Capri-Sonne sets up operations in Dubai Techno Park The AED 100 million facility will help in doubling the daily production capacity of the company April 18, 2005 Arab Beverages Establishment (ABE), producers of Capri-Sonne Fruit Juice, under the license of Capri-Sun AG Switzerland, will set up operations at the Dubai Techno Park to facilitate its large scale expansion plans. The company will be investing AED 100 million, as art of its initial investment in the new facility, which will span over an area of 200,000 square feet. Commenting on the development, Nils El Aaqad, Chief Executive Officer, Capri Sonne said, “Our decision to move into the state of the art facility at Dubai Techno Park was a result of our major growth plans for the local and export markets. The infrastructure and support services available at the Park are truly up to international standards and it makes perfect business sense for us to base our operations here.” (Mr. Abdullah Al Qurashi, Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Nils El Aaqad, Chief Executive Officer, Capri Sonne) “We plan to double our daily production capacity to around 40 thousand packets an hour and will soon be introducing a new range to our line of fruit snacks. We are certain that we will easily achieve this target with our up-coming facility in Dubai Techno Park,” added El Aaqad. Abdullah Ahmed Al Qurashi, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Techno Park said, “The food and beverage industry in the UAE is flourishing, with an increase in tourist inflow and rise in local population. Capri Sonne will be another world-class addition to Techno Park’s diverse portfolio, as Dubai continues to attract some of the biggest names in the food and beverage business. The Techno Park, with all the latest facilities will prove to be an ideal location for companies like Capri Sonne, who are looking to expand their operations.” Arab Beverages Establishment was founded in 1984 and alongside with producing Capri Sonne it distributes Active O2, ‘V’ Energy Drink and Biophar Honey in the UAE market. Techno Park is being developed as an industrial hub for local and GCC companies. The new economic zone provides attractive incentives, superior infrastructure and single-window clearance. Several leading companies have already set up operations at Dubai Techno Park. “The Techno Park aims to support the growth of various industry sectors in the region, and food industry is a prime area of focus for us. The interest shown by leading international companies to establish operations in the Park, is proof of the quality of infrastructure and services available at the facility,” concluded Al Qurashi. Dubai Public Libraries celebrate World Book and Copyright Day on April 23 The Public Libraries Section in Dubai Municipality is giving finishing touches to celebration program for the World Book and Copyright Day, which fall on April 23 every year. However, The Public Library will celebrate the Day this year on April 27 at Hor Al Anz Public Library. The participation of the Public Libraries Section in this world event shows the care given by the section to books, as April 23 is an important occasion celebrated locally, nationally and internationally as the World Book and Copyright Day. General Conference of UNESCO in 1995 decided to celebrate this day as the World Book and Copyright Day. It was a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference to pay a world-wide tribute to reading and its role in spreading knowledge as books are considered to be the strongest medium that helps the spreading of knowledge, heritage and intellectual and cultural ideas. The book has been continuing to be the basic medium for spreading knowledge through generations… it is the main passage to history… the real conveyor of knowledge. However, today, the book is in a phase, where it is facing competition from technology in fields of preserving, circulating and publishing knowledge. There is a hue and cry that the book’s traditional printed form has come to an end and the readers are looking towards technology and the computers. It is not a small thing that we are joining the rest of the world in celebrating this day to glorify this model medium in preserving the knowledge of humanity, its culture, experience and history. Hence, we assure the world that the modern media will not finish book and its importance and its usage. Whatever progress man achieves, he cannot get rid of books because man’s connection with books is eternal.The book continues to be the best of companions, it still gets respect from the reader, whatever the progress is achieved by man, whatever media, communication tools are spread in the modern day, because all these things go together and they are complimenting the book. So let us all celebrate and glorify the book and let it be part of our daily diet. Gulf Air Moves to New Office in Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi, UAE: The UAE capital has a new landmark building, with the announcement that Gulf Air today, moved to brand new premises on Rashid Bin Saeed bin Al Maktoum Street - Zone 1 His Highness Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, officially opened the new offices in the presence of Gulf Air's President and Chief Executive James Hogan, senior government officials, and other guests from the travel and hospitality industry. "For 25 years the junction of Old Airport Street and Hamdan Street in Abu Dhabi has been known locally as 'Gulf Air corner'," said Khalifa Al Rayes, Gulf Air's General Manager - U.A.E. "Now, in keeping with the new look and feel of the Gulf Air brand we have moved to premises which better reflect that image and provide a luxurious, convenient one-stop shop for every Gulf Air customer's needs - from flights to holidays or cargo. We are confident that these offices will again become a landmark for a different reason, namely for the provision of the highest levels of customer service among any airline in the