Atlantis USD1.5 billion marine resort launched in Dubai - Malaysiakini

DUBAI— Dubai developers threw a US$20 million (RM72 million) party yesterday complete with Hollywood celebrities Robert DeNiro and Charlize Theron and fireworks that lit up the evening sky.

The party, which was headlined by Australian pop star Kylie Minogue in her Middle East debut, was to celebrate a new US$1.5 billion marine-themed resort built off the Gulf coast on an artificial island shaped like a palm tree.

Celebrities and stars such as Michael Jordan, Lindsay Lohan, Wesley Snipes, Mary Kate Olsen, Shirley Bassey and others were on hand for the festivities.

Does this all seem a bit much at a time when much of the world is reeling from the global financial crisis?

Not really, according to Sol Kerzner, the chairman of Kerzner International, which owns the Atlantis hotel.

"If I had it all over again and I understood that the timing was what it was, one might modify a couple of the things ... but not significantly," Kerzner told The Associated Press yesterday.

"When you consider US$20 million, it's a lot of money (until) you consider it up against establishing a US$1.5 billion resort."

Kerzner International split the party costs with state-owned developer Nakheel, which built Palm island where Atlantis is located.

The Dubai Atlantis resort opened for tourists in September. The hotel's top floor aims squarely at the ultra-wealthy. A three-bedroom, three-bathroom suite complete with a gold-leaf, 18-seat dining table is on offer for US$25,000 a night.

The rest of the 113-acre resort is dedicated to family entertainment with a giant, open-air tank with 65,000 fish, stingrays and other sea creatures, including a rare whale-shark captured by the hotel in the Gulf and considered a hostage by environmental activists.

There's also a dolphinarium with more than two dozen bottlenose dolphins flown in from the Solomon Islands last year amid protests from animal rights organisations.

Yesterday's lavish party is only one of Dubai's many attempts to remain in the spotlight — part of the city-state's meteoric rise from little more than a patch of sand to the business and entertainment capital of the Middle East in about a decade.

Britain's most famous cruise ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, will sailing in next week and will be converted into a floating hotel off Palm island. — AP

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Cadbury ordered to recall choc bar from the market

Singapore’s food authority today ordered local importers and retailers to recall Australian-made chocolate snack bar Cadbury Boost Totally Nuts (60g) from the market immediately.

This is due to the possible presence of plastic pieces from the manufacturing process, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore said.

AVA took the precautionary measure after it was informed by the Food Standards Australia New Zealand that Cadbury Schweppes Pty Ltd in Australia was voluntarily recalling its product.

Only Cadbury Boost Totally Nuts (60g) with the 15-06-09 Best Before date is affected, AVA said.

AVA also advised consumers who have bought the product to discard. (NST)

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Woman claimed to have sex in operation theatre

Singapore: A 24-YEAR-OLD woman claimed on a website that she had sex in an operation theatre at a hospital in Singapore, reported Sin Chew Daily.

The woman, who posted a photograph of herself wearing a nurse uniform and a mask, claimed that she had a “good time” with her fiancée while serving as a nurse in the hospital’s emergency ward.

She also claimed that her fiancée is a medical doctor who worked in the same hospital.

The woman said she hoped to try out “the stuff” at other places.

“I have tried out at my workplace. Now, I will attempt to do it in a school or even on a flight,” the newspaper quoted her as saying on the website.

When contacted, a hospital spokesman denied that the woman had worked there.

The daily also reported that newly appointed principal of New Era College, Prof Pua Eng Chong, was being constantly harassed by a group of people using intimidating words.

Such a move was attempted to shatter Prof Pua’s confidence and hamper the development of the college, according to a press statement issued by the New Era College parents committee.

The committee condemned such acts, saying that the transition of school heads from the old to the new were “too numerous to enumerate” worldwide.

It said outgoing principal Dr Kua Kia Soong had served eight years, which was longer than some of the school heads in China. (TheStar)

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