Abu Dhabi and Dubai Blog

In late July, the company set out its debt restructuring plan, including a time frame over which it would consider selling assets to raise funds to repay lenders. Since then it has been holding a series of roadshows to explain the plan in detail to creditors.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c96aea94-b07e-11df-8c04-00144feabdc0.html

Human trafficking cases in Dubai increased by 58 per cent in the first half of this year when compared to the same period last year, police have revealed.

In the first half of this year, there were 19 cases of human trafficking with 54 suspects arrested and 35 victims rescued by Dubai Police, Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Acting Chief of Dubai Police, said in a statement.

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/crime/dubai-sees-58-increase-in-cases-1.657022

In 1940, the British snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and certain invasion by evacuating 300,000 troops from the beaches of northern France. As we all know, Britain with the help of its allies recovered from the near disaster to eventually defeat Hitler’s Germany and the Axis powers. The rest is history.

Officials in the U.A.E. are now claiming a similar turning point in Dubai’s battle to defeat the all out assault on its economy by the dark forces of the global financial crisis.

http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2010/05/24/dubais-dunkirk-moment/

Dubai is still considering a bid to host the Olympics in 2020, said the ruler of the Arab emirate Sunday as leaders and executives from the sports industry gathered in the city for an international convention. Dubai has spent billions of dollars to build sport venues and host high profile golf and tennis tournaments. Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum praised Dubai’s sports infrastructure and said Dubai has “a lot to offer” to the Olympic movement.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2010-04-25-1027158796_x.htm

A sordid story on the human cost of prohibition laws – much more severe than what they are trying to prevent:

A court in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced 17 Indian nationals to death for killing a Pakistani man. About 50 people were involved in the fatal attack in which the Pakistani man was stabbed repeatedly.

In another event:

In February it was reported that 13 members of an alleged bootlegging gang from the Jebel Ali area of Dubai were accused of kidnapping two rivals, raping them and burying them alive.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8592724.stm

A rare whale shark that was a hotel attraction has been returned to the wild, the resort said Thursday, following an international campaign against the captivity. The 4.2-metre female was returned to the Gulf waters where it had been “rescued” said the hotel, where guests pay up to $7,500 US a night for a top suite.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Dubai+hotel+frees+whale+shark/2701800/story.html

Some good financial analysis on the shifting economic power arrangements of the UAE since the devastating crash of last year:

Abu Dhabi has pumped $15 billion into Dubai since last year, providing proof of the strength of the federation but also evidence of a power shift within the union. The Dubai Financial Market may have lost 25% of its value since November and Dubai World has yet to agree to a deal with banks on its remaining $22 billion debt pile, but the principles of the union have passed a stern test. However, the outcome is likely to be that Abu Dhabi takes a more dominant role in the U.A.E. while Dubai takes a back seat. While Dubai has sold assets overseas to help pay its bills, Abu Dhabi has continued to invest by building stakes in household names like Daimler and Barclays.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703862704575099750771561886.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

Two Britons accused of kissing in public in Dubai face up to a month in prison after a mother complained her child had seen them. The case is the third in under two years in which Britons have fallen foul of decency laws in Dubai. Dubai’s burgeoning foreign population, which now outnumbers that of Emirati nationals, has sparked concerns that the pace of change is threatening the conservative region’s social and religious identity.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/14/kiss-dubai-britons-public

Washington Post laments the unfair treatment of Israel in the Dubai Hamas assasination:

Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the police chief of Dubai, certainly knows how to milk a good story for all it’s worth. It’s now been six weeks since Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in his room in an airport hotel, and most of the world long ago concluded that Israel’s Mossad spy agency was responsible. Yet day after day Tamim continues to make headlines, dribbling out more details of the clumsy and not-so-clandestine operation and issuing grandiose pronouncements.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/03/the_dubai_police_chiefs_outlan.html