country:united arab emirates

Foot -M. Martel reprend le RC Lens (avec Hafiz Mammdov)
http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Martel-reprend-le-fc-lens/378521
Hafiz, qui n’est pas de la famille de Ziya Mammadov, est néanmoins un partenaire de longue date d’Anar Mammadov, fils du ministre des transports (Ziya donc), PDG de ZQan group et de Elton Mammadov (frère de Ziya). Quelle coïncidence, il construit les routes pour le ministère des transports.
http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan-transport-minister-corruption/24947711.html

Gervais... aïe

Quand les émiriens en plein procès des 94 (membres de ’Islah) arrêtent un Bahreinien membre de l’Islah dont la branche politique est représentée au Parlement...les autoriéts bahreinienns ne répondent pas.

Bahraini citizen in United Arab Emirates subjected to Enforced Disappearance » Emirates Centre for Human Rights
http://www.echr.org.uk/?p=712

Salah Yafie, a 33-year-old Bahraini citizen, has been held incommunicado at an unknown location in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since his arrest in Dubai on April 26th 2013. It is believed that Yaife is being held due to his membership of a reform society in Bahrain and his use of Twitter to defend the 94 Emirati political dissidents currently on trial in Abu Dhabi.

Yafie is a Qatar University graduate, specialising in education and self-development, and regularly travels between the Gulf States due to his work, which is based in Qatar. Following his arrest Yafie had his passport seized and was allowed to make a short phone call before being taken to an unknown location where has remained since.

When making the short phone call, Yafie called a Bahraini Member of Parliament who told locally based activists that Yafie sounded frightened and upset on the phone. Since the phone call Yafie has had no contact with anyone, prompting fears for his health and treatment at the hands of authorities who have been consistently accused of torture in recent months.

Yaife is a member of the Bahraini al-Islah society, which is a legal group in Bahrain that operates in the charity and educational sectors. Over the course of the past year many of al-Islah’s members in the UAE have been arrested and put on trial in a case known as the ‘UAE 94’. The trial of the UAE 94 has been labelled as fundamentally unfair by various human rights groups and seen allegations of torture go uninvestigated.

Qatar, UAE Upgraded to Emerging Markets as Greece Cut by MSCI

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-11/qatar-uae-upgraded-to-emerging-markets-as-greece-cut-by-msci.html

UAE’s Algeria outreach means more than just business | GulfNews.com
http://m.gulfnews.com/opinion/uae-s-algeria-outreach-means-more-than-just-business-1.1195786

The past few weeks have seen a number of senior-level meetings between Algerian and UAE officials. The UAE foreign minister led a high-level delegation to Algiers at the end of last month to build up on the Joint Committee meetings that were held in Abu Dhabi just two weeks earlier. Already Dubai-based DP World is managing two ports in the North African state, including the port of Algiers. In 2009, Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala started operating a $900 million (Dh3.31 billion) power plant in Tipaza with state energy giant Sonatrach. Last year, Ras Al Khaimah-based Julphar Pharmaceuticals laid the foundation stone for a factory in Algiers to serve the Algerian market and North Africa.

The signs have been positive even before the Arab uprisings began with trade between the UAE and Algeria growing at 60 per cent annually from 2005 when it was $16 million to about $173 million in 2010 — partly thanks to the 10,000 Algerians residing in the UAE. Algeria’s gross domestic product, at almost $200 billion is only about half of UAE’s this year. However, it is growing at an impressive rate and has tripled in the decade to 2011. Bilateral trade between the two countries, at $271 million in the first eight months of last year, is negligible and needs to be encouraged to grow. The size of Algeria’s sovereign wealth fund was believed to be $57 billion in 2011 (compared to Abu Dhabi’s $400-$600 billion ADIA fund), while the country’s foreign reserves are believed to be $200 billion — thanks to high oil prices.

But business is just one component of this increasingly strategic relationship. Algeria today is the last major civil Arab state, following the rise of a Shiite Islamist state in Iraq, a Sunni Islamist state in Egypt and the collapse of the state in Syria.

