Nokia powers Wataniya Telecom's HSDPA network in Kuwait - Fossett soars over Saudi Arabia in record flight bid - S Arabia declines Pak request for 'free' oil - Saudi Arabia holds seminar on combatting domestic violence - Hamas Victor Termed as A Real Middle East Democracy Project - Kidnapped journalist says time is short - Iran's euro-denominated oil bourse to open in March; US$ crash imminent! - Petrodollars and Nuclear Weapons Proliferation: Understanding the Planned Assault on Iran - Euro factor to the Iran ‘crisis’- Gasoline Crisis in Iraq International Supplies threaten to stop supply for non payment of bill. - US-Danish Dispute Widens over Iraqi Port Control.Iraqi Port Weathers Danish Storm Judge renews detention of Kuwait man in wilful murder of his daughter - Kidnapped U.S. journalist appears in new video on Kuwait Channel - Dubai Financial acquires shares of Thomas Cook - Shree Ganesh Forgings to set up unit in Dubai - World's first Islamic business university in Kuwait - eSys Technologies to list Middle East entity in Dubai by Q3 2006 - Singapore's PSA pulls out of P&O bid- Jacko, says Bahrain Pop Icon bankrupt? - Sex slave threat man raped woman - Qatar to donate $25 million to restore National Library - Qatar first lady visits Wipro office in Bangalore - Journalists hoping to improve reporting on HIV/AIDS - Jordan : Rights group launches drive to curb early marriage AMMAN, 9 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - A leading Jordanian rights group has launched the country's first ever public campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of early marriage.“We need to educate people about the negative consequences of the practice on girls, from both the physical effects to deeper emotional scars," said Firas Azar, president of the Mizan Law Group for Human Rights, an NGO that extends legal aid to vulnerable women.An amendment of the personal status law in late 2004 brought the legal age for marriage up from 15 to 18. However, a clause in the law still permits judges to sanction child marriages at their discretion. “The tragedy is when someone gets married at 15 and years later realises she had no say in the marriage,” noted Azar. “As well as the detrimental effect this has on her life and education.”According to UN children’s fund UNICEF, the practice is considered a human rights violation. The organisation has noted that child marriages often result in the denial of education and health problems related to premature pregnancies, which in turn lead to high rates of maternal and infant mortality, as well as frequent physical and emotional abuses. The government says that the enforcement of more liberal laws, the expansion of schooling and economic growth have all combined to bolster the status of women and helped reduce early marriages among the country's approximately 961,000 families.Nevertheless, girls – some as young as 11 years-old – are still being married off, particularly in rural and tribal areas. The majority are aged between 15 and 18.There are no figures available on the numbers of child marriages taking place every year. While economic and social progress has helped reduce underage marriage over the last two decades, Asma Khader, founder of the Mizan group and prominent woman's rights activist, said that the exception clause in the current law was widely abused. Mizan’s public awareness drive is to last until the end of this year. A campaign poster bearing the caption “Know your rights and then you can protect yourself” depicts a desperate-looking young girl wearing a white wedding dress, with both hands raised in submission."No to health and emotional damage by marriages under 18 years-old," the poster in reads Arabic. MOROCCO Weekly ordered to pay heavy damages in continuing court harassment Reporters Without Borders condemned the continuing judicial harassment of the Moroccan weekly TelQuel after a Casablanca court today ruled on appeal that it must pay 500,000 dirhams (50,000 euros) in damages in a libel suit brought by the director of a child aid association, Touria Bouabid."It is now clear that the Moroccan courts want to strangle TelQuel financially, as it was already ordered to pay an equally disproportionate fine a little more than a month ago," the press freedom organisation said. "The appeal court did, it is true, reduce the amount of damages awarded by the lower court but it is still exorbitant and more than five times the maximum damages mentioned in the press code for defamation cases," Reporters Without Borders added.TelQuel's lawyer said the newspaper would appeal to a yet higher court.A lower court in Casablanca ruled on 25 October that TelQuel should pay a fine of 10.000 dirhams (915 euros) and damages of 900,000 dirhams (82,300 euros) for a report in May that Bouabid had been summoned by the police for questioning about embezzlement within her NGO. The information came from police sources and was reported in three other newspapers as well as TelQuel - Al Ahdath Al Maghribiya, Al Ayam and Al Ousbouîya Al Jadida.All four newspapers published retractions after the information turned out to be false, and the other three got off with minor fines. On 29 December, the Casablanca appeal court ordered TelQuel to pay 800,000 dirhams (72,000 euros) in a separate libel case. So the total sum the weekly is now supposed to pay is 1.3 million dirhams (130,000 euros). Respect Female Detainees in Iraq: Womens Right Association BAGHDAD, 8 February (IRIN) - NGOs are calling for the protection of women during military raids, accusing both the Iraqi army and police of humiliating female suspects and detainees. Since July 2005, the Women's Rights Association (WRA) of Iraq has registered more than 240 cases of women. They say they have have suffered "humiliation" at the hands of the army and police during raids on their homes, according to Mayada Zuhair, a member of the association.The WRA has also registered nearly 90 reports of mistreatment of former female detainees.WRA spokeswoman Sarah Muthulak noted that most cases involved sexual harassment or violence, including beatings."Urgent attention should be given to this issue," Muthulak said.The Iraqi Army is responsible for conducting arrests of alleged insurgents, often with the support of local police."I shouted at police when they came," recalled Rasha Obeid, a 25-year-old woman accused of supporting the insurgency. "I said I wouldn't accept arrest or anyone touching me... When I reached the prison, though, army officials started to touch my body and say bad words." Women whose male family members are wanted for involvement in insurgency are often reportedly arrested in their place."The Iraqi Army raided my house searching for my husband, who was accused of being an insurgent," said Samira Kubaissy, a resident of Baghdad's Hay Jamia'a district, adding that she was beaten by army troops until she lost consciousness. "Because he was out at the time, they took me instead.""For five days I was humiliated by officers," Kubaissy added. "Women should be respected during raids, not treated as insurgents," noted Muthulak. "Taking a woman