Admiration was the sport of choice in the Gulf in April when Arabian Business com profiled the 50 Most Admired Companies in the region.

Our methodology? We looked for those companies demonstrating a set of distinctive values: Dynamic innovation, effective leadership, strong growth - both financially and geographically - and firm commitment to breaking new ground in the Middle East and beyond.

Topping the list? Kingdom Holding Investments, chaired by HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud.

Early in the month, and cementing on our interview with Muhammad Yunus the previous month, we spoke to Kundapur Kamath, CEO of India mega-bank ICICI, on how it was reaching out to India's 600 million villagers in an interview titled 'Money for the masses'.

In the very same issue, Spider-man was swinging across the high-rise metropolis of Dubai with our exclusive interviews with David Maisel, chairman of Marvel Entertainment, and Mohammed Al Khammas, CEO of Al-Ahli Group, about bring the amazing superhero and friends to the Dubai in a billion-dollar theme park project.

Our focus then moved to reveal the cash crisis at the centre of Forumla One racing in 'Formula Gone'. In the same issue, we met with Eric Andersen, chief executive of Space Adventures, about 'Advertising Space' how he wanted the region to be part of the rapidly expanding space tourism industry.

Closing April, Arabian Business in 'Hack Attack/Closing the Net' scrutinized how Gulf businesses are fighting back against the rising tide of cyber-crime.

ArabianBusiness.com Editor-in-Chief James Bennett aired his views in March with Far from an ordinary day, featuring the intriguing words 'There's around half a trillion dollars in this room alone.'

2007 Apr 1
In Iran about 200 students threw rocks and firecrackers at the British Embassy, calling for the expulsion of the country's ambassador because of the standoff over Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines. Britain examined options for new dialogue with Tehran over the seized crew of 15 sailors and marines, as a poll suggested most Britons back the government's goal of resolving the standoff through diplomacy.

2007 Apr 1
Israeli PM Ehud Olmert invited Arab leaders to attend a peace conference to discuss their ideas for reaching Mideast peace.

2007 Apr 1
In Syria US House members meeting with President Bashar Assad said they believed there was an opportunity for dialogue.

2007 Apr 2
Jordan's military court convicted six alleged militants of planning suicide attacks against Jordan's main international airport and against hotels hosting Israeli and American tourists.

2007 Apr 2
Saudi Arabia signalled it is unlikely to accept an Israeli invitation to a regional peace conference, saying that Israel must first stop mistreating Palestinians and move to withdraw from Arab lands.

2007 Apr 2
The US asked Tehran for information on the disappearance of a former FBI agent who went missing on a private business trip to Iran.

2007 Apr 3
Qatar's PM Sheik Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani resigned and the country's emir appointed the foreign minister as replacement.

2007 Apr 3
Iran reported that an Iranian diplomat in Iraq seized two months ago by uniformed gunmen has been released.

2007 Apr 3
In Baghdad a senior foreign ministry official said his government was "intensively" seeking the release of five Iranians detained there by the US.

2007 Apr 4
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad freed the 15 detained British sailors and marines as an Easter holiday "gift" to the British people. Syria said it played a key role in resolving the standoff over the 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran.

2007 Apr 4
In Kuwait a medical source said preliminary tests for bird flu were positive on four Bangladeshi workers who had been culling infected chickens.

2007 Apr 4
In Damascus US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held talks with Syria's leader despite White House objections, saying she pressed President Bashar Assad over his country's support for militant groups and passed him a peace message from Israel.

2007 Apr 5
Fifteen British sailors and marines held captive by Iran returned home to a nation relieved at their freedom but also outraged that they were used by Tehran's propaganda machine.

2007 Apr 5
A bomb struck an oil pipeline, cutting off supplies and causing a huge fire in southern Iraq near the border with Kuwait.

2007 Apr 5
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she raised the issue of Saudi Arabia's lack of female politicians with Saudi government officials on the last stop of her Mideast tour.

2007 Apr 6
A Royal Navy lieutenant who was among the captives held by Iran said British sailors and marines held for nearly two weeks were blindfolded, bound and threatened with prison if they did not say they strayed into Iranian waters.

2007 Apr 6
Human migrant traffickers forced some 300 African migrants to jump into the sea off Yemen causing at least 32 to die.

2007 Apr 6
In Saudi Arabia Waleed bin Mutlaq al-Radadi, among the kingdom's most wanted terrorists, was killed in a gunbattle with Saudi forces. Al-Radadi was implicated in the Feb 26 killing of 4 French nationals.

2007 Apr 8
Britain's Defense Ministry came under fire for allowing 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran for 13 days to sell their stories to the media.

2007 Apr 8
In western Iran at least 26 people were killed and 18 others injured after a truck smashed into a bus.

2007 Apr 9
Iran announced that it has begun enriching uranium with 3,000 centrifuges, dramatically expanding a program that the UN has demanded it halt. An Iranian Revolutionary Guard general visited Russia despite a UN travel ban over Tehran nuclear defiance. Russia denied any violation.

