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A 79-year-old widow Florence ‘Dennie’ Farmer welded three coins to bottom of the mast of the Cunard Queen Elizabeth cruise liner (for good luck)  during its float out.  The  ceremony took place at the Fincantieri shipyard near Trieste. Farmer also become the Madrina  or godmother of the ship.
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It began construction in September 2004, and finally yesterday, the skyscraper formerly known as the Burj Dubai, a massive, half-mile-high tower in the financially troubled emirate city-state has opened to great expectations and a surprise name change.  The tower will be called Burj Khalifa, after the president of the UAE, and the leader of Dubai's oil-rich neighbour, Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan. It is hoped that in addition to shattering height records, the world's newest, tallest free-standing structure (sorry, CN Tower)  will become yet another iconic image of Dubai , help shift international attention away from the Gulf emirate's financial woes and  rekindle the optimism that once fuelled its runaway growth.
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The National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC), which represents the four largest Canadian carriers (Air Canada, Westjet, Jazz and Air Transat) has asked Ottawa to find "a permanent solution" to the dilemma posed by the US  Secure Flight programme.  Canada's major airlines say the new US regulation will force them to either break Canadian privacy laws or to ignore new US air security rules demanding passenger information.
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You’re probably sick of this – I know I am, and there’s nothing really new, but the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority has issued a summary of the ‘temporary’ emergency measures at airport security checkpoints, which federal authorities say will be enforced without flexibility.  So here, hopefully for the last time (at least this week) are the regulations:
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Good news in the airline sector.  WestJet ended 2009 on a high note, with strong growth in passenger traffic and the airline's highest load factor for any December on record.  The carrier says last month's passenger traffic was up 8.1% cent from December 2008, when Canada was in the grip of a major recession.
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