NAKHEEL & IFA-PALM JUMEIRAH GOLDEN MILE 780 APARTMENTS SELL OUT IN 48 HOURS

Dubai -May 8 2004 Nakheel, developers of The Palm and IFA Hotels & Resorts, a subsidiary of Kuwait based International Financial Advisors (IFA), have announced that the 780 freehold apartments on their joint venture Golden Mile, on the Palm, Jumeirah were sold within 48 hours of them being placed on the market. Sultan Bin Sulayem, Chairman of Nakheel said: "We are pleased with the achievement which demonstrates the successful partnership between Nakheel and IFA. Buyers have come from all over the world, it proves that there is international confidence in The Palm project and in Dubai as a growing, safe destination and one in which investment will bring solid returns.

" The Golden Mile - an international shopping and residential destination which covers 60,000 square metres - is a flagship project on the prestigious Palm, Jumeirah, an offshore island being built off the coast of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Jassim M Al Bahar, Chairman and Managing Director, IFA commented: "This is an unprecedented market reaction; we are delighted with the response and look forward to future joint cooperation with Nakheel." The Golden Mile apartments, to be housed in two waterfront buildings, went on sale this week at Arabian Travel Market 2004, the Middle East's premier travel and tourism show at prices ranging from US $250,000 for a one-bedroom, garden-view unit to $550,000 for the high-end waterfront three-bedroomed properties.

Wahid Attalla, Nakheel's Executive Director, Commercial & Operations remarked: "The response to the sales of both the Golden Mile properties and The World over the past few days demonstrates and mirrors the continuous demand for the Palm properties since the project was launched." 2/- James Wilson, President & COO IFA Hotels & Resorts said: "The apartments have been designed with stunning waterside views, spacious, private patios, iconic architecture, luxurious interior design and access to the recently announced beachside Fairmont Palm Hotel & Resort. "The ATM has been the ideal launch platform for the Golden Mile properties with both international and regional markets present in Dubai for the week which has greatly assisted in the launch. The take up by the market demonstrates the interest in our comprehensive property services, added to the fact that Nakheel is a world class developer.

" The Palm Golden Mile residents will also be provided with an extensive range of services, including owners' reception and concierge, housekeeping, maintenance, security and excellent maid and childcare services. The Golden Mile will cover one whole side of The Palm, Jumeirah's trunk and will include a 1.5 kilometre waterside Corniche. Being developed at a cost of US $300 million it comprises luxury apartments and 220 upscale boutique shops and restaurants. "The Golden Mile is another world-class project which will significantly contribute to achieving Dubai's vision of building an inbound tourism arrivals target of 15 million tourists by 2010," said Al-Bahar.

"The shops, restaurants, apartments and penthouses will be supported by an international hotel company, providing comprehensive property services. The Golden Mile will be an inclusive destination in its own right. "The rapid pace of sales is not just evidence that this destination is now one of the world's most sought-after addresses, but also a tribute to the vision of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and a clear demonstration of the global support that vision is now receiving," ENDS CAPTION: Golden Mile apartments sell out.(KM Bureau Dubai)

FINE pushes for increased market share in diaper segment with upgraded product line,

Promotional offers LIDO Super Dry, among UAE's leading diaper brands, introduces 'Magic layer' absorption system

DUBAI - May 8, 2004 FINE Hygienic Paper FZE, the leading manufacturer of hygienic paper tissue, personal and health care products in the UAE, has embarked on an aggressive campaign to increase its market share in the diaper segment, with the introduction of the upgraded LIDO Super Dry diaper with 'Magic layer' absorption system. The new product is a result of extensive market surveys as well as feedback from consumer focus groups. The company, that currently holds over 20 percent market share, is a leading player in the diaper segment in the UAE. "The diaper market is of an extremely competitive nature. Parents place a premium on their child's hygiene and comfort; however being a daily use product, pricing is also a key influencer of the buying decision. We have improved the popular value-for-money LIDO Super Dry diapers after test-marketing it on our consumer focus groups, which comprised of regular customers and users of competing brands," said Peter Janho, General Manager, FINE Hygienic Paper FZE.

"Recent market studies indicate that countries in the Arabian Gulf have among the highest birth rates in the world, and rank fifth globally in terms of population of children. The diaper market in the UAE and the lower gulf represents a significant proportion of our revenues, which is one of the main reasons why we have chosen this sector as a key focus area for growth and expansion this year," added Janho. "An essential new feature of the LIDO Super Dry diaper is its 'Magic layer', a rapid liquid acquisition layer that can effectively keep moisture away from the baby's skin. The diaper's efficiency is further strengthened by a super absorbent non-allergic gel spread evenly across the pulp layer to increase absorbency levels by up to 25 percent. We have also improved the shape of the diaper; it is contoured and lighter to offer maximum comfort. Additionally, the LIDO bag now comes with an easy carry handle".

