Michelle Wie will be back for the forthcoming Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, to be held again at the Emirates Golf Club in December.

Wie will be making her fourth appearance in the season-ending Ladies European Tour event where her best finish is second to fellow LPGA star Kim In-kyung of South Korea on her debut in 2009.

The 22-year-old Hawaiian, who has juggled a career on the LPGA Tour with the demands of pursuing a college degree at Stanford University, was joint fifth in 2010 and last year settled for joint 12th on five-under 283.

In a press release she is quoted as saying that “it’s so much fun to be in Dubai. There is always something new to look for, always something new to try. It’s such an interesting place; it’s so mesmerising, so I’m really happy to be playing in the tournament along side high-competitive Ladies European Tour players.”

In the real world she would probably say thank you for the appearance money and her Omega sponsorsip!

I love the purple dress....I am less sure about the long white socks!

Air Arabia and flydubai jets in near miss off Dubai (months ago!)

16 July 2012

The near miss in April, involving an Air Arabia flight from Sharjah to Istanbul and a flydubai flight from Dubai to Doha. It is being reported in the local media for the first time today.

Inevitably the report is in Abu Dhabi's The National rather than in the Dubai media.

On-board warning systems alerted the pilots to the danger of collision and advised one to climb and the other to descend. Both planes continued their journeys without incident.

"A situation developed during which the distance between the two aircraft as well as their relative positions and speed had been such that the safety of the aircraft involved may have been compromised," an authority spokesman said yesterday.

The Air Arabia flight had six crew and 147 passengers on board. The flydubai flight had six crew and 94 passengers.

The incident happened at 9.02pm on April 22, five nautical miles west of Dubai International Airport.

The authority said the cause, and the closest distance between the planes, would be disclosed in later reports. Investigators are studying the data recorders from both flights. "The investigation has not yet determined the cause," the spokesman said.

Very strange; three months on; data recorders, crews and ATC staff all available for the investigation. And no answers.

Air Arabia and flydubai both said yesterday they could not comment on the possible cause of the incident because it was being investigated by the regulator.

But flydubai said it took such incidents seriously and Air Arabia said: "Our flight crew handled the situation safely and in a professional manner."

The National says that this is the first near- miss reported to the GCAA, but they are common globally....really? Seems unlikely. Maybe the first to be reported under a new reporting culture.

Sorry Emirates but Qatar is world's best

13 July 2012

Qatar Airways was named best in the world in the Skytrax World Airline Awards for the second year running.

The rapidly-growing Gulf carrier retained the title of Airline of the Year 2012 and also notched up awards for Best Airline in the Middle East for the seventh consecutive year and the Best Airline Staff Service award in the Middle East.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker hailed the achievements as “fantastic recognition” of all employees at Qatar Airways for the dedication and commitment to their job.

Skytrax CEO Edward Plaisted added: "To win the Airline of the Year award for a second successive year is a remarkable achievement for Qatar Airways, and a clear recognition of the continued efforts by Qatar Airways’ management and staff to be the world's best airline."

Air travellers were surveyed during a 10-month period. The survey measured passenger satisfaction across more than 38 key performance indicators of airline front-line product and service, including check-in, boarding, onboard seat comfort, cabin cleanliness, food, beverages, in-flight entertainment and staff service.

The survey covered more than 200 airlines, from the largest international airlines to smaller domestic carriers.

Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in 15 years of operation, currently operating a modern fleet of 109 aircraft to 117 destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America.

Over the next few months, Qatar Airways launches services to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (July 25); Mombasa, Kenya (August 15); Yangon, Myanmar (October 3); Maputo, Mozambique (October 31) and a date yet-to-be-announced to the Serbian capital Belgrade.

What is impressive is that Qatar appears able to maintain its high inflight standards despite using a mixed fleet of narrow and wide body airplanes and despite quite rapid growth which can put pressure on the consistency of both the soft and the hard product; as evidenced at Emirates. The fact that Qatar can do this at usually highly competitive fares is also a part of its popularity.

World's Top 10 Airlines - 2012 - previous year in brackets.

1 Qatar Airways (1)
2 Asiana Airlines (3)
3 Singapore Airlines (2)
4 Cathay Pacific Airways (4)
5 ANA All Nippon Airways (11)
6 Etihad Airways (6)
7 Turkish Airlines (9)
8 Emirates (10)
9 Thai Airways (5)
10 Malaysia Airlines (12)

Other awards

Best first class - Etihad Airways
Best business class - Cathay Pacific
Best premium economy - Qantas
Best economy class - Singapore Airlines
Best inflight entertainment - Emirates
Best low-cost airline - AirAsia
Best cabin staff - Malaysia Airlines (neither Emirates or Etihad make the top 10)
Best economy class meals - Singapore Airlines
Best first class lounge - Qantas (Sydney Airport)

Preparing for Dubai's 2013 airshow

12 July 2012

The 13th edition of the Dubai Airshow will take place from 17 to 21 December 2013 and is moving to a brand new purpose built home at Dubai World Central (DWC), located in Jebel Ali, Dubai.

Dubai World Central is located in the Jebel Ali area of Dubai. At this time it has a single runway and accommodates a few cargo flights.

The new venue has exhibition space totaling 645,000sqm in size, making it more than double the size of the old site at Airport Expo.

The purpose built show site will offer a larger static park with fewer flying restrictions, whilst the outdoor area will also provide three times more parking spaces than at the previous site totalling over 4,000 parking spaces.

It needs the parking space as there is no metro access to the new site.

The Dubai Airshow is organised under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and in co-operation with Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Dubai Airports and the UAE Armed Forces.

End of era as BBC bids good-bye to majestic home

11 July 2012 Reuters

At noon London time on July 12, 2012, Britain will slip silently into a new era of radio history.

At the top of the hour, the BBC World Service - once the voice of the British empire - will transmit its last radio news bulletin from its imposing home, Bush House in central London.

