Dubai Property Newsletter

Although oversupply is an issue in some parts of Dubai, the single biggest challenge facing property agencies in the emirate is finding available stock in prime areas of the city, according to Ryan Mahoney, CEO of Better Homes, one of the largest real estate agencies in Dubai.

The annual Cityscape exhibition was a Dubai institution in the days before the emirate’s real estate market collapsed to rubble. As organisers gear up for this year’s event, who’s going to turn up, and will they spend any money?

PARIS – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must step down quickly to stop the country spiralling into civil war, but should be allowed to stay in Syria as he is not responsible for the unrest, the incumbent leader’s uncle Rifaat al-Assad said on Thursday.

TORONTO – More than two dozen websites belonging to the government of Syria are being hosted by servers in the United States, Canada and Germany, according to a report by Canadian researchers.

SANAA – Qatar pressed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Thursday to sign a power transfer deal “without delay” after prolonged protests against his rule, and a U.N. envoy on a mission to resolve the crisis met opposition leaders in Sanaa.

MANAMA – A batch of 400 officers, non-commissioned officers and civilian employees of Bahrain’s interior ministry have been trained on commitment to human rights standards over the last two years (2009-2010) in cooperation with Johns Hopkins University.

MANAMA – Bahrain will be the first country in the region to have clinics for random checkups of healthy people by 2012. Five clinics will be established, one for each governorate, in this regard.

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s radical anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has expressed support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, even as much of the Arab world turns against the embattled strongman.

ISTANBUL – A leader of Syria’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood said on Thursday the Syrian people would accept military intervention by Turkey, rather than Western countries, to protect them from President Bashar al-Assad’s security forces.

Syria’s president faces a growing challenge to his iron rule, with renegade troops launching their most daring attack yet on the military and world leaders looking at possibilities for a regime without Assad.