One of the finest narratives in a UAE newspaper to come out recently is Marten Youssef's tale of <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090708/NATIONAL/707079888/1041">a construction labourer who was buried to his chest in rubble and had to be saved by emergency responders</a>. It really gets to the heart of something that is not talked about often - the anonymity of the tens of thousands of labourers who are building the country's largest projects. Also, see the story yesterday about <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090707/NATIONAL/707069813/0/GLOBALBRIEFING">a mall in Al Ain that has banned labourers altogether on weekends because of "inappropriate" activity</a>. Meanwhile, the <b>Ministry of Labour</b> yesterday <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090708/NATIONAL/707079818/1133">issued 73 fines to companies that were not giving adequate breaks to labourers at from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.</a>, Mahmoud Habboush reports in The National.<br/><br/><a href="http://www.business24-7.ae/Articles/2009/7/Pages/07072009/07082009_5ab49d599fba4d39bf2b9e4a75dada4a.aspx">Banks are rescheduling payment plans and working with home owners having trouble affording their mortgages</a>, Vicky Kapur reports in Emirates Business 24/7. Some banks are letting people switch their apartment for something smaller within the bank's portfolio.<br/><br/>For the umpteenth time, <a href="http://www.khaleejtimes.com/biz/inside.asp?xfile=/data/business/2009/July/business_July296.xml&section=business"><b>Markus Giebel</b> of<b> Deyaar Development</b> has denied there are merger talks underway with <b>Union Properties</b></a>. <span class="blac9KTBIZ"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">"There is nothing going on," Giebel said, according to reporter </span></span>Aruna Urs for the Khaleej Times<span class="blac9KTBIZ"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">. "We are looking at many things. The government is looking for consolidation. But there is nothing we comment on." Either we read between the lines and find that he did not really say a merger wasn't a possibility or we can assume he meant to say that, but in translating his thoughts from German in his head to English, something was mixed up.</span> <i>There is nothing we comment on ...</i><br/></span>