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S&P: Dubai Is Nearly Out Of Cash Joe WeisenthalOct. 11, 2009, 12:07 PM Don't assume that the economic comeback means Dubai is out of the woods. Holders of its debt may be in trouble, unless the Emirate can raise more money. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An analyst at credit rating firm Standard & Poor's says Dubai has "insufficient" funds to pay back billions of dollars worth of debt coming due, putting added pressure on the city-state to raise additional cash. Farouk Soussa, S&P's head of Middle East government ratings, said Sunday that the sheikdom has about $4 billion...

Hundreds of minors flown out to Gulf to dance in bars, provide sex, as Ramzan month of abstinence ends For three days now, 2,000 girls, almost all minors, have left for the Middle East, particularly Dubai, to feed the needs of a population starved of entertainment and sex post the rigours of Ramzan. The girls have been told they are being taken to dance in bars, but it is implicit that they will double up as prostitutes for well-paying clients. Another 1,000 will leave by tomorrow. Sources say there has been an approximate 20 per cent rise in the trafficking...

What No Pedophilia in Islam??? Ramadan Fast Ends - - Send In the Kids Sexual Deviance in Dubai bythelastcrusade.org No problem with pedophilia in Islam?No marriages between middle aged members of Hamas and prepubescent girls?No sex between old Islamic goats and elementary school children?Think again.Today in Dubai thousands of young girls are arriving as treats for Arab men who await the end of Ramadan and the month-long restrictions on their sexual activities. More will arrive tomorrow.The girls, according to Mumbai reporter J. Dey, have been told they are being taken to dance in bars, but it is implicit that...

Even though Dubai is supposed to be the crossroads of the world, things continue to change for the worse there. For the record, anyone who takes part in this behavior is sick. Muslim or non-Muslim. Kids go to serve sex in Dubai By: J Dey 2009-09-21 Hundreds of minors flown out to Gulf to dance in bars, provide sex, as Ramzan month of abstinence ends

Month and a half after plan to blow up tallest skyscraper in world exposed, 45 more suspects arrested in addition to eight arrested when plot unraveled. Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese among those detained. Iran suspected to be mastermind behind plot Roee Nahmias 09.15.09 / Israel News The defense apparatus in the United Arab Emirates arrested 45 suspects, most of them Palestinian and Lebanese, after the plot to blow up Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower) was uncovered. Dubai Tower, currently under construction, is the tallest building in the world. The current wave of arrests adds to the eight other suspects detained immediately after...

They were designed to make Dubai the envy of the world: a series of paradise islands inhabited by celebrities and the super-rich reclaimed from the azure waters of the Arabian Gulf and shaped like a map of the Earth. It was called The World. As millions of tonnes of rock were dumped into the sea for the foundations, timely leaks suggested that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were to buy Ethiopia, Richard Branson was tipped to occupy England, while Rod Stewart would border him in Scotland. Instead it has become the world's most expensive shipping hazard,

A former French spy has told how, after being accused of a multimillion-pound fraud in Dubai, he disguised himself as an Arab woman and fled to international waters in a rubber dingy. Herve Jaubert, who served in the French intelligence service until March 1993, said that he drew on his experience to escape after a joint business venture turned sour. He said that he had been running a business in America building submarines when he was approached by Dubai World, a state-owned conglomerate, to form a joint venture making submarines, and he moved to Dubai in 2004. “Like an idiot...

A Dubai resident, Dimple Carvalho (36), has moved the Bombay high Court after finding her name in a dowry harassment case lodged by a south Mumbai resident. Kavita Shah (44) has claimed that Dimple had an "illicit'' relationship with her husband Paresh Shah. Dimple has denied the allegation or that she had any role to play in the alleged incidents of harassment. A division bench of Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice A R Joshi on Wednesday reserved its judgment in the case. The court will also decide on another application filed by Paresh's parents-Lal Shah and Dhanvanti Shah -who have...

MONTREAL – Three members of the Montreal family in which three sisters and their aunt were found dead in their car that that plunged into Kingston's Rideau Canal late last month were arrested today. As well, Kingston police have announced a press conference for 2 p.m. tomorrow where the police chief will be outlining all of the details of a major change in focus of the investigation. Up to now, the police were considering the deaths to be "suspicious." The three suspects were apprehended this morning while heading to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, possibly to flee the country,...