instead of her husband is a crime, and the humiliation very serious."In most Muslim countries, women are usually searched or interrogated by other women, given the generally conservative nature of Islamic society. However, male police officers are allowed to arrest women in such cases in Iraq if female officers are unavailable.According to Maj. Huda al-Kham, women serving in the army are kept far from raids or combat missions. "We never participate in any arrests or raids," she said.Al-Kham went on to note that there were approximately 220 women in the Iraqi Army today, all of whom were trained in Jordan. As for the numbers of women being held for alleged insurgent activities since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, no official figures are available.The Ministry of Interior, meanwhile, continues to deny accusations of official mistreatment, saying that the army and police have been well trained to deal with women. "We're going to evaluate such accusations, but I guarantee .that our officers would not carry out such behaviour," said Hassan Jaffar, a senior ministry official. He added that many of the women were "imagining" the alleged abuses."Many NGOs working with women's issues are just extrapolating numbers and accusing the government," Jaffar said. "Women's organisations have the right to defend themselves, but they must also accept that there are women working with the insurgency." Float Glass Plant in UAE Under Construction at Industrial City of Abu Dhabi February 8, 2006 Emirates Float Glass (EFG) LLC, founded by Dubai Investments PJSC has announced that the ground breaking ceremony of its 320,000 square meters plot at Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD 2), will be held on February 14, 2006. Leading dignitaries and business people including glass processors, fabricators, building developers, consultants and contractors, will attend the function.Khalid Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Investments thanked the support provided by H.H. Sheikh Hamad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chairman of Higher Corporation of specialized Economic Zone (HCSEZ) and the management of ICAD which helped in expediting the project’s construction activities. The float glass production plant, being constructed at a cost of US$ 193 million, will have an annual capacity of about 160,000 tons of architectural, automotive, pyrolytic coated and special products. The design engineering has been completed by the turnkey contractor for the project – IANUA of Italy which has been involved since 1975 in designing and building machinery and plants used in glass process transformation around the world. Emirates Float Glass has entered into technical partnership of PPG Industries, a global supplier of glass, coatings, fiberglass and chemicals with about 50 production facilities in the United States and about 108 worldwide. Emirates Float Glass will be part of the glass holding company being formed by Dubai Investments. The glass holding company would include a family of glass manufacturing and processing companies as well as glass products trading companies. Besides EFG, the glass holding company currently includes Emirates Glass, Lumiglass and Saudi American Glass. Emirates Float Glass will be able to provide these companies with 120,000 tonnes of glass annually.Kalban added “With the formation of the glass holding company, we plan to consolidate our experience in the glass industry. We have already started working on the second float glass line which we plan to expand by setting up a number of related manufacturing facilities including additional float line, coating line, mirror line and patterned glass line, making it the market leader in Glass Business across the region”. “Dubai Investments is spearheading the industrial development in UAE by setting up and operating a number of major industries in diversified sectors. Currently, the company has a portfolio of over 30 production facilities in the country,” said Kalban.Kalban reiterated that “the project is of strategic importance to the UAE’s industrial development. We have selected this project in line with the objectives of our Government to focus on rapid Industrialisation and Economic development of the region”. Yoga..India's Original Meditation Method. In the famous "Time" magazine the importance meditation and yoga, an ancient Indian system, is high-lighted that the ancient mind- and spirit-enhancing art is becoming increasingly popular and gaining medical legitimacy. It is a multi billion dollar business in US. In many Universities it is accepted as subject and included in the Syllabus. In the latest famous book "Inspire! What Great Leaders Do" written by Mr.Lance Secretan recently published by John Wiley and sons, the benefit of meditation is elaborately described for good corporate governance. By practising transcendental meditation, or TM, many people have got relief from back pain, neck pain, depression. The mind calms and quiets, . What thoughts you have during meditation become clearer, more focused. Anger, anxiety and worries give way to a peace. In the world exhorbitant medical expeneses one can definitely make use of meditation. Maharshi Mahesh Yogi and Sri Ravi Sankar are poplarising this. The Iyengar Yoga institute in US is famous. In Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna has inspired Arjuna to rise from his depression by preaching Gita in the battlefield and to rise from the depression to do his duties. In Holy Gita we can see, being hidden by the cosmic overview of any institution beset with myriad problems, not the least of which is its lack of moral probity, there is a groundswell of educated people seeking answers to deeply personal but universally asked questions. Chie Executives taking lessons from yoga, meditation and learning how to deal with human resources equations in an enlightened manner. Individuals from every walk of life can get ideas of how to be better human beings, more balanced and less stressed out. Medical studies continue to show regular meditation working magic in reducing blood pressure and stress-related illnesses, including heart disease. Brain images show that regular meditation helps calm the most active sensory-assaulted parts of the brain. The ancient Hindu sage Patanjali who had mastered the secrets of the human mind has written a book "Yogasutra".In this book we can see how super powers can be achieved by meditation. It has both cosmic relevance and cosmic resonance. In spite of its universal appeal, for most people total control of mind remains an elusive goal and daunting task. From time immemorial, there have been many attempts throughout the world to unlock the mysteries of the mind and to achieve total control over it through a variety of techniques. One of the most powerful of these techniques is meditation. Many spiritual leaders, sages, saints, and holy people such asSri. Buddha, Sri Ramakrishna, Madam Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda have practised this. It is said that in the unknown period of Lord Jesus Christ , He was under meditation.