For more than 70 years the art-deco building was the beating heart of the British Broadcasting Corporation's overseas service and a bastion of press freedom around the world.

From here King George V addressed the Empire in 1932, Charles de Gaulle defied the Nazis, and legions of emigres sent news in dozens of languages to the unmistakeable introductory strains of Lilliburlero, its signature tune.

Setting off a wave of nostalgia, the BBC has decided to move the operation to a gleaming new office in London as part of its efforts to bring all of its broadcasting teams under one roof.

With a warren of meandering corridors, soaring halls and marble stairs, the majestic Bush House has already been mostly abandoned, with the last team of journalists due to leave officially on Thursday after the final bulletin.

"It's spooky. It does feel bereft," said Andrew Whitehead, a former South Asia correspondent who has worked for the BBC since 1981, his footsteps echoing in the building's hollow silence.

"Part of me feels sad. Bush House has meant something. You would say: 'I work at Bush House'. You don't say: 'I work at the BBC World Service'."

Marking the birth of Britain's broadcasting tradition, the BBC's Empire Service, as it was known at the time, was launched in 1932, helped by new radio technology that allowed it to send signals over vast distances.

Its boss at the time was not very optimistic, quipping once that its programs would "neither be very interesting nor very good". Yet it expanded fast, soon beaming news in dozens of languages into some of the world's most far flung corners.

From its grand location off the Strand in central London, Bush House witnessed every turn of history throughout the drama of the 20th century, its culture shaped by the gripping years that followed World War Two.

It has been described as an organism in itself with a United Nations like atmosphere where journalists from all over the world rubbed shoulders in its polyglot canteen.

"I certainly remember that very strong physical impression and the smell of the place from the very first time I went there," said Peter Horrocks, the BBC's Director of Global News.

"It's a building that inspires huge affection and emotion especially for the staff who have come from around the world, many of whom are exiles and people who can't go back to their countries of origin. It provides something of a refuge."

This is the building from which General Charles de Gaulle sent daily support messages to the Free French movement after France fell to Nazi Germany in 1940.

It is also the place whose labyrinthine corridors and newsrooms are said to have inspired British author George Orwell to form his vision of the Ministry of Truth in his novel "1984" describing a totalitarian future society.

At the height of the Cold War, trouble sometimes struck too close to home. In 1978, BBC Bulgarian Service journalist Georgi Markov died in mysterious circumstances after being jabbed in the leg by an umbrella tip containing highly toxic ricin near London's Waterloo Bridge.

Banned by the secret police from having a telephone, the Czech dissident Vaclav Havel once used to sneak into a local post office to record secret interviews with Bush House studios.

"Bush House in the Cold War years (was once) described as a place with various Eastern Europeans and Russians walking down the corridors smoking rank cigarettes and muttering to each other conspiratorially," Maya Samolov from the former BBC Yugoslav Service told a BBC program.

"But there wasn't really that much to spy on because we were in the business of broadcasting," Samolov added with a laugh.

Millions of listeners around the world, from Nigeria to Pakistan, feel they know the place personally after countless programs introduced with the words "From Bush House in London".

For both friends and foes, Bush House was a powerful symbol.

At the height of the Cold War, Russian spies were specifically instructed to listen to its bulletins - with anti-Soviet bits meticulously cut out - as part of their training, according to Oleg Gordievsky, a double agent in the KGB.

"The World Service has very particular values attached to it, which were born out of the war years," said Robert Seatter, Head of BBC History. "It's all the world there in one place."

In some repressive regimes, listening to Western news reports could land people in jail.

Dissidents from the Eastern bloc still like to recall how they used to huddle in secrecy around their radios in tobacco smoke-filled flats in Prague or Moscow, thirsty for snippets of news from the outside world.

For many of them, the BBC's "This is London" - a phrase preceding news bulletins at the top of the hour - rang out like the echo of a world they thought they would never see.

Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who paid tribute to BBC staff during her visit to London last month, said a music request programme on the World Service called "A Jolly Good Show" gave her comfort during her years under house arrest.

"Because of the BBC I never lost touch with my people, with the movement for democracy in Burma and with the rest of the world," Suu Kyi said during her visit.

Described by the BBC as a quintessentially British building, Bush House was originally commissioned as a symbol of Anglo-American trade - hence the inscription on its facade reading "Dedicated to the friendship of English speaking peoples".

When it opened in 1925, Bush House was considered the most expensive building the world, its cost estimated at two million pounds. When the BBC's lease expires at the end of this year, it will return to its Japanese owner.

The BBC says the move to a new office building is necessary because it wants to encourage efficiency and creativity through new and better broadcasting technology.

"It's an old building now. It's not fit for purpose," said Horrocks. "People want to carry their memories and the spirit of Bush House with them into a new environment and modern technology."

At the end of the day, listeners may not notice any difference. But for many it is still an emotional moment.

Its former inhabitants have been seen streaming back to the building recently for a last stroll through its empty corridors, to say goodbye to their memories and an epoch fast slipping way.

Whitehead smiled sadly as he recalled his years as a young reporter in the 1980s when he used to sift through wads of color-coded news agency copy as part of his job.

"Reuters was green, AP was white, AFP was pink," he said. "Your hands got absolutely bloody filthy because of the carbon."

He added: "Journalists tend to be fairly cynical and hard-bitten. They like to see themselves as not very nostalgic. But leaving this building, God, it's been..." Whitehead paused. Lost in his memories for a moment, he did not finish the phrase.

The reality of London 2012

11 July 2012 - The Guardian

It's billed as the greatest show on earth. But the closer you get to the London stadium that will be the centre of the Olympic Games in just over a fortnight's time, the more it's starting to look like a militarised occupation zone. East London has become lockdown London. The Olympics are the focus of Britain's largest security mobilisation since the second world war.

