Manchester City yesterday became a company fully owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) after the club's owner Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, completed a 100 per cent buyout of the English Premier League side.

Through ADUG last year, Shaikh Mansour took control of the club from their previous owner, former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Inline with its efforts of protecting the local community from prohibited materials, Passengers Operations Department at Dubai Customs managed to foil a bid to smuggle an amount of narcotics into the UAE through Dubai International Airport.

A Customs inspector in Airport Terminal 2 started to suspect an Asian passenger heading from an Asian country when he looked confused and frisky near the inspection area at the Airport. Therefore, he was meticulously observed by the rangers' inspectors.

Ras Al Khaimah In January 1820 on the shores of the bustling port of Ras Al Khaimah, Arab tribal chiefs and British naval officers inked a new maritime peace accord to keep goods flowing on the trade routes of the Gulf, ushering a new era of high-seas prosperity in the Middle East.

In August 1851 at England’s Isle of Wight, US racing schooner America beat 14 yachts in the All Nation’s Race to clinch the 100 Guinea Cup – a shining silver mug that would evolve into the world’s oldest international sporting trophy known as the famed America’s Cup.

Dubai has dropped from the top of a list of the fastest rising financial centres in the world, it was announced on Wednesday.

The latest independent Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) showed that Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen are now considered the most likely to become more significant on the world stage, a position held by Dubai in last year’s index.

Dubai also fell to fifth in the list of financial centres where international companies saw future offices being opened, behind four Asian-based centres, according to the results of the GFCI questionnaire.

Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building, is set to open a public observation deck on level 124 this year, offering sweeping vistas of Dubai.

Billed as one of the world's highest observation decks, "At The Top" is also designed to be an evocative and interactive journey through the history and evolution of Dubai as well as Burj Dubai.

Burj Dubai general manager Thomas Dempsey promised that At The Top would be a never-before experience for visitors.

For the first time in the UAE, the rare Greater flamingo, has been discovered breeding in large numbers in the wild.

A colony of 18,000 birds, including 800 chicks, was discovered earlier this year in an intertidal area close to Abu Dhabi city. The site, near the Musaffah Channel, is the largest of its kind in the UAE.

The number of the birds is large enough to put the site on the world map for bird conservationists and is significant in that it shows flamingos breeding outside of their usual habitat. Flamingos usually spend winter in the UAE but do not breed here, preferring the shores of the Caspian Sea and other parts of Central Asia.

International companies would be allowed to hold 100 per cent ownership of businesses they establish in the UAE under proposed changes to legislation aimed at boosting foreign investment.

Currently, foreigners must have a UAE national as a sponsor and are limited to a maximum 49 per cent ownership of businesses in the Emirates, except in free zones scattered about the country.

The new industry law would open the door for hi-tech firms offering large capital investments to set up operations here as the Government seeks to expand its industrial base and create new jobs.

No one will mistake this for Newport.

To reach the site picked for the next America’s Cup, swing past the camel racetrack near the airport.

Then pass by South Asian groceries and dusty rows of villas under construction. Finally, turn toward a stretch of the Persian Gulf where the ruling sheiks are building an island shaped a bit like a plant inspired by Dr. Seuss.

In a region where sports is routinely pushed to anything-is-possible heights — biggest, richest, most lavish — snagging the venerable America’s Cup is something apart even for the Emirates’ outsized visions.

Tourism chiefs in Abu Dhabi have said the city is on track to hit its 2009 targets despite the impact of the economic downturn.

The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) is aiming for about 1.5 million hotel guests this year.

“The targets we have in place are based on a solid understanding of demand and supply fundamentals,” said Lawrence Franklin, the director of strategy and policy at the authority in comments published by UAE daily The National on Monday.

The top executive at Dubai-based Emirates airline said Monday that he expects that the carrier's Airbus 380 flights will return to New York in the first six months of 2010, because passenger demand should be recovering by then.

The airline started New York service with the double-deck aircraft in April of last year, but pulled it two months later and replaced it with the smaller Boeing 777. Emirates has stretched its network as demand sank in the recession, especially in the U.S.

Emirates currently has five A380s in its fleet.