Tag Archives: lifestyle
Mohammed visits Dewa’s Sustainable Building
Mohammed visits Dewa’s Sustainable Building Staff Reporter / 10 September 2013 His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has made an inspection visit to Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (Dewa’s) Sustainable Building at Al Quoz, on Monday. Costing Dh75 million, the 340,000 square-feet Sustainable Building is the largest government building in the world, with a Platinum rating for green buildings from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the US Green Building Council institute. Accompanied by Shaikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Shaikh Mohammed toured the various sections of the building and listened to the detailed brief by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Dewa Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer about the building’s components and specifications, the use of solar panels with capacity of 660kW for generating electricity power, its contribution to energy saving of about 66 per cent and water conservation by 48 per cent. Shaikh Mohammed, then, watched a documentary film on Dewa’s initiatives to achieve his vision for a green economy in the UAE and to reach sustainable development. He was also briefed about the electronic modes of payment whereby 60 per cent of customers are accessing it compared to 40 per cent of clients who are using the traditional method of payments. His Highness also familiarised himself with the various e-services rendered by Dewa to its clients at all levels and toured the different counters to assure himself of the facilities and procedures offered by the customer service office. Shaikh Mohammed also inspected the models, maps, charts, diagrams, tables of statistics and photos displayed at Dewa corridors. He was also briefed about Dewa’s initiatives and projects, most important of which is the expansion of M-Station for power generation and water desalination, with a production capacity of 2,060MW and 140MIGD at a cost of Dh10 billion. This station was established to make use of the most state-of-the-art technologies in the world. An additional operational investment of Dh1.2 billion has increased production capacity by 400MW and increased thermal efficiency to 90 per cent. According to Al Tayer, M-Station’s overall efficiency is 82.4 per cent with total fuel oil storage of 320,000 cubic metres. Moreover, Shaikh Mohammed was briefed about the Dh12-billion Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which is being constructed at Seih Al Dahal in Dubai with a planned capacity of 1,000MW on final completion. The park will comprise a research and development centre, an educational institute, a museum of technology, exhibitions to help students in training and be aware of the components of this project, which is the first and largest one of its kind in the region. As part of its continuous efforts to diversify Dubai’s energy mix and to combine these sources to generate electricity, Dewa has issued a request for tenders for its new clean-coal power plant; using new sources to generate electricity. The Hassyan plant will be the first of its kind in the region to use clean-coal technology and the project will contribute significantly to alternate sources of energy, with total production capacity of 1,200MW to be carried out in two 600MW phases, with the first phase to be completed by 2020, and the second by 2021. The Vice-President was also briefed about the progress of the first phase of the integrated hydro-geological study to determine the location of groundwater basins and re-inject them with surplus drinking water to store and re-pump to its water networks to meet emergency needs. The study is expected to be completed at the end of this year. Continue reading
Nadal tops Djokovic for 13th major title
Nadal tops Djokovic for 13th major title (AP) / 10 September 2013 Hard to believe this is the same Rafael Nadal who was home during the U.S. Open a year ago, nursing a bad left knee. Hard to believe this is the guy sent packing in the first round of Wimbledon in June, losing against someone ranked 135 th . Looking fit as can be and maybe even better than ever, the No. 2-ranked Nadal pulled away from No. 1 Novak Djokovic 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 on Monday in a taut, tense U.S. Open final for his 13 th Grand Slam title. “Very, very emotional, no?” Nadal said during the on-court trophy presentation. “Probably only my team knows how much (this) means for me.” They started in sunlight and finished at night, a 3-hour, 21-minute miniseries of cliffhangers and plot twists and a pair of protagonists who inspired standing ovations in the middle of games. There was no quit in either of them, during points that lasted 15, 25, even more than 50 strokes. “Probably nobody brings my game to the limit like Novak,” said Nadal, who collected $3.6 million in prize money, including a $1 million bonus for results during the North American hard-court circuit. This was their 37 th match against each other, the most between any two men in the Open era, and Nadal has won 22. It also was their third head-to-head U.S. Open final in the last four years. Nadal beat Djokovic for the 2010 title, and Djokovic won their rematch in 2011. They know each other’s games so well, and play such similar hustle-to-every-ball styles, but in the end, it was Nadal who was superior. “He was too good. He definitely deserved to win this match today and this trophy,” Djokovic said. “Obviously disappointing to lose a match like this.” Nadal improved to 22-0 on hard courts and 60-3 overall in 2013 with nine titles, including at the French Open, which made him the first man with at least one Grand Slam trophy in nine consecutive seasons. The 27-year-old Spaniard’s total of 13 major championships ranks third in the history of men’s tennis, behind only