A court in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced 17 Indian nationals to death for killing a Pakistani man. About 50 people were involved in the fatal attack in which the Pakistani man was stabbed repeatedly.

In another event:

In February it was reported that 13 members of an alleged bootlegging gang from the Jebel Ali area of Dubai were accused of kidnapping two rivals, raping them and burying them alive.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8592724.stm

A rare whale shark that was a hotel attraction has been returned to the wild, the resort said Thursday, following an international campaign against the captivity. The 4.2-metre female was returned to the Gulf waters where it had been “rescued” said the hotel, where guests pay up to $7,500 US a night for a top suite.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Dubai+hotel+frees+whale+shark/2701800/story.html

Two Britons accused of kissing in public in Dubai face up to a month in prison after a mother complained her child had seen them. The case is the third in under two years in which Britons have fallen foul of decency laws in Dubai. Dubai’s burgeoning foreign population, which now outnumbers that of Emirati nationals, has sparked concerns that the pace of change is threatening the conservative region’s social and religious identity.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/14/kiss-dubai-britons-public

Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the police chief of Dubai, certainly knows how to milk a good story for all it’s worth. It’s now been six weeks since Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in his room in an airport hotel, and most of the world long ago concluded that Israel’s Mossad spy agency was responsible. Yet day after day Tamim continues to make headlines, dribbling out more details of the clumsy and not-so-clandestine operation and issuing grandiose pronouncements.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/03/the_dubai_police_chiefs_outlan.html

The observation deck on the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world, has been closed for repairs only a month after it opened. Emaar Properties, the builder of the tower, said there had been an unexpectedly high number of visitors and problems with the power supply.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8504852.stm

The murder was straight out of a cheap spy thriller. At least 11 professional assassins, some wearing wigs and fake beards, tracked a senior Hamas official to his Dubai hotel in January and killed him with cold precision, fleeing the country afterward on European passports, the Dubai police say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/world/middleeast/17dubai.html

Details continued to emerge yesterday on the assassination of senior Hamas member Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last week. Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan told local reporters yesterday at least seven people with European passports were involved. He did not name the specific countries of the passports, but said the Dubai police approached the nations for information on these individuals.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1146622.html

“The Metro is expected to change life in Dubai as it will not only provide easy public transport but will also help reduce traffic, improve environment and attract tourists,” said Abdul Majeed Al Khaja, chief executive officer of the Rail Agency of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), which is carrying out the project.

Some 3,200 people are being trained to ensure the smooth operation of the Metro. UK-based company Serco has been tasked with operating the Metro for the first 10 years. Serco is currently providing training to employees – including UAE nationals – as it gears up for the launch of the Red Line.

http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Traffic_and_Transport/10318639.html