Algeria, despite the existence of half a dozen Islamic political parties is neither a Salafist nor a Brotherhood state. Its 36 million-strong population makes it the second largest Arab state demographically after Egypt and with an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres is the largest Arab country. Algeria also has a well-trained army and the largest military budget in Africa. In fact, Algeria is said to have “the most powerful and best-equipped military in North Africa and the Sahel”.

Algeria’s special forces are also a force to reckon with. Last January, a hostage crisis ensued at the In Amenas gas plant, lasting several days and resulting in around 40 hostages being killed and 800 survivors leading up to the rescue. One of the survivors remarked that the Algerian military ‘did a bloody good job’. Compare this with the hostage crisis of 2004 in the Beslan school in Russia in which 334 out of the 1,120 hostages were killed during the botched rescue operation.

Israel selling military wares to Mideast countries, Britain says -
By Aluf Benn

Haaretz Daily Newspaper
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-selling-military-wares-to-mideast-countries-britain-says.premium-1.5

Israel has exported security equipment over the past five years to Pakistan and four Arab countries, according to a British government report. The report, which deals with British government permits for arms and security equipment exports, says that in addition to Pakistan, Israel has exported such equipment to Egypt, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco.

The report was released by Britain’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which oversees security exports and publishes regular reports on permits granted or denied to purchase arms, military equipment or civilian items that are monitored because they can be put to security uses.

A map of the countries with the most dangerous roads
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/06/07/a-map-of-the-countries-with-the-most-dangerous-roads

Lots of people think that their home town has the worst traffic, the most aggressive drivers, the craziest cabbies. Sometimes they have strong anecdotal evidence. Russian drivers often employ dashboard cameras to record seemingly inevitable collisions with reckless motorists.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2013/06/road-safety-map.jpg

In the United Arab Emirates city of Abu Dhabi, a three-day Blackberry phone outage coincided with a 40 percent drop in traffic accidents. When I visited Cairo, where just crossing the street is a sort of art form in itself, I presumed no roads could be more dangerous until a friend who had just returned from Indonesia assured me that Jakarta’s are far worse.

#sécurité_routière #accidnts_de_la_route #cartographie

Iran funeral for dissident cleric stirs protest chants -
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iran-funeral-for-dissident-cleric-stirs-protest-chants/2013/06/05/07668918-cddf-11e2-8573-3baeea6a2647_story.html

The mourners [thousands of mourners shouting death to th dictator in the central city of Isfahan for the funeral of Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri, who died Sunday] also call for the release of prisoners, including opposition leaders under house arrest.

Taheri had criticized Iranian hard-liners.

Voici donc la carte vite brossée du résultat du vote sur le traité du commerce des armes le 3 juin 2013. Comme je ne l’ai vu nulle part, j’en ai fait une esquisse rapide. Et ça donne une image pas inintéressante.

Les raisons des abstentions et absences de plus ’une trentaine de pays expliqué dans ce long communiqué de l’ONU en anglais (version française là ----> ►http://www.un.org/News/fr-press/docs/2013/AG11354.doc.htm

Overwhelming Majority of States in General Assembly Say ‘Yes’ to Arms Trade Treaty to Stave off Irresponsible Transfers that Perpetuate Conflict, Human Suffering

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2013/ga11354.doc.htm

Voici donc la carte vite brossée du résultat du vote sur le trait du commerce des armes le 3 juin 2013

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/gvh97wugyba7kw4/trait%C3%A9%20commerce%20armes%20small.jpg

To a burst of sustained applause, the General Assembly today voted overwhelmingly in favour of a “historic”, first-ever treaty to regulate the astonishing number of conventional weapons traded each year, making it more difficult for them to be diverted into the hands of those intent on sowing the seeds of war and conflict.

By a vote of 154 in favour to 3 against (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran, Syria), with 23 abstentions, the Assembly passed the 28-article Arms Trade Treaty, aiming to establish the highest possible common international standards for the annual $70 billion business. The adoption follows the failure last week of the Final United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty to reach consensus on the text at the conclusion of its two-week session. (Please see annex for details of the voting.)

“The final text is, in my view, robust and actionable,” said General Assembly President Vuc Jeremić ( Serbia). It also was “groundbreaking”, in that arms-exporting countries would be legally bound to report arms sales and transfers. They would be obliged to assess whether the weapons they sold could be used to facilitate human rights abuses and humanitarian law violations.

