Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Wednesday to promote exports of Japan's nuclear infrastructure to the Middle East in an effort to enhance economic ties with the region. "I want to build...a completely new relationship (with the Middle East)," Abe said in a speech at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia, expressing hope to strengthen ties with the region also in the political and security fields.

The UAE has pumped in excess of US$55 billion into foreign markets over the past three decades to emerge as the largest Arab capital exporter. Official data also showed that the UAE has received more than $85 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) during that period to become the second largest Arab market for foreign capital after Saudi Arabia. During 1980-2011, FDI flow out of the UAE stood at around US$55.5 billion, nearly 31 per cent of the total Arab capital outflow of nearly $176.8 billion, showed the figures by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and

Authorities in Kuwait on Monday hanged three convicted murderers in the first executions in the Gulf state since May 2007, the ministry of justice said. The men, a Pakistani, a Saudi and a stateless Arab, were hanged at the central jail, west of the capital Kuwait City, in front of judicial and security officials, the ministry said. The Pakistani was convicted of killing a Kuwaiti couple and the Saudi of murdering a compatriot. The stateless Arab was hanged for killing his wife and five children after claiming he was a long-awaited imam.

The UAE warned its citizens on Wednesday not to travel to Iraq on hunting trips this season because of insecurity in the country, state news agency WAM reported. "This measure aims to secure and protect all the country's citizens," said senior foreign ministry official Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Buti al-Hamed, urging Emiratis to comply, according to WAM. Many Emirati hunters travel in the spring to Iraq's Sunni-majority western province of Anbar, the site of protests against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Others head to southern Shiite-populated cities.