Roger Federer’s 17 and Pete Sampras’ 14. Nadal no longer wears the strips of white tape he once did to bolster his left knee, and the way he covered the court against Djokovic — switching from defense to offense in a blink — proved that while he says he still feels pain in that leg, he definitely does not have problems moving around. These are the same two who played the longest Grand Slam final in history, a nearly six-hour struggle that left both needing to sit in chairs during the ceremony after Djokovic’s victory at the 2012 Australian Open. This time, when it ended with a forehand into the net by Djokovic, Nadal dropped to his back on the court, saluted by an Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd that included the Queen of Spain. Nadal was relentless from shot to shot, yes, and from point to point, too, but what might have been most impressive was the way he stayed steady when Djokovic recovered from a rough start and began asserting himself. Continue reading
Obama: I might lose congressional vote on Syria
Obama: I might lose congressional vote on Syria (AP) / 10 September 2013 President Barack Obama conceded Monday night he might lose his fight for congressional support of a military strike against Syria, and declined to say what he would do if lawmakers reject his call to back retaliation for a chemical weapons attack last month. The president sought to use a glimmer of a possible diplomatic solution — including vaguely encouraging statements by Russian and Syrian officials on Monday — as fresh reason for Congress to back his plan. Syria welcomed a proposal to turn over all of its chemical weapons to international control. Obama said Syria’s statement was a potentially positive development, but he voiced skepticism about that the regime of President Bashar Al Assad would follow through. He said it was yet another reason for lawmakers to give him the backing he is seeking. He spoke in a series of six television network interviews planned as part of a furious lobbying campaign aimed at winning support from dubious lawmakers and well as a war-weary public. Speaking of Assad’s government, Obama said the credible threat of a military strike led by the United States “has given them pause and makes them consider whether or not they could make this move” to surrender control of their chemical weapons stockpile. “If we don’t maintain and move forward with a credible threat of military pressure, I do not think we will actually get the kind of agreement I would like to see,” Obama said on CNN. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cited “international discussions” in unexpectedly postponing a test vote originally set for Wednesday on Obama’s call for legislation backing a military strike. In a separate interview with NBC, Obama took the step — unusual for any politician — of conceding he may lose his campaign in Congress for authorization. “I wouldn’t say I’m confident” of the outcome, he said. “I think it’s fair to say that I haven’t decided” on a next step if Congress turns its back, the president told NBC. Obama arranged a trip to Congress on Tuesday as well as a prime time speech from the White House. The president picked up a smattering of support but also suffered a reversal when Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican, announced he had switched from a backer of military action to an opponent. Reid, the Senate majority leader, made a statement of support for the president’s request. “Today, many Americans say that these atrocities are none of our business, that they’re not our concern,” the Democrat said of Assad’s alleged gassing of civilians on Aug. 21. “I disagree. Any time the powerful turn such weapons of terror and destruction against the powerless, it is our business.” Others came down on the other side of the question. “I will vote ‘no’ because of too much uncertainly about what comes next,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican, reflecting concerns that even the limited action Obama was contemplating could lead to a wider war. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, also voiced opposition. “I strongly believe that we need the entire world, not just America, to prevent and deter the use of chemical weapons in Syria, or anywhere else on the globe,” she said. In the House of Representatives, one of two female Iraq war veterans in Congress announced opposition to military strikes. Legislation approved in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week would give Obama a maximum of 90 days to carry out a military attack, and it includes a ban on combat operations on the ground in Syria. Both of those limitations were last-minute concessions to critics of a military option, and it was unclear whether Reid would seek additional changes to build support. Despite the difficulty confronting Obama, an AP survey indicated the issue was hardly hopeless for the president, particularly in the Senate where Democrats maintain a majority, and perhaps also in the Republican-controlled House. The survey showed 23 Senate votes in favour of military authorization and 10 more leaning that way. Opponents totalled 20, with another 14 leaning in the same direction, with the remaining 33 senators undecided or publicly uncommitted. That created at least the possibility of the 60-vote majority that will be necessary to advance the bill. In the House, there were fewer than a dozen declared in support and 150 opposed or leaning that way. But 201 lawmakers had yet to take a public position, more than enough to swing the outcome either way. The public opinion polling was daunting for the president and his team. An Associated Press poll showed that 61 percent of those surveyed want Congress to vote against authorization of U.S. military strikes in Syria and 26 percent want lawmakers to support such an action, with the remainder undecided. Continue reading
