Sri Lanka said Thursday it had traced more than a billion dollars in public funds allegedly stolen by members of the former regime to a bank in Dubai, and that the total amount taken could be as much as $10 billion.

Rajitha Senaratne, a spokesman for the new government, said investigators had traced $1.06 billion to the National Bank of Dubai, although he did not reveal who held the accounts.

The number of vehicles in Dubai has doubled over the past eight years giving the Gulf emirate more cars per person than New York or London, official figures showed Monday. 

The bustling city state now has 1.4 million vehicles for a population of 2.4 million, equivalent to 540 for every 1,000 people, according to the Roads and Transport Authority figures.

Several Lebanese deported from the United Arab Emirates arrived in Beirut on Sunday for the second day in a row, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said the Lebanese nationals residing in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman arrived at Rafik Hariri International Airport but refused to talk to the press.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam met with prominent state leaders on Saturday during his second-day visit to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Salam held talks with the vice president of the United Arab Emirates and Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum.

The Middle East's first three-dimensional pavement art festival, starring works by international artists that appear to rise from the ground, kicked off this week in Dubai, its organisers said.

The Dubai Canvas Festival features 3-D artworks in chalk or paint, many of them depicting eye-catching images of the Emirati city. 

Dubai's no-frills carrier flydubai said Tuesday that 2014 net profit rose 12.3 percent to $68 million (60.7 million euros), as it expanded its routes and number of flights. 

Revenues at state-owned flydubai hit 4.4 billion dirhams ($1.2 billion), up 19.1 percent, a statement said.

Ten foreign workers have died in a fire that hit a tire shop in Abu Dhabi, apparently trapping the laborers in a warehouse used illegally for accommodation, local media said Saturday.

Eight others were injured in the blaze that gutted the two-storey building in the Mussaffah district on Friday, Gulf News daily reported, saying that the makeshift hostel above the shop was originally a storage area.

Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous was bestowed recently with the Golden Order of Merit for Wise Leadership in the Arab World.

The award was granted by the Tatweej Academy for Excellence in the Arab Region Awards and hosted in Dubai.

A Dubai court jailed a Pakistani for 15 years for smuggling heroin in bags containing copies of the Koran, prayer mats and other religious paraphernalia, a report said Wednesday.

The 30-year-old man, identified only by his initials M.T., was convicted of possessing 24 kilograms (53 pounds) of heroin that was stashed in five bags with hidden compartments, the Gulf News daily said.

Dubai, the emirate known for its celebration of over-the-top glamour and luxury, is racing ahead to dominate the Middle East's plastic surgery market with plans to attract half a million medical tourists in six years.

Where cosmopolitan Beirut was once the region's best known city for going under the knife, turmoil in Syria and violence often spilling into Lebanon is driving away wealthy Arab tourists. After splashing out on medical infrastructure over the past years, Dubai already ranks globally and aims to move up the list of top international destinations for medical tourism.