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European and Asian deny charge but witness said he saw them kissing on the mouthAn appeals court in Abu Dhabi upheld a previous court verdict and sentenced a European and an Asian man to six months in prison and ordered their deportation after they were convicted of kissing each other on the mouth in a public place, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. The court supported the previous sentence after a witness confirmed again that he saw them hugging and kissing each other on the mouth in a street in Abu Dhabi, the Arabic language daily Alittihad said. The two unnamed...

Warships made in Abu Dhabi to be sold abroad Abu Dhabi Ship Building (ADSB) is in advanced talks to secure orders for its new Baynunah class of multipurpose missile corvettes from other regional navies. "The Baynunah class is a unique and very sophisticated warship and it has attracted the attention of a number of navies in the region and around the world," Mohamed Salem Al Junaibi, the ADSB chief executive, said after the launch of the Mezyad, the fourth ship in the class at ADSB's yard yesterday. He declined to name the interested navies, but it is already known that...

The oil minister of the United Arab Emirates has announced that a new oil pipeline bypassing the Strait of Hormuz is nearly complete. The Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline project would ship crude from the UAE’s main oil producing region to the port of Fujairah on the country’s eastern coast, bypassing the vital Strait. The timing of the announcement could not be more prescient; Iranian officials have recently made their most threatening remarks to date about “closing” the Strait of Hormuz as fresh U.S. and international sanctions have put the regime on the defensive. In recent weeks alone, the head...

Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, has a new project. ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Late one night last November, a plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touched down in this glittering seaside capital. Whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boarded an unmarked bus and drove roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand. The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million...

The Doggfather wraps up an incredible six months of entertainment in Abu Dhabi The inaugural Yas Island Show Weekends in Abu Dhabi wrapped up last Friday with a spectacular finale featuring the American superstar rapper, Snoop Dogg. The self-proclaimed “Doggfather” received a roaring welcome from a crowd of 10,000 people at the Yas Arena, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, making the event another success for FLASH Entertainment. Performing his latest hits, including Prince William’s bachelor party anthem “Wet” off his latest studio album, “Doggumentary,” Snoop Dogg entertained the crowd for almost two hours. Fans were left wanting more as he...

Professional golf is changing and proof of that was to be found on the eve of the Abu Dhabi Championship as the great and good prepared for tomorrow's opening round of the first big European Tour event of the year. Lee Westwood was there, Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell, too, but inevitably the eyes were drawn to Phil Mickelson.

Technology created 50 rainstorms in Abu Dhabi's Al Ain region last year For centuries people living in the Middle East have dreamed of turning the sandy desert into land fit for growing crops with fresh water on tap. Now that holy grail is a step closer after scientists employed by the ruler of Abu Dhabi claim to have generated a series of downpours. Most of the storms were at the height of the summer in July and August when there is no rain at all. People living in Abu Dhabi were baffled by the rainfall which sometimes turned into hail...

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — Shoppers who are looking for something sparkly to put under the Christmas tree can skip the jewelry and go straight to the source: an ATM that dispenses shiny 24-carat gold bars and coins. A German company installed the machine Friday at an upscale mall in Boca Raton, a South Florida paradise of palm trees, pink buildings and wealthy retirees. Thomas Geissler, CEO of Ex Oriente Lux and inventor of the Gold To Go machines, says the majority of buyers will be walk-ups enamored by the novelty. But he says they're also convenient for more serious...

ABU DHABI (AFP) – Christmas came in extravagant fashion to the Muslim desert emirate of Abu Dhabi as a glitzy hotel unveiled a bejewelled Christmas tree valued at more than 11 million dollars on Wednesday. It is the "most expensive Christmas tree ever," with a "value of over 11 million dollars," said Hans Olbertz, general manager of Emirates Palace hotel, at its inauguration. The 13-metre (40-foot) faux evergreen, located in the gold leaf-bedecked rotunda of the hotel, is decorated with silver and gold bows, ball-shaped ornaments and small white lights. But the necklaces, earrings and other jewellery draped around the...

Confiscated bills were used by US multi-millionaires club for decorative purposes and sold as collectors' item Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Police have arrested a man for trying to exchange two $1-million bills at the UAE Central Bank. Abu Dhabi Police said the confiscated $1-million bills were not real currency notes but had been used for decorative purposes by a group called the "International club for multi-millionaires" in the US. Police said the 45-year-old African suspect convinced a European woman that the $1 million bills were genuine and could be exchanged at the UAE Central Bank. He also allegedly offered her...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The imam spearheading a proposed Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York believes the fierce opposition is closely linked to the U.S. elections in November, according to comments published Monday. "There is no doubt that the election season has had a major impact upon the nature of the discourse," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was quoted by the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National in an interview as part of his State Department-funded trip in the Gulf. Rauf did not cite any particular political race possibly tied to the protests, but...

