A woman was detained in Dubai for three days with her four-year-old daughter after drinking a complimentary glass of wine on a flight from London, an NGO has said. Ellie Holman, a dentist originally from Sweden who lives in Sevenoaks, Kent, with her English partner, Gary, and their three children, was denied water and made to clean toilets while in custody, according to the human rights group Detained in Dubai.

Before I went to Dubai last fall, I imagined a sea of supercars running rampant with few repercussions. I couldn't have been more wrong (at least when it comes to the repercussions bit). Speed cameras in Dubai are no joke. The drivers, though occasionally erratic, steadfastly follow speed limits. And the penalties for breaking the law in the United Arab Emirates are quite severe.

An Iranian woman who removed her obligatory Islamic headscarf out of protest in December says she has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Shapark Shajarizadeh posted on her personal website that she had been jailed for "opposing the compulsory hijab" and "waving a white flag of peace in the street."

Chinese scientists have successfully grown and harvested rice in the deserts of Dubai after developing a strain that allows the crop to grow in saltwater. A team of scientists, led by China’s “father of hybrid rice” Yuan Longping, has already started growing the crop in diluted sea-water at home and is now bringing the technique to the Middle East, where fresh water is too precious to use for growing water-intensive crops.

Just weeks before Saudi Arabia is set to lift its ban on women driving, the kingdom’s state security said Saturday it had detained seven people who are being accused of working with “foreign entities.” Rights activists say all those detained had worked in some capacity on women’s rights issues, with five of those detained among the most prominent and outspoken women’s rights campaigners in the country.

Dubai took another step toward completing what it says will be the largest solar park of its kind, inaugurating a 200-megawatt facility with partners Electricite de France SA and Abu Dhabi-based renewables company Masdar. The third and latest phase of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park will help Dubai toward its goal of generating about 10 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2020. The Gulf Arab city-state is already operating the first two phases of the project in the emirate’s desert and has broken ground on a fourth section.

A mystery 'runaway princess' has claimed to have fled Dubai in an attempt to live a normal life, MailOnline understands. The woman, who says she is the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum - the country's billionaire ruler - claims she doesn't have the freedom to live her own life in Dubai - and was secretly detained in prison for three years after a previous failed escape attempt as a teenager.

Police in Dubai have closed the case into the death of Bollywood star Sridevi Kapoor after handing over her body to relatives. The actress, 54, died on Saturday "due to accidental drowning following loss of consciousness", police said. She was found in a hotel bathtub. It had earlier been reported that she died of cardiac arrest while at a family wedding in Dubai.

How Foutanga Babani Sissoko pulled off one of the most audacious confidence tricks of all time.

The long read: A decade after it was scuppered by the financial crash, the fantasy archipelago of 300 artificial island ‘countries’ is back in business. Has anybody learned anything?

What do you do when you have too much garbage but not enough energy? Convert one into the other. That’s the thinking behind the waste-to-energy plants that are beginning to pop up around the globe, and now the Government of Dubai has announced plans to build the world’s largest.

Big Four consulting firm Ernst & Young (E&Y) has been accused of "unlawful, unprofessional, and unethical" behaviour relating to its audit of a Dubai gold company accused of money laundering and buying gold from conflict zones. The allegations were made in documents, seen by the Guardian, filed in the high court by lawyers acting for Amjad Rihan, a former E&Y partner who blew the whistle on the alleged scandal in 2014.

We’re slowly moving from the Big Data era to the “OMG HOW MUCH DATA?!,” to use the technical term. But, all joking aside, it’s getting bigger, or worse, depending on your point of view. By some estimates over 2.5 Quintillion (yes, that’s a thing) bytes of data are now generated by us daily and this is increasing exponentially monthly.

Dubai police reveal they will soon have officers buzzing around the skies on Star Wars-style electric hoverbikes.

A British man facing a possible three-year jail sentence in Dubai over claims that he touched a man on the hip in a bar has in the meantime been sentenced to a month in jail for making a rude gesture and drinking alcohol. The campaign organisation Detained in Dubai (DiD) said Jamie Harron has been sentenced in absentia to 30 days in prison for the action and drinking alcohol. His representatives said he is to appeal against his conviction.

A 250 million pound ($325 million) luxury development has been launched in Dubai — and the people behind it don't mind if you pay in bitcoin. Announced Wednesday by British entrepreneurs Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman, Aston Plaza and Residences spans more than 2.4 million square feet and is split across two 40-storey residential towers. Its developers claim that it will be the "first major development" to be priced in the virtual currency bitcoin.

Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) announced that it will begin testing a two-passenger autonomous aerial taxi (AAT) later this year. You might think the photos are out of a science fiction film or a futuristic cartoon, but they are not. This is actually happening in Dubai in 2017.

Invest in the best apartments for sale in Dubai now! Compare flat prices and specifications from Dubai's leading real estate developers.

Not content with having the world's tallest building and biggest shopping centre, Dubai has become the first city to get its own Microsoft-designed font. The typeface comes in both Latin and Arabic script, and will be available in 23 languages. Government bodies have been told to use it in official correspondence. But given the human rights record of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, eyebrows will be raised at claims it is a font of "self-expression".

A day before the official opening, Apple invited local press to tour its latest retail store within the Dubai Mall in the United Arab Emirates. Headline features include views of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and a 180-feet wide motorized window comprising 18 carbon fiber panels.