2007 Apr 9
Japan lent some 850 million dollars to PM Nuri al-Maliki's government as the oil-hungry Asian power looked to boost output from the war-torn country. Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki met with Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, starting off a four-day visit that was delayed after Iran refused to allow his plane to fly over its airspace.

2007 Apr 9
Britain's government beat a hasty retreat under withering criticism for allowing sailors and marines to be paid large sums for their stories about captivity in Iran.

2007 Apr 11
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued a new report titled "Civilians Without Protection: The Ever-worsening Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq." Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the US military spokesman, said Iranian intelligence operatives have been training Iraqi fighters inside Iran on how to use and assemble deadly roadside bombs known as EFPs.

2007 Apr 12
Turkey's army chief said the military had launched several "large scale" offensives against rebels in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, and he asked the government for approval to launch an incursion into neighboring northern Iraq.

2007 Apr 14
More than 200,000 Turks protested against Turkey's Islamic-rooted PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, demonstrating the intense opposition he could face from Turkey's secular establishment if he decides to run for president next month.

2007 Apr 14
Syria distanced itself from comments by a Syrian-American businessman who recently told Israeli lawmakers that President Bashar Assad was ready to make peace with the Jewish state.

2007 Apr 15
Iran said it is seeking bids for the building of two more nuclear power plants, despite international pressures to curb its controversial program.

2007 Apr 15
The official Saudi news agency reported that Sudan has signed a joint agreement with the UN and the African Union that defines their respective roles in Darfur.

2007 Apr 16
In Iran 2 Swedish construction workers, who had been convicted of espionage and imprisoned for taking photographs of military installations, were released after being pardoned.

2007 Apr 18
The UN Security Council expressed "serious concern" at mounting reports of weapons being smuggled from Syria to Lebanon and authorized an independent mission to evaluate monitoring of the border between the two countries.

2007 Apr 19
Iranian engineers began filling a new dam as archaeologists warned that its reservoir will flood newly discovered antiquities and could damage Iran's grandest site, the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis.

2007 Apr 21
Iran signed a major gas development and production agreement with Austrian energy group OMV.

2007 Apr 22
Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed as a plane arrived to take her arch rival, the country's last prime minister Khaleda Zia, into exile in Saudi Arabia.

2007 Apr 22
PM Nouri al-Maliki, on a tour to ask the mostly Sunni-led governments of the Arab world to help his struggling government stop the violence in Iraq, received a strong endorsement from Egypt.

2007 Apr 24
Turkey's foreign minister Abdullah Gul was named as the ruling party's candidate for the presidency, a decision that will maintain continuity in EU reforms but fails to resolve a fight between the country's secular and Islamist camps.

2007 Apr 26
Police in Lebanon found the bodies of a man and a 12-year-old boy who disappeared earlier this week, an incident that has shaken the country and sparked fears of renewed sectarian violence.

2007 Apr 26
Syria's government said that the ruling coalition took an overwhelming majority of seats in parliamentary elections that were boycotted by the opposition as a farce.

2007 Apr 26
In Turkey an eight-story apartment building collapsed in Istanbul, and some people were reportedly buried under the debris.

2007 Apr 27
Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said police had arrested 172 Islamic militants, some of whom had trained abroad as pilots so they could fly aircraft in attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil fields.

2007 Apr 28
Turkey's Islamist-rooted government called the army to order, saying it is answerable to the civilian authority, after the military threatened action to defend the country's secular system.

2007 Apr 29
Japan and the resources-rich United Arab Emirates agreed to launch a high-level dialogue aimed at boosting economic ties and to speed up talks on a free trade pact. Officials of the governmental Japan Bank for International Cooperation decided to extend massive loans to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. in exchange for securing a stable oil supply for Japan.

2007 Apr 29
Some 700,000 Turks waving the red national flag flooded central Istanbul to demand the resignation of the government, saying the Islamic roots of Turkey's leaders threatened to destroy the country's modern foundations.

2007 Apr 29
In Egypt police arrested two lawmakers and at least 10 other members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group as part of an ongoing campaign against the country's strongest opposition group.

2007 Apr 29
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah held an unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the recent escalation in Israeli-Palestinian tensions. Saudi Arabia banned the sale of concentrated fertilizer, a favourite component of homemade terrorist bombs.

2007 Apr 30
A suicide car bomber apparently targeting an Interior Ministry convoy struck an Iraqi checkpoint near a busy square in the predominantly Sunni Arab area of Harthiyah in western Baghdad, killing 4 people and wounding 10.

2007 Apr 30
An Israeli government commission aimed harsh criticism at PM Ehud Olmert and other officials for their handling of last summer's war in Lebanon.

2007 Apr 30
Hundreds of protesters briefly pushed into the Palestinian education ministry as Fatah-allied teachers in the West Bank went on strike to press for the payment of overdue salaries. Angry Palestinian demonstrators stormed the Egyptian embassy in Gaza City, demanding that Egypt release five Palestinians held in Cairo jails.

2007 Apr 30
In southern Tunisia a stampede at an open-air concert by stars of the Arab version of "American Idol" killed seven young people and injured 32.