Yes, fresh from denouncing America on national television as a place rife with “hate of Muslims,” a place so Islamophobic that “it’s beyond Islamopobia,” Daisy Khan, co-planner of the Ground Zero mosque project, will soon be hopping a plane at taxpayer expense, courtesy of the State Department, to jet from New York to the United Arab Emirates and deliver to the Emiratis her views about Muslim life in America. This is what the State Department calls “public diplomacy” — a program that enlists about 1,200 Americans each year to fly with plenty of leg room to foreign lands and tell...

Medea Benjamin “call(s) for help” before she is arrested for trespassing at the McLean, Va., home of Erik Prince, August 20, 2010. Photo by Code Pink. Terrorist supporter and Code Pink co-founder Susan “Medea” Benjamin was arrested Friday evening at the McLean, Virginia home of Xe Services founder (formerly Blackwater) Erik Prince, according to a press release posted by Code Pink. Prince was not home, having left the United States for Abu Dhabi in the face of mounting legal problems. Inexplicably, Benjamin was let into the house, according to the press release. However, when Benjamin revealed the true nature of...

Terrorist support and Code Pink co-founder Susan "Medea" Benjamin was arrested tonight at the home of Xe founder (formerly Blackwater) Erik Prince, according to a press release posted by Code Pink.Erik Prince was not home, having left the United States for Abu Dhabi. Inexplicably, Benjamin was let in the house according to the press release. When Benjamin revealed the true nature of her visit Mrs. Prince threw her out of the house.CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin and other DC area activists were detained at the home of Blackwater Founder Erik Prince. The group dropped by to deliver a letter urging Prince...

MUSCAT/TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese oil tanker damaged in an explosion in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important shipping lanes, was being diverted to a port in the UAE on Wednesday. One of the 31 crew aboard was injured but no oil leaked from the M Star very large crude carrier (VLCC), according to the Japanese transport ministry. It said an explosion occurred onboard at around 00:30 a.m. local time (2030 GMT Tuesday), but the cause was unclear. "A crew member saw light on the horizon just before the explosion, so (ship owner Mitsui O.S.K.) believes...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Innospec Agent Pleads Guilty to Bribing Iraqi Officials and Paying Kickbacks Under the Oil for Food Program WASHINGTON—Canadian/Lebanese dual national Ousama M. Naaman pleaded guilty today to participating in an eight-year conspiracy to defraud the United Nations Oil for Food Program (OFFP) and to bribe Iraqi government officials in connection with the sale of a chemical additive used in the refining of leaded fuel, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division. Naaman, 61, of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, was originally indicted on Aug. 7, 2008, in U.S. District...

Abu Dhabi: An Emirati and former banker has created a secret code language he says is unbreakable. Mohammad Gaith Bin Mahah Al Mazroui is challenging skilled coders, hackers and cryptographers to break the encryption of his cipher. Al Mazroui said there might be only one known cipher to date that had proven to be unbreakable,. This was called the one-time pad, where every letter was transposed to another letter located a random distance away. But Al Mazroui said his cipher, which he called Abu Dhabi Code, was based on a group of symbols he said he designed himself. "Encryption takes...

Abu Dhabi 'leaning tower' now beats Pisa * From: AFP * June 06, 2010 10:45PM AN Abu Dhabi tower has been recognised as the "furthest-leaning man-made tower" in the world by Guinness World Records. The 160-metre Capital Gate tower, developed by the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company, leans at 18 degrees - over four times the angle of Italy's famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, Khaleej Times reported. ADNEC said the tower earned the record following an evaluation by Guinness World Records that began in January, the month the tower's exterior was completed, Gulf News reported

The United Arab Emirates plans to host a four-day parley that would focus on air and missile defense. The second annual conference, titled "Annual Air and Missile Defence Summit," was scheduled to begin on May 30 in Abu Dhabi and include senior U.S. and other military commanders. "With the Middle East region being key to the global security, this summit aims to bring together all the key players to discuss the roadmap towards an integrated air defence strategy." conference director Grace Chng said. Organizers said the conference would focus on technology, interconnectivity and interoperability between military and industry. They said...

