Dubai sees new mega-mall rising in desert

[November 26, 2012]  DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Dubai says it's getting back in the business of biggest.

After years of downsized ambitions because of a debt crisis, Dubai has unveiled plans for a new tourism-retail hub that will include a shopping complex that would outclass the Dubai Mall, billed as the world's biggest.

State news agency WAM says the planned development on the city's desert outskirts will include luxury hotels and a major theme park, a goal derailed by Dubai's fiscal meltdown in 2009.

No timetable was announced Sunday for the Mohammed Bin Rashid City.

But it allows Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to put his personal moniker on a mega-project after the country's president, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, took the honor for the record-tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai.

[Associated Press]

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