Beirut airport police arrested a 25-year-old drug smuggler after seizing 9 kilograms of narcotic pills from his bag, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

NNA said that the police searched his bag when suspicion fell on the man. They found the drugs packed in nylon bags in a false bottom.

When its gasoline pumps started going dry in the United Arab Emirates' poorer northern states earlier this year, Dubai's oil company blamed mysterious service upgrades.

Few believed that at the time, and now the company is dropping its subtlety, triggering an uncharacteristically public spat over fuel pricing policies.

The United Arab Emirates announced on Tuesday a 2012 federal budget showing a small deficit, increased revenues and only minor adjustments in expenditures.

Spending levels are projected at 41.8 billion dirhams ($11.4 billion) while revenue is estimated at 41.4 billion dirhams ($11.3 billion), leaving a deficit of just over $100 million, according to the official WAM news agency.

Emirates NBD Bank, the largest lender in the United Arab Emirates, has taken over the troubled Islamic lender Dubai Bank on orders of the ruler of Dubai, a government statement said on Tuesday.

"Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, in his capacity as the ruler of Dubai, has given orders that Emirates NBD take over Dubai Bank," the statement said.

Just over a quarter of voters selected by the rulers of the United Arab Emirates took part in the second-ever polls to elect half the country's advisory Federal National Council, results showed Sunday.

Only 35,877 voters voted on Saturday to elect 20 members of the Federal National Council, representing around 28 percent of some 129,000 Emirati citizens with the right to vote, National Election Committee figures showed.

The embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad will seek to expand trade ties with markets in Asia and elsewhere to bypass European economic sanctions, Syria's finance minister said Wednesday at a meeting of Arab finance chiefs.

Mohammad Jleilati did not name specific countries for stronger economic bonds, but listed Russia, China and others in Asia as traditionally "friendly" to Syria.

Candidates in the United Arab Emirates began campaigning on Sunday for the second-ever elections to choose half the members of the purely consultative Federal National Council.

A total of 468 candidates, including 85 women, are running in the polls on September 24, the second since the UAE federation was established upon its independence from Britain in 1971.

The oil-rich United Arab Emirates holds its second-ever polls next month after allowing many more citizens to vote, taking baby steps toward democracy in a state where virtually no one is pushing for quick change.

Eligible voters are picked by rulers of each of the seven sheikhdoms that comprise the UAE federation, using criteria that are not entirely clear. Candidates must come from the same hand-picked electoral college.

Stock markets in the Gulf, except Saudi Arabia, opened up on Sunday after a volatile week trailing the behavior of global markets hit by uncertainty over European and U.S. economic woes.

The Dubai Financial Market index continued its rise on Sunday after returning to the green in the latter part of last week.

Shoppers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are among the wealthiest and most discerning in the world. Most major malls in Dubai, for instance, feature couture retailers usually associated in the United States with upscale fashion districts. It is not an uncommon sight to see shoppers with several large shopping bags, loaded into a cart just as a family buying groceries would, only the purchases being Gucci shoes and Louis Vuitton handbags. According to Business Monitor International, U.S.$31 billion worth of retail sales are expected this year in the UAE, and will top U.S.$41 billion in less than five years.

As there is more total retail space supply in the country than its entire population -- according to retail surveys, an estimated 5.75 million square meters by the end of 2014, or 1.27 square meters of shopping space for every UAE resident -- online retail has struggled to find room. Because of concerns about fraud, 45% of UAE shoppers said they would not buy online, according to a survey this year by MasterCard.