Soldiers are already on the streets. Around 13,500 are being deployed, more than currently in Afghanistan, along with tens of thousands of police and private security guards. Drones will patrol the skies over the Olympic park, barricaded behind an 11-mile electrified fence and guarded with sonic weapons and 55 teams of attack dogs.

The greatest local outrage has, not surprisingly, been triggered by the decision to site surface-to-air missile batteries, with orders to shoot down any unauthorised aircraft, in six residential areas around the park – including in the former factory buildings where the socialist feminist Annie Besant led the celebrated "matchgirls' strike" in 1888. On Tuesday, residents of another tower block failed at the high court to stop the army putting missiles on their roof on the grounds that they hadn't been consulted and could be vulnerable to terrorist attack.

Of course, if the state hosting the Olympics is in the habit of invading and occupying other people's countries, the likelihood of terrorist attacks will increase. And ever since the killing of Israeli athletes in Munich 40 years ago, Olympic security has been tight. But the scale and visibility of the London operations, including powers to crack down on protest and even remove critical posters from private homes, go far beyond the demands of any potential threat.

There are other motivations, naturally. In the words of one Whitehall official, the Olympics are a "tremendous opportunity to showcase what the private sector can do in the security space". But it's all a long way from the Olympic ideals of promoting peace, internationalism and participation through sport.

As one local resident puts it: "People round here feel that the Olympic stadium landed from another planet." Nor is it likely to attract tourists. Securitisation is sucking enthusiasm out of the Games: recent polling shows a striking lack of support – 49% of people in London and 53% in the rest of the country say they're not interested in the Olympics, and only 4% strongly agreed they would be inspired to play more sport.

No doubt that will change once the athletes take over. But given the snaffling of most of the best tickets by sponsors and Olympic officials, along with the daily affront of VIP lanes for fleets of chauffeur-driven cars, many Londoners in particular are bound to see the Games as having very little to do with them.

And they'd be right. The funding may come overwhelmingly from public funds, but it's private corporations that are calling the shots. Private sponsorship of the Olympics goes back decades, but the corporate takeover dates from the Los Angeles Games in 1984, during the heyday of Reaganomics. Commercialisation in turn triggered athlete professionalisation a couple of years later: a corporate model for the times, nurtured by an International Olympic Committee elite.

So it is that in London we have Coca-Cola, Cadbury's, Heineken and McDonald's sponsoring and branding a movement that is supposed to promote health in a country where one in three children are overweight or obese by the age of nine. Even the IOC's president, Jacques Rogge, is getting embarrassed, though not embarrassed enough to turn down sponsorship from Dow Chemical. That's the owner of Union Carbide whose plant in India leaked poison-gas in 1984 killing thousands and which refused to accept liability for supporting survivors or cleaning up the environment.

Compensation for the corporate and security takeover is meant to be a lasting legacy of trickle-down regeneration, jobs, housing, tourism and greater participation in sport. That's always the promise, from Atlanta to Athens. But the evidence shows that, with the qualified exception of Barcelona in 1992, it never happens. In some cases, the economic impact has actually been negative.

The early signs are that London is unlikely to buck the trend. As mayor, Ken Livingstone fought for the Games to win the investment in transport for east London that would almost certainly never have been secured without them. But at a public cost that has already risen from £2.5bn to over £13bn, the local jobs, training and affordable housing that kind of investment should buy are simply not being delivered.

Qatar has bought the Olympic village at a loss to the public purse, and only a minority of its homes will be made available as affordable housing, while Olympics-fuelled rent rises and evictions are already deepening the area's social segregation along the well-established pattern of London's Docklands.

It's clear that the IOC's model doesn't work, even on its own terms. But as enthusiast Mark Perryman says in his new book on the Olympics, they don't have to be like this. Five key reforms would transform the Games, he argues, cut their cost and make the Olympic ideal more of a reality, in place of the tightly controlled corporate "mega event" of the next few weeks.

Decentralise the Games by holding them in one or more countries, he proposes, rather than a single city; increase public participation (now restricted to a fleeting glimpse of the torch relay) by using existing venues that maximise available tickets; move sports outside stadiums to increase the number of free-to-watch events, on the Tour de France model; choose sports on the basis of their universal global accessibility; and disconnect corporate sponsors from the heart of the Games by reserving the use of its five-ring symbol for community and voluntary groups.

It's too late for London to have such a Games for all – though not for Rio de Janeiro in 2016, currently heading down the same road. And the gravy-train IOC elect will see no reason to abandon a model they do very nicely out of without serious global pressure for change.

But the Olympics, as with sport in general, holds up a mirror to society. What is being played out in London reflects a legacy of the war on terror and deregulation of unbridled corporate power – both elite blunders that have ended in failure. If those disasters can be overcome, why should it be impossible to end the corporate grip on the Olympics – and create a Games that lives up to its billing?

More unlikely Thai airlines

9 July 2012

Consider these - U Airlines and Chaba Airlines - coming to an airport in Bangkok soon! Hard to tell which BKK airport given the country's increasingly confused aviation policy.

U Airlines (Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International (BKK)) is the new name chosen by Crystal Thai Airlines for its second launch attempt using two ex-Indian Airlines (IC, Delhi Indira Gandhi International (DEL)) A320-200s. It is reportedly also planning to add a single B767-300ER in September.

The A320-200s (c/n 308 and 314) are currently being prepared at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International (CGK).

U Airlines is is expected to mainly operate charter services from Thailand to China, Japan and South Korea. Crystal Thai initially had planned to launch in spring 2011 but then had to postpone the start of operations.

The U airlines web site is here. The airline plans to fly from July 2012 serving Pusan and Daegu in Korea, Chennai in India; Nanging, Chongqing, Shanghai and Ningbo in China. It will fly domestically to Phuket and Chiang Mai from October. There are also plans to fly to Dubai. Only problem is that the booking system does not work and the grand promotion for the launch flight does not link to anything suggesting that the launch date is still to be finalised.

