Tony of Arabia

Business Insider, December 14, 2010

Life is a party for Tony Blair, who left the UK at the top and has gone on to make an absolute fortune as a consultant.

Last night it was claimed by Kuwaiti sources that the former PM was paid $42.5 million this year for advising the government, according to Daily Mail. His firm Tony Blair Associates prepared a report called "Kuwait 2035" earlier this year.

Blair spokespeople deny being paid that much.

Now lets run over a few other consulting gigs nabbed by Tony Blair. First, he earned $640,000 last year as the UN peace envoy to the Middle East, paid primarily by British tax payers.

Second he was hired in 2008 as a consultant to Morgan Stanley, worth $3.2 million a year. Third he earned $800,000 a year as a consultant to Zurich, a Swiss company, according to The Times Of London.

Then there's speaking fees, worth as much as $500,000 an outing.

Cha-ching $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Business Insider Article

Daily Mail Article

Arabian Business Article

Damn Brits! We could have done it for half the price & a little oil... *sniffles*

Defiant Brit Struts Through Dubai Mall in a Bikini

 Bikini Brit Struts Through Dubai mall

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Aug 5, 2010 (AP): A British woman stripped down to her bikini and strutted defiantly through a swanky Dubai mall after an Emirati woman covered head-to-toe in black confronted her for wearing a low-cut shirt, police said Thursday.

Mall security detained both women and took them to a police station for questioning Wednesday. They were released later in the day after the Emirati woman lodged a complaint for public indecency against the Briton, said a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Police said the British woman, whose name was not released, was shopping in the five-star Dubai Mall when the Emirati woman approached her and criticized her for wearing a shirt she felt violated the conservative dress code followed by most women in this Muslim country.

The two argued, then the Briton stripped down to her bikini and walked through the mall filled with luxury shops and near hotels with swimming pools.

The mall, one of the world’s largest, has signs asking shoppers to dress modestly, although Westerners routinely ignore the advisories.

The incident is the latest in a string of cases involving Westerners in Dubai, a cosmopolitan, city-state with the most lenient social codes in the Gulf but a tendency to crackdown on foreigners who ignore the rules.

In March, a British couple was sentenced to a month in jail for kissing in public while an Indian couple was sentenced to three months’ prison for exchanging steamy text messages.

In 2008, two Britons accused of having sex on the beach got three months behind bars, though their sentences were later suspended.

Will her 15 minutes of fame include a feature in Playboy and a reality TV show? Loooool!

Dubai Mall

Pure Lies

Surge in 'virginity repair' operations on NHS as increasing number of women hide evidence of sex before marriage

An increasing number of women are having controversial 'virginity repair' operations on the NHS before they get married.

In the last five years, 116 hymen repair operations have been undertaken at the tax payer's expense. Thousands more women are believed to be paying up to £4,000 to have the surgery done privately each year.  NHS surgeons carried out 30 of the procedures in 2009 - up 20 per cent from 2005.  In the private sector one Harley Street doctor claimed to carry out up to three of the operations a day.  The specialist who offers a hymenoplasty for £1,850, said demand had tripled in recent years.

The operation, which is available on the NHS 'for physical and psychological' reasons, takes just half an hour.  Private practitioners have claimed a surge in demand in the operation has been driven largely by Muslim women desperate to preserve the illusion that they have not had sex before their wedding night.  The procedure - viewed by some as invasive and degrading - sees the hymen stitched or reconstructed so that it will tear and bleed again on the woman's wedding night.  Many women give false names and addresses and some are even buying chastity certificates to 'prove' that they are virgins.

Consultant gynaecologist Dr Magdy Hend performs hymenoplasty under local anaesthetic at his Regency Clinic on London's Harley Street.  He said: 'In the past, we would do one or two hymen reconstruction operations a week. Sometimes now, we get two or three women a day wanting it. Demand has tripled.  'The majority of our clients are Muslim women. They worry about having had sex and their fiance and family knowing that they have been touched before.  'It is more cultural rather religious. If the bride is not a virgin and does not bleed on the wedding night, it is a big shame on the family.  'The woman fears that the husband will walk out, divorce or humiliate her all her life. There have been honour killings in extreme cases.

