The opening of Ramallah’s first five-star hotel will mark another small step in the West Bank town’s steady march towards something resembling normal life.
But its sixth-floor executive lounge looks out on a panorama of unresolved issues that cloud the economic outlook — a built-up Israeli settlement on a nearby hilltop, a Palestinian refugee camp down below and the hazy skyline of distant Jerusalem beyond a grim separation wall.
The Movenpick Hotel Ramallah, a locally owned franchise of the Swiss-based chain, is aimed primarily at corporate clients and has been billed as yet another indication that the occupied West Bank is open for business.
Asia-Pacific millionaires are collectively worth more than their European counterparts for the first time, with the rich in China and India leading the way.
The report on high-net worth individuals (HNWIs) — defined as anyone with investible assets of at least one million US dollars — was issued by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and consultancy firm Capgemini.
The world’s population of HNWIs returned to 10 million in 2009, with the largest concentrations still found in the United States, Japan and Germany.
“The Asia-Pacific HNWI population rose 25.8 percent overall to three million, catching up with Europe for the first time, after falling 14.2 percent in 2008″.
An Israeli woman mistakenly threw out a mattress she said had almost $1 million inside, setting off a frantic search through tons of garbage at a number of landfill sites on Wednesday.
The woman told The Associated Press that she bought her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise present on Monday — and threw out the old one.
The next day, she said, she remembered that she had hidden her life savings inside the old mattress. “I woke up in the morning screaming, when it hit me what happened,” said the Tel Aviv woman.
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Anakin in
Yachting on 26th March 2009 |
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Israel’s richest woman, billionaire Shari Arison, has put up her yacht, “My Shanti” up for sale. She is asking $100 million.
Merle Wood’s listing states that the My Shanti is 212 feet/64 meters long, and built by the Dutch shipyard Amels in 2007.
The My Shanti was assessed at $70-80 million a year ago, the price that Arison paid for it. The yacht has a banquet hall, cinema, staterooms, kitchen, and large mess room. It can reach a maximum speed of 40 knots.