Meanwhile Chaba Airlines (Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International (BKK)) has taken delivery of ex-Lufthansa A340-300 D-AIGA (c/n 20) that has been delivered to Bangkok Don Mueang International (DMK) earlier this week. It plans to use the aircraft and a second A340-300 on long-haul charter flights from and to Thailand.

Here is the Chaba Airlines web site - it is not very reassuring.

I am curious how these airlines get licensed to fly. Do they have complete safety manuals and procedures; have they been checked by Thai aviation regulator?

I came, I saw, I shopped

8 June 2012 from This is Hampshire.net

He arrived with an entourage of more than 30, requested a traditional cream tea, and spent several thousands of pounds during a four-hour stay.

The Crown Prince of Thailand’s visit to an antique shop in Hartley Wintney left staff slightly overwhelmed after he selected the venue as somewhere to visit during his holiday to the UK.

Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn requested The White Lion Antiques Centre shut to the public on June 20 so he could have the space entirely to himself.

The heir to the Thai throne arrived in a Mercedes with his wife, the Princess Consort Srirasmi (this is in some doubt with online commentators suggesting someone else was with him), along with Ambassador of Thailand, Kitti Wasinondh.

The couple browsed around the store for four hours, and bought more than 300 items of fine bone china to add to their collection, totalling several thousand of pounds.

The Prince partly chose to visit the shop because of its tea shop, which serves traditional cream teas and which he wanted to sample on his trip to the country.

Jerry Mahony, owner of the shop, said: “It was a great honour to have him visit us. He was on holiday and flew into Farnborough in a private 737. I didn’t know about it until two days before.

“We shut the centre, and they spent a long time here. I showed them around. It was a really interesting visit.”

The Prince had around 15 security guards who arrived beforehand.

Mr Mahoney, a 52-year-old father-of-three, from Sherfield-on-Loddon, added: “You would expect him to visit somewhere in London, so it was a massive thing to have someone from the Royal Family visiting here.”

Do you believe in progress?

8 June 2012 Financial Times -Simon Kuper

Around the corner from me here in Paris is a café called Le Progrès. I imagine its pavement tables a century ago, populated by early French socialists in hats and elaborate moustaches. These were men (yes, mostly men) who believed in progress. They met in the cafés and halls of eastern Paris to discuss uplifting the poor. They believed that humanity had been slowly rising, like an ancient lift clanking upwards, ever since 18th-century Parisian philosophers rediscovered the idea of “progress”.

Western belief in progress has been slipping steadily for decades, but is now at a nadir. Anyone who still believes that politics will uplift humanity is considered a crank. Yet the idea of progress hasn’t vanished. It has simply been privatised. Just as those early Parisian socialists believed in humanity’s progress, westerners increasingly believe in their own personal progress. They don’t think the next human generation will be better off, but they are making darned sure their own children will be.

Only four years ago, belief in progress wasn’t yet dead. Barack Obama became the world’s president with the ultimate progressive slogan: “Yes we can.” After clinching the Democratic nomination, he had said: “This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” These now sound like words from another era, but even in 2009, heading into the United Nations’ environmental summit in Copenhagen, many still thought the world might solve global warming.

The past three years have been particularly poor ones for progress. The west’s big popular movements now look back: they promise a return to a past golden age, which Marine Le Pen’s Front National vaguely locates in the time before globalisation, and the Tea Party movement precisely locates in 1776. America’s founding fathers, themselves believers in progress, would presumably have been depressed to discover that they were the end-point of history.

Today the notion that Obama or Mitt Romney might usher in utopia sounds hilarious, like something out of Mad magazine. No western politician incarnates hope any more. On the May night when François Hollande was elected French president, I wandered up to Bastille to see the celebrating masses. There weren’t many. Hardly anyone aged over 30 was out, and many people on the square seemed to have come to watch, like me. What euphoria there was concerned not Hollande but the ousting of his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Politicians now try to present themselves not as saviours but as managers: Romney, Mario Monti and even Hollande. That’s no wonder, as since 1945 the managerialism of Dwight Eisenhower or Bill Clinton has fared rather better than the utopianism of, say, Pol Pot. As George Orwell wrote in 1943: “Plans for human betterment do normally come unstuck, and the pessimist has many more opportunities of saying ‘I told you so’ than the optimist.” In Ukraine last month, a liberal dissident mused to me about who might be the country’s ideal leader, everyone else having failed. He came up with Lee Kuan Yew or General Franco. Progress has vanished not just from politics but from public life generally: the British municipal libraries that once stood for progress are now being closed.

However, progress has merely gone private. The western middle-classes increasingly believe in progress in their own lives. They read self-help books, take cooking classes, go on diets, stop smoking, do “home improvement”, and have invented a new mode of parenting, “concerted cultivation”, which largely means the sort of nonstop education for your own children that those moustachioed socialists had envisioned for the workers.

I realised just how new this obsessive self-improvement is at a recent family gathering, where all the over-forties drank alcohol at lunch and none of the under-forties did. In fact, whereas the early socialists dreamed of giving workers leisure, the new privatised idea of progress destroys leisure. Parties are for networking; cafés are for laptops; and sex is an opportunity to burn calories. Today the terrace of Le Progrès is packed with skinny, waxed people whose very bodies advertise the notion of private progress through unceasing labour.

And yet those early Parisian socialists were right: humanity is in the lift. Societies do progress. It’s just that the policies that achieve this are boring and uninspiring. As this column argued recently, despite the economic crisis we have never had it so good. Wars are dying out, life expectancy is rising almost everywhere, extreme poverty is falling, democracy is spreading, and we are even getting happier. The vast social-scientific “World Values Survey” combined national surveys carried out between 1981 and 2007, and found that happiness had risen in 45 of 52 countries studied. The reason: “Economic development, democratisation, and rising social tolerance have increased the extent to which people perceive that they have free choice.” And free choice makes people happier.

As so often, Orwell was right: “Progress is not an illusion; it happens, but it is slow and invariably disappointing.” The idea has been too hastily privatised.