'It is simple surgery that takes only half an hour. They can have it done at lunchtime and do not have to give their real names and addresses. They are paying up to £4,000 at other clinics.'  Consultant surgeon Ash Mosahebi, who performs the procedure at various London clinics, said he had noticed a recent rise in demand of around 40 per cent.  He said: 'There is a clash of cultures where Muslim women are leading westernised lifestyles but then wanting to conform to the traditional lifestyle of remaining a virgin.

'As it becomes more widely known that operations are available, they are getting to hear about them from friends and increasingly considering it.'  Critics, including moderate Muslim groups, have condemned the trend as a sign of the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in the West. 

Imam Dr Taj Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre in Oxford, called on the Muslim community to try to reverse the trend.  He said: 'The rise in the number of these operations in Britain is a very disturbing trend.  'The situation is very common in the Middle East where there is a huge scandal that can lead to divorce or even honour killings if there are not bloodstained bed sheets after the wedding night.  'It is very disappointing that Muslim women in this country feel they need to lead a double life, resorting to subterfuge surgery.  'That is not conducive to either their psychological or spiritual health and it is hypocrisy and double standards because Muslim men are doing as they please with women.  'The Muslim community should be confronting the issue rather than pretending it is not happening. I shall be speaking out about it in my next sermon.'

The latest official NHS statistics were compiled by the NHS Information Centre for health and social care.  There have been calls for a ban on NHS surgeons carrying out the operations for women wanting to marry as virgins.  But a Department of Health spokeswoman insisted that hymen repair operations only take place on the NHS to ensure a patient's 'physical or psychological health'.  She said: 'The NHS does not fund hymen repair operations for cultural reasons. All operations on the NHS are on the basis of clinical need.  'Operations to repair the hymen are only carried out exceptionally to secure physical or psychological health.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298684/Surge-virginity-repair-operations-NHS.html

British Man Nearly Loses Testicle in Charity Event at Pub While Getting the Male Brazilian Wax

'Intimate Waxing' Fundraiser Goes Awry

LONDON - Joe Cooper might want to think twice the next time he’s asked to participate in a bikini waxing fundraiser for charity.

Cooper, 24, was left in agony after an “intimate beauty waxing” event at a pub went a bit too far and he nearly lost a testicle.

“I'd never do it again. I wouldn't put any man through that pain,” he told British media Wednesday.Cooper and 10 male friends had agreed to undergo the waxing on June 5 to raise cash for a local hospital. But all the others just had their chests waxed, while Joe endured the "male Brazilian,” the Daily Sun reports.

Onlookers placed bids to pull the strips off in the charity event at the pub in Birstall, Leicester. One of the strips stuck to a very sensitive spot — and an over-energetic tug by one of his friends tore off six of his seven layers of skin, the newspaper said.

Pub manager Josh Adcock told the U.K. Daily Mail: 'Joe's a bit of a clown, he likes to do things like that. "People were bidding quite a lot to have a rip. I was laughing but I did feel quite sorry for him, especially as we had a disco later on and he couldn't walk."

Cooper wound up at the hospital. "You can imagine how much everyone was laughing at me. It was ironic. I was meant to be helping them — and they ended up helping me. They told me if any more skin had come off, that would have been it. I was very lucky really," he was quoted as saying.

Cooper, who has so far helped to raise about $4,400 for Leicester Royal Infirmary's children's ward, added: "I just hope people will sponsor me more now — because I'm still hurting."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37760267/ns/us_news-giving

Keep sending me money monthly you sucker! Me love you loooong time!

Perversion of paradise: Thousands of British men fuel a vile sex trade in Thailand - but who's really exploiting who?

Early afternoon and a middle-aged, balding British tourist is striding purposefully down Beach Road, Pattaya's main street, with a Thai girl slung over his shoulder.  He's obviously in a hurry, preferring to walk between the traffic rather than along the crowded pavement. The girl's long, dark hair swishes round his back. Suddenly, she pops up her head, grins and then flops back, making no attempt to free herself. She seems little more than a teenager.

'It's OK, she's fine,' says the man, without slowing down. 'Another 200 yards and that's my hotel.' Hardly anyone one bothers to look - not much in Pattaya merits a second glance. This is the resort, a two-hour drive from Bangkok, where another middle-aged Brit loved to spend his holidays - Derrick Bird, the Cumbria killer.

'Thailand's capital of fun' is how the pocket guidebook to the town describes the place, which attracts a million visitors a year. A less kind, but more accurate, description would be one huge brothel.  The average visitor appears to be male, 40 or more, probably losing his hair, frequently fat, very likely British and there for one reason only - to buy sex with young Thai women.

Though there are many other nationalities there, the town is geared to the Brits. Pubs offer heart-clotting all-day breakfasts and giant portions of toad in the hole to set up holidaymakers for a long night cruising the streets crammed with massage parlours and bars, many with names too crude to mention.  There are two kinds of bar in Pattaya. Bird apparently preferred the quieter sort, the oddly named bar-beers, over the brasher go-go bars.

Sex for sale: Cumbria killer Derrick Bird with On, his 32-year-old Thai bar girlfriend

There's even an official tourist police force, many of whom are long-term British residents, who patrol the streets around the sex bars.

Outside, two middle-aged men flag down one of the songtaew buses that cruise round the downtown area. They're heading back to their hotel with two girls.  One man is hugely fat, sweat oozing across his T-shirt where his man-boobs droop down onto his beer belly. The girls are tiny, beautiful and snuggle up adoringly. 'I'm exhausted. I'll need a holiday when I get back,' says the fat man in a Merseyside accent. His pal laughs. 'And you'll never be able to tell anyone why - what happens in Pattaya has to stay censored for them back home.'

To his annoyance, his girl answers her mobile phone. It's obviously another punter.  'Hi honey,' she coos. 'No, I not work tonight, I sick.' Her friend giggles and the woman shushes her. 'No, you my number one man, I see you very soon, honey, I miss you.' She hangs up and cosies back up to her new number one man.

Like Derrick Bird, many of the men who come to Pattaya are lonely and delusional enough to mistake a transaction for a relationship.  The women may promise to stay off the game if the men continue to send them money when they get back to Britain, as Bird did. On apparently told him she needed money to do up her house so they could live there, happily ever after. 

'I'd like to find a foreigner to be my partner so we can care for each other'  That's a line that could have come straight out of an extraordinary little book that's hard to find, but much sought after in Pattaya.  It's called Get Rich Quick English For Bar Girls. It's a Thai-English dictionary for seduction, sex and survival. These men will believe anything! Even that the hookers are going to remain faithful to them after they leave, as long as they send money every month.  Of course there are many suckers sending them money so they only need a little, because it all adds up. 

Geared for Brits: Pattaya's pubs sets up holidaymakers for a long night cruising the streets crammed with massage parlours and bars

Si thought she would get work as a waitress in Pattaya, but quickly realised she wouldn't earn enough to keep herself, let alone send money home for her children. She has to sell sex to farang - foreigners. And the little phrasebook has taught her how.

There's a list of names for relevant body parts - anatomical and swear versions. Other chapters have useful phrases such as: 'You're the man of my dreams'; 'I love you, not your money'; and 'I never slept with a foreigner before, I'm still a virgin'.

Then there's a whole section on how to ask for money, which includes: 'My father is in hospital'; 'My brother needs school books'; and 'I have really bad toothache and need to pay the dentist'.

Si says she tried working as a labourer and looked for jobs in one of Thailand's huge electronics factories, but only sex pays a living wage. She claims she's been with only three men since she came to Pattaya two months ago because she hates it so much.

'If most girls are honest, they hate it, too. I'd like to find a foreigner to be my partner so we can care for each other,' she says, as tears well up in her eyes. It's probably true, but unfortunately it sounds just like a line from her little book.

There are a few attractions-other than sex on offer in Pattaya. One of them is a shooting range a few miles out of town - another place Bird visited. Pick a pistol and you can fire at a life-sized cut-out of a man, then take the target home as a souvenir, which Bird did. Or you can blast away with a pump-action shotgun - the kind of weapon Bird used on his murderous rampage. 

You aim at metal squares - a paper target would be no good because one hit from a powerful cartridge would shred the target.  One of the unexpected things about Pattaya is that there's nothing threatening or violent about the atmosphere.

