Uae

While Abu Dhabi pours $27 billion into building five museums, including a Guggenheim designed by Frank Gehry and a Louvre designed by Jean Nouvel, another planned project will help expand Arabic libraries. As part of efforts to transform the emirate into the cultural lodestone of the Middle East, the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, or Adach, has chosen 100 books to be translated into Arabic.

Westwood-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. will submit a proposal to help develop natural gas fields in the United Arab Emirates. An Occidental spokesman confirmed comments on the bid made by Chief Financial Officer Stephen Chazen at an energy conference in New Orleans. State-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has said it plans to develop the Sour Gas Development Project to deliver 1 billion cubic feet of fuel a day by 2012. From Bloomberg News * Chevron Corp.'

President Bush voiced concern Friday that the political uproar that forced a Dubai-owned company to abandon its plan to operate several U.S. ports would damage relations with Middle East allies, his comments coming as the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates postponed free-trade talks. The negotiations between the U.S. trade representative's office and the Emirates began a year ago as part of a larger administration effort to improve trade relations with the Middle East. U.S.

Your editorial, "Boxer's rebellion" (Feb. 26), completely ignored the nonpartisan response to this latest, potentially tragic mistake by the Bush administration. The United Arab Emirates (a "key ally") had many connections with the 9/11 attackers. It is ridiculous that President Bush compares Britain with the UAE. If anything, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and our representatives in Congress have been incredibly lax in holding the administration responsible for the numerous mistakes of the last five years.

The United States will resume talks in March on a free-trade pact with the United Arab Emirates despite an uproar over the Bush administration's approval of a deal to allow a UAE company to operate terminals at six U.S. ports, a U.S. trade official said. The U.S. was making "good progress" in the UAE talks and hoped to finish relatively soon, said Shaun Donnelly, assistant U.S. trade representative.

Britain said Sunday that it had sent four Hercules aircraft to Kabul to help airlift hundreds of Afghans to Saudi Arabia for the annual hajj, or pilgrimage. Answering a request from Afghanistan's interim prime minister, Hamid Karzai, an Afghan aviation authority official said Saudi Arabia had sent a Boeing 747 and Pakistan had sent an Airbus A-310 to help transport pilgrims. The United Arab Emirates was sending several aircraft to carry 1,000 pilgrims, UAE's official news agency, WAM, reported.

The Taliban's military success in Afghanistan is alarming for anyone concerned with human rights, to say nothing of peace and stability in the region (Oct. 2). Yet Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain, our good "buddies," all have non-democratically elected leaders, and most of these Muslim countries are considered among the most repressive regimes in the world. Their treatment of half their population--women--is especially reprehensible. JENNIFER FLOWERS Laguna Beach

Tele-Communications Inc. said Wednesday that it offered to buy the remaining 46% of United Artists Entertainment Co. shares it does not own in a deal that would be worth more than $1 billion. The transaction would consolidate two of the nation's biggest cable-TV system operators--TCI ranks first with about 8.5 million basic subscribers, including UAE's 2.7-million. In a letter to the UAE board, TCI President and Chief Executive John C.

Police stormed the United Arab Emirates Embassy today and freed unharmed the ambassador and other diplomats who were held hostage by a gunman threatening to blow up the mission, a senior police official said. Provincial Police Commissioner Alfatih Abdoun said a man holding a hand grenade and a gun held all embassy members, including Ambassador Mohammed Sultan al Soued, hostage in the top envoy's office for five hours.