–=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Vote on Arms Trade Treaty

The draft resolution on the Arms Trade Treaty (document A/67/L.58) was adopted by a recorded vote of 154 in favour to 3 against, with 23 abstentions, as follows:

In favour: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, United States, Uruguay, Zambia.

Against: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran, Syria.

Abstain: Angola, Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Oman, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Yemen.

Absent: Armenia, Cape Verde, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Kiribati, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe.

##armement #onu #traité_commerce_armes

On ’World No Tobacco Day’ Egypt’s cigarette black-market booming

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/72705.aspx

Emirati Sent to Jail Over ’False Tweets’ - Al-Monitor : the Pulse of the Middle East
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/05/uae-false-news-twitter-jail-sentence.html

The conviction of Al Haddidi and the arrest of Al Shehhi sends a message to everyone in the United Arab Emirates: “Criticize the government at your own peril.”
The verdict of the sedition trial — which some observers say stems from critical comments on social media — may send a much larger message. That decision is expected on July 2.

Dans cet article, l’auteur dissèque un par un les tweets concernant le procès en ’tentative de coup d’état’- pour lesquels al Haddidi a été condamné à 10 mois de prison ferme (et perdu son appel le 22 mai). Pour lui, l’auteur ne faisait que remédier au manque absolu d’information venant contre-dire la seule version officielle sur ce procès tenu très secret.

Institutionalisation des gardes nationaux, érigés en Ministère.
http://gitm.kcorp.net/index.php?id=650231

Prince Miteb appointed Minister of National Guard
Arab News - 27 May, 2013

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah issued today a royal order transforming the Presidency of National Guard to the Ministry of National Guard and appointing Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, Minister of National Guard.

The royal order said that the Ministry of National Guard shall replace the Presidency of National Guard and the Minister of National Guard shall replace the Commander of National Guard, wherever they come in systems, regulations, decisions and royal orders and decrees.

Manuel Valls, admiratif, aurait demandé : « Ah bon, on a le droit d’expulser les grévistes et personne ne me l’a dit ? »
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/uae-deport-striking-workers

The United Arab Emirates has slapped 43 migrant workers with deportation orders for demanding a salary hike and better conditions, media reported.

Thousands of mostly Asian building workers employed by the Arabtec construction giant began a strike last weekend demanding their 350 dirhams ($95) food allowance paid with their wages rather than the three daily meals provided by the company, English-language daily The National said.

Nearly all of them ended the strike on Wednesday after police and immigration officials entered their camps and threatened them with deportation. Those who refused to return to work may be sent back home.

Arabic language is losing ground - The National
http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/arabic-language-is-losing-ground

Un sujet qui mérite plus ample développement.

Headmasters and Arabic teachers in UAE private schools confirmed to a local newspaper last week that parents keep filing requests that their children be spared from Arabic-language lessons. They say that their children will be going on to English-language universities that do not require Arabic.

...

While educators, students and parents have a shared responsibility, the problem is much bigger, he said.

“In fact, the issue is closely linked to the moral value of the language, a value that is derived from the political, scientific, economic, industrial, intellectual, artistic, cultural and social reality of its speakers,” the writer observed.

...

Swayed by this perceived sense of “belonging”, many Arab youth work hard to nurture their non-Arabic culture, by reading English-language books, watching English-language movies and listening to English music, according to the writer.

“It makes them happy to see their interlocutor confused, unable to tell where they are from - the Arab region or elsewhere? It makes them even happier when the interlocutor concludes that they are foreigners.”

Families also play a role in this, with relatives of a new graduate showing great pride in his or her perfect English accent, the author went on.

Also, educators and the media have not done enough to generate positive attitudes about Arabic among students and other young people.

“This generation did not come in touch with the beauty of Arabic. Educators and curriculum developers have not been able to present the language in catchy wrappings, nor did the local or pan-Arab media manage to highlight the graces of this language,” Al Suweihi noted.

This issue is not just “a matter of letters, words and phrases”; the issue is about “a historical and decisive stance” that all Arabs must take to pump life back into Arabic, before it is too late, the author concluded.

