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Dubai’s crown prince bought a camel for a record $2.7 million during a desert festival in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Sheik Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the son of Dubai’s ruler Sheik Mohammed and his heir apparent, bought 16 camels for $4.5 million during a camel beauty pageant taking place during a desert carnival that aims to preserve the nomadic way of life in the oil-rich Gulf.

Sheik Hamdan paid $2.7 million for one camel, Emirates’ state news agency reported Tuesday. It gave no details on the camel.

More than 17,000 camels from the oil-rich Gulf countries — the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain — were registered for a camel beauty contest taking place over two weeks in the Emirates’ Western desert.

Camels are registered for beauty contest in several categories, defined by age and skin color. The owners of the top three camels in each category split a 2 million price fund and each receive a car from a pool of more than 100 4×4 vehicles and pickup trucks.

Five judges assess the camels’ bodies as a whole and their necks, heads, lips, noses, humps, legs and feet separately.

The money and cars for the camel beauty contest were donated by the members of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, which organized the festival in a bid to preserve the nomadic way of life in the desert that predates the discovery of oil in the region in the 1960’s.

The ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who is also the Emirates’ president, and his brother Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed al-Nahyan both own an undisclosed number of camels.

Abu Dhabi is the capital of United Arab Emirates and, with the lion’s share of the country’s oil resources, the richest of the seven semiautonomous emirates that make up the Gulf country. Dubai, the largest emirate in population, has been undergoing an unprecedented boom as its leaders shape it into a major financial center.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A police officer pulls over a speeding car. The officer says, ” I clocked you at 80 miles per hour, sir.” The driver says, “Gee, officer I had it on cruise control at 60, perhaps your radar gun needs calibrating.” Not looking up from her knitting the wife says: “Now don’t be silly dear, you know that this car doesn’t have cruise control.” As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, “Can you please keep your mouth shut for once?”

The wife smiles demurely and says, “You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did.” As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, “Damn it, woman, can’t you keep your mouth shut?”

The officer frowns and says, “And I notice that you’re not wearing your seat belt, sir. That’s an automatic $75 fine.” The driver says, “Yeah, well, you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket.” The wife says, “Now, dear, you know very well that you didn’t have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you’re driving.” And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket the driver turns to his wife and barks, “WHY DON’T YOU PLEASE SHUT UP??”

The officer looks over at the woman and asks, “Does your husband always talk to you this way, Ma’am ?”

“Only when he has been drinking.”