DUBAI // Iranian protesters who gathered in Dubai last night were prevented by police from signing a petition against their president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Officers told the 100-strong crowd they were forbidden from sending official petitions from UAE soil. The Iranians had gathered on the beach at Jumeirah Beach Residence to sign a green banner in protest at recent events in Iran. They had planned to send it to Paris, where it would join others from around the world in being hung from the top of the Eiffel Tower, along with the slogan “Ahmadinejad is not our president”. But protesters said...

Close to one thousand Iranian residents gathered in Dubai for a silent candle-lit vigil on Monday to mourn the killing of Neda Agha Sultan, the woman who has become the symbol of the movement contesting the Iranian presidential election results. The group gathered on the beach next to the Hilton hotel in Jumeirah Beach Residence holding candles and posters. While most of the posters showed pictures of Neda, few were of political slogans calling for Iran's "freedom." Neda, 26, was shot dead in Tehran on Saturday during a rally protesting the perceived rigging of the presidential elections held earlier this...

American party girl Paris Hilton is taking her TV reality show and a hunt for a new best friend to the distant shores of Dubai, and will have to tone down some of the progam's racier aspects. "Paris Hilton My New BFF - Dubai" will be modelled on her raunchy MTV series in which Hilton tests women to see if they could be her best friend forever (BFF), industry daily Variety said Tuesday. As in the US version, Hilton, 28, will put a group of women, half from the Middle East and half from elsewhere but living in Dubai, through...

Even as details regarding the financial transactions -- which financed the November 26 terror attacks -- emerge, another man who the police suspect could be associated with the financing has been put on the radar of investigating agencies. Khameez Obaid, a resident of Dubai who was arrested by the Hyderabad Police for possessing fake currency worth Rs 2.36 crore (approx. US$ 525,000), is said to be involved in financing the 26/11 attack in Mumbai. Obaid was held by the Hyderabad Police on August 25, 2007 -- the same day the twin blasts rocked the city. Obaid will be crucial to...

Dubai prices have dropped 32 percent in the last year and 40 percent in the last quarter, according to the latest edition of the Knight Frank Global House Price Index, released today. Along with Dubai, Latvia (36 percent) and Singapore (23.8 percent) saw the largest declines since the first quarter of 2008, the property firm reports. Israel posted the largest gain in the last year, a 10.9 increase from the first quarter of 2008, followed by the Czech Republic with a 9.9 percent increase, Jersey (an island off the coast of Normandy that is part of the British commonwealth) with...

The Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean are directed to their targets by a "consultant" team in London, according to European military intelligence. Pirate groups have "well-placed informers" in London who are in regular contact with control centres in Somalia where decisions on which vessels to attack are made. These London-based "consultants" help the pirates select targets, providing information on the ships' cargoes and courses. In at least one case the pirates have remained in contact with their London informants from the hijacked ship, according to one targeted shipping company. The pirates' information network extends to...

Rihanna has shelved plans for a concert later this month in Dubai because the timing was "inappropriate," a Middle East concert promoter said Tuesday. Yassin Matbouly, managing director of Vibe Entertainment Management Agency, said the Dubai-based promoter got "nothing in writing" from Rihanna's agents but was made to understand from managers negotiating the May 28 gig in the Gulf sheikdom that it won't work out. The development came shortly after the pop star made a comeback on the red carpet in New York, arriving late Monday at the annual Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum gala. She did not speak...

Note: The following text is a quote: Ali Al-Marri Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Al-Qaeda Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 43, a dual national of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda. Al-Marri entered his guilty plea at a hearing this afternoon before Judge Michael M. Mihm in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In so doing, al-Marri admitted that he agreed with others to provide material support or resources to al-Qaeda in the form of personnel, including himself, to work under al-Qaeda’s...

An international conspiracy to split Pakistan into two zones by turning them into two separate geographic units was foiled by a brotherly Arab Muslim country in Dubai a week before the Friends of Pakistan meeting in Tokyo last week, a report said yesterday. A plan to set up so-called “Trust Fund” was drawn up for provision of “special aid” for the provinces of Balochistan and the Frontier with huge amount of international assistance separately meant to disconnect them from rest of the country. The idea had, however, been widely accepted by senior officials in Pakistan and even some high ups...

U.S. pop star Rihanna has agreed to perform her first concent since her boyfriend Chris Brown was arrested in February for allegedly assaulting her. E! News said Rihanna is slated to headline a May 28 concert at an as yet to be determined location in Dubai. "There will be over 25,000 tickets available," Mary Rachelle Cherpak, a spokeswoman for Dubai Tourism, told the entertainment news program. "They will be going on sale in the next couple of days. ... Normally they create a special stage in the desert for these events." Brown, 19, recently pleaded not guilty to assaulting and...