"To further drive usage of the new LIDO, we have launched a promotional redemption scheme. Consumers can claim a free regular pack of any sized diapers (small, medium, large or maxi) against purchase of seven regular packs of any size, over a period of 3 months. The offer is available at all retail outlets until June 27, 2004. -ends- Editor's Note About FINE FINE is the brand name of a wide variety of products produced by the Nuqul Group's FINE Hygienic Paper Companies, spread across the Middle East, with its headquarters in Jordan. A market leader in the hygienic paper industry in the Middle East, FINE today is synonymous with 'paper tissue'. The company is committed to maintaining the highest standards of quality in all aspects of production. This commitment to excellence is manifested in its factories, which are equipped with state-of-the-art machinery, highly qualified and experienced staff, and the determination to continually improve on and upgrade production facilities. Other brands that the company markets include Finies (baby diapers), Cinderella (feminine sanitary napkins) and Smile & Lido (facial tissue & toilet rolls). Products under the Fine name include kitchen towels, jumbo rolls, adult briefs, and wet wipes.

Adobe Systems reports 43 percent growth in revenue for 2004

May 8, 2004 Adobe Systems Incorporated, the world leader in network publishing software solutions, has achieved record results in the first quarter (Q1) of fiscal year 2004. For Q1 that ended on March 5, 2004, Adobe achieved revenues worth US$ 423.3 million, compared to US$ 296.9 million, reported for Q1 of 2003 and US$ 358.6 million reported in Q4 2003. The company has attributed the positive results to the success of the recently launched Creative Suite and the continued popularity of the Adobe Acrobat, in a statement issued by Bruce Chizen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Adobe. Speaking about the group's performance in the Middle East, Ibrahim Lahoud, Middle East Regional Manager, Adobe Systems Europe Ltd stated, "The Creative Suite Platform, which was launched in the region in October last year, has received tremendous positive response from creative professionals and enterprises in the Middle East. Its main selling points are maximum user flexibility and a comprehensive multi-solution offering, all at an extremely cost-effective price. The Acrobat also continues to be a popular choice among industry professionals.

" The Creative Suite Platform includes a host of products including Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe InDesign CS, Adobe GoLive CS, Acrobat 6.0 Professional and the unique Version Cue file version manager, which makes management of several files much easier benefiting designers collaborating on projects. Creative Suite also offers tighter integration with InDesign; thus, users can edit and import files from Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop or even MS Excel without leaving InDesign. More importantly, Adobe InDesign files can also be easily converted into PDF files using Adobe's Acrobat, and emailed or transferred anywhere in the world, without affecting the formatting and fonts. "With a flourishing, technology-driven multimedia and advertising industry in certain countries in the Middle East, we have seen increased demand for the Creative Suite Platform and Acrobat. Demand in the region has also received a boost due to the User Partnership Initiative (UPI), which aims at offering reduced prices to users of Arabic-enabled or fully localised products of Adobe software in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt," added Lahoud. Encouraged by the success of the Creative Suite, the company has announced plans to launch an Arabic version of its latest InDesign CS ME shortly, giving them a further edge over competitors.

Adobe is optimistic of exceptional market response to the Arabic version following the successful introduction of various language versions across the globe, as well as the success of the English language version in the Middle East. The company's GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) diluted earning per share for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2004 were US$ 0.50. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share, which does not include an investment loss from the company's venture program, also were US$ 0.50. Adobe's revised GAAP and non-GAAP first quarter earnings target range was US$ 0.36 to US$ 0.42 per share. GAAP net income was a record US$ 123.0 million for Q1 of 2004, compared to US$ 54.2 million reported, in the first quarter of fiscal 2003, and US$ 83.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2003. On a year-over-year basis, GAAP net income grew 127 per cent.

USA: Pattern of brutality and cruelty -- war crimes at Abu Ghraib: Amnesty International

In an open letter to US President George W. Bush today, Amnesty International said that abuses allegedly committed by US agents in the Abu Ghraib facility in Baghdad were war crimes and called on the administration to fully investigate them to ensure that there is no impunity for anyone found responsible regardless of position or rank. Amnesty International said that it has documented a pattern of abuse by US agents against detainees, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, stretching back over the past two years. Despite claims this week by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to be "stunned" by abuses in Abu Ghraib, and that these were an "exception" and "not a pattern or practice", Amnesty International has presented consistent allegations of brutality and cruelty by US agents against detainees at the highest levels of the US Government, including the White House, the Department of Defense, and the State Department for the past two years. Last July, the organization raised allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Iraqi detainees by US and Coalition forces in a memorandum to the US Government and Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq.

