Inside the Sultan of Brunei's Flying Palace

The sultan of the small oil-rich kingdom of Brunei has divorced his third wife and stripped her of all royal titles after five years of marriage.Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, 63, divorced Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim, 30, a former Malaysian television journalist, whom he married in 2005, according to state television late Wednesday."The Sultan has divorced his wife Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim and all the royal titles that have been awarded to the Sultan's former wife have been withdrawn," Grand chamberlain Haji Alauddin Haji Abu Bakar announced on Radio Television Brunei.

The emir of Qatar is a busy man: in addition to providing funding and weapons to the mercenary group formerly known as Syrian "rebels" in order to boost his already incalculable wealth and promote his LNG interests in the region over those of Saudi Arabia, in the process isolating Russia as the marginal provider of energy to Europe and furthering western interests even if it means escalating the Syrian civil war, he is also diversifying his assets.

Submitted by Claude Salhani of OilPrice.com, The discovery of oil in the Middle East around the 1930s has had a drastic effect on the lives of the people in the region.  In most instances this black gold buried under the sands of Arabia has impacted the lives of the people in a rather positive manner. But not always.

Wildlife researchers said Thursday they have discovered 123 new species on Borneo island, including a lungless frog, the world's longest insect and a slug that fires "love darts" at its mate.Conservation group WWF listed the new finds in a report on a remote area of dense, tropical rainforest that borders Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei on Borneo.The three governments in 2007 designated the 220,000-square-kilometre (88,000-square-mile) area as the "Heart of Borneo" in a bid to conserve the rainforest.

The former Beverly Hills mansion of Hassan al-Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah — best known as the Sultan of Brunei — is being sold for $38 million, according to Curbed National.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II met Sultan Qaboos on Friday during a visit to Muscat marking the 40th anniversary of his rule, on her second and final leg of a Gulf tour.Dressed in light pink with a white bag, gloves and shoes, the 84-year-old monarch who arrived from a two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, to the sultan's Al-Alam Palace.Omani artillery fired a 21-gun salute to the queen upon her arrival at the palace, Oman's official ONA news agency reported,

Shelling out thousands of dollars a night for a hotel room may not be in the cards for most of us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a voyeuristic peek at the jaw-dropping suites that command these high price tags.