LIBYA: Foreign embassies defect

Numerous Libyan embassies switched allegiances this week, with more declaring support for the rebel government Wednesday.

At the Libyan embassy in Manilla, Libyan diplomats and students smashed portraits of Moammar Kadafi, shouted “Game over!” and raised the rebel flag, the Associated Press reported, as Libyan Consul Faraj Zarroug said that about 85% of his country's 165 diplomatic missions now recognized the rebels' interim government, the National Transitional Council.

“It's game over for Mr. Kadafi!” Zarroug said. “Probably in a few days, everything will be over, hopefully. I'm very happy.”

In London, officials at the rebel-held Libyan embassy unveiled a new doormat Wednesday -- bearing Kadafi's image -- that proved popular on Twitter.

Libyan missions to Switzerland and Bangladesh switched soon after the rebellion in February, but embassy officials in Japan and Ethiopia only replaced the government flag with the rebels' tricolor on Monday, according to the Associated Press.

The Libyan ambassador to the African Union, Ali Awidan, said he raised the new rebel flag Monday, changing sides at the last moment.

“I was not serving Gadhafi, I have been serving Libya,” he told the Associated Press in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

UAE: Human rights officials condemn government crackdown

Human rights advocates decried what they called a “crackdown on civil society” in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday after authorities replaced the leadership of the country's teachers association, a well-established group that had called for democratic reforms, with government officials sympathetic to the administration.

“This attack on civil society is further proof that those in power in the UAE see anyone calling for reform as fair game,” Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director of the New York-based nonprofit organization Human Rights Watch, said in a Tuesday statement. “UAE authorities should immediately stop their hostile takeover of civil society and free the peaceful democracy activists.”

UAE: Arrests among apparent precautions to keep a lid on discontent

Five activists are in detention and under investigation for posing a threat to state security as the broad crackdown on dissidents in the UAE continues.

It's long been assumed that the authoritarian United Arab Emirates' oil riches would protect it from the pro-democracy demands sweeping the Arab world. 

But the hostile takeover of the Jurist Association rights group a few days ago and arrests of pro-democracy activists appear to be among precautions the government of the UAE is taking to contain any civil discontent.

The activists detained are among the most prominent and vital voices in a country long considered a political backwater. 

ABU DHABI: New 'green city' for environmentally damaged country

Until now, Abu Dhabi has been known as the quiet powerhouse behind its flashier neighbor, Dubai, bankrolling record-breaking skyscrapers and fantastical island resorts intended to make the United Arab Emirates synonymous with luxury, wealth and success.

But now Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, is looking to set a different kind of example. The Masdar development project, due to be completed in 2013, aims to be the world's first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city.

Nawal Al Hosany, associate director for sustainability at Masdar, told Babylon & Beyond that the project is "leading by example and is already being approached by other developers and government entities within Abu Dhabi for advice on how to be more sustainable."

"Masdar is acting as a regional catalyst for sustainability," he added.

But the Emirates have a long way to go. The World Wildlife Fund has singled out the tiny oil- and gas-rich country for having the largest environmental footprint per capita in the world.

Inexpensive gas coupled with residents' taste for big cars and houses -- not to mention the amount of energy needed to run an indoor ski slope in scorching desert temperatures –– have contributed to pushing the UAE's environmental footprint up to 11.9 global hectares per person, more than five times the global average of 2.2.

MIDDLE EAST: In wake of WikiLeaks scandal, Arab leaders are cautious on Iran censure

Arabian peninsula states have adopted a conciliatory tone on Iran a little over a week after U.S. diplomatic cables released by the watchdog site WikiLeaks appeared to show serious anxiety among Arab leaders over Tehran's growing power, and even enthusiasm in some corners (and at certain points) for a military attack on its controversial nuclear program.

Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Atiyyah stopped short of an outright repudiation, but he described the content of the leaked cables as "guesses or analyses that can hit or miss" and that "generated misunderstandings," according to the Abu Dhabi-based National newspaper.

The council wrapped up a two-day summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday, gently calling on Iran to cooperate with the international community over its nuclear program in order to end sanctions against Tehran. The closing statement also reiterated Arab support for Iran's right to a peaceful nuclear program.

ABU DHABI: N.Y. Islamic center imam calls opponents 'small, vociferous' group

The leader of the proposed Manhattan Islamic cultural center near the site of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks told a Persian Gulf newspaper that there was no conflict between Islam and America and dismissed the opponents of the Park51 project as being led by "very small, vociferous voices."

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's interview with the Abu Dhabi-based daily newspaper the National, which was published Monday, provided the first extensive comments he'd made about the controversy over the community center, which will include a prayer room, in the weeks since a New York City planning board gave it final approval.  

He's currently in the Middle East on a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, where he is speaking to groups of Muslims in an attempt to boost relations between America and Islam.

DUBAI: Alleged victim of gang rape sentenced to one year in prison

The Criminal Court of Abu Dhabi, in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, ruled this week that an 18-year-old Emirati woman who accused six men of gang-raping her will herself serve a one-year sentence for consensual sex.

It's one of in the latest in a scourge of reported rape cases in Dubai, The court proceedings were marred by legal travesties, experts say.

While the plaintiff was not granted a lawyer, the defendants were. Moreover, the plaintiff could not have any family members present with her during the trial, the court decided. The prosecution also argued that simply because the plaintiff agreed to enter the police officer's car, this action somehow constituted partial consent to sex, The National reported.

Emirati authorities had kept the plaintiff imprisoned since she made the allegations last month.

Meanwhile, the accused rapists mostly got off lightly. A police officer will serve one year in prison for extramarital sex and two of the other defendants were sentenced to three months for being in the company of a woman not related to them by blood.