The allegations included beatings, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, hooding, and prolonged forced standing and kneeling. It received no response nor any indication from the administration or the CPA that an investigation took place. Despite repeated requests, Amnesty International has been denied access to all US detention facilities. "If the administration has nothing to hide, it should immediately end incommunicado detention and grant access to independent human rights monitors, including Amnesty International and the United Nations, to all detention facilities," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International. "The US administration has shown a consistent disregard for the Geneva Conventions and basic principles of law, human rights and decency. This has created a climate in which US soldiers feel they can dehumanize and degrade prisoners with impunity. "What we now see in Iraq is the logical consequence of the relentless pursuit of the 'war on terror' regardless of the costs to human rights and the rules of war." Amnesty International has expressed concern about the mixed messages which the US government has sent regarding its commitment to international human rights standards. Abuses have not been restricted to Abu Ghraib.

Numerous people held in the US Air Bases in Bagram and Kandahar in Afghanistan say they were subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in US custody, and the administration has failed to comply with the Geneva Conventions with regard to the Guanta'namo detainees. Former Guanta'namo detainee Wazir Mohammad told Amnesty International of excessive and cruel use of shackles and handcuffs, sleep deprivation, and of being forced to crawl on his knees from his cell to the interrogation room during his detention in Afghanistan. At Bagram and Kandahar, he was held incommunicado, with no opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of his detention, no lawyer, and no access to his family. He never met a delegate from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In over a year in Guanta'namo he says he met an ICRC delegate once, on the first day. Former Guanta'namo prisoner, Walid al-Qadasi, was held in a secret detention facility in Kabul. He said prisoners termed the first night of interrogation by US agents "the black night". He said that: "They cut our clothes with scissors, left us naked and took photos of us ... handcuffed our hands behind our backs, blindfolded us and started interrogating us ... threatened me with death, accusing me of belonging to al-Qa'ida."

He alleged that detainees were subjected to sleep deprivation, including through use of loud music. An individual who worked in Guanta'namo told Amnesty International that most if not all detainees he had contact with there claimed to have been physically abused in Kandahar or Bagram. This person expressed no surprise at the evidence from Iraq, and stated that abuse in Afghanistan appeared to be part of softening up detainees for interrogation and detention. Amnesty International is concerned that the investigation headed by Major General Antonio Taguba, which found "systematic and illegal abuse of detainees" in Abu Ghraib, was not intended for public release, and that the administration's current response only came once the report and photographic evidence became public. Apparently attempting to downplay the seriousness of the allegations at a news briefing on 4 May, Secretary Rumsfeld suggested that: "what has been charged so far is abuse ... technically different from torture". In fact the "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuse" found by Taguba constitute acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and are war crimes. Incidents include punching and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet; forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing; positioning a naked detainee on a box with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture; and placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee's neck and having a female soldier pose for a picture.

Those responsible for what Taguba concluded are "proven abuse ... inflicted on detainees" should be brought to justice in accordance with the USA's obligations under international and US law. Investigations should cover the higher chain of command responsibility as well as direct perpetrators. Comments this week by Major General Geoffrey Milller, in charge of detainee operations in Iraq, that sleep deprivation and stress positions could be used against detainees show that the US administration still has not learnt that ill-treatment and abuse are a slippery slope to torture and should be totally prohibited. Restraining detainees in very painful positions, hooding, threats, and prolonged sleep deprivation violate the prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Amnesty International calls on President Bush to ensure impartial and transparent investigations into torture and deaths in US custody and that anyone found responsible be brought to justice.

STUBBING OUT THE TOBACCO MENACE E.C. Thomas*

The anti-tobacco movement in India is gaining momentum. The government has enforced a new law to combat the tobacco menace. The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution Act, 2003 has been enforced to the delight of non-smokers. This is an important step in the movement against tobacco menace and anti-smoking campaign in the country. The law banning tobacco advertising has come into force from May 1, 2004. It is now illegal to smoke in public places and on public transport. The government has enacted a comprehensive law on tobacco in public interest and to protect the public health. It is necessary to prohibit the consumption of cigarettes and other tobacco products injurious to public health as enjoined by Article 47 of the Constitution. The government’s decision to ban tobacco advertising and smoking in public places has been welcomed by all, even by smokers, desperate to give up the obnoxious habit but unable to resist the lure of nicotine. The ban has rightly been extended to cover surrogate advertising, which the tobacco industry used as a route to reach smokers and the larger numbers of potential smokers.