Tomgram : David Vine, Baseworld Profiteering | TomDispatch
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175699/tomgram:_david_vine,_baseworld_profiteering

...after an extensive examination of government spending data and contracts, I estimate that the Pentagon has dispersed around $385 billion to private companies for work done outside the U.S. since late 2001, mainly in that baseworld. That’s nearly double the entire State Department budget over the same period, and because Pentagon and government accounting practices are so poor, the true total may be significantly higher.

...

... an analysis of Pentagon spending reveals a troubling pattern: the majority of benefits have gone to a relatively small group of private contractors. In total, almost a third of the $385 billion has flowed into the coffers of just 10 top contractors, including scandal-prone companies like KBR, the former subsidiary of Halliburton, and oil giant BP.

...

The use of contractors accelerated following the Cold War’s end, part of a larger trend toward the privatization of formerly public services.

...

Contractors are hardly alone in raking in the dollars from the Pentagon’s baseworld. Pentagon officials, military personnel, members of Congress, and lobbyists, among others, have all benefited — financially, politically, and professionally — from the giant overseas presence. In particular, contractors have spread the love by making millions in campaign contributions to members of Congress. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, military contractors and their employees gave more than $27 million in election donations in 2012 alone, and have donated almost $200 million since 1990.

Most of these have gone to members of the armed services and appropriations committees in the Senate and House of Representatives. These, of course, have primary authority over awarding military dollars. For the 2012 elections, for example, DynCorp International’s political action committee donated $10,000 to both the chair and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, and made additional donations to 33 other members of the House and Senate armed services committees and 16 members of the two appropriations committees.

...

La saison de la question parlementaire est rouverte à Koweit, avec le ministre du pétrole dans le retentissant scandale de Dow Chemicals (une rupture par Koweit d’un contrat de JV avec l’Aéricain DC qui lui a valu une amende de 2.2 milliards de $) et le ministre de l’intérieur, accusé -par des parlementaires chiites- de manque de coopération avec les EAU dans l’affaire du démantèlement des cellules des FM ...et mieux encore du vol de M16 automatiques +munitions dans un lieu de stockage du ministère

"“The Dow Chemical deal is one of the biggest financial crimes in the history of Kuwait,” said the grilling."

http://gitm.kcorp.net/index.php?id=648101

Three MPs yesterday filed to grill Oil Minister Hani Hussein over a variety of violations and misconduct, mainly on the payment of the $ 2.2 billion penalty to US Dow Chemical after the government pulled out of a joint deal. Two other MPs meanwhile filed a second request to grill Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah alleging his failure to cooperate with the National Assembly and attempting to cover up a Kuwaiti “terror” cell having links with Islamists under trial in the United Arab Emirates.

The submission of the two grillings came after a morning of drama yesterday as MPs had initially planned to file three grillings against the oil minister, all focusing on the payment to Dow besides other alleged violations. But after a brief discussion, the three teams agreed to file one grilling to be signed by MPs Saadoun Hammad, Yacoub Al-Sane and Nasser Al-Marri, which highlighted four major violations with the Dow payment remaining the main issue. Besides the Dow issue, MPs also accused the minister of allowing commercial deals with Israel, not taking any action to prevent the sale of alcohol at Kuwait-owned petrol stations in Europe and approving illegal staff promotions at state-owned oil companies.

The three MPs also accused the minister of failing to take action to stop the sale of alcohol at thousands of petrol stations in Europe owned by Kuwait Petroleum International, a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC). He also failed to punish officials who were responsible for maintaining Kuwaiti investments in a company in Europe even after an Israeli company bought a stake in it. The three MPs also accused the minister of approving a large number of staff promotions at oil companies that were in violation of Kuwaiti laws. [...]

Meanwhile, MPs Safa Al-Hashem and Youssef Al-Zalzalah filed to grill the interior minister over allegations he is not fully cooperating with the Assembly and over the theft of thousands of bullets from ministry stores. The two lawmakers called on the minister to resign because they have solid evidence about the accusations they made in the grilling. They charged that the minister failed to cooperate with MPs by first failing to implement a number of recommendations and also by not answering their questions as he only answered less than half of the questions.