Will there be a constitutional coup?

6 July 2012 - Associated Press

A court on Friday heard witnesses defending an attempt to amend Thailand’s constitution in a case that could revive partisan rancor and shatter the calm largely prevailing since a general election last year.

The charter was drafted in 2007 while an unelected government held office temporarily after a military coup had ousted a popular prime minister, and it has several provisions designed to limit the power of elected politicians. Contending the constitution is undemocratic, the ruling Pheu Thai party wants to set up an assembly to draft changes.

Opponents of amending the charter testified Thursday before defenders went before the Constitutional Court on Friday.

If the court rules the attempt to change the charter illegal, it could block the move or additionally, exact political punishment and order Pheu Thai dissolved.

The court announced it would issue its ruling on July 13, two days after hearing closing arguments.

The legal case is the latest skirmish in the sometimes violent battle between supporters and opponents of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006 after being accused of corruption and disrespect for Thailand’s monarchy.

Clashes have shaken the country’s stability repeatedly. In 2008, Thaksin’s opponents seized the prime minister’s offices for three months and Bangkok’s two airports for a week. In 2010, Thaksin’s supporters held street demonstrations that degenerated into violence, leaving more than 90 people dead and almost 2,000 injured.

Thai courts are closely identified with the conservative establishment that loathes and fears Thaksin because of his popularity. Court rulings since 2006 have generally served to punish him and his opponents, leading to complaints the rulings serve political aims.

A clear victory by either side in the court case could draw the losers onto the streets in protest, which could escalate.

The more likely result, a legal ruling that bars immediate passage of the amendment but leaves the ruling party intact and free to pursue different approaches to charter change, will just keep discontent simmering on both sides.

“The court has three choices to make: to adhere entirely to the law, to mix in political science, or to succumb to high pressure from the majority in parliament and the public,” said Somchai Phagaphasvivat, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Thammasat University.

Opponents of changing the charter are mostly Thaksin’s critics, who fear it could help him return to power. He is in exile avoiding jail on a 2008 corruption conviction, while his sister is the Pheu Thai leader and prime minister.

The constitution sought to limit the power of elected politicians in response to Thaksin’s substantial democratic mandate. Thailand’s traditional power-brokers, centered in the royal palace and the military, saw in Thaksin a rival for their influence.

While drafted under an interim, military-backed government, the constitution was approved by Thai voters. But they had no real option if they wished to see constitutional rule and electoral democracy quickly restored.

The charter changed the Senate from an all-elected body back to a partly appointed one and strengthened the hand of independent state agencies and the courts.

It also made political parties as a whole liable for infractions of electoral law committed by their officers. Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai party was dissolved in 2007 under its provisions, and its 111 executives were banned from politics for five years.

One result was a plethora of spouses and other relatives standing in for the banned politicians, the most notable case being Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra herself.

Another proxy politician complained about the matter in court Friday. “This constitution has left political parties (and) politicians all paralyzed. ... We now only have nominees. ... I am a nominee myself,” said Deputy Prime Minister Chumpol Silpa-archa, president of the Chart Thai Pattana Party, whose brother Banharn, a former prime minister, is a banned politician.

The amendment under consideration in parliament does not deal with any of the substantive issues in the 2007 constitution, but seeks only to establish a constitutional drafting assembly to begin the process of change.

Those who brought the complaint to the court, however, argue the amendment would violate the constitution because it would amount to usurping the system of constitutional monarchy. That the court agreed even to hear such a complaint surprised many analysts.

“The complainants can sound reasonable as they want, but I view it as fantasy,” said Sukhum Nuansakul, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Ramkhamhaeng University. “It’s their imagination and involves too much anticipation that (the charter amendment) would overthrow the regime.”

However, Sukhum was cautious on what to expect from the court, saying “I don’t dare to speculate on the verdict, because lately a lot of logic in this country has been so skewed that I can’t follow it.”

Why other airlines fear EK

6 July 2012

There was a post on the web about the implications of Emirates growth for Qantas; but this could apply to almost any other legacy airline. It even applies to Singapore Airlines and the other Asian carriers.

This is what the note said:

"What Emirates is up to is really serious for Qantas. Emirates is aviation’s largest food chain in operation. It has the world’s largest fleets of A380s and 777s, both in service and on order, and the world’s second largest order for A350s.

The A380s are now swallowing the 777s to cope with its growth on the busiest routes, with the big Airbus replacing the not exactly small 777s on services to Paris, which is going daily double with A380s, as it is reported will New York City, with the biggest airliner in service also replacing a 777 frequency from Dubai to Moscow and apparently to be announced as replacing the Boeing on flights to San Francisco as a result of evolving range and payload improvements.

There will be Emirates A380s daily through Melbourne by the end of year, fulfilling another part of its long standing promise to cater for Australian growth with A380s on just about every route or existing frequency by the end of the decade, although it also has the hots for a new larger version of the 777, the –X, which has been a Boeing teaser act for the last year, and which might be given additional substance at next week’s Farnborough Air Show.

And those 777s swallowed up by the A380s are being… redeployed, to open flights to Lyon, Emirates third port on France, it is launching Warsaw with museum fleet A330s awaiting A350 replacement, it has just launched Barcelona in addition to Madrid, and other 777s will find a new life opening the Adelaide market and dominating the resource capital Perth’s international flights, where Qantas can’t even manage non-stop flights to China never mind the Middle East."

Electronic cigarette brings UK to a halt

5 July 2012

It was Megabus - the coach equivalent of flying Ryanair. The bus was from Preston to London - guess 5 to 6 hours. The buses are cheap and not very cheerful. Someone lights up a fake cigarette.

The alarmed driver alerts the police.

And armed police swoop on the coach on the M6 Toll road and close the motorway for more than four hours.

Forty eight passengers were led off the coach and forced to sit apart in a cordon on the opposite carriageway.