Two more defendants must pay a fine of 5,000 dirhams, or $1,361.50, for violating public decency.

The court dropped charges against the sixth defendant.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Stricter smoking ban expected soon as anti-tobacco fervor sweeps Middle East

The United Arab Emirates may breathe easier under a strict ban on smoking, the details of which are still being hammered out five months after the actual bill was signed by President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National reported this week.

The new bylaws would ban smoking in all public places, including hotels, cafes and restaurants, and outlaw all forms of tobacco advertising. Even the ubiquitous nargileh, the traditional water pipe puffed across the region by teenagers and grandmothers alike, would be subject to tighter regulations.

The original law required only a partial ban on public smoking, and the wording was so vague that it could not be implemented, forcing health officials back to the drawing table.

They ultimately adopted more or less the exact language prescribed by the World Health Organization, banning even special smoking areas within public establishments and requiring smokers to stay at least 25 feet away from the entrance to a public building.

"We want to prevent the use of tobacco products in all public venues in the country. We want to fight this," Dr. Salim Adib of the Abu Dhabi Health Authority told The National. "I don’t think we should accept anything less than what is happening in Western Europe."

MIDDLE EAST: The idea of filming 'Sex and the City 2' in Dubai or Abu Dhabi? Perish the thought

Writer and director Michael Patrick King envisioned "Sex and the City 2" unfolding in an earthly paradise where self-indulgence and excess never raises an eyebrow.

So naturally, he flew the four fabulous ladies, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis), to the Persian Gulf.

"I thought about where's there a lot of money with no shame attached," King told Collider.com, the entertainment website. "Then I thought about the Middle East because of Dubai and Abu Dhabi and their extravagance. It's the new Middle East and the future."

But the vision was immediately clouded by the Arabian Gulf's perplexing contradictions, as one smooching British couple recently learned.

Though the film's masterminds originally wrote the script with the divas vacationing in blingy Dubai, they had to substitute it with the neighboring United Arab Emirates state of Abu Dhabi and film it in Morocco after authorities rejected permission to film there because of the word "sex" in the movie's name.

DUBAI: Police chief says 'one or two' more European identities used in Hamas killing

Dubai Police Chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim returned to the spotlight after weeks of relative silence to reveal that "one or two" more European suspects are linked to the assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud Mabhouh, but their names have not been released for "security reasons."

In a lengthy and wide-ranging interview with Jaber Harmi of the Qatari newspaper Al Sharq published Sunday, Tamim praised Britain's cooperation in the investigation but said that other European countries are not working "in the spirit of cooperation."

"Patience has its limits," he warned, without specified consequences.

Suspected Israeli assassins allegedly used the identities of European nationals to forge fake passports to enter Dubai and kill Mabhouh. Experts say that Dubai has tried to verify the frauds with European governments before releasing new names. 

So far, Dubai has relied on the cooperation of other countries to confirm or deny the falsification of their passports. If one of Dubai's European partners was dragging its feet in helping to identify the two unnamed suspects, Tamim comments may be interpreted as a warning to hurry up before Dubai takes matters into its own hands.

"In each case before they have checked with and tried to get the country to verify that this person may exist but that it’s not the person in the passport," said Kenneth Wise, a researchers at B’huth, a Dubai-think tank. "The goal is to protect the innocent but also prevent themselves from being caught up in something they can't verify. They don’t want to be accused of fiction."

ISRAEL: Through the eyes of a spy: the latest fashion trend among the James Bond set

Who knew Tina Fey glasses had become the eyewear of choice for the espionage elite?

There are a lot of similarities between the apparently innocent Israelis whose identities were used in the high-intrigue assassination of a Hamas militant in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, last month.

They all have dual-citizenship in European countries and later moved to Israel. They have Western-sounding names, like Steve and John.

Perhaps the most striking thing is how nonstriking their faces are. The photos used on the 11 bogus passports (which were not of the identity-theft victims) are so ordinary and anonymous that just about everyone here took a second look to make sure it wasn’t a neighbor or coworker. Let’s face it: They’re a nerdy-looking bunch, the kind of people you wouldn’t want to be stuck talking to at the same wedding-banquet table.

But one feature, above all, is spurring interest: those slim, rectangular-framed glasses that, apparently, eight out of 11 international spies prefer.

Israeli cartoonists Thursday mocked the latest trend in the cloak-and-dagger set by suggesting there must have been a sale at the local optometry outlet.

An education writer for the newspaper Haaretz poked fun at his resemblance to one of the alleged assassins, running both pictures side by side.

At first blush, the bespectacled men do look similar. But then you realize it’s just an illusion and that other than the fact that both are bald, they really don’t look the same.

It’s those damn glasses.

(Sarah Palin could not be reached for comment.)

-- Edmund Sanders in Jerusalem

DUBAI: Shoppers rejoice as UAE opens first Bloomingdale's outside U.S.

Flashy Dubai may seem like a surprising choice for the first-ever overseas Bloomingdale's. The New York-based luxury retailer has spent the last 138 years cultivating an image of refinement and classic taste, spreading cautiously to upscale areas of other major American cities such as Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

But as of today, Dubai shoppers will get a taste of 59th Street with the opening of a new Bloomingdale's branch, which will be split between two stores in the Dubai Mall and occupy 200,000 square feet.

It will also include a branch of New York's Magnolia Bakery, famous for its cupcakes.

The decision to open a branch in Dubai was not made lightly, Michael Gould, the store's chief executive and chairman told Gulf News, an English-language newspaper published in the Emirates.

"I think what was unique about Dubai was that there were a bunch of people … who understood what we were talking about. They understood the brand. They understood what were the core elements about Bloomingdale's," the paper quoted him as saying.