| A TIPSY Italian visitor to the relatively liberal Gulf emirate of Dubai has been fined the equivalent of over $4200 for hugging and kissing a woman in public, a newspaper reported today. A court in the Muslim emirate heard a policeman say he saw the couple hugging and kissing in a taxi near the international airport, Gulf News said. He took the unidentified man and his Egyptian acquaintance to a police station for questioning. The two "confessed to hugging and kissing inside the taxi," and the Italian also admitted to being drunk. He was fined 12,000 dirhams ($4202) after being "charged with drinking alcohol and lewd behaviour in public" and his companion had to pay $US545 ($700) for "lewd behaviour in public," the newspaper said. Dubai, a member of the United Arab Emirates federation, currently boasts five million visitors a year - many of them Westerners - for its population of 1.2 million. It is targeting 10 million by 2007 and 40 million by 2015. The affluent emirate is in the midst of a drive to establish itself as the Gulf's business and leisure hub. |