Commons Speaker Michael Martin has come under fire over a four-day taxpayer-funded trip to Dubai. Mr Martin and his wife Mary flew business class to the United Arab Emirates as Parliament started its Easter recess, according to the Independent on Sunday. The couple and their entourage were reportedly entertained by senior members of royal family at a string of luxurious palaces. bill for the trip, including flights and accommodation in a five-star hotel, is estimated at around £8,000. Two parliamentary officials were among the entourage - although they flew standard class. Mr Martin's office defended the visit, insisting it was...

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that he wanted to see documentary evidence from Dubai police that Chechen commander Sulim Yamadayev was assassinated there last month. Lavrov, breaking nearly two weeks of government silence about Yamadayev's death, said Moscow is waiting to receive "any kind of official report" from the United Arab Emirates that Yamadayev was killed, RIA-Novosti reported. "We are counting on our partners in the emirates do this quickly," Lavrov told reporters on a flight from Turkmenistan to Moscow. Yamadayev's brother Isa denied last week that Sulim was killed in the attack and said he was recovering in...

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The Russian authorities have confirmed a prominent opponent of the pro-Kremlin Chechen President, Ramzan Kadyrov, was shot dead in Dubai on Saturday. Diplomats said Sulim Yamadayev's body had been identified by his relatives. Mr Yamadayev fell out with Mr Kadyrov last year and was sacked as commander of an elite security forces battalion.

Dubai entered 2009 by becoming yet another victim of the global credit crunch; an exodus of foreign investors has been taking place during the first three months of 2009. However, not so far away, the Tunisian economy is telling a different story. Both the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 have bought good news for Tunisia's business climate; all the sectors that have previously been synonymous with investment in Dubai are now being referenced to this small North African country: tourism, manufacturing, services, etc. Entering into an 'Open Skies' agreement a few weeks ago, Tunisia has poised itself...

Dubai has the most competitive economy in the Middle East and ranks higher for its competitiveness than Japan, Germany, France or New Zealand, according to a new study released on Sunday. The emirate ranked 16th out of 65 economies surveyed in the National Competitiveness Report 2009, published by the Institute for Industrial Policy Studies of the National University of Seoul, in South Korea. The study was commissioned by the Dubai Competitiveness Council, an arm of the Dubai Economic Council. The Korean institute has published the National Competitiveness Report annually since 2001, but this the first time that it has included...

A high-ranking team of government officials will leave for Russia today on a diplomatic mission. The delegation, led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will hold talks over two days with Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president. The state news agency, WAM, said the visit would focus on co-operation in economic matters, culture, tourism and technology. Among those accompanying Sheikh Mohammed will be Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed, the Deputy Ruler of Dubai; Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, the Minister of the Interior; Dr Anwar Gargash, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs; and businessmen...

Pictured from space: The World taking shape off the coast of Dubai By TAMARA ABRAHAM 27th March 2009 It is the latest stomping ground of the super-rich, a refuge from the world at The World - a luxurious development built off the coast of Dubai. From the ground it must be hard to distinguish one 'country' or 'continent' from the next but from space it comes sharply into focus. This image from a Nasa satellite looking down on the sandy beaches in the Persian Gulf shows the full-scale and ambition of the development.

Prosecutors in Florida want a judge to restrict actor Wesley Snipes' international travel because they say he attended a lavish party in Dubai while free on bond as he appeals a tax conviction. Snipes attended the $20 million party last November for the opening of the $1.5 billion Atlantis Hotel resort, U.S. attorneys in Ocala, Fla., said in court filings Tuesday.

March 24, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/March/09-nsd-264.html Irish Trading Firm and Its Officers Charged in Scheme to Supply Iran with Sensitive U.S. Technology WASHINGTON – An Irish trading company and three of its officers have been charged with purchasing helicopter engines and other aircraft components from U.S. firms and illegally exporting them to Iran using companies in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. Among the alleged recipients of these U.S. goods was an Iranian military firm that has since been designated by the United States for being owned or controlled by entities involved in Iran’s nuclear...

