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Most Advanced Airport Building in the World

Fri, 02 May 2008 02:02:45 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

China builds its large-scale future

BEIJING: The new Terminal 3 at the airport in Beijing is twice the size of the Pentagon.

Adorned in the colors of imperial China, with a roof that evokes the scales of a dragon, the massive glass- and steel-sheathed structure, designed by the British architect Norman Foster, cost $3.8 billion and can handle more than 50 million passengers a year.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Clip Source: www.iht.com

The developers call it the "most advanced airport building in the world," and say it was completed in less than four years, a timetable some believed impossible.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Clip Source: www.iht.com

It opened in late February with little fanfare, but also without the kind of glitches that plagued Heathrow's new $8.7 billion terminal near London, which took six years to complete.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Clip Source: www.iht.com

This is the image China would like to project as it plays host to the Olympic Games this summer - a confident rising power constructing dazzling new monuments that exemplify its rapid progress and its audacious ambition.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Tags: china, airport, architecture, building

Profile: Sami al-Hajj

Fri, 02 May 2008 01:05:01 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

Sami al-Hajj had been working as a cameraman for Al Jazeera when he was arrested on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001.

Since then he has spent six years in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Al-Hajj had been sent to the area to cover the US war against the Taliban and held a legitimate work visa.

He was arrested after suspicions that he had links with al-Qaeda when his name and passport number came up on a list

A reproduction of Sami al-Hajj's drawing from his series Sketches of My Nightmare

The passport number that the Pakistanis had was for an old document that al-Hajj had previously reported as having

He was kept prisoner in Afghanistan and Pakistan for five months before being handed over to US forces and taken to Guantanamo Bay as an "enemy combatant".

For the past seven years he has been prisoner 345.

He is the only journalist to be detained at Guantanamo Bay without being charged.

Tags: guantanamo bay, cuba, united states, aljazeera

Inside Guantanamo Bay

Fri, 02 May 2008 01:03:08 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

The US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, on a 78-square-kilometre scrap of arid soil, is the oldest US military base outside the US.

Camp Delta, inside the area, is the infamous detention centre that has housed detainees since the previous facility, Camp X-Ray, closed.

Here the inmates, or "unlawful enemy combatants" as they are designated by US authorities, most of whom were captured during the US-led war in Afghanistan in 2001, are held.

On January 11, 2002, the first detainees were flown into the facility. More than 800 in total have been housed in the camp.

So far about 400 detainees have been released and, as of March 2008, the camp now houses approximately 280 detainees.

At least five detainees were teenagers, one aged only 13, reports said.

The facility has been condemned by the United Nations, the European Union, and numerous human rights groups, and many in the US argue that the camp has become a liability.

Tags: guantanamo bay, cuba, united states

Top 10 Surprising Things About Barack Obama

Fri, 02 May 2008 01:01:14 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Barack Obama will appear on the Late Show with David Letterman on Thursday night to read the Top 10 Surprising Things About Obama. Here's the list:

10. My first act as President will be to stop the fighting between Lauren and Heidi on the Hills.

9. In the Illinois primary, I accidentally voted for Kucinich.

8. When I tell my kids to clean their room I finish with, "I'm Barack Obama and I approved this Message."

7. Throughout High School I was consistently voted "Barackiest."

6. Earlier today, I bowled a 39.

5. I have canceled all my appearances the day the Sex and the City movie opens.

4. It's the birthplace of Fred Astaire (sorry that's a surprising fact about Omaha).

3. We are tirelessly working to get the endorsement of Kentucky Derby favorite, Colonel John.

2. This has nothing to do with the Top Ten, but what the heck is up with Paula Abdul.

1. I have not slept since October.

Tags: david letterman, barack obama, humor

Dalai Lama

Thu, 01 May 2008 22:55:07 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.time.com

Millions of people turn to the Dalai Lama for inspiration, but to whom does he turn? He and his people have struggled all their lives with the audacity of hopelessness. Oppression and exile are their daily bread. Yet the Dalai Lama, 72, remains calm in the face of cruelty. What does he think of the human race? "We are the superior species on Earth but also the biggest troublemakers," he once told me.

China's rulers aren't like the British masters of colonial India, and the Dalai Lama's Gandhiesque nonviolent struggle won't give them twinges of conscience, leading to Tibet's freedom. If anything, Beijing has grown more ruthless in suppressing Tibetan aspirations, as we've seen this Olympic year. And yet he has found a way to think kindly of those who oppress his people and vilify his name.

I found him unwilling to show any harshness. He said to me, "I don't dislike the Chinese, only their actions."

Tags: dalai lama