They held the minister responsible for the robbery of thousands of bullets and even M16 automatic rifles from Interior Ministry stores and that he has failed to maintain law and order in the country, besides failing to implement thousands of court verdicts. But the main issue the lawmakers highlighted are accusations that the minister has refused to supply UAE authorities with information about a number of Kuwaiti Islamists – members of the Muslim Brotherhood – who have links with a group of Emirati Islamists on trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.

They said that the prime minister has acknowledged the information but the interior minister still told UAE authorities that there was no Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait, thus undermining the security of Kuwait and its Gulf partner UAE. The two grillings are expected to be debated after two weeks unless the Assembly decides to delay the debate or for any other reason like a government resignation, the ministers’ resignations or others.

British imperialism’s return to “East of Suez” - World Socialist Web Site

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/05/08/uaem-m08.html

British imperialism’s return to “East of Suez”
By Jean Shaoul
8 May 2013

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, got the full treatment on his state visit to Britain last week.

He was afforded a ride in a gilded horse-drawn coach to Windsor, complete with guards in bearskins and red tunics, a state banquet at Windsor Castle with Queen Elizabeth, and talks with Prime Minister David Cameron.

#proche-orient #imperialisme #empire_britannique

Shell Beats Total To Become UAE’s Sour Gas Partner » Gulf Business
http://gulfbusiness.com/2013/05/shell-beats-total-to-become-uaes-sour-gas-partner

Shell Beats Total To Become UAE’s Sour Gas Partner
The 30-year venture puts Shell in position to renew its role in the UAE’s largest onshore oil concession when that contract comes up for renewal next year.

The 30-year venture to treat the potentially deadly gases in Bab also puts Europe’s largest energy company in a strong position to renew its role in the UAE’s largest onshore oil concession, on which the Bab field stands, when that contract comes up for renewal early next year.

Israel may join defense pact with Saudi Arabia, UAE- http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-reportedly-may-join-defense-pact-with-saudi-arabia-uae

Israel is working on joining an anti-Iran defense alliance with a number of moderate Arab states that would involve sharing Jerusalem’s newly developed anti-missile technologies, a British newspaper reported Sunday.

The plan would see Israel join with Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to create a Middle Eastern “moderate crescent,” according to the Sunday Times, which cited an unnamed Israeli official. Israel does not currently maintain formal ties with Riyadh or Abu Dhabi, and relations with Ankara have been strained since 2009.

According to the report, Israel would gain access to radar stations in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and in exchange share its own early warning radar information and anti-ballistic missile defense systems, though it’s not clear in what form. The report details that Jordan would be protected by Israel’s Arrow long-range anti-missile batteries.

The so-called 4+1 plan is being brokered by Washington, and would mark a sharp shift in stated policy for the White House, which has insisted the US is not interested in containing Iran but rather stopping it before it reaches nuclear weapon capability.

The Sunni states of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan are all opposed to Tehran shifting the regional power balance. Though Turkey maintains strong trade ties with Iran, it has found itself opposed to Tehran over the issue of Syria.

Évidemment, Al-Monitor ne publiera (heureusement) jamais un texte expliquant qu’« il n’existe pas de telle créature qu’un juif qui penserait ci ou ça… », ou utilisant le terme « bombe juive » :
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/05/insights-into-the-middle-east.html

There is no such creature as an Arab who will tolerate an Iran with a nuclear bomb. And there is also no such creature on this planet as a Sunni who will agree with being faced with a Shiite bomb with no countermeasure in place.

Mais bon, l’essentialisme orientaliste israélien est proverbiale. Outre les aspects racistes habituels (l’Arabe, cet être transparent et prévisible), noter qu’il est clair ici qu’un arabe ne saurait être chiite.

UAE’s Sheikh Khalifa Visits The UK’s Queen » Gulf Business
http://gulfbusiness.com/2013/05/uaes-sheikh-khalifa-visits-the-uks-queen

The president of the United Arab Emirates met Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday on a visit to Britain where Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure to raise allegations that UAE police tortured British citizens.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan’s visit poses a delicate diplomatic challenge for Cameron who has already expressed concern about the torture accusations but is keen to boost lucrative trade and strategically important diplomatic relations in the Gulf. The two men are due to meet on Wednesday.

