Dubai

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on January 11th, 2012

In the northwest Brazilian Amazon town of Brasileia, population 20,238, there are almost 1,200 Haitians.

They often mill around during the day, clustered in groups in the shade trying to keep cool from the steamy heat, waiting for weeks for their work documents to be processed so they can get a job in another part of Brazil.

But on Tuesday it was the two other guys sitting alone who caught my attention. They could have been Bolivian perhaps, or even Brazilian. But I knew they weren’t.

“We are from Bangladesh,” AHM Sultan Ahmed, 36, tells me with a smile when I approach and ask to talk with them.

His friend, Abdul Awal, and my photojournalist, Maria Elena Romero, and I, all sit together on the grass and begin to chat.

By Dan Nolan in Business on October 19th, 2010
Photo by Reuters

The United Arab Emirates' new crackdown on business with Iran will no doubt draw applause in Washington but alarm in Dubai.

New regulations preventing transactions with Iranian banks means trade between the two nations has all but come to a standstill in recent weeks, according to those affected.

In 2009 total trade was worth an estimated $12bn, making the oil-rich Arab nation Iran's top trading partner.

But the reality is that only one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE federation has been responsible for the bulk of Iranian trade and is thus regarded as Tehran's backdoor to the West – Dubai.

For years, Dubai has been seen by the West as dragging its feet on rigorous enforcement of UN sanctions - an accusation it always denies.

By Hoda Abdel-Hamid in Africa on September 29th, 2010
[AFP photo]

It's a case of sex , power and murder involving an Egyptian real-estate tycoon, an ex-police officer and a Lebanese pop star.

Hisham Talaat Mustafa was a man who had it all: money, close ties to the son of the president, a prominent position within Egypt's ruling party and a seat in parliament. Some say he was made by the system.

Suzane Tamim was a rising star who had been involved with Mustafa before moving to Dubai. Nobody really knows what happened between the two after their affair ended, but something pushed Mustafa over the edge so much that he devised a plot to kill her.

Mustafa called on the services of Mohsen Sokkari, an ex-police officer who worked for him, investigations showed; lured by the prospect of $2 million as compensation, Sokkari travelled to Dubai and stabbed Suzane Tamim to death.

By Hoda Abdel-Hamid in Business on September 4th, 2010
Photo by AFP

Kabul Bank is the topic of the moment in Afghanistan. 

Last week, several American media outlets broke the story that the bank was in trouble and its top two executives - the chairman and the CEO - had been fired. The bank had apparently over-loaned to its own shareholders, who in turn, invested millions of dollars in property in Dubai.  

It took a while for the news to spread around the country, but when it did, it sent a shockwave. Kabul Bank is the largest private bank in Afghanistan - it has a good network of branches throughout the country, and it handles the salaries of security forces, teachers and civil servants.

By Dan Nolan in Middle East on July 28th, 2010
Photo from Al Jazeera

I've read a lot about the labour camps where the construction workers building Dubai’s dazzling skyline call home but until now, I'd never visited one.

It's virtually impossible to get permission to film inside these camps as they provide images you'll never see on any Dubai tourism brochure.

The only reason we could film the Jose Camp is because the company owner has fled the country leaving 38 workers in a hopeless situation.

You can see their story here:

Still no news as to when they might be given permission to leave or their 10 months of unpaid wages.

The defacto spokesperson for the group is 28-year-old Mohammed Ahktar, a quietly spoken labourer from the Punjab region of Pakistan.

By Abid Ali in Business on July 19th, 2010
Photo by AFP

Boeing’s 787, or Dreamliner, touched down at the Farnborough air show in southern England. The plane is the future of air travel - that's why Airbus is building its own carbon-composite version.

 

Farnborough is the biggest shop window for the aircraft makers and defence companies.

Dubai's Emirates agreed to buy 30 of Boeing’s 777-300 wide-body planes worth almost $9 billion.

But the biggest deals will come from the not-so glamorous leasing companies owned by a few names you may be familiar with; General Electric, Royal Bank of Scotland and AIG.

By Dan Nolan in Business on June 17th, 2010
Al Jazeera photo

When property prices rise sharply in a short period of time they call it a bubble. And bubbles eventually burst.

So few could be surprised when the speculation-driven bubble that consumed Dubai’s property industry spectacularly popped in late 2008.

The global financial crisis had forced nervous banks quickly to shut off the free-flowing tap of easy credit that had played such a key role in the bubble's creation.

Many investors had been hooked via the internet with slick online videos - this one was called The Amazing Dubai and was made by a US-based property company flogging real estate.

If it looks too good to be true that’s because it is. At least half the projects shown on there don’t exist and quite a few won’t ever.

Stuff of fantasy

Tags: Dubai
By Nick Clark in Asia, Middle East on March 16th, 2010

 

On the streets of Hong Kong, skinned and dried shark fins are lined up on endless shop shelves. They are still discernibly fin-shaped; that alarming triangle made famous by Steven Spielberg's 1975 horror film Jaws.

 

For the past three decades and more, that image of a shark's fin quickly homing in on its prey has been embedded into the collective psyche. It is something swimmers around the world avoid at all costs.

 

But the threat that sharks may have once posed to the oceans' fish shoals, seal populations and the odd errant human surfer is long gone.

By Dan Nolan in Middle East on March 3rd, 2010
[GALLO/GETTY]

Dubai, with its glamour and glitz, is often described as Las Vegas without the gambling.

But the Middle East's answer to "sin city" has a sinister side rarely found in Nevada.

By Dan Nolan in Middle East on February 25th, 2010
Photo from Reuters

Anyone who still thinks Mossad WASN'T responsible for the murky murder mystery playing out in Dubai must be feeling decidedly lonely right now.

Sure the Israeli media still find it hard to believe that Mossad could be "so irresponsible as to dispatch nearly 30 agents and to expose an entire select operational unit on one assassination operation".

But the latest revelations from Dubai Police are pretty hard to ignore. They've now found 22 fraudulent passport-holders loitering around the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel on the day Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabouh was murdered. (They claim the other 4 suspects were only involved in the planning and preparation.)

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