On a Saturday at a crowded bar at 2am is Peter. He's a quietly spoken, neat man in his early 60s from Derby, whose wife died from cancer 11 years ago. When one of the BGs asks if he 'wants to play', he nods enthusiastically. As a regular visitor, he knows what will happen next. From under the bar she pulls out a game of Connect 4 and the pair of them giggle away while she thrashes him at noughts and crosses. He might pay for 'short time' a bit later, but many evenings he just sits and chats. He says his wife is irreplaceable and: 'Britain is going to the dogs - can you imagine if this was Derby on a Friday night?'  And in many ways he's right. In most British cities, the street would be full of girls brawling, sprawling and spewing. In Pattaya, they're smiling, decorous and attentive.

Clearly all sorts of men go there as sex tourists, not just social misfits. But Derrick Bird isn't Pattaya's only notorious visitor.  In the mid-Nineties, a young QE2 steward came ashore and discovered a lust for prostitutes. His name was Steve Wright - he's better known as the Suffolk Strangler, who murdered five women in Ipswich in 2006. And Josef Fritzl also enjoyed himself there, while the daughter he repeatedly raped and the children she bore as a result remained locked in a cellar back home in Austria.

In one of the posh hotels at the nicer end of town, a fat man with skinny white legs comes down to breakfast with a Thai woman less than half his age. 'I'll say something in English and you teach me the Thai,' he says. She smiles in agreement. He picks a phrase that's probably already in the Get Rich Quick handbook: 'Go to the bedroom.'

I clean virgin, not ho, you keep sending me money monthly sucker and I will love you looooong time!

To read the entire article:

Daily Mail Article

Story on former US Contractor in Kuwait caught in Thailand

A Wolf in Sheik's Clothing: Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York Snared in a Strange Media Sting

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York — known familiarly as Fergie — apologized Sunday for trying to sell access to her (unknowing) ex-husband, Prince Andrew. It looks like there's one unusual character responsible for her royal embarrassment.

"It is true that my financial situation is under stress; however, that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment, and I am very sorry that this has happened," Ferguson said in a statement. You can watch negotiations between Ferguson and a supposed sheik — really an undercover reporter — To read more and see video click here (video courtesy of Fox News):

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100524/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2211

I'm so very sorry: Shamed Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson sobs as she apologises for letting people down.  (Click below)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1281205/Duchess-York-Sarah-Ferguson-Im-very-sorry.html

Who is the investigative reporter Mazher Mahmood???

A Wolf in Sheik's Clothing written By AISHA LABI  in 2002

 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,388910,00.html

Aspiring actors can hone their talents in school plays. Would-be scientists can tinker with a home chemistry set. But for a kid intent on a career in investigative journalism, the path is trickier. As a teenager who failed to get an internship at the local paper in his hometown of Birmingham, England, two summers in a row, Mazher Mahmood took matters into his own precocious hands. It was the early '80s and the VCR was the hot new home appliance. "There were some family friends involved in video piracy, so I picked up the phone and rang my local T.V. station and the News of the World," he says of his first-ever scoop. "I didn't tell my parents, I just did it." The reason I'm alive is because I'm Asian. Nobody would think I'm a reporter

Q&A

You didn't go to the police when you first learned about the Posh Spice kidnapping plot?

We didn't know what stage they were at. We didn't know if they were serious, and if I went to the police, they might arrest these guys, the few people I knew, but what about the rest? They could carry out the threat and it wouldn't solve the crime.

And it wouldn't be as good a story?

Sure, it's a fine balance. Obviously, we're interested in the story. But we're worried about the welfare of the target as well. I've done jobs, for instance with pedophiles, where children's welfare was at stake, and we go straight to the police. Here, we knew that it wasn't going to happen yet so there was no risk to [Victoria Beckham].

How did the sheik disguise come about?

Back in 1984. It was a vice story, about a hotel in Birmingham that was providing prostitutes for guests. I said, why don't I pretend to be an Arab, get them in, find out if they're prostitutes, then I get a headache and we throw them out. It worked.

You were born in Britain but your parents are from Pakistan. Don't you hesitate to exploit stereotypes of Arabs and Asians?

That's why it works. The only reason I'm alive is because I'm Asian, because I can be a Pakistani market trader, a minicab driver — because of my color. If I don't speak English properly, nobody would ever think that I'm a reporter. That's how you gain people's trust.