Some of the criticism is fair. Some of it is not. But we begin with a sentence I never thought I’d write: “Sex and the City 2” is a subversively patriotic, anti-Islamist fairy tale that ultimately comes down on the side of traditional values, and its creator, Michael Patrick King, has more guts than most everyone working at his level in the film industry today. ***BIG SPOILERS COMING***

The first reviews of Sex And The City 2 have been published, with one critic claiming the new film featuring Carrie and the girls is "anti-muslim". The scathing review came as the cast and crew attended the movie's New York premiere before heading to London to promote it. There have also been write-ups panning the sequel to the 2008 hit for lacking "script and soul". The film sees the four New Yorker friends travelling to the Middle East for a trip to Abu Dhabi, but the Hollywood Reporter says it conjures up a "scathing portrayal of Muslim society" Carrie, played...

This week the plush Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates rolled out the ultimate ATM machine in its lobby: It dispenses gold instead of cash. Guests can now get booty that comes in the form of 1-, 5- and 10-gram bars, as well as gold coins, at a price that the machine updates regularly, according to the website for Gold to Go.

Local arms manufacturing in the Middle East and North Africa region is set to grow. Robert Bailey outlines some of the projects and collaborations that are underway Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) defence industries are becoming more self reliant as they shift from direct equipment purchases to local production. Where technology transfer has for more than two decades been an established part of headline-catching, multi billion dollar offset programmes, the focus now, for even the smaller countries, is to require technology transfer as a first step to developing their own armaments manufacturing capability. Nevertheless, the MENA region is still...

It’s official now. This explains a lot of what’s happened recently. Rupert Murdoch is moving his NewsCorp headquarters to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. You can kiss fair and balanced FoxNews good-bye. Breitbart has the story here: “News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch announced on Tuesday that the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi is to become the headquarters of his global media empire in the Middle East. Addressing some 400 delegates at the opening of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, Murdoch said his corporation had started out as a small Australian firm to become a US-based international company that employs 64,000...

An old favorite reemerges as the Best Dressed of the Day, the most stylish and glamorous looking Hollywood celeb. You all know her as the wife of Coldplay’s Chris Martin. Gwyneth Paltrow is back on the red carpet! The actress attended the 2010 Laureus World Sports Awards which was held in Abu Dhabi last night and looked like a goddess!

DUBAI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi's $10 billion December bailout to Dubai included $5 billion already committed by two banks controlled by the emirate, signaling Abu Dhabi's cautious approach to helping its debt-laden neighbor. Analysts said news that Abu Dhabi had directly lent less than previously thought also indicated the wealthy emirate wanted more evidence of Dubai's fiscal probity, after helping it avert an embarrassing default on a state-linked bond. A Dubai government spokeswoman said on Monday that the last minute lifeline on December 14, included $5 billion raised from Al Hilal Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi which had...

November 27, 2009 Dubai in Deep Water As Ripples From Debt Crisis Spread Patrick Hosking and David Robertson Work has been halted on the artificial islands Fears of a dangerous new phase in the economic crisis swept around the globe yesterday as traders responded to the shock announcement that a debt-laden Dubai state corporation was unable to meet its interest bill. Shares plunged, weak currencies were battered and more than £14 billion was wiped from the value of British banks on fears that they would be left nursing new losses. Nervous traders transferred the focus of their anxieties from the...

Note: The following text is a quote: November 6, 2009 U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and World Customs Organization Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya announce preliminary results of largest global cash smuggling operation BRUSSELS - Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and World Customs Organization (WCO) Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya today announced the preliminary results of Operation ATLAS-the largest multilateral operation in history targeting cash smugglers which took place from Oct. 26-30. More than 80 countries participated in Operation ATLAS (an acronym for Assess, Target, Link, Analyze and Share)-leading to more than $3.5 million in cash seized and...

Back in March the authorities in Dubai had stated that they were going to toughen up their laws to be more in accordance with Islam. Unfortunately the authorities in Abu Dhabi are on the same path. Like I have said in the past, the Islamic world is getting stricter and stricter.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – French President Nicolas Sarkozy opened his nation's first military base in the Gulf Tuesday, boosting the naval presence along strategic oil routes and in pirate-infested waters off the Somali coast. The new naval base outside the United Arab Emirates' capital, Abu Dhabi, is France's first major foreign military installation since the 1960s and its first outside Africa. It is expected help safeguard vital Persian Gulf shipping lanes. It also puts France in position to play a higher profile role in calming the growing tensions between Iran and Gulf Arab states. Some of the most...

The Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) ruled out the possibility of the red tide ‘algal bloom’ hitting Abu Dhabi’s coastal shorelines as its impact is gradually diminishing in Dubai and other northern emirates. EAD has been closely monitoring the situation in Dubai, and other northern emirates where the red tide hit few days ago, but due to the good weather condition now, it will not move towards Abu Dhabi’s shoreline, Thabit Zahran Al Abdessalaam, director of biodiversity sector marine environment, Environment Agency- Abu Dhabi (EAD), told
Khaleej Times. A day after Dubai Municipality said it had closed two beaches after red tide...

JORDAN TIMES 8 Feb.'09:"Abu Dhabi to pay circumcision for converts" DUBAI (AFP) - Social security in the wealthy emirate of Abu Dhabi will cover the cost of circumcising men who convert to Islam, Al Bayan daily reported Saturday. The health authority in the capital of the United Arab Emirates said the government-backed insurance firm, Daman, has included circumcision operations in existing insurance policies for new Muslims, the paper said. Converts will have to present a certificate, issued by an Abu Dhabi court, attesting to their conversion. Authorities in the UAE, where expatriates represent more than 80 per cent of an...

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. shareholders will gather in Austin, Texas on Feb. 10 to authorize an investment by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi that could top $9 billion. The transaction, which includes the spin-off of AMD's manufacturing operations in Germany into a joint venture called The Foundry Co., will fund construction of a $4.6 billion chip fab at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta... After the deal with Abu Dhabi closes -- a transaction that should take place within 48 hours of a successful shareholder vote -- the 222 acres needed for the plant are expected to be purchased...

RUSH: I want to expand my thought process on this whole Madoff thing and take it into the realm of the current economic crisis, because, quite naturally, all this fascinates me. It's about money. Well, it's all of our money here, folks, that's literally being tinkled away, and I've been asking myself, "How in the world did we get to this point when it all seemed to happen so overnight?" Now, I understand that there were foundational problems that we were being told of as far back as last summer and in spring, but if you search your memory bank...

To the untrained eye they may look like rubble. But the ruins of a monastery and church discovered in Abu Dhabi tell a fascinating tale about a little-known period in the region's history. When the foundations were built, the Roman empire had just come to an end, Christianity was sweeping the world and Islam had not yet been born... The monastery and church, survivors of a Nestorian Christian period, are just two of 36 archaeological troves on the island. Others include the remains of villas with stucco decorations, pottery and basic furnishings, providing a glimpse into life in pre-Islam times....

NEW YORK – An Abu Dhabi investment fund has bought a 75 percent stake in the Chrysler Building, one of the best-known landmarks on the city skyline. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council, one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, closed the sale with Prudential Financial Inc. on Tuesday, Prudential spokeswoman Theresa Miller said Wednesday. Miller wouldn't disclose the sale price, which many published reports placed at $800 million. Prudential held its stake in the building on behalf of a fund of primarily German investors that had closed in the past couple of years, she said. A telephone message left...

The brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest passenger airplane ever built, sat in its hangar in Toulouse, France without a single hour of airtime. Enter the Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine runups, prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi. The date was November 15, 2007. The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area. Then they took all four engines to takeoff power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not having read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an...

NYU president John Sexton has been promised a blank check to duplicate his university on a desert island in Abu Dhabi. The expansion will leave both campuses flush with petrodollars. But to many faculty, the deal amounts to a sellout. John Sexton’s office, which sits on the top floor of NYU’s Bobst Library and boasts an impressive view north to Washington Square Park, has recently begun to resemble a shrine to Abu Dhabi. The university president has installed a massive Oriental rug, a gift from the crown prince, on one entire wall. On another hangs a framed portrait of the...

The U.S. Treasury is struggling with how to handle any political or Islamic ramifications as Persian Gulf sovereign wealth funds look to make substantial investments in capital-poor American banks and securities firms. The crisis in mortgage-backed securities has created a need for new capital to enter financial markets after major financial institutions such as Bear Stearns and Carlyle Capital Corp. failed over the weekend. The crisis is an opportunity for sovereign wealth funds that have prospered as the price of oil has soared over $110 a barrel. WND previously reported sovereign wealth funds in six Persian Gulf countries, including Kuwait,...

While radical Islamists fight to restore the Dark Ages, a modernizing sheikhdom invests in Western culture. Each month, 25,000 people from around the globe arrive in the United Arab Emirates, seeking jobs, contracts, and political stability. Walk past the gleaming new skyscrapers, government buildings, fountains, and shopping malls that line the immaculate tree-lined corniche in Abu Dhabi—or those in neighboring Dubai, only a 90-minute drive away—and you’ll hear dozens of languages. Most people wear Western clothes; you see relatively few dishdashas, the flowing white robes usually worn by Arab men in the Persian Gulf. There are no bearded mullahs on...

