The birth of The World is nigh
By the time you read this, we could be just days away from the first opening on The World (remember that big clump of man-made islands off the coast?). We’ve had it on good authority that the owners of Lebanon Island are hoping to throw open the doors of a brand new nightclub ‘by the end of January’, although there were still a few ‘I’s to dot on the paperwork before a definite date could be set. Time Out has been promised an exclusive early peek inside the new Royal Island Beach Club before the launch, so we’ll report back soon.

Record-holding dancer
Headline-hunting Dubai now holds 57 world records, the latest thanks to one man’s dance-athon. UAE-based dancer Christopher Lawrence has the dubious honour of holding the world record for the longest videogames marathon playing a motion-sensing dance game, after spending 16 hours, 21 minutes and 44 seconds dancing like a loon in the middle of Mall of the Emirates. Imagine the repetitive strain…

Sad to see a Dubai dinosaur fall
It’s been confirmed that one of Dubai’s oldest hotels is to be torn down to make way for a new Dhs5 million tourist complex. We heard rumours that the Metropolitan Hotel in Sheikh Zayed Road was to be demolished months ago, but hope was cast on the building’s future when new bar Mavericks opened there just before Christmas. Now owners Al Habtoor Group have confirmed that the 34-year-old hotel (that’s almost dinosaur age in Dubai) will be rubble within the next six months. In its place will eventually stand three new luxury hotels and a string of tourist attractions, including a theatre to stage Broadway-style shows. Exciting though that is, we’ll be sad to see one our favourite nightspots, i2, forced to close.