Armed officers, troops, firefighters and bomb disposal experts all went to the scene.

Jenny Lister, who was on the coach, said when she got off "there were armed police aiming at us".

A passenger said: "we... were told to sit in rows and not talk to each other. There was a small area of the motorway where we were told to sit and stay. It was probably 45 minutes to an hour that we were sat there."

A force spokeswoman said, given the credibility of the information received, officers "responded swiftly and proportionately". But police found no crime had been committed.

This was a paranoid nation at its paranoid worst. The driver who called this in to the police caused massive disruption this morning. Although arguably it is the best and only publicity that Megabus has ever had.

The M6 Toll road was shut from about 08:20 BST and fully reopened by 14:00 BST northbound and by 15:00 BST southbound. Chaos.

A decontamination unit was set up and officers searched the coach passengers one by one. Ridiculous. It was an electronic cigarette.

Military personnel, police dog handlers, firefighters and other specialist units were at the scene.

To add to the paranoia one writer who was stopped on the motorway for more than an hour-and-a-half, said police warned him to stay in his car, keep his windows closed and not to use air conditioning.

Bizarre. The Olympics has not even started yet. Expect more of this and more over the top reaction over the next six weeks.

Thai AirAsia to transfer operations to Don Mueang by 1 Oct

5 July 2012

Thai AirAsia has confirmed that it will transfer all its operations in Bangkok to Don Mueang International Airport by 1 October.

The move from Suvarnabhumi airport has been "carefully assessed" and Don Mueang's capabilities are in line with the carrier's growth plans. Assistance measures provided by operator Airports of Thailand (AOT) also means that the carrier could manage its costs more effectively, says its chief executive Tassapon Bijleveled.

"The uncongested Don Mueang airport is sure to prove a benefit to AirAsia when it boosts its fleet of Airbus A320s to a total of 48 and welcomes more customers," he adds.

Thai AirAsia's decision comes after the Thai cabinet last week approved a plan to develop and fully re-open Don Mueang airport to ease congestion at Suvarnabhumi. Under the development plan, AOT will invest Bt1.6 billion ($50.3 million) to improve runways and various airport facilities.

With the changes, Suvarnabhumi will remain the hub airport for full service and connecting flights while Don Mueang will service low-cost carriers on domestic and point-to-point international routes, optimising the use of both airports.

The disgrace that is the A82

5 July 2012

The Scottish must wonder where there tax money goes to. It certainly is not being spent on one of the country's most important roads.

The A82 is a disgrace; a chain of potholes, blind bends and one way sections hereinafter referred to as the A82 west of Loch Lomond?

It is the main artery from Glasgow to the north and west and it's a Scottish shame, damaging the country's transport, trade and tourism.

The A82 is dangerous and frightening for any walker returning to their base or car. A single bike can be followed by a mile of traffic at 10 mph – Citylink buses, haulage, caravans and the thousands of us on business and pleasure.

There is still a single-lane section controlled by lights. The road is decades overdue being at least a two-lane clearway plus cycle lanes.

And last Thursday the road was closed after rain led to landslides that made the road impassable. I know because I was stuck in it. Worse there are really no sensible alternatives. We truned around and had to try and drive via Callander and the A81. A two hour drive became three and a half hours.

Again yesterday there was a thirty minute delay south of Tarbet in both directions; lights were being used to control the traffic flow while some sort of advertising (not traffic) sign was being erected by two men and a dog at the side of the road. Completely unnecessary.

The A82 needs a radical fix. This would provide employment, stimulate the economy, encourage visitors to return, reduce vehicle damage and get goods and people to their destinations at reasonable speed and with less frustration.

Thai Court to Decide on Survival of Party

5 July 2012 - The Asia Wall Street Journal

Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra faces the possibility her party could be dissolved, just one year after her landslide election victory.

The Constitutional Court is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday on whether the methods used by her Puea Thai (For Thais) party in attempting to amend the constitution—written after the military overthrew Ms. Yingluck's elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra in a 2006 coup—are illegal.

The court also will hear a claim that Ms. Yingluck's government plans to end the role of Thailand's revered king as head of the country's constitutional democracy. Her government denies this.

Some legal scholars and opposition politicians say that if the court finds Puea Thai broke the law, it could order the party dissolved.

The plans to rewrite parts of the army-backed document have inflamed rival groups of protesters, and analysts say an order to dissolve the party would likely send tens of thousands of people onto the streets and destabilize one of Southeast Asia's main economies.

The region already is feeling the impact of slowing growth in China and the debt crisis in Europe.

'Red Shirt' supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and current Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, his sister, rallying on June 24
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It is unclear how soon a ruling could be handed down. Thai courts have twice brought down pro-Thaksin governments since the 2006 coup.

Even if the court chooses not to order the dissolution of Puea Thai, the issue is further polarizing a country still struggling to move on from clashes between security forces and demonstrators in 2010 that killed 91 people.

"At the moment it seems there is no solution in sight" to the country's protracted divides, says Somchai Phagaphasvivat, a political-science professor at Thammasat University, Bangkok.

The thorniest divide is over the fate of Mr. Thaksin, a populist telecoms magnate who transformed Thai politics during his five years in power. Now living in Dubai to avoid imprisonment on a 2008 corruption conviction that he says was trumped up, Mr. Thaksin remains popular among many poor and rural Thais.

Ms. Yingluck, who had never sought office before, was swept in on a pledge to bring him back to Thailand a free man. Her government is pushing an amnesty law designed to exonerate anyone charged with crimes linked to the country's political upheavals since 2005, including Mr. Thaksin.

The effort is resisted by powerful bureaucrats, army leaders and a large segment of the country's middle class. They remain suspicious of Mr. Thaksin and his supporters, and the influence they continue to exert over the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung Tuesday told reporters he sees little prospect the court will dissolve Puea Thai, and at worst will merely prevent the government from moving ahead with its plans to amend the constitution. Constitutional changes proposed by some Puea Thai legislators include stripping military officers of their immunity from prosecution—which has prevented their facing legal consequences for leading the 2006 coup—and making Parliament's upper house, the Senate, fully elected. Under current law, half the seats are appointed.

