Burj Khalifa

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The investment company headed by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says it plans to complete the world's tallest tower in just over five years. Kingdom Holding Co. did not say when work would begin on the Kingdom Tower. The $1.2 billion tower will be roughly two-thirds of a mile high. It is part of a $20 billion mega project on the outskirts of the Red Sea city of Jiddah. The tower will be built by the Saudi Binladen Group construction conglomerate.

NEW YORK - Howard S. Turner - who helped oversee construction of Madison Square Garden in New York as president of Turner Construction Co., the builder founded by his uncle - has died. He was 100. He died of pneumonia April 25 at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Pennsylvania, according to company spokesman Christopher McFadden. Dr. Turner was a resident of Newtown Square, a suburb of Philadelphia. Turner Construction, one of the largest US builders, has erected world landmarks including the new Yankee Stadium in New York; the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla.; and the...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The observation deck of the world’s tallest skyscraper reopened yesterday in Dubai, two months after an elevator malfunction that left visitors trapped more than 120 stories above the ground forced it to close. Dozens of tourists were lining up for tickets to take an elevator to the 124th floor of the half-mile-high Burj Khalifa, where the tower’s observation deck is located. The deck was shut in February after an elevator packed with visitors got stuck between floors for 45 minutes before rescuers dropped a ladder into the shaft so those...

NEW YORK - One World Trade Center, the monolith being built to replace the twin towers destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, claimed the title of New York City's tallest skyscraper on Monday, as workers erected steel columns that made its unfinished skeleton a little more than 1,250 feet high. That was enough to eclipse the Empire State Building. The milestone is a preliminary one. Workers are still adding floors to the building once called the Freedom Tower. It is not expected to reach its full height for at least another year, at which point it will probably be declared the tallest...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The city with the world’s tallest building now has one more claim to fame: the only Bloomingdale’s outside the United States. Dubai’s crown prince inaugurated the first international branch of the Manhattan institution, famous for its “big brown bag’’ totes, in the Middle East’s biggest shopping mall yesterday. Bloomingdale’s Dubai outpost includes a 146,000-square-foot clothing and accessories store and a nearby 54,000-square-foot home furnishings store.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia plans to build a 1,820-foot skyscraper, its prime minister said yesterday, a feat that would give one of the region’s least-developed capitals the tallest building in Asia. Prime Minister Hun Sen said he had approved a master plan for the skyscraper, which would be about half a mile from the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh — a dusty city of colonial villas, slums, and one standout skyscraper, the new Canadia Tower, at about 377 feet high. Hun Sen did not say when construction would start or how much it would cost.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The world’s tallest skyscraper has unexpectedly closed to the public a month after its lavish opening, disappointing tourists headed for the observation deck and casting doubt over plans to welcome its first permanent occupants in the coming weeks. Electrical problems are at least partly to blame for the closure of the Burj Khalifa’s viewing platform - the only part of the half-mile high tower open yet. But a lack of information from the spire’s owner left it unclear whether the rest of the largely empty building - including dozens of...

DUBAI — As the desert sun burns through the morning haze, Peter and Alysha St. Germain admire the lofty 360-degree view of Dubai from the 124th-floor observation deck of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. “This is really impressive,’’ says Peter, formerly of Westhampton, now working in nearby Abu Dhabi. “Dubai has done so many amazing projects to attract world attention.’’ Adds Alysha, “The view is awesome.’’ Piercing the heavens like a silver rocket, the half-mile-high tower, visible from 60 miles away, was formally dedicated in January,...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Water gushed from a leak in a shark-filled aquarium in a ritzy Dubai mall yesterday, sending startled shoppers scattering and shutting down shops in one of the city’s proudest attractions. Amateur video footage posted on the website of Dubai newspaper Gulf News showed what appeared to be hundreds of gallons of water showering down on the polished tiled floor of Dubai Mall, located near the world’s tallest tower. The incident raises new questions about building safety in the city-state, which pushed through ever more...

NEW YORK - One World Trade Center, the monolith being built to replace the twin towers destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, claimed the title of New York City's tallest skyscraper on Monday, as workers erected steel columns that made its unfinished skeleton a little more than 1,250 feet high. That was enough to eclipse the Empire State Building. The milestone is a preliminary one. Workers are still adding floors to the building once called the Freedom Tower. It is not expected to reach its full height for at least another year, at which point it will probably be...