Mahmood, has been doing it ever since, adding drug-taking peers, pedophiles and even indiscreet royals to his roster of targets. Last week his most recent undercover sting — which netted the gang allegedly plotting to kidnap pop star Posh Spice, a.k.a. Victoria Beckham, the wife of England football captain David Beckham — was front-page news not just in his, but in almost every other British paper as well. With half of Britain's highest-profile couple as the intended target, the case was certainly unique. But the investigation, which resulted in a police raid and several arrests — captured exclusively, of course, by News of the World cameras — also bore the hallmarks of a classic Mahmood sting.

When a reliable source phoned him in early September with a tip about goods stolen from Sotheby's, Mahmood wasn't very interested. Purloined art, he says, "isn't sensational." But the plot soon escalated. After an initial meeting, with Mahmood disguised "as a sort of Middle Eastern dodgy character," his new associates were so impressed that they invited him to take part in a kidnapping. When the gang chose Beckham, Mahmood had his sensational scoop.

Like the most celebrated investigative journalists, Mahmood relies heavily on informants. But instead of tales of government malfeasance, his deep throats are more apt to cough up stories of cocaine-snorting celebrities. He is not averse to paying for information, but he must be one of the few tabloid reporters who can get away with expensing cocaine. "I don't think there's anything wrong with us buying drugs," he says, insisting he's performing a legitimate service by exposing the foibles of those in the public eye. Others aren't so sure. "The only purpose is the greater good of the circulation of the News of the World," says Alun Jones, the lawyer who represented the Earl of Hardwicke at his 1999 trial for cocaine dealing, the result of a Mahmood sting. Sophie Wessex, Prince Edward's wife and another Mahmood target, would probably agree. But since Mahmood, disguised as a fake Arab sheik, taped her chatting unguardedly about other members of the royal family last year — "it was hard to shut her up, it was embarrassing," he says — Sophie has maintained a more regal reserve.

Mahmood conducts most of his investigations undercover and the shady Middle Easterner is his most reliable incarnation. Of Pakistani parentage, he speaks almost no Arabic, but this hasn't impeded the success of his sheik persona. But for a tabloid legend so fond of flamboyant disguises and the "James Bond-like aspect, the undercover stuff," Mahmood in person is surprisingly low-key. With his boyish face, soft-spoken demeanor and sober pin-striped suit, the loudest thing about him is his tie. But there are hints of his 007-like alter egos. He won't be photographed. And his constant companion, a hulking bodyguard, is an unobtrusive but quietly menacing presence. His name: Jaws.

'I went to Vegas, met a blonde and married her hours later...but now I've got to tell her gun-toting father I'm his son-in-law'

WTH?!!!?  I'm a complete romantic but this drunken, Vegas love story just isn't right! Yikes!!! 

 It could only happen in Las Vegas. British divorcee meets beautiful blonde American in a hotel bar when he spills a drink over her. They get drunk, dance and fall in love. Only three-and-a-half hours after they set eyes on each other, financial adviser Nick Bond, 30, gets down on one knee and proposes to local TV broadcaster Alex Gabrielson, 23. She says 'yes' and later that day - only 17 hours after meeting - the happy couple tie the knot watched by 20 stunned friends in a wedding chapel.

Whirlwind wedding: Nick Bond and Alex Gabrielson leave the Las Vegas wedding chapel by car after the ceremony

Two hours later Mr Bond carries his bride, by now wearing the £1,600 wedding ring he bought her, over the threshold of her hotel room for the first night of their married life.

MIDNIGHT: Nick Bond meets Alex Gabrielson when he spills a drink over her at a Las Vegas bar

It may sound like the plot of the romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas, starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, but in the Hollywood version the newlyweds have a change of heart the next morning and decide to divorce.

3.30 PM: They choose a £1,600 wedding ring after she accepts his proposal, made at 3.30am in a diner

In this real life 'love story' the bride and groom claim to be overjoyed. The same cannot be said of Mr Bond's parents and, despite details of their instant marriage becoming public knowledge yesterday, his new wife's family have not yet been told the news.

The prospect of meeting them is causing Mr Bond some concern because his father-in-law has a collection of hunting rifles. 'I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified,' he said.

