Rescuers on Tuesday have found the body of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahayan after his ultralight aircraft crashed in Morocco. A team of divers had searched an artificial lake south of Rabat for four days. Moroccan state news agency MAP reported that the body of Sheikh Ahmed was pulled from the waters of a lake by rescuers. The Spanish pilot of the glider survived and stays in hospital. Sheikh Ahmed was a managing director of Abu Dhabi Investment ... Read more »

A court in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced a group of Indians to death for murder of a Pakistani. In January 2009 in Sharjah, an Emirate just north of Dubai, about 50 people were involved in a conflict in which the Pakistani man was stabbed. Three other Pakistani men were injured, but they survived and were taken to hospital. The attack happened after a dispute over control of an illicit alcohol business. Correspondents said violence connected to ill... Read more »

On March 1st - this coming Monday-the premier episode of a 90 part series, "Sleepless in Gaza...and Jerusalem" will be launched on YouTube. It will be a video diary about four young Palestinian women, Muslim and Christian, two living in Gaza and two in Arab Jerusalem/West Bank. PINA TV Production camera crews will be covering Ashira Ramadan, a broadcast journalist based in Jerusalem; Ashira's friend in Gaza, the documentary film maker Nagham Mohanna... Read more »

Ministry of Social Affairs Launches Emirates Social Award, and Invites individuals, Foundations, private and government sectors to participate effectively for the Awards. In order to stimulate community initiatives, Ministry of Social Affairs announced that nomination is now open to "Emirates Social Award" which gives individuals, companies, private and government sectors recognition of outstanding contribution in the scopes of Social welfare and developmen... Read more »

The health minister of Saudi Arabia has announced that within 3 weeks the country will receive 1 million doses of swine flu vaccine. After this first batch another 6 million doses will be delivered, the Arabian Business reports citing the minister. Apart from this, the ministries of health and education have introduced an awareness campaign about the swine flu pandemic. This week medical workers in schools of Riyadh, Mecca, Medina, the east coast and other ... Read more »

Egypt has decided to close all foreign schools and universities until 3 October to prevent the spread of swine flu. After the classes begin, the school week will be extended to six days, and classes will be reduced in size. Authorities of Saudi Arabia also decided to start the academic year later. High and middle school students will start studies on November 10, while elementary schools will open doors on 17 November. In addition to this measure, Saudi Arabia has... Read more »

Egypt has defended its border guards, who are accused of easily using their guns to stop illegal migrants trying to cross the border with Israel. Recently, 4 people from sub-Saharan Africa were shot dead by Egyptian border guards while trying to cross into Israel. They didn’t carry any ID on them and, according to the guards, were shot when they attempted to escape. In total 12 illegal migrants were killed on the border this year, all of them unarmed. Last year at... Read more »

The Health Minister of Egypt has announced that Egypt has bought five million doses of swine flu vaccine. The first batch will be delivered already in October, the Egypt News reports citing the minister. Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, has already banned those under 25 and above 65 y... Read more »

In UAE two offices of a marriage agency have received licenses and operate legally and according to Islam laws and traditions of the UAE. Anyone can come to the offices with a list of requirements for their future spouse, the Gulfnews reports. The payment must be done only after a suitable partner has been found. As employers of the agency say, they have ... Read more »

In Qatar there are almost four men for each woman, according to a recent census. The number of men in the country as of august was about 1.25 million, while women – about 350 thousand. The results of the census, published a few days ago, gave no explanation to this phenomenon. However, the current situation can be put down to large number of male foreigners living in Qatar without their families, alone. In total there are over 1.2 million foreigners in Qatar and a... Read more »