UAE

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bahrain’s Formula One race this month will be run without spectators over fears about the new coronavirus, the island kingdom announced Sunday, as Mideast stock markets fell sharply amid plummeting demand for crude oil and OPEC’s inability to agree on a production cut.

The decision by Bahrain is just the latest disruption felt by the Mideast over the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes. The wider Mideast now has over 6,200 confirmed cases of the virus, the majority in hard-hit Iran.

Dubai, Mar 7 (PTI) An Indian national is among 15 new cases of the deadly coronavirus in the UAE, taking the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 45, health officials have said.

The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) on Friday said in a statement that 13 out of 15 new cases in the UAE recently arrived from abroad.

DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Farhad Dabirian, was “martyred” in Syria on Friday, Fars news agency reported, without giving details of how he died.

The agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, described Dabirian as a “defender of Sayida Zainab shrine,” the holy Shi’ite Muslim site south of Damascus, and as a former commander of the Guards in Palmyra, the ancient city in central Syria.

DUBAI (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates carrier flydubai swung to a profit of 198.2 million dirham ($54 million) last year, helped by a compensation agreement with Boeing over the worldwide 737 MAX grounding.

The Dubai state-owned airline is one of the world’s biggest MAX customers, though only operated around 14 of the jets when they were grounded in March 2019.

However, its fleet size shrank by more than a quarter to 45 jets last year as it retired older aircraft and new MAX jets were also grounded.

03 Mar 2020; MEMO: So far, airline companies in the Middle East, which serves as a connection hub for east-west travel, have incurred losses amounting to $100 million following the outbreak of the Coronavirus, International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced yesterday.

DUBAI, Mar 1 (NNN-WAM) – Expo 2020 Dubai announced a world class music recording studio, that will become a permanent facility as part of its legacy plans in the future city of District 2020 – and the first project to make use of the studio will be Expo 2020’s all-female orchestra.

29 Feb 2020; MEMO: The 2020 UAE Tour cycling race was abandoned midway on Friday after two Italian participants tested positive for the coronavirus, Anadolu reports.

The Abu Dhabi Sports Council issued a statement announcing that the remaining rounds of the race were cancelled.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Thursday halted travel to the holiest sites in Islam over fears about a viral epidemic just months ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage, a move that came as the Mideast has over 220 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus who had urged the public not to overreact about its spread has tested positive for the illness himself, authorities said Tuesday, as new cases emanating from the country rapidly emerged across the Middle East.

Only a day earlier, a coughing and heavily sweating Iraj Harirchi said at a televised news conference in Tehran that “the situation is almost stable in the country.”

DUBAI (Reuters) - Former Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih, who was removed last year, was tapped to head the kingdom’s newly-created investment ministry in a cabinet reshuffle announced on Tuesday that also created new ministries for tourism and sports.

According to royal orders published by state news agency SPA, the ministers of media and civil service were also removed.