DUBAI

Al Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahri appeared on Tuesday in an apparent new video marking the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, according to the SITE Institute, a U.S.-based terrorism monitoring service.

Thousands of supporters of exiled former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra braved torrential rain and flooding on Saturday in a rally to mark the third anniversary of the billionaire's overthrow by the military.

Dubai World, a Dubai government holding company, filed a lawsuit in the United States this week against the former head of a subsidiary it accuses of fraud costing the United Arab Emirates firm millions of dollars.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warned the American people over their government's close ties with Israel in an apparently new audio tape posted on an Islamist website on Monday.

A merger between Dubai's top stock exchanges, Dubai Financial Market DFM.DU and Nasdaq Dubai NDAQ.DI, is a possibility, a leading official said, according to newspaper Emirates Business (www.business24-7.ae).

Dubai's Istithmar World is freezing investments as part of a restructuring process that may result in sale of the fund or its assets, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the plan.

Royal Bank of Scotland has appointed Goldman Sachs to consider a sale or other options for RBS Aviation Capital, one of the world's biggest plane leasing businesses, a person familiar with the matter said.

Bloated inventories and the risk of a price slide will trouble OPEC ministers when they meet in Vienna next week, but oil at close to $70 a barrel is expected to convince the group to hold output steady for now.

The Saudi interior ministry on Tuesday issued a recording of a telephone conversation between the prince who heads the kingdom's anti-terrorism campaign and an Al Qaeda militant who tried to assassinate him days later.

The market for initial public offerings (IPO) in the Gulf looks set to reopen as stock markets and the oil price recover, and bankers expect a few companies to test the waters when Ramadan ends.

A lead single about a proletarian revolt against the global banking crisis. A teaser campaign involving a worldwide musical treasure hunt. And an album that ends with a three-part, fully orchestrated symphony about an alternative theory of the creation of mankind. Is Muse the only young, stadium-filling rock band that could get away with this?

The Doha Tribeca Film Festival, Qatar's first film event, said on Monday it wants to create a hub for regional filmmakers in the Gulf Arab state, through education initiatives and community involvement.

Hong Kong-based private equity firm First Eastern Investment Group plans to invest in a Wall Street bank as part of a strategy to build its presence in every major global financial hub, its chairman Victor Chu said.

Chinese citizens are allowed to tour another nine nations, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the Middle East, from September 15, according to the National Tourism Administration.

A court on Thursday sentenced to death three Indians found guilty of conspiring with a Pakistan-based militant group to carry out serial blasts in Mumbai in 2003 that killed at least 54 people, officials said.

Pakistan said on Thursday that evidence given by India failed to build a case for the arrest of Hafiz Saeed, the founder of a Pakistan-based group blamed for the Mumbai attacks, a stance certain to stoke anger in India.

Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said Israel should be wiped off the map and described the Jewish state as a crime against Muslims.

Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said an offer the militant group made to the previous U.S. administration of a conditional truce is still on the table for President Barack Obama.

Dubai's Emaar Properties EMAR.DU, the builder of the world's tallest tower in the Gulf Emirate, made a loss of 1.29 billion dirhams ($351.2 million) for the second quarter after it wrote off the complete book value of its U.S. unit.

A brash Kuwaiti financier facing a fraud suit by U.S. authorities was found dead Sunday in an apparent suicide that sent shockwaves through the Gulf Arab financial sector.

Middle East analysts from London-based risk consultancy Exclusive Analysis answer emailed questions about Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE.