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Not worth a spit? Dubai targets popular Asian chew 

Be warned: Spitting here could get you deported.

We're not talking just any kind of spit. In this case, it's the red-tinted juice of a popular Asian leaf that's causing the fuss as Dubai tries to buff the image of its less-posh districts. . . .

The director general of the Dubai municipality, Hussain Nasser Lootah, announced Monday a clean streets campaign that specifically targeted the use and sale of betel - a fast-growing vine whose leaves are widely chewed with tobacco, cloves or with the hard areca nut. The popular mixture is known as "paan," from the word pan in Urdu, and promotes a reddish saliva.

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