Middle East

Abu Dhabi today reaffirmed its commitment to completing the long-delayed project to build a $27 billion cultural and tourism project known as Saadiyat Island.

There might be something to the analogy, opines Blair Kamin, when comparing the building's star status to its contribution to the urban setting.

Adjacent to the U.S. Embassy, a five-star Marriott hotel designed to withstand bombings may serve as a "security bubble" once opened in February 2013.

A German led initiative called 'Desertec,' aims to provide 15% of Europe's electricity by 2050 through a vast network of solar and wind farms stretching right across the MENA region and connecting to Europe via direct current transmission cables.

In Dubai, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. But it shares one problem will all skyscrapers in Dubai - there is no central sewage infrastructure to accommodate the waste they produce.

A long-standing Congressional ban on U.S. funding for any U.N. agency that recognizes Palestine will mean a $60 million hole in UNESCO's budget in the wake of its decision to admit the nascent state.

Joel Epstein says it was "nothing short of a miracle" that Jerusalem's Red Line light rail opened this year.

Tripoli Airport and Misrata hospital are the first specific projects to be named, as western governments begin to release frozen assets to the National Transition Government (NTI) and international corporations spot an opportunity.

The Dubai Executive Council has approved the Dubai Urban Development Master Plan 2020, and will establish a 'Supreme Urban Planning Council,' to streamline the process.

Israel has announced the approval of 1,100 housing units to be constructed in occupied East Jerusalem, which is claimed by the Palestinians as their future capital.

Amid the backdrop of Mahmoud Abbas' application for Palestinian statehood, Jesse Fox critiques the Israeli premier for his antiquated plan to fast track sprawling suburban developments into Israel's rapidly diminishing open spaces.

With high scores in five broad categories, Melbourne, Australia received the highest spot in livability rankings from The Economist's research unit.

The Israeli announcement that 1,600 more housing units would be built in occupied East Jerusalem is causing a diplomatic crisis.

The revitalization master plan for two older neighborhoods in Abu Dhabi includes creating "new roads, clinics, schools, police stations and neighborhood centers" and making them easily accessible to residents.

A proposed 20-mile bridge would span the Red Sea to connect Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- connecting Arab states and reducing reliance on land passage through Israel.

The center of protest in Yemen's capital city of Sana'a has turned into a massive tent city, with more than 4,000 tents and a variety of services, public spaces and pop-up industries.

Abu Dhabi has released a new 20-year plan. It planners argue that it will be flexible enough to withstand changes in the global economy, should they come.

A preliminary deal has been signed to construct a high-speed rail linking Baghdad to a southeastern city Basra.

The Israeli kibbutz, long a bastion of modest communal living, is being co-opted by suburban-style development that wants the benefits of socialist coexistence and single-family homes, writes reporter Shanee Shiloh in Ha'aretz.

Calling California's attempts at environmental responsibility a "green jihad," Joel Kotkin argues that the state's "ideological extremism" has led to illogical economic and political decisions - similar to those made in the Islamic Republic of Iran.