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As well as apparently playing a part in arranging the release of Libyan Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset Ali Mohammed Al-Megrahi, Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani held talks with visiting Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who also visited the UAE.

With Oman taking the threat of H1N1 – ‘swine flu’ – very seriously, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Saeed on 5 September ordered the establishment of a Supreme Committee for H1N1 to draw up a comprehensive plan to tackle the disease.

The position of Ismailis in Najran is set against the troubling state of neighbouring northern Yemen, where the conflict between government forces and the Al-Houthi rebel movement is growing more intense

Qatar seems to have played a facilitating role in getting convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset Ali Mohammed Al-Megrahi back to Libya, just as it helped in getting the Bulgarian medics out of Colonel Qadhafi’s Jamahiriya (State of the Masses) in 2007.

The emirate represents the second most threatened in the GCC after Saudi Arabia, and Kuwaitis are significantly represented among Al-Qaeda’s leadership

The former ambassador to London and Washington has written an article in Foreign Policy magazine in which he said that for US politicians, invoking energy independence is now as “essential as baby-kissing” and accuses them of “demagoguery”.

The Majlis has approved 18 of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 21 nominations to government posts, many of whom are hardliners loyal to the president and with backgrounds in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The composition of the new government further fuels suspicion that the IRGC is seizing power in the Islamic Republic. It has become more prominent since it backed Ahmadinejad in June’s disputed presidential election, subsequently clamping down on dissenters and opposition.

Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan is in Washington DC for meetings with senior US officials. Accompanying him in talks with President Barack Obama is UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan.

Tough judicial and security interventions undermine King Abdullah’s overtures to Shias and Ismailis as Prince Nayef and his allies grow more assertive

For all their power and wealth, few among the Saudi merchant class attained the level of fame of Khalid Bin Mahfouz

Various princes have begun returning to Saudi Arabia at the conclusion of their summer holidays, including several who had been staying in Morocco with Crown Prince Sultan.

A cargo ship that vanished en route from Finland to Algeria on 24 July was carrying arms to Iran and was being tracked by the Israeli security service Mossad, according to sources in Russia and Israel quoted in UK newspaper The Sunday Times.

Still convalescing in Morocco, Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdelaziz has had visits at his Agadir palace from Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Attempts to reassure world markets that the emirate’s debt is no more than $80bn have been overshadowed by the revelation that Dubai World alone owes $59.3bn. Last November, Emaar Properties chairman Mohammed Ali Alabbar – for long a key ally of UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR) – attempted to reassure financial markets that Dubai’s debt was no more than $80bn. It now appears the figure is higher.

Several Gulfis were among the latest batch of officers to pass out of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Bahraini graduates included