George Bush calls Iran 'leading terror sponsor' By Damien McElroy In Riyadh Last Updated: 4:46pm GMT 13/01/2008 President George W Bush has condemned Iran as the foremost threat to global security as he attempted to rally Gulf states behind a tougher line against the Islamic Republic during a tour of the region. In a keynote speech in Abu Dhabi President Bush said it was time to confront an Iran that supported terrorism and defied the United Nations to pursue secret nuclear research. "Iran is today the world's leading state sponsor of terror," he said. "It sends hundreds of millions of...

What could the USS Kitty Hawk and Citigroup possibly have in common? I'll start with the aircraft carrier because I'm still stewing over what happened when the People's Republic of China abruptly denied the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying ships and submarines their routine, scheduled Thanksgiving berth in Hong Kong, where hundreds of crew members' families had gathered (at considerable expense) to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones. First, there was the nasty act itself. News accounts speculated about the "reason" -- was it President Bush's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama? Our latest arms agreement with Taiwan?...

By agreeing to purchasing a $7.5 billion stake in the faltering banking giant Citigroup, the secretive, government-controlled Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is breaking with tradition. As the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, with assets estimated at $650 billion, it poured money in the past into low-return, low-profile investments or small emerging market deals, unlike its flashy emirate neighbor, Dubai. But a falling dollar and a growing cash pile are spurring Abu Dhabi to change strategy, according to analysts, economists and deal makers, who said that more big-ticket deals might be ahead. snip Abu Dhabi is the largest oil...

Citigroup Inc., seeking to restore investor confidence amid massive losses due in credit markets and a lack of permanent leadership, is receiving a $7.5 billion capital infusion from the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government. The investment by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will help rebuild Citigroup's capital levels, which have been eroded by a credit crunch that began in the summer. Citigroup Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Charles Prince resigned earlier this month after the bank, which had already written off billions of dollars, said it was facing as much as $11 billion more in losses.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 16 — Advanced Micro Devices said Friday that an investment arm of Abu Dhabi’s government had taken an 8 percent stake in the company for $622 million. The infusion of cash comes as A.M.D. is struggling to control costs while refocusing its research and development efforts. It faces intense competition from Intel, the leading chip maker. The Mubadala Development Company, with headquarters in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, received 49 million newly issued shares at $12.70 a share, the closing price on Thursday. Mubadala will not get a board seat as part of...

On Oct. 14 much of Hollywood decamped to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. The moguls and financiers ostensibly were in town for the inaugural Middle East International Film Festival, where über-producer Harvey Weinstein and his ilk attended films and sat on panels set up to teach the locals how to build a movie industry. (So eager were Weinstein's hosts to get him to attend, they flew out his mother and a few of her closest friends.) The real action was expected to happen off-camera, with one studio executive chortling that he and his Tinseltown pals would be...

On Monday PrimeWest took off after it announced it was being acquired by an United Arab Emirates-government fund, making it the latest western asset sold to a Mid-East-based firm. Canada's PrimeWest Energy Trust (nyse: PWI - news - people ) soared 32.1%, or $6.40, to $26.33 in late-morning trading after Abu Dhabi National Energy Company announced it entered into a deal to acquire PrimeWest for $26.75 per share, or $2.4 billion, for a total of $5 billion, including debt. PrimeWest is a Calgary-based oil and gas royalty trust that acquires, develops, produces, and sells national gas, crude oil, and natural...

Former President George H.W. Bush took on Arab critics of his son Tuesday during a testy exchange at a leadership conference in the capital of this U.S. ally. "My son is an honest man," Bush told members of the audience harshly criticized the current U.S. leader's foreign policy. The oil-rich Persian Gulf used to be safe territory for former President Bush, who brought Arab leaders together in a coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's troops from Kuwait in 1991. But gratitude for the elder Bush, who served as president from 1989-93, was overshadowed at the conference by hostility toward his son,...

Abu Dhabi: A new report from the Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy showed Saudi Arabia is the main beneficiary of high oil prices. But it noted the kingdom's spare capacity has sharply dwindled in the past few years because of higher output. Saudi Arabia controls nearly a quarter of the world's recoverable crude resources. "Saudi Arabia's oil export revenues increased sharply [49 per cent] in 2005 compared to 2004, and are projected to increase again [6 per cent] in 2006 before falling [-7 per cent] in 2007," it said. It noted that during 2003-2004, Riyadh benefited...

Arab and US officials are growing nervous at the prospect of a second congressional uprising against the acquisition of American assets by a Middle Eastern-controlled company in the wake of the Dubai Ports World debacle. Snip ...