UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Bankers gathered in Dubai on Wednesday to hammer out a $26 billion debt plan with state-owned Dubai World as a repayment deadline loomed, adding to pressure on the glitzy emirate to settle the conglomerate's debt.

Internet telephony firm Skype has questioned Egypt's move to ban international calls made through mobile Internet connections and said markets should be left open for consumers to choose.

Dubai's debt restructuring proposal will determine the fate of UAE equity markets as the ailing emirate seeks support from Abu Dhabi, with markets poised to rally if the deal includes guarantees, analysts said.

Lenders to Dubai World will get a range of options including full repayment once Abu Dhabi decides how much additional support it will provide its debt-strapped neighbor, sources close to the discussions said.

Rania Oteify and Rachna UppalThe United Arab Emirates pledged its support for Dubai on Tuesday but said the emirate had yet to ask for federal help, which analysts said would come reluctantly and with strings attached.

Rania OteifyThe federal government will support Dubai as it grapples with a $26 billion debt restructuring and expects the matter to be resolved soon, the United Arab Emirates' finance minister said on Tuesday.

Hopes of progress this week on Dubai World's $26 billion debt restructuring lifted stocks and eased fears of default, but potential divisions emerged among creditors to the state-owned conglomerate.

Troubled conglomerate Dubai World expects to put its debt plan to creditors as early as this week but the final proposal is being delayed by efforts to accurately value developer Nakheel's assets, bankers said on Sunday.

About a year ago, Muqtar Ali's brother was shot dead by gunmen in the busy Bakara market of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, and his $200 in cash was stolen.

Standard Chartered said it would pay staff $1.1 billion in bonuses in a red hot fight for talent after strong investment banking in its core Asian markets in 2009 helped fuel record profits.

Dubai's police chief plans to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Israel's spy agency over the killing of a Hamas leader in the emirate, Al Jazeera television reported.

India's ITC is planning to market their food products in UAE and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) through a partnership with the Al Seer Group, an ITC official was quoted by a new report.

The United Arab Emirates has identified four more suspects who carried British and Irish passports in the Dubai killing of a Hamas commander, a source familiar with the investigation said on Tuesday.

Abu Dhabi government investment fund Mubadala is talking with banks to refinance a $2 billion loan due in April, among the first refinancings by Gulf firms since Dubai's debt problems rocked markets in November.

Barclays Plc beat forecasts with a near doubling of profits in 2009 to 11.6 billion pounds ($18.2 billion), cheering investors with an improved balance sheet and boosting shares across the sector.

HSBC expects double-digit revenue growth this year in its Amanah Islamic banking division and more sukuk mandates than in 2009, Razi Fakih, deputy chief executive of Amanah told Reuters.

With the start of a New Year and Valentine's Day looming on the horizon, now is the perfect time to stop putting off that proposal and finally do what you've always wanted - to show your significant other how you truly feel about him or her.

A number of mistakes and eroding public confidence has some scientists calling for drastic changes in how future United Nations climate reports are handled.

Dubai would seek the arrest of Israel's prime minister if it found evidence intelligence service Mossad was behind the killing of a senior Hamas official, its police chief said in a newspaper Friday.

New York University has imposed strict labor standards for construction of its campus in the United Arab Emirates, where critics say migrant worker conditions are sometimes tantamount to forced labor.

New York's famed Bloomingdale's department store opened its doors in the Middle East's biggest mall on Sunday in its first foray outside its home market.