ABU DHABI: At least Nine Arab nationals have been referred to the court in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over allegations of kidnapping and blackmail stemming from a financial dispute.

Authorities said the suspects detained a victim for a week, assaulted him, and recorded footage showing him bound and in a compromising state. The video was later circulated on social media in an attempt to extort money from his family.

The UAE Federal Public Prosecution said the suspects were swiftly arrested. Investigators also seized mobile phones and vehicles used in the crime, uncovering evidence that pointed to the gang’s coordinated criminal operations.

Officials said the gang operated in a highly coordinated manner and posed a direct threat to public safety and law and order. The accused face severe penalties, including life imprisonment or the death sentence.

UAE Attorney General Dr Hamad Saif Al Shamsi stressed that national security and stability remained the highest priority. 

He confirmed that the Public Prosecution would continue to take strict and impartial action against anyone committing crimes that threaten public peace or the nation’s security.

• Tehran confirms scrapping nuclear monitoring deal with IAEA.
• Development follows reimposition of UN sanctions last month.
• Iran may review fresh IAEA proposals despite deal’s cancellation.

DUBAI: Iran has called off its nuclear cooperation deal with the UN’s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it signed in September, the country’s state media reported, citing its Supreme National Security Council Secretary on Monday.

The decision comes after Western powers reimposed UN sanctions on Tehran. The move is seen as another blow to efforts aimed at rebuilding trust and monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities.

The statement came around three weeks after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said Tehran would scrap the agreement, which allowed the IAEA to resume inspections of its nuclear sites, if Western powers reinstated UN sanctions.

Those were reinstated last month.

The confirmation will be a setback for the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been trying to rebuild cooperation with Tehran since Israel and the United States bombed the nuclear sites in June.

“The agreement has been cancelled,” Ali Larijani said while meeting his Iraqi counterpart in Tehran, according to state media.

“Of course, if the agency has a proposal, we will review it in the secretariat,” he added.

Mexico’s government said on Monday that 76 people had died in catastrophic floods and mudslides that hit the country’s centre and east this month, with another 27 still officially listed as missing.

Nearly 120 communities remained isolated with roads and highways blocked or destroyed, according to a report presented during a press conference by President Claudia Sheinbaum.

“The emergency response […] is not over yet; we are still working,” Sheinbaum told reporters, and announced aid totaling 10 billion pesos (about $544 million) for some 100,000 families affected by the calamity.

The central state of Hidalgo had the most blocked off municipalities at 65, many of them in mountainous regions where access routes were damaged by landslides.

Veracruz, along the Gulf of Mexico in the country’s east, was in turn hardest hit by flooding.

More than 12,700 soldiers are still on the ground to deliver aid and otherwise assist affected communities, the government said.

Heavy rains often occur during Mexico’s wet season from May to October, but last week’s downpours were made more dangerous by the combination of a tropical system from the Gulf of Mexico and a cold front from the north, according to meteorologists.