The judge denied the request, setting another hearing for next week. Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors are on trial for, as we previously noted, allegedly having sex on the beach in Dubai. Palmer says she and Acors hugged and kissed, but didn’t have sex, according to the AP. Still, as Barbara Surk writes, “Public display of affection, such as touching, kissing or hugging, is illegal in Dubai and couples—particularly if not married—can be detained by police for indecency.”

Related on World Hum:
* Brits Go on Holiday, Europe Cowers in Fear

Contributor Elyse Franko recently wrote that Dubai is “the place where kids can be kids and dads can indulge their midlife crises.” But apparently it’s not the place where a couple of Brits can have sex on the beach and not get arrested.

Eighty ever-shifting floors? Oh, Dubai, you just give and give and give.

We’ve already noted plans for Dubailand, Dubai’s massive amusement park complex that’s been staked out by Universal Studios and Six Flags. According to the Wall Street Journal, recent deals will to the mix add a Marvel superhero-themed park and a Ferrari-themed park called (you guessed it) Ferrari-Land. Ah, Dubai: The place where kids can be kids and dads can indulge their midlife crises. 

Related on World Hum:
*Theme Parks Bound for Mumbai and Dubai

The warning for the United Arab Emirates comes from the UK Foreign Office but included few details. BBC report here.

Oh, Brad Pitt, is there nothing you can’t do? 

If the excesses of Dubai aren’t your thing, you might soon consider a very different kind of travel destination in the United Arab Emirates. Oil-rich Abu Dhabi is planning to build an “eco city” for 50,000 people that will be powered entirely by renewable energy, NPR reports. 

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Ah, what love (and oil money) can do. They’re fueling the so-called “Lyon-Dubai City” project, which aims to create a mini version of France’s third-largest city in the desert of the United Arab Emirates.

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From the rooftop of my apartment building in Taiwan, Taipei 101 (pictured) blinks reassuringly in the distance, hovering just above the hills. Some nights it glows blue and gold in its upper reaches; other nights it’s green and purple. I’ve whiled away hours on the building’s fourth floor, home to the city’s best English bookstore, and spent New Year’s Eve watching fireworks explode around the skyscraper’s edges. The spectacle is guaranteed to net Taiwan much-coveted global exposure on CNN. The world’s tallest building is always within sight, but I didn’t realize I held such affection for the place until I read Saturday that the Burj Dubai had unofficially stolen Taipei 101’s towering thunder. Taiwanese have long known the day would come; still, I felt my stomach drop.

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Goodbye, high seas. Hello, Palm Jumeirah. One of the world’s grandest cruise ships, Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2, has been purchased by a division of a Dubai-owned corporation and by 2009 will become yet another mega spectacle in a land of mega spectacles. According to the AP, Istithmar, a division of government-owned Dubai World, purchased the famed British ship—it has carried royalty, troops to the Falklands War and the Norovirus from Acapulco to San Francisco—for $100 million and plans to turn it into a “floating hotel, retail and entertainment destination” off the coast of the manmade Palm Jumeirah island.

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Here at the Planet Theme Park desk, it’s hard to keep up with all the projects in the works, but we try. In the latest news, a $100 million Bollywood theme park is planned for the Indian city of Mumbai—or Bombay if you’re a certain UK newspaper apparently still in denial about that whole name change thing that was so 1995.

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It sounds like an oxymoron, but it seems that budget travel opportunities are at least beginning to emerge in Dubai. The Economist notes that the country’s first easyHotel is being built, promising modest accommodations at rates of up to 20 percent below its competitors. What’s more, a total of six easyHotels are planned for Dubai as part of an expansion into the region by the London-based chain. The first property is due to open next year.

Related on World Hum:
* ‘The Cultures That Produced Dubai and Las Vegas Surely Must Have Something in Common’
* Mosque Tourism in Dubai

Photo by octal, via flickr (Creative Commons).