World's highest restaurants

Dubai's boom may have fizzled, but you can still live the high life perched atop the world's tallest building as the glitzy Gulf emirate unveils one of the world's highest restaurants. Atmosphere, on the 122nd floor, is one private elevator ride up the glass and chrome Burj Khalifa. Its designers say that At.mosphere, touted as the world's highest restaurant, shows that Dubai may have lost its lustre as a business hub after the financial crisis, but for those seeking the lifestyle of the rich and famous, it can still dish it out. "Up here, you feel elegant and luxurious, you feel sexy," said the restaurant's designer, Adam Tihany, pointing to the mahogany-panelled rooms and cosy leather booths. "You are floating ... it's a journey. This is your luxury yacht in the sky," he said. At.mosphere is a 57-second elevator ride up 442 metres (1,350 feet) that makes ears pop. Dwayne Cheer, the executive chef, tries to limit the number of times he goes up each day. "I came up yesterday five times and after five times, you feel a bit dizzy. You only want to come up twice." Cheer recommends the house specialties of foie gras or the beef tartare--but prices here may burn the pocket books of all but Dubai's most well-heeled denizens. Entrees at the contemporary grille, serving up what Emaar Hospitality's chief executive calls "eclectic, European cuisine", cost an average of 340 dirhams. Appetizers will set you back another $50 each. At.mosphere's views at noon show ritzy Dubai's past and present: its ambitious artificial island project, The World, lies unfinished amid the blue waves on one side, and the sandy expanses of stalled construction sites are on the other. Dubai's six-year boom, which fuelled construction of the world's tallest building and artificial island archipelagos, slammed to a halt in 2008 after the global financial crisis. Millions of dollars of construction projects were slashed or put on hold and the emirate is struggling to dig out from under a massive debt burden, estimated at more than $100 billion.

Pakistan .... terrorists had struck

At least a dozen people were killed and nearly 70 injured in blasts in Lahore and Karachi on Tuesday evening along the route of the Tazia and Alam processions on the occasion of the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain. Both blasts took place on the outer limits of the multi-layered security cordon put in place in the two cities in view of past attacks on the minority Shia community during similar processions. The blast in Lahore — the first and more severe of the two — took place near Urdu Bazaar where the first security check post had been placed for worshippers heading to the Data Darbar, the shrine of the Persian Sufi saint Hazrat Syed Ali bin Usman Hajweri, for the 967th Urz Shareef. Later in the evening, the Shia procession was also slated to pass through the area on way to Karbala Gamay Shah. Three police personnel were among the nine killed in the Urdu Bazaar blast as a teenaged suicide bomber detonated himself on being stopped at the security check post. According to the police, the suicide bomber was no more than 15 years old. He had bombs strapped to his body and was apparently also carrying a bag full of explosives. Soon after the blast, in which 52 people including five policemen were injured, Lahore authorities sought to convince the management of Data Darbar and the Shia leadership of the city to cut short the Urs and Tazia procession respectively in view of security situation. Within an hour of the blast in Lahore, a bomb ripped through a police vehicle in the Malir Halt area of Karachi just after a Tazia procession had passed by. Two policemen were killed and 10 people sustained injuries. Police claimed the fatalities would have been higher had the procession got delayed. Again, the blast occurred when the police stopped a motor-cyclist.