Dubai-based retail giant Landmark Group has agreed to buy British restaurant chain Carluccio’s for 90.3 million pounds, the companies said on Thursday.

The management of Carluccio’s, which serves Italian food, has recommended that its shareholders accept the cash takeover from Landmark investment vehicle C1 Acquisitions, a statement said.

Dubai World has told lenders it could raise up to $19.4bn from selling its assets, in a bid to repay $14.4bn of the holding company’s debt, the terms of which it is looking to restructure, according to people close to the situation.

In late July, the company set out its debt restructuring plan, including a time frame over which it would consider selling assets to raise funds to repay lenders. Since then it has been holding a series of roadshows to explain the plan in detail to creditors.

One of the main telecommunications providers in Dubai has decided to cut down call rates to Pakistan, as a gesture to help Gulf citizens contact their families and friends in the flood-hit country at an affordable price.

Telecommunications provider du has reduced its international call rates to Pakistan till Aug 23. This special offer provides reduced rates on calls made to Pakistan at any time of the day from a du mobile or landline phone.

Not long ago, British businessman Ryan Cornelius was living the high life, doing deals out of Bahrain and taking his family big-game fishing on his yacht. He’s now into his third year in a Dubai jail cell, yet to be convicted of anything.

“The worst aspect of the way we’ve been treated is the fact that the legal system seems to be so suspended in its own ineffi ciency,” he said from a pay phone at Dubai’s Central Prison. “We just don’t seem to move forward. The whole legal system seems to hold you in a state of constant suspension.”

A British woman stripped down to her bikini and strutted defiantly through a swanky Dubai mall after an Emirati woman covered head-to-toe in black confronted her for wearing a low-cut shirt, police said Thursday.

Mall security detained both women and took them to a police station for questioning Wednesday. They were released later in the day after the Emirati woman lodged a complaint for public indecency against the Briton, said a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Taking the boat across Dubai’s old creek is like a journey back in time.

Back to the days when the city was little more than a trading port of pearls, spices and gold, long before it struck oil and thus changed beyond recognition.

Today, in this noisy corner of the city, little has changed.

Along the chaotic quayside there are hundreds of traditional, wooden dhows. Some sit low in the water, packed heavily with boxes and crates.

Dubai’s debt-laden company Dubai World said after meeting creditors on Thursday that it will complete restructuring its remaining debts “over the coming months.”

The company said it met with creditor banks “to present formally the proposed restructuring plan for Dubai World, which has been agreed between the company and its coordinating committee of creditor banks (CoCom) with the support of the government of Dubai.”

Dubai is considering a plan to introduce a special visa system to lure foreign entrepreneurs to the emirate, a news report here has said.

The EntrePass scheme would encourage budding start-ups with high commercial value to set up in Dubai, the report said.

Full body scanners will not be implemented in Dubai airport. Dubai Airport authority told that it was a violation of privacy of passengers.

“The use of the full body scanners hampers the movement of passengers and invades their privacy. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has not instructed airports to use them on passengers, but airports in some countries, especially in the West, are using them,” said Brigadier Ahmed bin Thani, Director of the Airport Security Department of the Dubai Police.

United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Hamad al-Kaabi has confirmed reports that Iran is using Dubai ports to smuggle equipment needed for its nuclear program, but noted the steps his country had taken to clamp down on blacklisted companies.

This is the first official acknowledgement from the state that it is a popular transit point for smuggling.