The Thaksin camp appears to be taking few chances, however. Former lawmaker Wallop Supariyaslip said the political party he formed two years ago would welcome Puea Thai legislators should their party be disbanded.

EK's announces new routes

5 July 2012

Despite the A380 issues that are holding back network expansion Emirates is still planning three additional destinations to be launched in the next six months. There are some interesting timings for these new flights.

From 1st November, Emirates will launch four weekly flights to Adelaide, rising to a daily service from 1st February 2013. Adelaide will be the airline’s fifth destination in Australia which is currently served with 70 flights per week. The big surprise here is that Adelaide will operate non stop from Dubai rather than via the Far East. That will hurt Singapore Airlines who have daily Adelaide to Singapore flights.

The airline’s current double-daily service to Perth will grow to 19 weekly flights from 1st December, becoming a triple daily operation from 1st March next year.

The French city of Lyon will be added to the Emirates’ network from 5th December, the carrier’s third point in France after Paris and Nice. Emirates will operate five weekly flights to this vibrant economic and tourism centre of south eastern France. Lyon has a large Arabic population who will benefit from this new flight.

From 6th February 2013, Emirates will begin flights into Poland, where recently the World Bank predicted the highest economic growth in the Central and Eastern European region. The airline will operate a daily service to the capital, Warsaw.

Flight details are:

Adelaide (4 weekly flights beginning 1st November 2012)
EK440 departs Dubai on a Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday at 01:55hrs and arrives in Adelaide at 20:45hrs – using a Boeing 777-300ER in a three-class configuration.

The return flight leaves Adelaide at 22:45hrs and arrives in Dubai at 05:45hrs the next day; this schedule fits well with other Australia flights ad has good connections.

Perth (5 extra flights from 1st December 2012)
EK422 leaves Dubai at 21:45hrs on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and lands in Perth at 12:25hrs the next day – operated with a Boeing 777-300ER in a three-class arrangement.

The return flights leaves at 15:30hrs and lands in Dubai at 22:25hrs with only a limited number of European connections in the very early morning departure bank.

Lyon (5 weekly flights from 5th December 2012)
EK81 departs Dubai on a Monday, Tuesday Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 14:35hrs and arrives in Lyon at 19:00hrs – using an Airbus A340-500 in three-cabin classes.

The return leaves Lyon at 20:55hrs on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and arrives in Dubai at 06:15hrs the following day.

This is the first European destinations that has its single outbound frequency in the afternoon bank, undoubtedly a result of the increasing congestion issues in the morning. It is the second European flight (after Lisbon) with its single inbound frequency in the early morning bank. Connectivity is still very good.

Warsaw (daily flights from 6th February 2013)
EK179 takes off daily from Dubai at 07:30hrs and lands in Warsaw at 10:45hrs – served by an Airbus A330-200 in a three-class configuration.  The return leaves at 13:50hrs and arrives in Dubai at 22:15hrs.

The Warsaw timing fits the traditional pattern for primary European flights, but the return is quite early, because of the relatively short flying time and that will lead to increased connecting times.

As one final piece of news From 1 December 2012, Emirates starts A380 service to Moscow Domodedovo as EK131/132.

EK 777 in fire diversion over China

3 July 2012 (avherald and pprune)

You wont see this in Gulf news which is a shame as the crew appear to have done a first class job in dealing with a potentially serious emergency.

An Emirates Boeing 777-300, registration A6-EGQ performing flight EK-308 from Dubai to Beijing (on July 2nd) with 270 people on board, was enroute near Urumqi (China) when the crew received an aft cargo fire indication and activated the cargo fire suppression system. The crew diverted to Urumqi for a safe landing, emergency services found a number of burned bags in the aft cargo hold, the fire had been extinguished by the cargo fire suppression system in flight. No injuries occurred.

Urumqi airport reported a few pieces of luggage were damage by fire, a particular suitcase containing a lithium battery was identified as source of the fire, evidence suggests the lithium battery ignited as result of thermal runaway, the cause of the ignition however needs to be confirmed.

The remainder of the flight as well as the return flight EK-309 departing Beijing Jul 3rd were cancelled.

The incident aircraft positioned back to Dubai the following day as flight EK-7373 and has not yet resumed service (standing Jul 3rd 20:00Z).

The airline confirmed the aircraft diverted to Urumqi due to a fire alert in the aircraft hold as result of smoke from a lithium battery. The passengers were provided with accommodation and have been rebooked onto connecting flights from Urumqui to Beijing on Jul 3rd.

QE2 - Reinvented

2 July 2012

Arabian Business reports that Dubai is to relaunch the iconic QE2 cruise liner as a 300-room luxury floating hotel, as part of plans to transform its current home at Port Rashid into the emirate’s newest tourist attraction.

The 293m long vessel was bought from Cunard for around US$100m in June 2007 by Istithmar, an investment company owned by the government of Dubai.

Originally set to be refurbished as the central attraction in a maritime-themed development on Palm Jumeirah, this plan was scrapped in the wake of the financial crisis and the downturn in the Dubai property market.

The cruise terminal at Dubai’s Port Rashid is now set to become the liner’s permanent home and it will be converted into a 300-room luxury hotel, with the terminal developed to include a maritime museum. The refurbishment work is expected to take 18 months to complete.

Neither Istithmar nor DP World, which runs Port Rashid, gave details on how much the redevelopment of QE2 and the shipping terminal would cost, or who would provide financing.

According to Bloomberg, Istithmar is currently in talks with three hoteliers, including Jumeirah Group, to manage the property.

“The vessel is truly iconic and has a huge following around the world. Our vision is to enhance the facilities on board but retain the very strong sense of history that is a fundamental part of her attraction,” HE Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman of Istithmar World, said in a statement.