5PM: The couple marry at the Special Memory chapel in Vegas watched by 20 stunned friends

The ten-minute ceremony at the Special Memory chapel in Las Vegas took place a fortnight ago while Mr Bond was on a lads' holiday in Las Vegas. He is now back in the UK. His wife is due to visit later this month to start looking for a job, then they will go to the U.S. to meet her parents.

The father-of-two, from Cheam, Surrey, said he downed ten vodka and Red Bulls, some tequila shots and a few beers, but still knew what he was doing as the night wore on. 'I've won the best girl in the world,' he said. 'I'm the luckiest man alive. I went to Las Vegas to have some fun with my mates. 'Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would meet my future wife. A few people have said we're being stupid but we are young and we are not hurting anyone. It's like I am living a dream. Alex is the fittest girl I've ever pulled.'

Speaking from her home in St Cloud, Minnesota, the new Mrs Bond told the Mail yesterday: 'I feel like I'm living in a fairytale. 'We have only known each other a short time but we feel like we've known each other our whole lives. I'm thrilled to be his wife.

HAPPY EVER AFTER? They spent a few days together, then returned to their homes, an ocean apart

'We are staying in touch on the phone and speak every day.' Mr Bond divorced in 2004 following a two-year marriage and is father to Harry, nine, and Phoebe, eight. He told his new wife about his divorce and children before he proposed to her.

Mr Bond arrived in Las Vegas at 11pm on April 15. An hour later me met his soon-to-be wife in the Mirage Hotel bar and there was 'an instant attraction'.

After dancing and kissing they went with two friends to a local diner for a 3am fry up. Suddenly Mr Bond told her, 'I think I love you', and she replied, 'I think I love you too.'

When she accepted his proposal, they went straight to a chapel, but were told they would have to go to a courthouse later for the required marriage documents. After a few hours sleep they still wanted to marry. Mr Bond bought the ring from the hotel boutique. They exchanged their vows at a ceremony at 5pm that day.

Mrs Bond remains delighted she went ahead with the marriage, saying it was the 'most insane and best decision' she had ever made. Mr Bond's parents are less impressed. His mother Lynda, 60, still doesn't believe her son, while his father Peter, 63, described him as a 'plonker'.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1270850/I-went-Vegas-met-blonde-married-hours-later--Ive-got-tell-gun-toting-father-Im-son-law.html

Update - latest article below (6 May 2010)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1273398/Hes-Brit-wed-blonde-hours-met-Vegas--looks-like-honeymoons-already.html          

Dubai = Hypocritical Hookerville!

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/04/dubai-jail-sentence-upheld-uk-kissing-couple/?test=latestnews


Dubai jail sentence upheld for UK kissing couple

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Dubai appeals court on Sunday upheld a one-month prison sentence for a British couple convicted of kissing in a restaurant.

The pair landed in court after an Emirati woman complained about the public kiss, which the couple insisted was just a peck on the cheek. They were arrested in November and convicted of inappropriate behavior and illegal drinking.

Cosmopolitan Dubai has the most relaxed social codes in the conservative Gulf, but authorities enforce strict decency laws and regularly crack down on people accused of pushing the limits, which can include everything from wearing a mini skirt to losing one's temper in traffic.

Last month an Indian couple was sentenced to three months in jail for exchanging steamy text messages. In 2008, two Britons accused of having sex on the beach got three months in jail, though their sentences were later suspended.

Ayman Najafi and Charlotte Adams — both in their 20s — were arrested after an Emirati woman claimed they exchanged a passionate kiss in a restaurant where she and her daughter were having dinner.

Najafi and Adams attended Sunday's hearing, but did not speak. Their lawyer, Khalaf al-Hosany, told the court in a previous hearing that they kissed on the cheek as a greeting and "never intended to break the law."

Appeals court judge Iysar Fouad upheld the conviction, the jail time and a fine of 1,000 dirhams — about $270 — each. They will be deported after serving their sentences.  The couple has 30 days to appeal Sunday's ruling in a higher court.  Their lawyer said Najafi and Adams were not in a relationship, but knew each other before they met in Dubai.  Najafi worked for a marketing firm in Dubai and Adams was visiting the Muslim city-state with a Western outlook that has become famous for its beaches, ever-taller skyscrapers and anything-goes attitude.