A Norwegian woman who narrowly escaped jail after reporting she was raped in Dubai arrived home on Wednesday, telling media that she had acted "stupidly" during her prolonged ordeal.

Marte Dalelv, 24, said in an interview with a local newspaper that she had been tricked into withdrawing her initial rape report, exposing herself to being convicted for consensual extramarital sex.

The United Arab Emirates ordered two military surveillance satellites from France on Monday, in a deal worth more than 700 million euros ($913.2 million).

The Falcon Eye deal, signed in Abu Dhabi over competition from Lockheed Martin of the United States, includes the supply and launch of two high-resolution Helios surveillance satellites, a control station and training for 20 UAE engineers.

A Norwegian woman sentenced to prison in Dubai after reporting she was raped was set free with a full pardon on Monday after her case sparked an outcry.

Marte Dalelv, 24, expressed relief at the end of a four-month ordeal which had seen her prosecuted and convicted for extramarital sex, perjury and consuming alcohol without a licence, after she lodged the complaint against her boss.

Three Britons convicted on drugs charges in Dubai, who claimed they were tortured in prison, have been freed in an amnesty, diplomatic sources in London said Friday.

Grant Cameron, 25, Karl Williams, 26, and Suneet Jeerth, 25, all from east London, were convicted in April of possessing for consumption more than one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of synthetic cannabis known as Spice.

An Asian man has been arrested for filming a video that has gone viral on the Internet showing a UAE citizen beating up an Indian delivery van driver in Dubai, local media reported Thursday.

The Asian, whose nationality was not known, was arrested for defaming the UAE man who beat up the Indian driver, the reports said.

Health authorities in the UAE have announced that an 82-year-old man has been diagnosed with the MERS coronavirus infection, the first case to be recorded in the Gulf state.

The Emirati citizen who contracted the SARS-like virus suffers from cancer and is being treated in hospital in the capital, Abu Dhabi health authority said in a statement carried by WAM state news agency late Thursday.

When Ali Farhat was summoned to the immigration department in the United Arab Emirates, the 33-year-old Lebanese restaurant worker knew he would have to pack up his family and leave fast.

Like many Shiite Muslims working in the oil-rich Gulf state, Farhat says he popped up on the country's deportation radar merely because of his sect, which its Sunni rulers associate with Hizbullah.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Abu Dhabi on Monday for talks on military cooperation with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, state news agency WAM reported.

According to French business daily La Tribune, Paris is trying to convince the UAE to buy two surveillance satellites built by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, in a contract worth more than 500 million euros.

The United Arab Emirates has praised the Egyptian army for ousting president Mohammed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood movement is the target of a crackdown in the oil-rich Gulf state.

"Egypt's great army once more proves that it is Egypt's protector ... that will ensure it remains a country of institutions and law that protects all components of the brotherly Egyptian people," Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan said in statement carried by the official WAM news agency.

Abu Dhabi has promised to invest $50 billion in India's cash-hungry infrastructure at a time when growth in Asia's third-largest economy has sharply slowed, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The pledge by Abu Dhabi was the key factor in pushing New Delhi to approve a bilateral deal to increase flights between the two countries, an Indian official told the Indian Express.