Dubai

DUBAI, March 24 (Reuters) - Emirates Airline has a "substantial" amount of ticket sale revenue trapped in Nigeria and has made only slow progress in repatriating blocked funds out of Africa's biggest economy, it said on Friday.

A day earlier Nigeria's aviation minister Hadi Sirika told reporters that the Dubai-based carrier had received most of its funds out of Nigeria and had about $35 million that still needed to be released.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Muslim authorities in Saudi Arabia and several other Middle Eastern countries say this year’s fasting month of Ramadan will begin Thursday based on the expected sighting of the crescent moon.

Clerics across the region said the moon was not visible Tuesday night, meaning it will almost certainly appear the following evening, heralding the start of the monthlong observance.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Some 2.5 tons of natural uranium stored in a site in war-torn Libya have gone missing, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Thursday, raising safety and proliferation concerns.

Natural uranium can’t immediately be used for energy production or bomb fuel, as the enrichment process typically requires the metal to be converted into a gas, then later spun in centrifuges to reach the levels needed.

March 12 (Reuters) - Most stock markets in the Middle East ended lower on Sunday, with the Egyptian bourse leading the declines, in response to Friday's fall in global shares over fears of contagion following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) (SIVB.O).

The startup-focused lender became the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis on Friday, roiling global markets and leaving billions of dollars belonging to companies and investors stranded.

DUBAI, March 12 (Reuters) - Iran and the United States have reached an agreement to exchange prisoners, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told state TV on Sunday, but Washington denied it as a "false" claim by Tehran.

"Regarding the issue of prisoner swaps between Iran and the U.S. we have reached an agreement in the recent days and if everything goes well on the U.S. side, I think we will witness a prisoner exchange in a short period," Amirabdollahian said.

DUBAI, March 11 (Reuters) - Iran has reached a deal to buy advanced Su-35 fighter planes from Russia, Iranian state media said on Saturday, expanding a relationship that has seen Iranian-built drones used in Russia's war on Ukraine.

"The Sukhoi-35 fighter planes are technically acceptable to Iran and Iran has finalised a contract for their purchase," the broadcaster IRIB quoted Iran's mission to the United Nations as saying in New York.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed Friday to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions. The major diplomatic breakthrough negotiated with China lowers the chance of armed conflict between the Mideast rivals — both directly and in proxy conflicts around the region.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader said Monday that if a series of suspected poisonings at girls’ schools is proven to be deliberate the culprits should be sentenced to death for committing an “unforgivable crime.”

It was the first time Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, has spoken publicly about the suspected poisonings, which began late last year and have sickened hundreds of children.

DUBAI, March 6 (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader said on Monday that poisoning schoolgirls is an "unforgivable" crime which should be punished by death if deliberate, state TV reported, amid public anger over a wave of suspected attacks in schools.

Over 1,000 girls have suffered poisoning since November, according to state media and officials, with some politicians blaming religious groups opposed to girls' education.

DUBAI, March 6 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement with Turkey to deposit $5 billion in the country's central bank through the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), the fund said on Monday.

Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan announced his country's intention to make the deposit in December.