The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office have updated their travel advice to Dubai to reflect the recent jailing of the Brits caught kissing on the beach:

Women should dress in a modest way, particularly in Sharjah and Ajman Emirates where Islamic law is rigorously enforced. Clothes should cover the tops of the arms and legs, and underwear should not be visible.

Public displays of affection are frowned upon, and there have been several arrests for kissing in public. Sex outside of marriage is illegal, and problems will be encountered if an unmarried woman gives birth in the UAE. These problems can range from a refusal to issue a birth certificate to arrest and imprisonment. A marriage certificate has to be provided to the UAE authorities to obtain a birth certificate. Cohabitation, adultery and homosexual behaviour are also illegal.

Swearing or making rude gestures is considered an obscene act and offenders can be prosecuted. It has been known for offenders to receive a six-month jail sentence for such an act. Particular caution should be exercised when dealing with the police and other officials.

The British man convicted of having sex on a Dubai beach is still in jail, his solicitor said.

Vince Acors was due to land at Heathrow yesterday. He and Michelle Palmer received suspended jail sentences for public indecency.

Update: Re-arrested

23rd December 2008. See article from telegraph.co.uk

Vince Acors has been re-arrested as he prepared to board a flight back to Britain, his lawyer said.

He was detained at Dubai Airport and returned to jail as his flight confirmation was allegedly not in order.

His lawyer Andrew Crossley said tonight: The return of Vince Acors has been delayed yet again and he will not be returning to the UK tomorrow. The situation is close to becoming farcical and Vince is severely disappointed.

He added: After having booked and confirmed his return flight on three separate occasions through the course of the day Vince was re-arrested at Dubai Airport, as his flight confirmation was allegedly not in order. He has been returned to jail, his precise return is now unknown.

Update: Returned

25th December 2008. See article from news.bbc.co.uk

A British man who was convicted of having sex on a beach in Dubai has flown home, his lawyer says.

Vince Acors was given a jail sentence suspended on appeal, along with Michelle Palmer.

Acors was due to fly home earlier but was re-arrested just before boarding a flight because his visa had expired.

Palmeris already in the UK.

A campaign to allow nude bathing on a beach in the Eastern Suburbs has the backing of Sydney's Lord Mayor.

Clover Moore has written to the Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Carmel Tebbutt, in her capacity as the mayor for Sydney, asking the minister to review the classification of Little Congwong beach on Botany Bay, La Perouse.

In the letter Ms Moore wrote that the NSW Free Beach Action Group's campaign had generated community support, demonstrated by a recent online poll by the Southern Courier newspaper.

There were 320 votes in support of a two-year nudity trial at the beach and 32 votes against the plan.

Connecticut police have arrested three men accused of running a swingers’ club inside a hotel bar.

E-mailed photos of risqué behavior led police to Club 91 and the Beverly Hills Suites in Windsor Locks.

They said on weekends the club would run Swingers Groups where men and women came to either engage in or watch sexual activity.

When killjoy police raided last month, they said they witnessed it first hand and report seeing 60 to 70 people inside the club.

All of them paid a $40 admission to get in. Police arrested the three men who they said organized the Swingers Groups.

Nicholas Maulucci faces obscenity and public indecency charges while Brian True and Sharok Jacobi face criminal liability to commit those two charges.

Supposed liquor law violations at the club included smoking inside a public building, nudity, sex acts, not serving food and improper use of a service bar.

Two German tourists were caught in the act and fined Bt500 each for having sex inside an ancient temple in Ayutthaya a central province of Thailand.

The couple were found by an official of National Historical Park of Ayutthaya having sex on a wall of the Srisanphet Temple at 12:30 pm.

They stopped when the park official, Phaithoon Puengthong, blew his whistle while running toward them.

The couple were handed over to police and were fined Bt500 (£10) each before released.

Two Britons found guilty of having sex on a Dubai beach are to be deported without serving any jail sentence.

Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors had appealed against their convictions.

They were caught on Jumeirah Beach on 5 July and fined £170 and sentenced to three months in prison in October.

The pair were freed on bail during the appeals process and a court has now withdrawn their three-month jail terms.

Hassan Matter, who represented the couple in court, said: The judge has cancelled the jail. He refused the prosecution appeal [for the sentences to be increased].

Palmer and Acors were found guilty of unmarried sex and public indecency at Dubai's Court of First Instance.

One of Europe’s most famous nudist colonies has become the subject of an unusual investigation by French detectives after the destruction of three nightclubs in fires blamed on naturist hardliners.

The normally peaceful Cap d’Agde, a magnet for nudists in the south of France, has been plunged into anxiety. Investigators suspect fundamentalist naturists of harbouring a grudge against the échangistes, or swingers, who are drawn to the town by the promise of sex.

A swingers club, called Glamour was the first to be razed, in April. The next day the Palme Ré, another orgy venue, went up in flames. In September the Tantra club and Zen, its neighbouring bar, were destroyed in blazes.

Nobody was hurt but the fires have shocked a community. Tensions have arisen between the naturists, who believe that nudity is a healthy choice of lifestyle and nothing to do with sex, and the échangistes, who are attracted to nudist camps by the prospect of multiple partners.

Some in Cap d’Agde attribute the fires to fundamentalist mullahs of chaste nudity, as one magazine called them, who have often harangued holiday-makers venturing onto nudist beaches in bathing costumes. Others denied that naturists could have been involved.

When it comes to public nudity, Seattle may be the most liberal city in the US, but a number of organized, naked bike rides prompted the parks department to reconsider nudity on beaches and city parks.

But the city's parks board refused to ban non-offensive public nudity despite some complaints from nutters.

Nude events will therefore likely continue in the future, although perhaps under tighter scrutiny.

The parks board decided that to limit nudists would be to single them out. If nudists follow the rules, they can continue to use the parks.

Naked bike rides are a Seattle tradition. In Seattle it's illegal to flash someone, but perfectly legal to run around nude and police officers take action only if a nudist is lewd or obscene.

The bare facts of the law are that if you knowingly show yourself naked with the intent to alarm and offend people that's illegal, said Sergeant Sean Whitcom, of the Seattle Police Department. Just being nude is not against the law.

A man known as the Naked Rambler has been cleared of committing a breach of the peace after leaving Barlinnie Prison on 14 October with no clothes on.

Stephen Gough was acquitted at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, but was rearrested in the foyer.

A month-long rainforest sex party at a notable Queensland nudist resort is a recipe for disaster that could attract sexual predators, prominent naturalists say.

The White Cockatoo Resort in Port Douglas has announced it will hold an adults-only month of hedonism in March next year in a bid to increase dwindling tourist numbers.

The resort — once billed as the nation's top destination for swingers — is close to being booked out, according to owner Tony Fox.

But nudists, who have described the planned romp as debauched, fear sexual predators will be enticed out of the woodwork by the throng of naked flesh.

The resort is asking for trouble — once these things start it's very becomes very difficult to draw the lines about what’s acceptable, Lindsay Parkyns, president of the Australian Nudist Federation, told ninemsn: This is going to fly in the face of years for campaigning. We try to get beaches to be clothes optional but unfortunately that attracts the wrong sort of people — particularly single guys looking for sex — and [the resort’s party] will keep reinforcing that problem.

Mr Fox, owner of the White Cockatoo Resort, said next year's event had nothing to do with the prudie nudies and described their criticism as penis envy. The fact that it is almost fully booked out is proof there is a desire for a product like this.

Judging by the number of column inches devoted to the subject in recent months, one would be forgiven for thinking that partner-swapping had become the noughties equivalent of the Tupperware party. But is swinging really Sweden’s new favourite hobby?

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