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The election of four women to the National Assembly marks a significant victory for civic rights and indicates a shift in public mood.

AL-MAKTOUM: Milan rumours, Manal Bint Mohammed Nin Rashid: Award

MBZ: Meets Moroccan king in Fes, Mohammed Bin Khalifa: US Treasury talks, Al -Nahyan: Big wedding, Issa Bin Zayed: German estate

Sharjah Ruler Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al-Qasimi’s prominent daughter Sheikha Budoor has been appointed chair of the UAE Publishers Association’s first board of directors.

US President Barack Obama is to visit Saudi Arabia on 3 June for talks with King Abdullah, the White House announced on 26 May.

Given half a chance, Iranians will vote against the establishment – not just in disaffected urban areas, but in the countryside (where incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is widely believed to have the edge), and even within the ruling elite, whose members may swap from faction to faction while maintaining staunch support for Iran’s velayat-e faqih system of clerical rule. Ahmadinejad has made a global career by presenting himself as an underdog – a status that tends to attract Iranian voters (as the reformist Mohammad Khatami found when he beat conservative rivals in 1997). But he has other elite ‘underdogs’ to compete with.

Widening their scope of operations, Somali pirates are posing an ever greater challenge to regional governments. While energy producers are rethinking their export strategies, governments are concerned that the Horn of Africa’s instability will encroach on the Gulf region’s southern flank. Yemen is especially vulnerable as the collapse of export revenues piles further pressure on President Saleh. GSN analyses developments in the Gulf of Aden, Somalia and Yemen, and talks exclusively to the Southern Movement’s new figurehead Ali Salem Al-Baydh.

Somali pirates are said to have earned at least $30m last year, although some estimates are much higher. This compares with the unrecognised Republic of Puntland's formal budget of around $20m/yr, with revenues gleaned from customs, airport and land revenues. Many pirates are said to be based in Puntland, which GSN's Nadine Marroushi visited last year, on terms which demanded a heavy security complement. Somalia's ruling Transitional Federal Government (TFG) Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdulahi Omar has said pirates can earn as much as $150m/yr from ransoms.

Sheikh Fahd Bin Jassim: Car crash kills fast-rising minister,Emir Sheikh Hamad : Milford Haven, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Ahmed: Free trade hypocrisy

Sultan Bin Abdelaziz: Back in Morocco, King Abdullah: No Peres meeting, Maha Bint Fahd: Al-Turki princess dies, Talal Bin Abdelaziz: Another political reform call, Turki Bin Abdullah: Turkmenistan visit,Sattam Bin Abdelaziz: US mayors come to town

The collapse of energy export revenues is piling further pressure on President Ali Abdullah Saleh as the tribal and post-socialist wings of the southern campaign unite around a figurehead, Ali Salem Al-Baydh, who talked exclusively to GSN about the evolving crisis.

Southern Movement chief sets out his agenda

Engagement without marriage: Beltway pessimistic as Obama's team prepares to tackle Iran

The Abu Dhabi authorities have said that Sheikh Issa Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan – the figure at the centre of the torture tapes scandal that has made headlines worldwide (GSN 852/20) – has been detained in a criminal investigation.

Considerable speculation persists about the government reshuffle announced by federal Prime Minister and Vice President, and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR) on 11 May.