Nicotine is the most addictive substance. Smoking delivers nicotine to the brain in eight seconds, which explains why the new smoker takes so easily to the habit. Tobacco is the single most important cause of disease and death. Worldwide, ten thousand people die everyday as a result of tobacco use, according to the WHO statistics. Nicotine-dependence is now formally classified as a medical disease. Remember the Marlboro man? The macho icon, who was the theme of many cigarette advertisements, himself died of smoking-related cancer. In other words, cigarette-promotion cannot be justified by normal advertising philosophy – that advertising is implicit in the freedom of expression. Nor is cigarette-smoking justified in terms of the other marketing principle – the freedom of choice. There is no choice in addiction. Far from it, addiction implies suspension of free will from which flows the concept of free choice.

The anti-tobacco lobby was trying to get this ban legislated as early as the 1970s, but without much success, thanks to the stiff fight put up by the tobacco industry. However, of late, the fight has turned in favour of the consumer, especially following the landmark class action trial involving the American tobacco industry. In July 2000, a US jury ordered the industry to pay a hefty $ 145 billion in punitive damages to plaintiffs who claimed that cigarette-smoking had caused them severe health problems. The ban will result in a huge loss of revenue to the media. However, this must be weighed against the prohibitively high health cost incurred by the community. This is particularly true of a country like India where the public health system is already overburdened. A responsible media ought to whole-heartedly support the ban in the same way as eco-friendly manufacturing companies have contributed to cleaning up the environment. The benefits of employment generated by production and manufacture of tobacco products are balanced against the cost of treating diseases caused by its use. India is the second largest tobacco producer in the world after China.

Over 80 per cent of tobacco consumption in India is in the form of beedis. Since beedi firms hardly advertise, they have nothing to lose. Implementation The Union Health Ministry has declared smoking in all public places an offence from May 1. The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Rules, 2004, notified on February 26 last also prohibits the sale of tobacco to minors. According to the rules, owners and managers of public places have to ensure compliance. They have to display the message ‘No Smoking Area –Smoking is an Offence Here’, prominently in all local languages. The board has to be displayed either at the entrance or any other conspicuous place. Similar messages have to be displayed at all airports, railway stations, bus stops, auditoriums, cinema theatres, stadiums and other public places. Owners of hotels having more than 30 rooms or restaurants having a seating capacity of 30 or more people have to ensure that smoking and non-smoking areas are physically segregated in such a manner that people do not have to pass through the smoking area to reach the non-smoking zone. Owners of sales outlets too have to display a 90 X 60 cm board at the entrance with warnings like ‘Tobacco Causes Cancer’ and ‘Tobacco Kills’.

The seller also has to display a 60 X 30 cm board saying ‘Sale to Minors is a Punishable Offence’. The rules also authorize the seller to ask for age proof. Direct and indirect advertisements of all tobacco products have been made a cognizable offence. In the first conviction, two years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1,000 can be awarded while a second conviction can attract a sentence upto five years and a fine of Rs. 5,000. Selling tobacco products to minors, the offenders would be fined Rs. 200. All provisions in the Tobacco Bill passed by Parliament on May 18, 2003 are being implemented in a phased manner. It includes ban on sale of tobacco products within 100 yards of educational institutions and mandatory pictorial warnings for the benefit of the illiterate people. It also has a provision to indicate the nicotine and tar contents on packets and cartons of all tobacco products. The World Health Organization (WHO) has decried the glamourization of tobacco usage by Indian cinema, leading to the youth getting cancer, cardio-vascular and lung disease by imitating their role models. Goa was the first State to promulgate prohibitory laws against smoking and spitting in 1999. A law banning gutka and paan masala was introduced in January 2003.

Ironically, tobacco was first brought into Goa, then a colony of Portugal, to serve the needs of addicts. The other States to impose a ban on smoking in public places are Kerala, Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and West Bengal. India has about 200 million tobacco users. Out of them about 1 million die of tobacco-related diseases every year. Forty per cent of tobacco users smoke beedies, 20 per cent cigarettes and the rest chew paan masala, khaini and gutka. Chemical and toxicological tests have shown that tobacco has such harmful elements as lead, cadmium and nickel. An article in a British medical journal estimates that 50 per cent of all male and 25 per cent of female cancer patients in India contract the disease through tobacco.

Ninety per cent of all oral cancer cases in India, the highest in the world, are caused by tobacco and the number of such cases is increasing every year. Advertisement of tobacco products has been banned in many countries including Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Norway, South Africa and Thailand. Such impediments in the affluent countries have prompted multinational tobacco companies to turn towards softer targets in the developing world where restrictions on health and hygiene are not so strict. These companies go in for aggressive marketing, with attractive and innovative advertisements with youth being their forte. But the anti-tobacco campaign must go on unhindered. *Senior Freelance Writer.

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