“Together with the planned Maritime Museum, it reinforces Port Rashid and Dubai’s status as a leading cruise and maritime tourism destination. We are excited about the potential for Port Rashid to further develop as a tourist destination in its own right,” added Mohammed Al Muallem, senior vice president and managing director of DP World for the UAE Region.

The 44-year old vessel has remained moored at Port Rashid since October 2011, but it was resurrected as a hospitality venue last year when it played host to a red carpet New Year’s Eve party with minor celebrities, fireworks and entertainment.

Organisers claimed the party would mark a “new lease of life” for the vessel since it was retired in 2008, making its last commercial voyage from Southampton to Dubai.

It was retired in 2008 and made its last voyage to Dubai that year, when it joined trophy assets such as luxury New York retailer Barneys and Cirque du Soleil in Istithmar’s portfolio.

Dubai’s Port Rashid has seen a rapid rise in business from the cruise industry and hosted 108 ships with 396,554 passengers in 2011.

In the first six months of 2012, 71 vessels with 275,000 tourists have moored in Dubai, with this set to rise to 145 cruise ships and 500,000 passengers by 2015, according to Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), DP World’s strategic partner.

Hong Kong - 15 years on

2 July 2012

It was just after midnight on 1 July 0197 that Hong Kong was formally returned by the British government to China.

Fifteen years later Hong Kong remains the troublesome rich spoiled child that China cannot master - and that much of China now aspires to.

Chinese Premier Hu Jintao arrived to oversee the anniversary and was greeted by demonstrations and hecklers. The Chinese president was also in Hong Kong for the inauguration as chief executive of Leung Chun-ying, a property surveyor who has been accused of clandestine membership of the Communist Party and of illegal building at his home on Victoria Peak.

Mr Hu’s inaugural address was interrupted by a member of the audience shouting, “End one-party rule.” At the same time, a mass demonstration aired dissatisfaction with both the mainland and local governments.

Leung was not elected by the Hong Kong people; he was anointed by a Beijing appointed electoral college.

Both incidents provide heartening evidence that Hong Kong continues to play an important role in pushing for political liberalisation in China. That may be uncomfortable for the leaders in Beijing, but against it must be set the value to them of the Special Administrative Region created in 1997 – with its financial and legal expertise and a triple-A credit rating – as a gateway into the mainland for foreign capital. Despite its transformation over the past 20 years, Shanghai cannot match that record.

Less encouraging is the disillusionment of Hong Kongers with Chinese rule. Among complaints are the widening gap between rich and poor, made worse by a property market inflated by excess capital from the mainland, and the ever-distant prospect of being able to elect the chief executive by universal suffrage. But to many Chinese Hong Kong is both a model for doing business and a catalyst for political change.

Organisers estimated that 400,000 people attended the demonstration; police put the figure at a much lower 63,000 people. Amid megaphone-led chants for Leung to "step down" and a myriad of banners and costumes mocking Leung as a cunning "wolf," some protesters waved the former Hong Kong flag used under British rule -- a gesture used to symbolize the erosion of the city's freedoms following the 1997 handover.

Other protesters used images of the Hello Kitty cartoon to mock Leung's claim that Hello Kitty stickers in his home showed that previous tenants were responsible for his home's illegal — and highly controversial -- building structures, which came to light last week. Draping a Hello Kitty sash across his chest, Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong steered an all-pink army tank labeled as the "cultural bureau," mocking Leung's proposed new government department.

Significantly, Leung's swearing-in ceremony on Sunday was fully conducted in Mandarin rather than the local Cantonese language, a move that did not go unnoticed by citizens sensitive about the encroachment of China's national language in Hong Kong.

"How completely alienating. If we have to watch a leader we didn't elect get sworn in, we could at least have it conducted in our own language," tweeted user @supercharz, Charmaine Mok. Leung ignored reporters' requests for comment about the protests as he exited the ceremony.

The demise of Cantonese is one of the post 1997 legacies; to ensure their kids won't lag behind in the rat race, Hong Kong parents do whatever they can, even if it means not speaking Cantonese with their kids. 

Although Cantonese is the official native language in Hong Kong, Mandarin is seen as the language needed to succeed in China and English as the language of world affairs; Cantonese is now  bumped down to a third-ranking language as it already is in Guangzhou. Its future surely looks bleak.

During Hu's tour at the Kai Tak cruise terminal on 30 June, an Apple Daily reporter who yelled out a question about the Tiananmen Square massacre was removed by police from the press area and questioned under a stairwell. There were also protests outside Hu's hotel.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong protests went unmentioned in the extensive coverage of the handover anniversary presented by Chinese state-run television station CCTV and news agency Xinhua. CNN's television broadcasts about the handover anniversary in Hong Kong were blacked-out in mainland China on Sunday and Monday, while BBC World's coverage was also censored after it veered from Leung's inauguration remarks to mentioning concurrent protests.

A photo circulating widely online Sunday picturing fireworks exploding in Victoria Harbor over the heads of protesters captured the divide between the government's representation of the sentiment surrounding the handover anniversary and the discontent brewing amid many citizens.

In a statement addressing the July 1 march, the Hong Kong government said it "fully respected people's rights to take part in processions and their freedom of expression and would listen to their views in a humble manner."

It went on to say that the government will "uphold the core values of Hong Kong and protect the freedom and rights of the people."

Meanwhile Xinhua reported that detailed policies were announced to foster a special zone in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen in a bold move to speed cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland. How many years will it be before the two are combined into a single mega city? Presumably just another 35; when one country, two systems, comes to an end.

Perhaps the best view of Hong Kong is that it has continued to prosper; it has changed. But it has always been a changing city. And the pace of change is not slowed by its new owners. What the British did leave was a sense of identity and responsibility. And that has been strong enough to ensure that Hong Kong has continued to be a unique Chinese city.