The three Britons, who were jailed in the UAE for four years on Monday for drug offences, said police beat them and threatened them with guns, allegations the police deny. Cameron has called for an inquiry.

Making matters tricky for Cameron is the UAE’s status as a key destination for British arms and other exports.

Hanging in the balance is the fate of a British bid to sell BAE Systems-backed Eurofighter Typhoon jets to the UAE, on which a decision is expected soon, and an energy deal expected to be signed on Wednesday with Emirati energy firm Masdar.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the torture issue. The Foreign Office said in a statement: “We remain concerned by the allegations of mistreatment on arrest and continue to raise these with the UAE authorities.”

Abu Dhabi Plans Financial Free Zone, May Compete With Dubai » Gulf Business
http://gulfbusiness.com/2013/04/abu-dhabi-plans-financial-free-zone-may-compete-with-dubai

A federal decree was passed by the UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan in February to create the area, known as the Abu Dhabi World Financial Market, on Al Maryah island, the sources told Reuters.

Detailed regulations covering the zone will be outlined shortly, an Abu Dhabi government source said, declining to be named under briefing rules.

“It will have all the offerings of a financial free zone – 100 per cent foreign ownership, tax and capital repatriation, internationally accepted laws and regulations and other things,” the source said.

The UAE’s free zones are areas in which foreign companies can operate under light regulation, and where foreign investors are allowed to take 100 per cent ownership in companies; outside the zones, they generally need to have local partners.

One of the country’s most successful free zones is the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), established in 2004 with its own civil and commercial laws, its own courts and a financial exchange, NASDAQ Dubai.

It has become the Gulf’s top financial centre, housing regional headquarters for many of the world’s biggest banks and finance firms. Others have tried to emulate its success; the Qatar Financial Centre was set up in 2005 in Doha, and the Bahrain Financial Harbour opened in 2009.

Hammonda. » Blog Archiv » Arab awakening: Qatar’s controversial alliance with Arab Islamists
http://hammonda.net/?p=1548

Hammonda.
Mideast Politics, Language, Media. Popculture!
Arab awakening: Qatar’s controversial alliance with Arab Islamists

Andrew Hammond sur Qatar : excellente mise en perspective.

U.S. Nears $10bn Arms Deal With Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE

The United States is finalizing a complex $10 billion arms deal that would strengthen two key Arab allies while maintaining Israel’s military edge, defense officials said on Friday ahead of a trip to the Middle East by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

The deal, more than a year in the making through a series of coordinated bilateral negotiations, would result in the sale of V-22 Osprey aircraft, advanced refueling tankers and anti-air defense missiles to Israel and 25 F-16 Desert Falcon jets worth nearly $5 billion to the United Arab Emirates.[...]

Sources familiar with the arms sales plans said Israel had asked to buy five or six V-22 Ospreys, built by Boeing Co and Textron Inc’s Bell Helicopter unit, at an estimated price of about $70 million apiece.

The UAE also is interested in purchasing the tilt-rotor aircraft, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like a plane, the sources said. But that sale is likely to be included in a separate deal.

The United States sold Saudi Arabia 84 F-15 jets for $29 billion in 2010, planes that are now beginning to roll off the assembly line and undergo testing, officials said.

GBN
http://gulfbusiness.com/2013/04/u-s-nears-10bn-arms-deal-with-israel-saudi-arabia-uae

Human rights activists questions arrests in United Arab Emirates - UPI.com

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/04/18/Doubts-cast-over-UAE-terror-arrests/UPI-97521366290644

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 18 (UPI) — A United Arab Emirates human rights activist said local claims of a terror arrest Thursday were likely a cover for a government act of repression.

The Emirates News Agency, known also as WAM, said authorities arrested at least seven Arab nationals thought to be affiliated with al-Qaida.

En Royaume des al Saud, trois jeunes Emiratis ont été renvoyé chez-eux parce que trop beaux !!!!
http://now.msn.com/united-arab-emirates-men-ejected-from-saudi-arabian-festival-for-being-too-