UAE

Dubai, Feb 9 (AFP) Public debt has rapidly increased in many Arab countries since the 2008 global financial crisis, due to persistently high budget deficits, the International Monetary Fund warned Saturday.

"Unfortunately, the region has yet to fully recover from the global financial crisis and other big economic dislocations over the past decade," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said.

"Among oil importers, (economic) growth has picked up, but it is still below pre-crisis levels," she told the Arab Fiscal Forum in Dubai.

04 Feb 2019; AFP: Pope Francis and a top Muslim cleric Monday issued a joint call for freedom of belief during the first visit by the head of the Catholic church to the birthplace of Islam -- the Arabian Peninsula.

Francis, who has made outreach to Muslim communities a cornerstone of his papacy, is on an historic three-day visit to the United Arab Emirates.

04 Feb 2019; AFP: Pope Francis landed in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday for the first ever visit by a pontiff to the Arabian Peninsula -- the birthplace of Islam.

The pope touched down in Abu Dhabi for the 48-hour trip during which he will meet leading Muslim clerics and hold an open-air mass for some 135,000 Catholics.

31 Jan 2019; DW: European aircraft maker Airbus on Thursday said it is "in discussions" with Dubai-based airline Emirates about a make-or-break deal for the future of the superjumbo Airbus A380.

Secured last year, the Emirates deal was hailed as a lifeline for the iconic double-decker aircraft and the program's roughly 3,000 workers.

How the deal fell through:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — At St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Dubai, an effort to transcribe the Bible in the native tongue of its flock saw the holy book presented in 52 languages — a sign of the cosmopolitan welcome awaiting Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to the United Arab Emirates.

The diversity among its parishioners can be seen in its pews and heard in the sermons of St. Mary’s priests, who celebrate Mass and offer prayers in Arabic, English, French, Tagalog, Tamil, Urdu and other languages.

DUBAI, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Saturday the formation of an Arab force and alliance capable of encountering regional challenges, Al Arabiya TV reported.

"The United States is not going to leave the Middle East region," Pompeo said in an interview with Al Arabiya on Friday.

DAMASCUS, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- The re-opening of the embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Syria is a sign that the long-stranded Arab relations with Syria will resume and that the country is recovering diplomatically, experts say.

On Thursday afternoon, the UAE flag was hoisted over the embassy in Damascus for the first time in seven years amid a diplomatic presence of Iraq, Sudan, Tunisia, and Algeria.

Hamzeh al-Dawalibi, director of Protocol Department of the Syrian Foreign Ministry, also represented the Syrian government in the opening ceremony of the embassy.

DUBAI, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will deposit 11 billion dirhams (3 billion U.S. dollars) in the State Bank of Pakistan to help with the country's cash and financial policies, state-run WAM news agency reported Friday.

The move aims "to enhance the liquidity and monetary reserve of the foreign currency in the State Bank," WAM cited the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development as saying in a statement.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said on Monday the country has pardoned British academic Matthew Hedges, sentenced to life in prison for spying, and that he will be set free.

The announcement came after authorities showed journalists a video of Hedges purportedly saying he was a captain in British intelligence. The news conference was hastily called in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital.

Emirati authorities had come under increasing international pressure over Hedges’ life sentence, handed down last week.

LONDON (AP) — The ambassador of the United Arab Emirates in London said Friday his government is studying whether to grant clemency to a convicted British academic sentenced to life in prison for espionage.

Ambassador Sulaiman Hamid Almazroui said that academic Matthew Hedges’ family has requested clemency and the government is considering it.

He said the espionage case against the 31-year-old Hedges “was an extremely serious case” and that he had been convicted based on “compelling evidence” after a full and fair judicial process.