UAE

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — American and Iranian warships had a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf earlier this month, the first such incident in about a year amid wider turmoil in the region over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal, the U.S. Navy said Tuesday.

Footage released by the Navy showed a ship commanded by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard cut in front of the USCGC Monomoy, causing the Coast Guard vessel to come to an abrupt stop with its engine smoking on April 2.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A recording of Iran’s foreign minister offering a blunt appraisal of diplomacy and the limits of power within the Islamic Republic has been leaked, providing a rare look inside the country’s theocracy.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Apart from China and despite a worldwide drop in death sentences, countries in the Middle East remained among the world’s leading executioners last year, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

The number of executions worldwide plummeted to its lowest level in over a decade, with at least 483 people executed in 2020, compared to 657 the previous year, as the coronavirus pandemic slowed criminal trials and disrupted scheduled executions.

 20 Apr 2021; MEMO: UAE's Group 42 (G42) and state-owned Israeli Advanced Defense Systems firm, Rafael, have agreed to establish a joint venture for artificial intelligence and big data technologies based in Israel, news agencies reported yesterday.

The two firms agreed to name their joint venture Presight.AI, and it will conduct research and develop products for different sectors, including banking, healthcare, and public safety.

18 Apr 2021; MEMO: There are no scheduled meetings between Pakistani and Indian foreign ministers during their visits to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials from both countries confirmed on Saturday, Anadolu Agency reported.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi arrived in Abu Dhabi for a three-day visit on Saturday and his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar, will visit the Gulf state on Sunday.

14 Apr 2021; MEMO: Japanese lunar exploration firm iSpace will collaborate with the UAE in taking a rover to the moon next year.

According to Reuters, the Rashid lunar rover will be built entirely by the Emirates, who had originally intended to launch it into space by 2024. The launch next year will be the company's first mission of its kind and will involve the use of a Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk's SpaceX, to be launched from Florida.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran and global powers will resume talks on Thursday to rescue the 2015 nuclear deal in an effort potentially complicated by Tehran’s decision to ramp up uranium enrichment and what it called Israeli sabotage at a nuclear site.

Casting a shadow over the Vienna talks, Tehran on Tuesday announced its decision to enrich uranium at 60% purity, a big step closer to the 90% that is weapons-grade material, in response to an explosion at its key Natanz facility on Sunday.

12 Apr 2021; MEMO: Dubai has signed an agreement with General Motors Co's majority-owned Cruise self-driving car subsidiary to operate its autonomous vehicles in Dubai starting in 2023, Reuters reported the emirate's crown prince announcing today.

Dubai, Apr 12 (AP-PTI) Dubai is parting with a longstanding requirement that restaurants be covered by curtains in the daytime during Ramadan to shield the sight of food from people fasting.

The move, announced Sunday by the city-state's Economic Development Department, is the latest change aimed at boosting tourism in the autocratically ruled Muslim nation.

Restaurants will be allowed to serve customers without putting in place curtains, dividers or facades as has been the mandatory practice previously, the state-run WAM news agency said.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran on Sunday described a blackout at its underground Natanz atomic facility an act of “nuclear terrorism,” raising regional tensions as world powers and Tehran continue to negotiate over its tattered nuclear deal.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, suspicion fell immediately on Israel, where its media nearly uniformly reported a devastating cyberattack orchestrated by the country caused the blackout.