UAE." Sheikh Sultan toured the premises which have been designed in keeping with the airline's corporate identity and the style of its lounges, which sees a merger of contemporary design and architecture with Arabic influences. "The result is an environment that reflects one of our core messages - Ahlan Wa Sahlan - welcome to our home," says Al Rayes. "More importantly it offers the same level of five-star service that Gulf Air passengers receive in the air and which has been instrumental in the airline's rejuvenation. While there are dedicated areas for First and Business class passengers, through these new offices, our aim is to deliver a first class service for every category of passenger, from their first contact with us through to the time they - or in the case of cargo - their goods, reach their final destination. "Our philosophy for the new office is simple - treat people on the ground as we treat them in the air," added Al Rayes. The new two storey premises, which occupy some 2500 square feet, will house around 100 Gulf Air staff working in ticketing, reservations, Gulf Air Holidays, cargo, customer relations sales & marketing, administration, human resources and accounts. It is believed to be the biggest office of any airline operating in Abu Dhabi. Winners of Shell Better Environment Awards to be announced on April 25 287 UAE schools submitted field study projects for the ongoing initiative by Shell Companies in the UAE April 17, 2005 The countdown to the Shell Better Environment Awards, a continuous scheme sponsored and run by Shell Companies in the UAE, has begun with the five-man panel of judges selecting five finalists after assessing field study projects submitted by 25 schools. The winners of the Better Shell Environment Awards will be announced at a ceremony to be held in Dubai on April 25, attended by all participating schools and a large number of officials from supporting organizations, including the UAE Ministry of Education, Youth Federal Environment Agency, Zayed International Prize for the Environment, Environmental Research and Wildlife and Development Agency, General Secretariat Of The UAE Municipalities, Emirates Heritage Club http://www.cerehc.org.ae/HeritageClub2.htm>, and the Environmental Department of Dubai Municipality and the.Hussain Al Mahmoudi, External Affairs Manager, Shell, said: "The Shell Better Environment Awards promotes environmental awareness among students by encouraging them to actively participate in projects that educate students on preservation of environment through practical and theoretical inputs and encourage them to work in teams on topics of their choice. The initiative reflects Shell's global commitment to environmental issues.""We are delighted with the response generated by Better Environment Awards in the UAE. In all, we received field study projects from 25 UAE schools in the three categories: Atmospheric Pollution Campaign, Environmental Awareness Campaign and Environmental Field Study. The number of entries demonstrates an intense level of participation from the school community of the UAE," added Mahmoudi. Abdullah Bilal Al Shamsi, Financial Manager, UAE Interschool Sports Association said, "An increasing number of youngsters are showing their genuine concern for the environment, as they realise the importance of protecting the environment and natural resources to ensure that future generations are not adversely affected. The Shell Better Environment Awards will provide a further boost for students to actively contribute towards environment conservation." ((From Right to Left): Yousuf Sharab, Social Worker Inspector, Ministry of Education and Youth; Mahmood Mousa Taha Salam, Public Health and Environment Coordinator, General Secretariat of Municipalities; Ashok Kumar, CEO, Indian High School; Caroline Wehbeh, External Affairs Coordinator, Shell; Meshkan Mohamed Al Awar, Secretary General, Zayed International Prize for the Environment; Geeta Murali, Teacher at the Indian High School. The panel of judges consisting of Dr. Yousuf Sharab, Social Worker Inspector, Ministry of Education and Youth; Dr. Meshkan Mohamed Al Awar, Secretary General, Zayed International Prize for the Environment; Abdul Monim Darwish, Head of the Commission of Environmental Research, Emirates Heritage Club of Abu Dhabi; Mahmood Mousa Taha Salam, Public Health and Environment Coordinator, General Secretariat of Municipalities and Caroline Wehbeh, External Affairs Coordinator, Shell visited different schools to monitor the projects. Misused by Fraudsters to Lure, Cheat Single Woman in Gulf DUBAI - Online dating services have been widely misused by fraudsters who use the service of online dating and matrimonial sites to dupe women, especially the NRI women who are lured with love in exchange for money. A single teacher in Sharjah has been lured by a man, who registered himself for matrimonial and romantic partners through shaadi.com, a popular, rather notorious website which is used by such unscrupulous elements to lure single women. Kerala and Indian chatrooms are full of such swindlers who lure frustrated single working woman offering lover, sex and marriage. One such victim from Sharjah has met a man online through shaadi.com and agreed to meet. After sometimes they developed intimate love affair which has been used as a ploy to extract money from her. She paid Dhs.3,000 to the man. Gulf News, a leading newspaper from the Gulf, said in a report quoting the victim that vulnerable woman in Dubai and other Gulf countries should be aware of the conman who uses nick names like Cutedil, Abhishekh, Abby and Ayoubshaikh used her contacts to lure other women in her friends circle and extract money and sex. (Read Gulf News Story) Such cases should be an eye opener to the growing number of cyber love and cyber marriages culture which dubious websites cash in.Shaadi.com claims to be the number one online matrimonial service provider and lures customers through different strategies. While