What's the next best thing to watching Tom Cruise's superspy Ethan Hunt climb the world's tallest skyscraper? Getting a behind-the-scenes look at Cruise performing the stunt for real, thanks to the artfully handled extras on "Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol" (2011). This time out, Hunt and his team seek to clear their names after they're implicated in an attack on the Kremlin. (The team is the series' most entertaining to date: returning gadget geek Simon Pegg, along with Jeremy Renner and, yep, Paula Patton of "Precious.

Across America, the arrival of spring is often heralded by a snippet of scratchy, high-pitched music that chirps from loudspeakers of ice-cream trucks as they trawl the streets for customers. These tunes take on a kind of spiritual, devotional quality, so attached are they to feelings of hope and nostalgia — summer nights gone by and those to come. But what if the first occurrence of that looping sound was in fact the foundational moment of the universe? In Mark Leyner's "The Sugar Frosted Nutsack," his first novel since 1998, it is indeed the low humming of "something akin...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The investment company headed by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says it plans to complete the world's tallest tower in just over five years. Kingdom Holding Co. did not say when work would begin on the Kingdom Tower. The $1.2 billion tower will be roughly two-thirds of a mile high. It is part of a $20 billion mega project on the outskirts of the Red Sea city of Jiddah. The tower will be built by the Saudi Binladen Group construction conglomerate.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia plans to build a 1,820-foot skyscraper, its prime minister said yesterday, a feat that would give one of the region’s least-developed capitals the tallest building in Asia. Prime Minister Hun Sen said he had approved a master plan for the skyscraper, which would be about half a mile from the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh — a dusty city of colonial villas, slums, and one standout skyscraper, the new Canadia Tower, at about 377 feet high. Hun Sen did not say when construction would start or how much it would cost.

DUBAI — As the desert sun burns through the morning haze, Peter and Alysha St. Germain admire the lofty 360-degree view of Dubai from the 124th-floor observation deck of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. “This is really impressive,’’ says Peter, formerly of Westhampton, now working in nearby Abu Dhabi. “Dubai has done so many amazing projects to attract world attention.’’ Adds Alysha, “The view is awesome.’’ Piercing the heavens like a silver rocket, the half-mile-high tower, visible from 60 miles away, was formally dedicated in January, following six...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The observation deck of the world’s tallest skyscraper reopened yesterday in Dubai, two months after an elevator malfunction that left visitors trapped more than 120 stories above the ground forced it to close. Dozens of tourists were lining up for tickets to take an elevator to the 124th floor of the half-mile-high Burj Khalifa, where the tower’s observation deck is located. The deck was shut in February after an elevator packed with visitors got stuck between floors for 45 minutes before rescuers dropped a...

What's the next best thing to watching Tom Cruise's superspy Ethan Hunt climb the world's tallest skyscraper? Getting a behind-the-scenes look at Cruise performing the stunt for real, thanks to the artfully handled extras on "Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol" (2011). This time out, Hunt and his team seek to clear their names after they're implicated in an attack on the Kremlin. (The team is the series' most entertaining to date: returning gadget geek Simon Pegg, along with Jeremy Renner and, yep, Paula Patton of "Precious.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Visitors on the observation deck of the world’s tallest tower heard a loud boom, then saw dust that looked like smoke seeping through a crack in an elevator door 124 floors above the ground. The 15 people inside were trapped for 45 frightening minutes until rescuers managed to pry open the doors. Because the elevator was stuck between floors, rescuers dropped a ladder into the shaft so those inside could crawl out. On the observation deck, about 60 more people were stranded.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Water gushed from a leak in a shark-filled aquarium in a ritzy Dubai mall yesterday, sending startled shoppers scattering and shutting down shops in one of the city’s proudest attractions. Amateur video footage posted on the website of Dubai newspaper Gulf News showed what appeared to be hundreds of gallons of water showering down on the polished tiled floor of Dubai Mall, located near the world’s tallest tower. The incident raises new questions about building safety in the city-state, which pushed through ever more extravagant and complicated...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Visitors on the observation deck of the world’s tallest tower heard a loud boom, then saw dust that looked like smoke seeping through a crack in an elevator door 124 floors above the ground. The 15 people inside were trapped for 45 frightening minutes until rescuers managed to pry open the doors. Because the elevator was stuck between floors, rescuers dropped a ladder into the shaft so those inside could crawl out. On the observation deck, about 60 more people were stranded.