said.

He said that the capacity of the current Dubai airport stands at 65 million passengers, and should increase to 75 million in 2012 with the completion of the third concourse that will be exclusively used by the A380 superjumbos.

Emirates, the largest Middle East carrier, had earlier this month reinforced its status as the largest single customer of the Airbus A380, by placing a new order for 32 units worth $US11.5 billion ($A13.1. billion)

The order made in Berlin brought Emirates' total orders of the superjumbo jet to 90 units, 10 of which are already in service.

"Emirates will be announcing new aircraft orders at the Farnborough Airshow" in England, which opens on July 19, an Emirates spokesman said.

The company is also the largest single operator of the Boeing 777 with 85 units in service and 21 on order.

The once bustling city state of Dubai was badly hit by the global financial crisis that forced Dubai World, the biggest state-owned conglomerate, to seek restructuring of $US23.5 billion of debt.

But Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum justified this week Emirates' new order by the "growth" in Dubai's airport infrastructure, the number of passengers and tourists visiting the emirate.

"The worst is over and Dubai is looking for new opportunities for growth," he said in an interview with CNN.

Emirates announced in May a whopping 416-per cent surge in annual net profit which reached $US964 million in the past financial year, bucking the global trend in the airline industry.

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Pearl River Necklace Bridge

If Dutch firm NL Architects gets its way, we may soon be adding Pearl River Necklace to the list of famous bridges.



Part of a proposal for a new border-crossing facility between Hong Kong and mainland China, the dramatic-looking bridge is as clever as it is spectacular.

One of the biggest problems faced by cars commuting between Hong Kong and China is that they drive on different sides of the road.

Dubbed "The Flipper" by the architects, the Pearl River Necklace twists as it crosses the water.

That means the traffic is able to swap from one side to the other, so the cars coming from both directions emerge on the correct side of the road.

The company claims the Flipper helps to "celebrate" the switch to driving on the opposite side of the road.

But the bridge is just one part of the firm's master plan. It also wants to construct a series of artificial islands to house the border-crossing terminal.

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