it publishes all success stories through colourful photos of attractive men and women, the site is silent about such incidents. "" Over 5 Million Members, 500,000+ Success Stories and Simple. Secure. Successful," claims the site. What is the legal clause used by the site to get away with such problems? Read : Shaadi.com is not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate Content posted on the Site or in connection with the Shaadi.com Service, whether caused by Users, Members or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Service, nor for the conduct of any User and/or Member of the Shaadi.com Service whether online or offline. Shaadi.com assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, User and/or Member communications. Shaadi.com is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line-systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of e-mail or players on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any web site or combination thereof, including injury or damage to Users and/or Members or to any other person's computer related to or resulting from participating or downloading materials in connection with the Shaadi.com Site and/or in connection with the Shaadi.com Service. Under no circumstances will Shaadi.com be responsible for any loss or damage resulting from anyone's use of the Site or the Service and/or any Content posted on the Shaadi.com Site or transmitted to Shaadi.com Members. The exchange of matrimonial profile(s) through or by "Shaadi" should not in any way be construed as any matrimonial offer and/or recommendation from/by Shaadi. Shaadi shall not be responsible for any loss or damage to any individual arising out of, or subsequent to, matrimonial relations established pursuant to the use of Shaadi. The Site and the Service are provided "AS-IS" and Shaadi.com expressly disclaims any warranty of fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Shaadi.com cannot guarantee and does not promise any specific results from use of the Site and/or the Shaadi.com Service. Selevision the main attraction at Saudi inventors’ forum Public pre-book set-top television technology after seeing live trials (Dubai, April 2005): Selevision’s Dynamic Commercial Delivery System – a pioneering technology that enables targeted delivery of television commercials and programming – was touted as the “best invention of the show” by visitors to the recent Saudi Inventors Meeting and Exhibition in Dammam.Eng. Alaadeen Al Samadi, COO of Selevision, unveiled the technology at the show and was delighted by the response to the live demonstrations. He said: “The flexibility of viewing capabilities seems to have caught the public attention, and we have had a huge response from advertisers wanting to pre-register for commercial slots, as well as from the public wanting to pre-order the set-top boxes.” With Selevision, advertisers will be able to guarantee reaching a specific audience - pre-determined by themselves - using sophisticated technology that enables commercials to be targeted by any of a number of criteria, such as location, age and income.Selevision will be launching its technology in the Middle East in June and expects to supply 800,000 homes in the UAE and Saudi Arabia with its Digital Satellite Receivers – a multi-functional ‘set top box’ - within the next 12 months. The ‘set top boxes’ will be available for a monthly subscription of just AED 5 or SR 5 (a deposit is required), with the Selevision technology and all its advanced functionality available free of charge. Renault and Nissan coordinate distribution in United Arab Emirates and Oman Dubai, 17 April 2005 - Nissan importers will start managing sales of Renault vehicles in United Arab Emirates and Oman from April 2005 in a venture to boost commercial synergies within the Renault-Nissan Alliance.Arabian Automobiles Co. in Dubai and Northern Emirates and Almasaood Automobiles Co. in Abu Dhabi will distribute and service both Renault and Nissan vehicles. Suhail Bahwan Automobiles Co. will handle sales and after sales of Renault models as well as of Nissan models in Oman.The agreement marks a new stage in pooling the two automakers' commercial resources while keeping brand identities separate. Distribution agreements have been already signed between Renault and Nissan in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, and the strategy is now being reinforced in the Gulf States. The aim is for the partner, which is better established in a given country to support the other. Connecting to Restricted Web Sites through the Internet Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) has received several complaints from Fixed Line Subscribers regarding international charges they have incurred while surfing the internet. The bills showed calls made to unfamiliar international numbers. Upon investigating the matter, Omantel has discovered that these subscribers have incurred these charges by visiting restricted Web sites. The way it happens is that subscribers will download and activate a dialer program which will automatically disconnect their modem from the Omantel internet network and dial international telephone number to reconnect them to an Internet provider network of a distant country where the website is appearing. Some dialer programs will show a frame on the PC screen with a list, from which subscribers are asked to select the country they are connecting from. Under the country box it shows the international dialing number. If the subscriber clicks on the "Connect" button, he/she will be disconnected from Oman Internet and a call will be set up to the international number. This new call will be charged according to the tariff applied over international outgoing calls to that country. In some cases, international numbers are not shown in the frame international. To avoid this problem subscribers are advised to disable outgoing calls on their telephones by following the steps below: DISABLE *33* Password *3# ENABLE #33* Password *1# Omantel would like to remind all customers that it will not be responsible for international calls made to web sites nor will it accept any claim from subscribers against excessive bills for visiting such sites. Beware of hot sites February 10, 2002 Internet users get monthly telephone bill of ten thousand dollars! Dubai - A large number of Arab and expatriate Internet browsers in the UAE, Oman and other Gulf countries have been duped by dubious telephone companies from the UK which lured them to pornographic sites, hijacked their modem and telephone line to make international calls to certain UK destinations. Internet Service providers from the region have received scores of complaints from customers who have incurred huge telephone bills without their knowledge. The UK companies have also been successful in sabotaging the monitoring system introduced by the conservative Gulf Governments to block pornographic sites. The problem is related to adult sites and hackers sites, which temp customers to visit certain sites or download some free programmes. Customers of Etisalat, Batelco, Omantel, Saudi Telecom, Qatar Telecom and Kuwait Telecome are known to have incurred such huge bills without their knowledge. In one Gulf country, the telephone company has been asked to refund $50,000 bill because customers have refused to pay. Dont download unwanted and unknown programmes to make you hot As the customers are not willing to pay telephone bill incurred during Internet browsing, telephone connections of the victims of this sophisticated fraud have been disconnected. Since the state telephone companies did not have any alternative to prevent the cheating by overseas companies through the Internet, at least 20 international telephone numbers to the UK are blocked. 'This problem has started from September 2001 and many customers were not aware of it till they got huge telephone bills, running into more than ten thousand dollars per month. On the basis of customers complaint, we have started an investigation which revealed that while browsing some of the adult sites, international telephone calls are automatically generated from the customers telephone connection without their knowledge,' says the senior official of one of the State owned telephone companies in Gulf. All these calls are generated from the UK, and at least twenty such numbers are now blocked in each country. In Oman, a large number of Omantel customers have been duped. Internet subscribers who visit porn websites were lured to certain sites which make their money by disconnecting net users phones and automatically reconnecting them to an Internet provider in UK. Even though the porn sites have small-type disclaimers warning that porn hungry viewers may be rerouted to an international call for a fee. As most of the customers are thrilled to visit porn sites, they don't bother to read the disclaimer terms and conditions and just click "I agree' button. One such customer got a telephone bill of RO 4,000 per month, which he refused to pay arguing that he did not make the international call to UK. Many companies have also been getting inflated telephone bills because their employees visit such sites. In another case from Suwaiq, the customer has got a phone bill of RO 3,000 per month. All the victims are either regular visitors to porn sites or they have downloaded some programmes which automatically run their computer These programmes hijack the modem and reroute the telephone line to expensive international numbers in the UK. The viewer software programmes disconnect consumers from their local internet service providers and reconnect them to international numbers assigned to UK. These smart software programme silence the modem speaker and silently dial international telephone numbers to reconnect customers to the Internet through expensive long distance telephone call. Once hijacked in this fashion, consumers' modems remain connected to those international telephone numbers even when they leave the dubious and hot websites or left the Internet entirely to do world processing, or other computer work. As the modem speaker is suppressed customers cannot hear the International dialing tone. Till the customer disconnects his telephone from the Internet or switch off their computer, he will be charged international call rate. Porn can become thorns by month end. Read the fine print before agreeing. The sites have a disclaimer which says among other things: "Warning; By using this software your modem will idal an International long distance telephone call or a domestic premium rate telephone number. No credit card is required to access this service, you only be charged on a minute by minute basis on your telephone bill for an international long distance call or domestic premium rate call. Your phone bill will reflect charges to the terminating point on a per minute basis for the cost of the call, it says. Giving detailed phone call rates to different countries, it also says that once connected your computer modem will not terminate this internaional long distance or domestic premium billing telephone connection unless and until you stay connected for longter than thirteen minutes, or you click on Disconnect button on the dialler dialogue box. There may be a profit arrangement between such sites and the telephone authorities in UK. The sites get their money from the telephone companies who earn more revenue through international calls. When you make an international call, a portion of the charge is given to the country on the other end. In this manner, a part of the money will come back to the host telecom companies. The hot chat sites advertised in leading Television channels also function with the same modus operandi.So next time when you visit a porn site, read the disclaimers fully before rushing to the hot babes inside. If reason prevails over passion, you can escape from becoming yet another victim of telephone-Internet