United Arab Emirates

The American Civil Liberties Union petitioned the U.S. government Wednesday for the release of a U.S. citizen who, the group alleges, has been under FBI scrutiny for years and has been imprisoned without charge in the United Arab Emirates for three months. Naji Hamdan, 42, a former Hawthorne resident, was arrested Aug. 29 by Emirates state police at the request of the U.S. government, effectively putting Hamdan in U.S.

Real Madrid plans to open a $1 billion soccer-centric theme park on a United Arab Emirates man-made island in January 2015 that celebrates the history, triumphs and hubris of the richest football club in the world. PHOTOS: Real Madrid Resort Island in the Middle East The 100-acre Real Madrid Resort Island  will feature a roller coaster that extends out over the water, a SeaWorld-style dolphin show and a hologram soccer movie inside a climate-controlled theme park.

The United Arab Emirates will become the first country in the Middle East to operate computerized digital telecommunications service in 1990, Japan's top computer maker has said. Fujitsu Ltd. said it has received an order for equipment to be used in the integrated digital services network from the country's public telecommunications corporation.

MIDDLE EAST Slide show Mort Loveman will present "United Arab Emirates. " When, where: 1 p.m. Wednesday at Roxbury Park Community Center, 471 S. Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills. Admission, info: $1 for Beverly Hills residents; $2 for others. (310) 285-6840 CAMPING Workshop Experts will offer tips on where to go and what gear you will need to enjoy snowshoeing and winter camping. When, where: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the REI store in Tustin, 2962 El Camino Real.

The United Arab Emirates has carried out a threat to ignore its OPEC quota and authorized companies to pump almost 20% more oil in July, industry sources said Wednesday. "This should bring (oil) prices down very quickly," said one trader. "It is yet another link in the chain of disarray which is creeping into OPEC." OPEC members at their Vienna meeting earlier this month agreed to extend the group's 15.

It will be 5,000 square feet of commercial space--a relatively small chunk of real estate in the sheikdom of Dubai. But officials of Ventura-based Kinko's Inc. expect the company's first branch in the United Arab Emirates to be large enough to attract the attention of the entire Middle Eastern business community. The Dubai branch, a full-scale copy and business service center, is scheduled to open during the first quarter of 1998, with a second Dubai site to follow later in the year.

The lawyer for a young Philippine maid sentenced to seven years in prison for killing her Arab employer, who the court concluded had raped her, said he was confident of winning an appeal of the verdict. An Islamic court in the United Arab Emirates sentenced 16-year-old Sarah Balabagan to prison and fined her $40,000 for stabbing to death her employer--identified in court papers as Almas Mohammed Baloushi.

The United Arab Emirates is expected to announce today that it has chosen Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-16 fighter over competing European aircraft in a deal worth up to $6 billion, according to industry and government sources. The deal could cover as many as 80 F-16s, which are made at a plant in Fort Worth. The choice of the F-16 is a huge boost for Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin because the U.S.

Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who as president of the United Arab Emirates oversaw the transformation of a cluster of tiny desert Persian Gulf sheikdoms into a leading oil and business hub, has died. He was 86. Abu Dhabi TV interrupted regular broadcasting Tuesday to break the news of the death of the man who led the United Arab Emirates since its independence from Britain in 1971.

Yugoslavia qualified for the second round of the World Cup finals with a 4-1 win today over the United Arab Emirates, underdogs in Group D of the soccer tournament. Two goals by Darko Pancev, a replacement for the injured Srecko Katanec, and one apiece by veteran Safet Susic and Robert Prosinecki gave Yugoslavia the victory it needed to advance from the round-robin stage for the first time since 1974.

Iranian media are raising questions about the reported suicide in a Dubai, United Arab Emirates, hotel room of the son of a prominent Iranian politician and former Revolutionary Guard commander. The body of Ahmed Rezai was found Saturday in his hotel suite, according to news reports. He was the son of Mohsen Rezai, secretary-general of Iran's influential Expediency Council, which advises the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The elder Rezai ran unsuccessfully as a conservative challenger to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009's disputed election.

Hundreds of troops from Saudi Arabia and police officers from the nearby United Arab Emirates have entered Bahrain at the request of the ruling family, a move that further polarized the tiny island nation and marks the first time Arab nations have intervened in another country's affairs amid sweeping unrest in the region. Bahrain television showed a line of armored vehicles Monday carrying Saudi soldiers crossing the 16-mile King Fahd Causeway that links the two countries. The surprise deployment came after several days of worsening violence that had paralyzed the country and threatened to bring down the monarchy.

The Obama administration is courting the pan-Arab television network Al Jazeera in an attempt to improve a history of testy relations with one of the most influential news outlets in the Middle East. The new policy of engagement has been apparent in recent weeks as a State Department media outreach office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has sought to place Arabic-speaking diplomats on Al Jazeera to lay out Washington's talking points about the protests roiling the region. State Department officials, including chief spokesman Philip J. Crowley and Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, have gone on Al Jazeera more than a dozen times in the last month.

South Korean special forces rescued 21 seamen held hostage aboard a freighter seized last week in the Arabian Sea, killing eight Somali pirates in the top secret mission, officials said Friday. The captain of the South Korean chemical carrier Samho Jewelry was shot in the stomach by a pirate during the pre-dawn military raid Friday, but his injuries were not life-threatening, officials said. Five suspected pirates were captured. "Our special forces stormed the hijacked Samho Jewelry earlier today and freed all hostages," said Col. Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

JONATHAN MOTZFELDT Former premier of Greenland Jonathan Motzfeldt, 72, a former premier of Greenland who spearheaded a drive for more self-rule and opposed U.S. bases on the semiautonomous Danish territory, died of a brain hemorrhage Thursday at Queen Ingrid Hospital in Nuuk, Greenland, the local government announced. Motzfeldt led the Arctic island's government from 1979 to 1991 and again from 1997 to 2002, and is considered one of the founding fathers of its home rule agreement with Denmark.

Fran Crippen, a medal-winning open-water swimmer on the U.S. national team, died Saturday during a 10-kilometer World Cup race in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. He was 26. Several swimmers returned to the water to search for Crippen after he failed to finish the race. They were followed by a dive team. Crippen's body was found just before the last buoy on the triangular course, race organizers said. Swimmers described the conditions as unusually hot but would not comment specifically about Crippen's death.

Philippine maid Sarah Balabagan was caned 100 times in a United Arab Emirates prison for stabbing her Gulf Arab employer to death. Philippine Ambassador Roy Seneres said Balabagan "said it was bearable. Embassy officials visited her twice afterward, and there were no marks or bruises or reddening." Seneres said the canings were carried out 20 at a time on five separate days, ending Monday.

Citing concerns that terrorists and criminals could exploit telecommunications traffic in the Arab world's financial hub, the United Arab Emirates said Sunday that it would suspend e-mail and Web browsing on BlackBerry services beginning in October. Shortly after the UAE's announcement, media reports quoted officials in Saudi Arabia as saying the kingdom would take similar steps to restrict features on the popular BlackBerry smartphones. The decisions could affect up to 1 million BlackBerry users in the region and possibly upset networking for businesspeople and tourists.

A major Los Angeles building, engineering and design firm has purchased New York giant Tishman Construction Corp. for $245 million. The deal, announced Wednesday, pairs Tishman with Aecom Technology Corp., one of the world's largest construction firms. It is headquartered in downtown Los Angeles and has about 45,000 employees worldwide. "This is a unique opportunity that combines two best-in-class industry leaders to form a fully integrated global platform capable of delivering the full suite of services: from project concept to completion," said Aecom Chief Executive John M. Dionisio said in a statement.