Burj Dubai, world's tallest tower, set to open Monday

The world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai, is set to open on Monday, as part of an effort by the sheikdom to get past a recent corporate crisis and strengthen its reputation and attraction as a regional and worldwide hub for business.

DUBAI:  Burj Dubai, anchoring a $20 billion development, is set to open amid a gala of fireworks and a curtain of tight security, The Wall Street Journal reported. The opening coincides with the fourth anniversary of Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 60, coming to power in Dubai.

The building, with more than 160 floors, is said to stand more than 2,625 feet (800 meters) high but the developer, Emaar Properties, has not yet said how tall the final structure is, media reports say.

The No. 2 office building in the world: Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which is more than 500 meters high. Burj Dubai is also the world's tallest structure, exceeding the height of a TV tower in North Dakota, and tallest free-standing structure, taller than the CN Tower in Toronto.

The Website says the building will have 900 residences on floors 19 through 108. The observation deck is on Floor 124. Sky lobbies on Floors 43, 76 and 123 will have fitness facilities, swimming pools and Jacuzzis. It has a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani.

Media reports say the Burj Dubai -- burj is Arabic for tower -- will have the world's highest mosque, on the 158th floor.

In November, the country, one of seven members of the United Arab Emirates, roiled financial markets with the disclosure that Dubai World, a government-owned conglomerate, was seeking a delay in paying billions of dollars of debt. Dubai turned to neighboring Abu Dhabi for a bailout.

Happy New Year 2010

US CIA officers killed in Afghanistan bomb attack

Eight Americans reportedly working for the CIA have died in a bomb attack in Afghanistan, the worst against US intelligence officials since 2001.

A bomber wearing an explosive vest entered Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost Province, near Pakistan.

A Taliban spokesman said one of its members who was working for the Afghan army carried out the attack.

In a separate incident, four Canadian soldiers and a journalist died in a roadside bomb attack in Kandahar.

It was the worst fatal incident affecting Canadians in Afghanistan for more than two years.

Army uniform

A Taliban spokesman said the militant who carried out the attack at the Chapman Base on Wednesday evening was working as a soldier in the Afghan army.

Zabiullah Mujahid told the BBC the bomber was wearing uniform when he managed to breach security at the base, detonating his explosives belt in the gym.

Unnamed US officials were quoted as saying that most if not all of the dead Americans were either CIA agents or contractors, although this has not been confirmed by either the CIA or the Pentagon. A further six Americans are reported to be wounded.

Reports say the base is used by provincial reconstruction teams, which consist of soldiers and civilians.

The base has been described as "not regular" - a phrase that implies it was a centre of CIA operations in Khost province, the BBC's Peter Greste in Kabul says.

It is the biggest single reported loss of life for the CIA since the war began in Afghanistan eight years, and the biggest loss for the US since October.

"We mourn the loss of life in this attack, and are withholding further details pending notification of next of kin," US state department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

A spokesman for Isaf, the international Nato force in Afghanistan, said that "no US and no Isaf military personnel were killed or injured" in the incident.

Raised questions

Khost province - which is one of the Taliban's strongholds - has been targeted by militants over the past year.

The number of foreign civilians deployed in Afghanistan has been rising as international efforts there focus increasingly on development and aid.

Civilians work alongside military reconstruction teams at provincial bases around the country.

A "civilian surge" was one of the three core elements of the new US strategy for Afghanistan announced by US President Barack Obama at the beginning of the month.

The fact that an attacker has been able to breach security at such a sensitive facility raises questions about the ability of US forces to protect themselves ahead of the surge, our correspondent adds.

This has been the deadliest year for foreign troops since the 2001 invasion.

Saudi Arabia adopts highest budget in its history

Kingdom increases spending on education and health

RIYADH:  The Saudi cabinet agreed on Monday a budget for 2010 that forecasts a deficit of $18.7 billion, with spending hitting a record-high of 540 billion riyals($144 billion), Al Arabiya TV reported.

The budget projects revenues of 505 billion riyals ($125.3 billion) and a fiscal deficit of 70 billion riyals ($18.67 billion) in 2010, its second straight deficit, as it increases spending.

The kingdom expected to post a fiscal deficit of 70 billion riyals ($18.6 billion) in the coming year and estimated expenditures to reach 540 billion riyals, including 260 billion riyals ($69.3 billion) for investment projects.

The figures represent a 16 percent increase from 2009.

The kingdom's 2010 budget for education stood at 137 billion riyals ($36.5 billion) and for healthcare at 61 billion riyals ($16.2 billion).

Actual spending for 2009 was the highest ever and exceeded the $127 billion initially projected.

For 2009, the kingdom expects to post a deficit of 45 billion riyals ($11.9 billion), the finance ministry said in a statement.

Iranians mourn dissident cleric

IRAN:  Tens of thousands of Iranians have turned out to attend the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a senior cleric who was critical of the Iranian government, according to reports on an Iranian opposition website.

Montazeri's funeral in the holy city of Qom got under way on Monday, with some analysts saying it could become a catalyst for fresh opposition protests.

"People and friends are coming to express their condolences," Naser Montazeri, the cleric's grandson, said from Qom.

The opposition Kalme website reported that a bus carrying opposition supporters to Qom was stopped and some of those on board arrested.

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, both opposition leaders who were defeated in June's disputed presidential poll, had earlier called for a national day of mourning.

"We invite all saddened religious people mourning the death of this pride of the Shia world to take part in the funeral of this legend of endeavour, jurisprudence and spirituality," Mousavi and Karroubi said in a joint statement published on the Kalme website.

Mousavi later arrived in Qom to attend the funeral, at which Montazeri wil be buried in the shrine of Masoumeh, a revered Shia figure.

Media restricted

Foreign media have been banned from covering the funeral ceremony.

In the wake of the street protests that followed the election dispute, Montazeri was referred to as the spiritual leader of the opposition.

In August, Montazeri described the clerical establishment as a "dictatorship", saying that the authorities' handling of street unrest after the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president, "could lead to the fall of the regime".

He was an architect of the 1979 Islamic revolution but fell out with the Iranian leadership in the 1980s.

Montazeri passed away on Sunday in Qom after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Videos posted on the internet prior to the funeral appeared to show hundreds of Montazeri's supporters taking to the streets of Najafabad, his birth town, to mourn his death.

'A humble man'

Baqer Moin, an Iranian journalist and author, told Al Jazeera that Montazeri's absence would be "greatly felt across the country", among people on both sides of the political divide.

"He was the most heavyweight among them [the reformists]. He had great popularity because he was a humble man, he was a simple man ... and above all he was very courageous," Moin said.

"He didn't fear expressing his views, critical of the current supreme leader or the policies of the government."

Ghanbar Naderi, a journalist for the Iran Daily newspaper, told Al Jazeera: "This is huge blow to the reformist camp, because he is unreplaceable and nobody is happy to hear about his sad demise.

"He used to say that religion should be separated from politics, because in this way, we can keep the integrity of religion intact."

But Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst at the University of Tehran, told Al Jazeera in August that Montazeri said "the same thing for around 25 years".

"After his inner circle was discovered to be linked to Mujahidin terrorists based in Iraq, he was isolated by the reformists," he said.

"He is not a major player and has always been very critical," Marandi said.