PORTLAND - Tests indicated explosives residue on the luggage of a local Islamic religious leader arrested at the Portland International Airport on charges of document fraud, a federal prosecutor said Monday at the man's arraignment. Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, 41, was arrested at the airport without incident around noon Sunday and booked at the Multnomah County Jail. Kariye on Monday pleaded innocent to two felony charges of using false information - including a changed name - while applying for and receiving three different Social Security cards between 1983 and 1995. The federal indictment also alleges that Kariye used an altered...

Besides the ecomony going downhill in Dubai, it appears that so are people's rights. This is supposed to be the crossroads of the world. What is next, Saudi style religious police ?

Cars are being abandoned in record numbers at Dubai International Airport. The dust-covered Mercedes and BMW’s at the Dubai International Airport is a tell-tale reminder of what is happening there. The number of deserted cars crested the 3,000 mark in recent months, according to a Times Online article. What is happening is the over-extended are making a mass exodus of possibly Biblical proportions. The cause has a lot to do with the draconian Sharia, a code of Islamic law that has gained reputation among smugglers of tiny amounts of illicit contraband. Under Sharia, the punishment for defaulting on a debt...

Nakheel Hotels has bought a 50 percent interest in the Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort for $375 million. The iconic hotel is in the midst of a $500 million renovation and is expected to open during the second half of 2008. Aventura-based Turnberry Associates bought the hotel in 2005. The Dubai emirate manages Nakheel, the hotel group's parent company. It developed the Palm Islands in Dubai and recently partnered with Busch Entertainment Corp., the family entertainment division of Anheuser-Busch Cos., to put four theme parks on the man-made islands. "We are extremely pleased to have a world-class organization such as Nakheel,...

Short of opening a Radio Shack in an Amish town, Dubai is the world’s worst business idea, and there isn’t even any oil. Imagine proposing to build Vegas in a place where sex and drugs and rock and roll are an anathema. This is effectively the proposition that created Dubai - it was a stupid idea before the crash, and now it is dangerous. Dubai threatens to become an instant ruin, an emblematic hybrid of the worst of both the West and the Middle-East and a dangerous totem for those who would mistakenly interpret this as the de facto product...

Dubai’s Dramatic Drop   By Daniel PipesFrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, February 25, 2009 As the Muslim world settled into ever-deeper decline over the past decade, mired in political extremism, religious sickness, economic irrelevance, WMD, anarchy, dictatorship, and civil wars, Dubai stood out as a happy anomaly. Under the leadership of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai (one of seven polities within the United Arab Emirates) invited peoples from around the world to come make money and they did; about 83 percent of its population of 1.4 million is foreign. The emirate intelligently exploited the energy boom surrounding it...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Venus Williams won her 40th singles title Saturday, defeating Virginie Razzano of France 6-4, 6-2 in the final of the Dubai Tennis Championship. During the trophy presentation, Williams spoke about Shahar Peer, the Israeli player who was denied entry into the United Arab Emirates for the tournament because of what organizers called security concerns. "I felt like I had to talk about her," Williams said. "I thought it was brave of her to come here and try and play despite knowing that it is not going to be easy for her. My dad grew...

Kudos must go to the Wall Street Journal for standing by its principles. Haaretz reports that the WSJ pulled its sponsorship this week for a tennis tournament in Dubai after that Islamic state ignorantly denied a visa for an Israeli player scheduled to play there.Dubai refused the visa for Israeli player Shahar Peer because of the supposed anger of Muslim tennis fans over the recent Israeli offensive in Gaza. United Arab Emirates officials claimed they feared riots if they allowed Peer to attend.Once the decision was made known, however, the WSJ reacted well in a statement released on Wednesday... Read...

LONDON: The Dubai Championships was fined a record $300,000 by the governing body of women's tennis (WTA) on Friday after top Israeli player Shahar PIsrael's Shahar Peer during her match at the Qatar Open WTA tournament on February 20, 2008. (AFP Photo) eer was barred from taking part in this week's event. The WTA said in a statement the fine was the largest levied against a WTA Tour member and Peer would be awarded $44,250 -- the average prize money she earned per tournament in 2008. "The actions taken today are intended to redress the wrongs suffered by Shahar Peer,...

Israeli tennis player Andy Ram will be allowed to play in a premier Dubai tennis tournament after the Arab country said it would permit the No. 7-ranked doubles player to enter the country. The Persian Gulf country banned Israeli women's tennis star Shahar Peer earlier this week from entering the UAE to participate in the lucrative Dubai Tennis Championships. Organizers said they feared fan anger over Israel's recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip would spill into riots in the Arab country if Peer were to play. After Peer was barred, the tennis world harshly criticized the UAE for its...

