Expats in Cyprus Furious at 'Legalised Theft' of Their Savings
Britons living in Cyprus are outraged by the Cypriot government's plans to impose a levy on bank deposits, with many desperately trying to withdraw their savings before tax is enforced.

British Woman Faces Jail for 'Sex in Backseat of Dubai Taxi' after All-day Drinking Binge

MAIL ONLINE: A British businesswoman faces up to three years in jail for allegedly having sex in a taxi in Dubai while she was drunk.

Rebecca Blake, 29, and Conor McRedmond were arrested after an all-day drinking binge.

They were held for five days and accused of having sex outside marriage and being drunk in a public place – both criminal offences in the strict Islamic state.

Miss Blake, a recruitment consultant, met Irishman Mr McRedmond at The Irish Village, a hotel bar where patrons pay £10 a head for an all-you-can-drink brunch event. After drinking for 12 hours, the pair hailed a cab towards Dubai Marina.

Minutes later they were spotted in a passionate embrace by the driver in his rear view mirror, according to police reports.

Incensed by their behaviour, the driver stopped and complained to police in a patrol car parked nearby. When he returned with an officer, they saw Miss Blake having sex on the back seat of the cab with Mr McRedmond, it is alleged.

A source said: ‘They were completely drunk, started kissing and then got carried away. That’s when they started having sex.

‘When the police officer went over, he found the woman was completely naked and they were having sex on the back seat.’ Read on and comment » | Arthur Martin | Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Omani Protesters Block Road to Port after 6 Die
REUTERS: Omani protesters demanding political reforms blocked roads to a main export port and refinery on Monday and a doctor said the death toll from clashes with police in the Gulf Arab sultanate had risen to six.

Hundreds of protesters blocked the entrance to the industrial area of the northern coastal town of Sohar, which includes a port, refinery and aluminum factory. They pushed back four army vehicles that had been observing the scene.

"We want to see the benefit of our oil wealth distributed evenly to the population," one protester yelled over a loudhailer near the port. "We want to see a scale-down of expatriates in Oman so more jobs can be created for Omanis."

The unrest in Sohar, Oman's main industrial center, was a rare outbreak of discontent in the normally sleepy sultanate ruled by Sultan Qaboos bin Said for four decades, and follows a wave of pro-democracy protests across the Arab world.

Oman's government, trying to calm tensions, promised on Sunday to create more jobs and give benefits to job seekers.

A main supermarket in Sohar was burning on Monday after being looted, witnesses said. Protesters stormed the town's police station on Sunday to try to free detainees before burning it. They had also set two state offices alight.

As well as those demonstrating outside the industrial area, hundreds more were at the main Globe Roundabout, angry after police opened fire on Sunday at stone-throwing protesters demanding political reforms, jobs and better pay.

Graffiti scrawled on a statue said: "The people are hungry." Another message read: "No to oppression of the people."

Nearby, sidewalks were smashed and office windows broken. Troops deployed around the town but were not intervening to disperse protesters.

"There are no jobs, there's no freedom of opinion. The people are tired and people want money. People want to end corruption," said Ali al-Mazroui, 30, who is unemployed. >>> Jason Benham and Saleh Al-Shaibany | Monday, February 28, 2011

Dubai Falls on Hard Times
NRC HANDELSBLAD: The wealthy Gulf state of Dubai has been hit hard by the global economic crisis. Tens of thousands of workers have been laid off and forced to return to their homelands. The Dutch community in Dubai is also feeling the pinch.

Jan Demmink has lived in Dubai for 28 years. It's the pleasant atmosphere, the entrepreneurial spirit and the climate that keep him in the Gulf state. He witnessed the transformation of what was once a tranquil and prosperous town into the vast collection of skyscrapers that makes up modern-day Dubai.

Under the leadership of Sheik Mohammed and his father Maktoum III, the emirate invested in the financial sector, tourism and real estate. The bigger, more expensive and more luxurious the better. Yet these are the very sectors that have been shaken to their foundations by the crisis and meanwhile Dubai has no major oil reserves to fall back on.

Financial nosedive

Jan Demmink works in the electronic security of complexes such as refineries, palaces and roads. His position is safe for the time being. "I work on long-running projects, so I have yet to feel the effects of the crisis," he explains. "But in construction you can see the signs already. A halt has been called to projects that were only started recently, or which have yet to get under way."

Dutch dredging company Van Oord is one of those in the firing line. The company hit the headlines worldwide with the construction of Palm Jumeirah, the first of Dubai's famous Palm islands and the construction of The World archipelago. Van Oord was all set to embark on a third island project, Palm Deira, an order worth 2.5 billion euros, the largest in the company's history. Part of the order has already been realised but the rest is on the back burner for the foreseeable future. The funding simply isn't there. Spokesman Bert Groothuizen says no one saw the rapid changes coming. "It was a nosedive. Especially in the fourth quarter of 2008. And I don't think these problems will be solved in six months' time." Expats Feeling the Economic Nosedive in Dubai >>> By Willemien Groot for Radio Netherlands Worldwide | Friday, February 27, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback – The Netherlands) >>>

Syria Welcomes Expatriates Home
BBC: Syria is changing its legislation in order to attract its large number of expatriates back to the country, bringing their skills and capital with them.

President Bashar Assad himself lived in the UK for many years before coming to power in 2000 after the death of his father.

Measures include economic incentives and exemptions from military service. The latter was one of the main reasons expatriates would not even come back to the country to visit their families.

Baha Issa, in his 30s, lived for more than 15 years in the UK and Dubai. He has now left his job as a communications officer for Microsoft to work at the newly established Sham Holding company in Syria.

"I am very excited to come back. In a developed country you have slowly to climb the career ladder, but here you are part of a team that is taking the country to a different level," he says.

It is a message the government - which estimates that 15 million Syrians are living abroad, compared with 20 million at home - is keen to promote. Syria Welcomes Expatriates Home >>> | May 28, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)