This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday April 13 2008 on p5 of the Features section. It was last updated at 17:15 on April 14 2008.
Four long, hazy, sun-kissed days on Zighy Bay and I have to admit to being, perhaps predictably, utterly smitten. Hidden behind the gargantuan Hajar Mountains, on the little-known Musandam Peninsula on the northernmost tip of Oman, the bay is one of those blissful arcs of champagne-blonde sand, backed by a ramshackle cottage or two and a pristine white mosque that looks out across the vast, glittering Arabian Sea.
Until now, only a few fishermen and elders of the village have enjoyed its unspoilt beauty, kept safe from the ravages of tourism and progress by unassailable mountains and hostile terrain. But the wonders of technology, all-terrain vehicles and the unstoppable search for the few remaining undiscovered corners of the world mean that Zighy Bay the location has also become Zighy Bay the resort. And much as I fell for the former, the latter - in spite of its spectacular scenery - was a little harder to love.
My first impression didn’t help. The two-hour transfer stopped 10 minutes short of the resort and some 500m above it, from where new arrivals could paraglide down to check in, an inspired bit of gimmickry which dominated the hotel’s launch publicity. But as I gazed down at the cluster of neat brown cubes, studded with palm trees, the scene reminded me of an army encampment. Up close it is less harsh but still far from warm: villas have been constructed to a traditional Omani design, but the stone cladding, raffia fencing and heavy wood are not easy on the eye.
Strolling around the resort, the word that kept coming back to me was masculine. Extraordinarily so. Instead of white muslin curtains, bedrooms draped in lush silks, vases of scarlet hibiscus and arum lilies, the resort was painted almost entirely from a wheat-and-barley palette. It made me wonder if Omanis have as many words for brown as the Inuit do for snow: rooms decked out in cocoa and tan, walls the colour of coffee ice cream, and everywhere heavy, dark wooden chairs, tables and loungers.

guardian.co.uk

A 3.0 earthquake centered in Newport Beach rattled windows and shook roofs Wednesday night, the first earthquake of that size in the area in at least a year, according to state data.
The earthquake reverberated through Newport and Costa Mesa at about 9:28 p.m. Wednesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The epicenter was about seven miles below the earth’s surface, centered in a residential neighborhood off of Westcliff Drive and Rutland Road in Newport Beach. Southern California experiences hundreds of earthquakes a year, most so slight you cannot feel them, officials said.
A 3.0 magnitude earthquake is generally the lowest threshold people can feel, Caltech Seismic Analyst Nick Scheckel said.
“People closest will probably feel a jolt or a bump. The further away you go, people get to feel it as sort of a sway,” he said.
The city did not receive any reports of damage, just residents calling emergency services to report what they experienced.
“A lady called reporting she heard a boom,” said Edward Gallegos, a dispatch supervisor for the Newport Beach Fire Department. “She thought something landed on her roof.”
“I actually thought it was an earthquake, but it was so short, it was kind of odd,” said Newport Beach resident Dan Rigmaiden, who lives near the Back Bay. “It was really quick. We were wondering if there was an explosion or something nearby.”
“It’s an active area. Recently we haven’t seen a lot of earthquakes but that can change any moment,” Scheckel said. “We always expect aftershocks. Just a handful.”
The earthquake shook the earth in a horizontal motion and did not break the surface, Scheckel said. Experts don’t assign such small tremblers to fault zones in the area, but the earthquake was similar to ones triggered by the Newport-Inglewood-Rose Canyon fault zone, Scheckel said. The Newport-Inglewood-Rose Canyon fault zone is an off-shore zone stemming from the Newport-Inglewood fault zone that parallels the coast and caused the 1933 Long Beach quake that killed 120 people.

dailypilot.com

March 19, 2008 11:11 AM EDT
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., March 19, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) — Gateway Financial Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: GBTS), the holding company for Gateway Bank & Trust Co., has announced the opening of its second financial center in Emporia, Virginia.
The newest financial center, which opened on February 7, 2008, is located at 100 Dominion Drive. D. Ben Berry, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Gateway Bank, stated, “As a regional community bank we are excited about all the opportunities available in this market. With our experienced team of employees, we look forward to serving both the retail and commercial financial needs in this area.”
About the Company:
Gateway Financial Holdings, Inc. is the parent company of Gateway Bank & Trust Co., a regional community bank with a total of thirty-five full-service financial centers — twenty in Virginia: Virginia Beach (7), Richmond (6), Chesapeake (3), Emporia (2), Suffolk and Norfolk; and fifteen in North Carolina: Elizabeth City (3), Edenton, Kitty Hawk (2), Raleigh (4), Moyock, Nags Head, Plymouth, Roper, and Wilmington. The Bank provides insurance through its Gateway Insurance Services, Inc. subsidiary, brokerage services through its Gateway Investment Services, Inc. subsidiary, and mortgage banking services through its Gateway Bank Mortgage, Inc. subsidiary. The common stock of the Corporation is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol GBTS. For further information, visit the Corporation’s web site at www.gwfh.com.
CONTACT: Gateway Bank D. Ben Berry, Chairman, President andChief Executive Officer 757-422-8000

streetinsider.com