Remember the furor back in 2006 over the news that a Dubai-based company was going to buy a ship terminal operator in the United States? Remember how all of a sudden many Americans decided against letting a foreign company operate cargo terminals inside the US, despite the fact that the same terminals were already being operated by a foreign corporation? (P&O Ports, UK) Remember how nobody, including Congress, wanted to take a second and actually investigate what risks there were, if any, given that this purchase would not have changed the fact that the US Coast Guard would have remained...

The jury is still out on whether Dubai’s offshore reclamation projects are a sound ecological addition to the Gulf, say world experts studying new artificial reefs at the mega-billion dollar developments. However, in interviews on Tuesday near the trunk of the Jebel Ali Palm, marine scientists said early data is promising - new coral is growing on the windward outer reaches of breakwaters erected around Nakheel’s Palm Trilogy and The World. The comments from experts with the United Nations University International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) came as a two-day coastal monitoring workshop wrapped up in Dubai. United...

The normally staid world of professional tennis became the latest battleground in the Arab-Israeli conflict this week after the United Arab Emirates decided to bar Israel's Shahar Pe'er from taking part in the Dubai Championships. Shahar Pe'er. Peer, who is ranked 45th in the world, was scheduled to go up against Russian player Anna Chakvetadze on Monday in the first round of the prestigious $2 million tournament, which regularly attracts most of the sport's top-seeded players. But much to the chagrin of sports fans everywhere, Peer was denied an entry visa by Dubai's ruling sheikhs, presumably because of her country...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Wall Street Journal's European edition withdrew its sponsorship of the Dubai Tennis Championships on Tuesday after the United Arab Emirates denied a visa to Israeli player Shahar Peer. "The Wall Street Journal's editorial philosophy is free markets and free people, and this action runs counter to the Journal's editorial direction," the paper said in a statement.

Foreigners are fleeing Dubai in droves, abandoning their previously glitzy lives as the city feels the crunch of the economic downturn. With thousands of work visas being cancelled daily, what once was a bustling city with a booming economic future is now the backdrop for out-of-work financiers drowning their sorrows at the neighborhood coffee shops. As a full 90% of Dubai's population are foreign, the economic situation is looking grim for the UAE city. Mortgages are going unpaid, and there’s a reported 3,000 cars abandoned (and not fully paid for) at the airport as people leave the country (and their...

Dubai is worried about losing its reputation. Deep in a financial downturn exaggerated, no doubt, by the wild scale-up there over the past decade, as it's become the #1 tourist destination for Eurotrash and their fad-following American fans, the emirates have decided that the best thing to do is to make sure no one hears about it - outlaw negative press. And just after finding out the beaches are covered in poo, too.

With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield. jobless people here lose their work visas and then must leave the country within a month. That in turn reduces spending, creates housing vacancies and lowers real estate prices, in a downward spiral that has left parts of Dubai... looking like...

Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC) January 26, 2009 The Internet and terrorism: Hamas has recently launched PaluTube, its new file sharing website. AqsaTube, the previous file sharing website, has changed its name and appearance and is now known as TubeZik. Those changes resulted from the refusal of French and Russian Internet service providers to continue hosting AqsaTube.

They're rich enough to own "The World." Tycoons and celebrities are plunking down millions to buy their own countries and continents - part of the 300 manmade islands built in the shape of real-life locales off the sun-drenched coast of Dubai. The artificial archipelago, visible from space, was founded in 2003 by Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Nakheel, one of the world's largest developers. The $10 billion development, completed just two weeks ago, was created by dredging 320 million cubic meters of rock and sand from the bottom of the Persian Gulf and landfilling it...

DUBAI, JANUARY 29 - Almost 3,000 people, the majority of them women, from dozens of nationalities became Muslims in Dubai last year, it was announced as reported by Arabian Business online. A total of 2,763 individuals - 1,869 of them women - from 72 countries embraced Islam in 2008, an increase of 71% over 2007, according to figures released by the Islamic affairs and charitable activities department. Announcing the data, Hamad bin Al Sheikh Al Shaibani, director general of the department, said: "We are delivering our message properly by spreading Islamic culture and instilling national identity through giving greater attention...

“The stench was unbearable and the water was a muddy brown. There was toilet paper in the sand,” The most prestigious stretch of beachfront in that new and sparkling playground for the rich and famous, Dubai, is so filthy that people are advised to stay off it entirely.