By Hadeel Al Sayegh, Rachna Uppal and Federico Maccioni
DUBAI/ABU DHABI, March 2 (Reuters) - For decades, Dubai's sales pitch featured gleaming skylines, tax-free salaries, ease of doing business and something far more intangible: the unspoken promise that whatever was happening elsewhere in the Middle East, this city was different. The conflicts that destabilised the region would somehow stop at Dubai's borders.
By Brad Brooks and Jana Winter
March 2 (Reuters) - Authorities investigating a mass shooting at a bar in Austin, Texas, that killed at least two people said on Monday it was too early to say if the gunmanwas motivated by the war in Iran.
The body of the gunman, who was killed by police, was seen in a photo obtained by Reuters wearing a shirt with an Iranian flag and “IRAN” spelled out in green, white and red across the front. He was also wearing a sweatshirt that said "Property of Allah" on it, a government official told Reuters.
By Lisa Baertlein
LONG BEACH, Calif., March 2 (Reuters) - Container ships account for roughly 100 of the 750 ships backed up around the Strait of Hormuz following U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, Jeremy Nixon, CEO of container carrier Ocean Network Express (ONE), said on Monday.
"About 10% of the container ship global fleet is caught up in this," Nixon said at a container shipping industry conference in Long Beach, California.
BRUSSELS, March 2 (Reuters) - European Council President Antonio Costa said on Monday he welcomed the Lebanese government's decision to end Hezbollah's military activities and its demand that those responsible for firing at Israel be brought to justice.
"It is now important for Israel and Lebanon to resume security coordination, so the Lebanese Armed Forces can disarm Hezbollah and ensure the security of all Lebanese people," Costa said in a post on X, after he spoke with Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun.
CAIRO, March 2 (Reuters) - Iran's Revolutionary Guards said a fuel tanker, identified as the Honduran-flagged Athe Nova, was burning in the Strait of Hormuz after being hit by two drones, Iranian news agencies reported on Monday.
The strait is the world's most vital oil export route, connecting the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
March 2 (Reuters) - The West Indies and Zimbabwe teams said on Monday they have delayed their return from India after their exit from the Twenty20 World Cup due to international airspace closures amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
West Indies failed to reach the semi-finals after Sunday's five-wicket loss to hosts India, while Zimbabwe were eliminated after losing all three of their Super Eights matches.
By Lucy Craymer and Justyna Pawlak
DUBAI/DOHA, March 2 (Reuters) - In the lobby of a tired hotel near Doha airport, stranded travellers wear identical fake Adidas T-shirts bought from a nearby store and swap tips on where to buy underwear.
"It’s our uniform,” said Erika Macikova.
The 49-year-old Slovak winemaker was returning from an ayurvedic retreat in Sri Lanka when she became stranded in the Qatari capital. Her luggage remains at the airport, but she was evacuated to a hotel alongside hundreds of other passengers.
The outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East has seen maritime insurers cancel coverage, adding to the risk shipping companies face.
Many insurers now refuse to offer war risk coverage for the Gulf, a key hub for global oil trade, as the war pitting Iran against the United States and Israel drags on.
"We have been receiving coverage cancellations from certain insurers since yesterday morning," Gilles Legue, the head maritime insurer in France for the broker Marsh, told AFP.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Monday for Israel to re-open Gaza border crossings it closed after launching the war against Iran along with the United States.
Among the crossings shut down on Saturday as a security measure is the Rafah conduit -- the only gateway for Gazans to the outside world that does not pass through Israel.
It had reopened for the movement of people on February 2, nearly two years after Israeli forces seized control of it during the war with Hamas.
By Federico Maccioni and Tim Hepher
DUBAI/PARIS, March 2 (Reuters) - Escalating conflict in the Middle East has laid bare how heavily global air travel relies on a handful of hubs led by Dubai, the world’s busiest international airport, after the shutdown of Gulf airspace rippled quickly across airline networks worldwide.
Four decades after the Gulf's trading capital set out to exploit its strategic location by setting up Emirates with two rented jets and two routes, Dubai stands at the centre of a global network spanning 110 nations and 454,000 flights a year.
