Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai’s long-haul carrier Emirates said Sunday it fired an undisclosed number of employees as the coronavirus pandemic has halted global aviation, becoming the latest Mideast airline to shed staff over the outbreak.

Emirates, the jewel of the sheikhdom’s vast array of state-linked enterprises known as “Dubai Inc.” to diplomats and investors, declined to offer figures on how many staff it fired.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Tens of thousands of mosques across Saudi Arabia reopened Sunday for the first time in more than two months, with worshipers ordered to follow strict guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as Islam’s holiest site in Mecca remained closed to the public.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s holiest site outside of Saudi Arabia, also reopened for prayers for the first time since it was closed in mid-March.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Government employees went back to work in Iran on Saturday and President Hassan Rouhani said mosques would resume daily prayers across the country, even though some areas are seeing high levels of coronavirus infections.

Rouhani also said on state television that shopping malls would be able to stay open beyond the 6 p.m. closing time imposed as part of the lockdown, a further step in the government’s plans to steadily ease the curbs.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s new parliament convened on Wednesday after the Feb. 21 elections under strict health protocols and social distancing rules to ward off the coronavirus in one of the hardest-hit Middle Eastern countries.

Many lawmakers wore masks and their temperatures were taken before entering the parliament building in southern Tehran, Iranian media reported.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Oman will on Friday end a lockdown of its Muscat governorate - which includes the capital - that has been in place since April 10 as the sultanate eases its coronavirus containment measures, the state news agency reported on Wednesday.

It said a state committee had also ordered government entities to ensure at least 50% of employees are working from their offices from May 31.

DUBAI, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, supreme council member and ruler of Sharjah, has ordered the release of 108 prisoners, according to the official WAM news agency on Sunday.

The clemency was granted to prisoners from punitive and reformative institutions in Sharjah, the third largest city in the United Arab Emirates, on occasion of Eid al-Fitr.

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. 

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has bought minority stakes in major American companies including Boeing (BA.N), Facebook (FB.O) and Citigroup (C.N), according to a U.S. regulatory filing.

The $300 billion Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been buying minority stakes in companies across the world, taking advantage of market weakness in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has sentenced French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah to six years in prison on national security charges, her lawyer said on Saturday.

“The court has sentenced her to six years. We have appealed and if accepted, the sentence will drop to five years,” Adelkhah’s lawyer, Saeid Dehghan, told Reuters.

In January, Iran dropped spying charges against Adelkhah but she remained in jail on other security-related charges, her lawyer told Reuters in March.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military offered condolences Thursday to Iran over a friendly fire incident in the Islamic Republic that killed 19 of its troops, identifying the weapon used in the incident as an anti-ship cruise missile.

Iranian authorities on Monday said that a missile struck the Iranian navy vessel Konarak near the port of Jask, some 1,270 kilometers (790 miles) southeast of Tehran in the Gulf of Oman. Authorities said the Konarak was too close to a target and was accidentally hit Sunday in an incident that also wounded 15 troops.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The CEO of the world’s busiest airport for international travel wants to get the globe flying again, but even he acknowledges everything remains up in the air during the coronavirus pandemic.

Paul Griffiths oversees what now is a much quieter Dubai International Airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates and crucial to East-West travel. The millions that once poured through the airport’s concourses are no longer flying as countries around the world enforce lockdowns and travel bans to fight the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes.