The trial of 94 UAE Islamist dissidents accused of plotting to seize power in the Gulf state resumed on Tuesday, as rights groups urged Britain to pressure the visiting Emirati president on their behalf.

Only 86 defendants, including 13 women, were present at the top state security court in the United Arab Emirates, WAM state news agency reported. The rest are being tried in absentia.

Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates are to play a charity football match to raise money for the girls' education fund set up by teenage campaigner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban.

The 15-year-old, from Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley, came to international attention in October last year after she was shot by a gunman for campaigning for the right of girls to go to school.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will meet United Arab Emirates leaders on Thursday to wrap up a major arms deal that both nations see as a way to thwart Iran's military power.

Hagel arrived in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday on the last leg of a six-nation tour of the Middle East in which he has sought to renew ties with American allies who share Washington's concerns over Iran's nuclear project and Syria's civil war.

The UAE's giant telecom operator, Etisalat, said it will submit on Wednesday a bid to buy Vivendi's 53-percent stake in Morocco's operator Maroc Telecom.

Emirates Telecommunications Corp "will submit today a binding offer to Vivendi Group to acquire all its shares in Itissalat Al-Maghrib (Maroc Telecom)," the group said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.

The United States unveiled plans Friday to sell $10 billion worth of advanced missiles and aircraft to Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in a bid to counter the threat posed by Iran.

It was highly unusual for the Pentagon to announce an arms deal covering three countries and the move seemed to be designed to send a warning to Iran that Washington's partners in the region were beefing up their military power.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have broken up an al-Qaida cell comprising seven Arabs, who were plotting attacks in the Gulf state, an official statement said Thursday.

The cell was "plotting acts that would have harmed the security of the country, its citizens and foreign residents," said the statement carried by WAM state news agency.

Oil-rich Gulf emirate Abu Dhabi expelled around twenty Lebanese nationals without any clear reasons, media reports said on Wednesday.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper, Abu Dhabi authorities deported the Lebanese citizens last week, noting that they have been living in the emirate for a long period of time.

A powerful 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck on Tuesday near the Gulf port city of Bushehr, home to Iran's only nuclear power plant, killing at least three people, state television and officials said.

Iranian news agencies made no immediate mention of damage to the plant in the area of Kaki, nearly 90 kilometers (55 miles) southeast of Bushehr.

U.S. Navy sailors aboard a supply vessel acted within rules of engagement last year when they fired on a small boat approaching at high speed off Dubai, killing one Indian fisherman and wounding three others, according to a Navy investigation made public Monday.

The July 2012 incident has been described by Navy officials as "regrettable," but it also highlighted the heightened security to protect vessels following boat-borne blasts such as the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors and the 2004 explosion of a dhow in Persian Gulf that killed three crew members of the USS Firebolt.

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.