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Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR) has appointed his son Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed as second deputy ruler of the emirate, while also naming existing deputy Sheikh Maktoum Bin Mohammed as first deputy ruler.

Al Jazeera Media Network said its journalist Hisham Abdelaziz was released from custody in Egypt on 1 May, after spending almost four years in pre-trial detention.

The High Court in London has issued a summary judgement against Prince Fahd Bin Sultan Bin Abdelaziz in his dispute with Credit Suisse over a loan for his yacht Sarafsa. Mr Justice Bright ruled in favour of the Swiss bank on 31 March and set out his reasoning in a full statement on 5 April, saying the prince had no real prospect of succeeding in defending his position if the case went to trial.

Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al-Nahyan, one of the lower-profile sons of UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ), was due to list his company Ethmar International Holding on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) as GSN was going to press.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani reshuffled the country’s security establishment in a series of decrees and orders, naming his brother and interior minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani as commander of the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya).

In Kuwait, the court’s willingness to hold members of its ruling family to account has been revived, with a ten-year prison sentence handed to Sheikh Sabah Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, son of the former premier Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, for his role in a $1bn corruption case.

In the late March round of appointments Sheikh Hazza lost his long-held position as Abu Dhabi Executive Council (ADEC) deputy chairman but gained the position of deputy ruler. It is not clear what powers or duties this new role will have and some analysts suspect it will be largely ceremonial.

Qatar's former finance minister Ali Al-Emadi and several other unnamed individuals were referred to the Criminal Court, following an investigation by the Public Prosecution. They face charges including bribery, appropriation of public money, abuse of office, abuse of power, damage to public money and money laundering.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman Bin Abdelaziz appointed a well-known local journalist - Salman Bin Yousef Bin Ali Al-Dosari - as media minister, in a minor reshuffle of officials. Al-Dosari is a former editor of London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

In rare public criticism of the authorities, Grand Mufti of Oman Ahmed Bin Hamad Al-Khalili has voiced his objection to a recent decision to open Omani airspace to Israeli planes.

The late Shah’s son Reza Pahlavi believes opposition groups can unite to remove the Iranian ruling system in a constitutional coup, while the Mojahedin-e-Khalq remains committed to armed revolution. But, along with the reformists tolerated by the regime, none of these actors seem to have great traction on Iran’s streets, where Ayatollah Ali Khameini has most to fear from the combination of younger protestors and workers.

Labelled by the British press as a ‘billionaire banker’, Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Bin Jassim Al-Thani was born in April 1982 into a family that accrued almost unimaginable wealth, as the Qatari economy grew from an all but impoverished desert peninsula into a global-scale gas giant. His father, former prime minister and foreign minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani (HBJ), played an instrumental role in that process.

Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Bin Jassim Al-Thani’s emergence as a bidder to buy Manchester United FC has thrust the banker into the global limelight, while also posing questions about the balance of power and wealth in the opaque world of Qatari politics, which his father Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim (HBJ) dominated for so many years.

Fujairah Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Hamad Al-Sharqi appointed Ahmed Hamdan Al-Zeyoudi as director of the Crown Prince’s Office on 5 February, replacing Salem Al-Zahmi who has been named an advisor Al-Zeyoudi is UAE Taekwondo Federation president.

Saudi Prince Salman Bin Sultan Bin Salman, a grandson of King Salman Bin Abdelaziz, filed a claim in the Delaware Chancery Court against Delaware's Cave Cay LP. Prince Salman claimed Cave Cay was in breach of an agreement.