Dubai ruler’s overweening ambition and dreams shattered under debt debris

Don — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:54:25 +0000

Dubai’s ruler writes poetry, rides horses across the desert in long-distance endurance races and hobnobs with royals like the Queen of England. Mixing extravagance with boundless ambition, he commanded the desert city-state’s meteoric rise — and helped sow the seeds, some observers say, of its debt crisis.

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s business-over-politics approach turned Dubai into a city-state with the surface trappings of Western liberalism — a thin veneer over the conservatism and strict political boundaries familiar throughout the Arab world.

Millions Of Muslims Gather For Hajj Pilgrimage

Don — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 07:13:52 +0000

Nearly 3 million pilgrims chanting prayers converged Saturday in a valley just outside the holy city of Mecca at the beginning of the 5-day hajj pilgrimage, a lifelong dream for many...

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Dubai ruler’s overweening ambition and dreams shattered under debt debris

Millions Of Muslims Gather For Hajj Pilgrimage