The UAE’s War on Smoking Continues With New Improved Anti-Smoking Graphics

Cigarette packs to go graphic

03/04/2009 11:54 AM | By Nina Muslim, Staff Reporter

Dubai: Starting September, tobacco products in the UAE will carry a message and a warning that will be hard to ignore.

Graphics of blackened lungs and a haemorrhage-impacted brain, among others, will provide stark warnings about the dangers on cigarette packs sold in the country, following in the footsteps of the UK, Canada and Brazil.

Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, head of the National Tobacco Control Committee, told Gulf News the World Health Organisation (WHO) donated the pictures to the UAE to help with its tobacco control efforts.

“We have received donation of pictures from the WHO. Six months from now, they will be on cigarette packs,” she said.

Health officials hope the graphic warning, with its inherent shock value, will help deliver the message better and discourage people to smoke.

Previous revamp of the health warning on cigarette packs in September 2007 only required manufacturers to enlarge the warning text and to make the warning available in English and Arabic.

The graphic warning is one of the many steps the UAE, a signatory of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), is taking to clamp down on smoking. A federal anti-smoking daft law is expected to be passed into law soon by the Cabinet and President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan after the Federal National Council (FNC) approved it last month.

Pension for Self-employed Emiratis

Self-employed UAE citizens will now receive a pension following a recent Cabinet decision, a Federal National Council member has said.

FNC’s Pensions Committee Chairwoman Dr Aiysha Al Roumi said on Monday the move was aimed at encouraging Emirati professionals to stick to their own businesses or their private sector jobs, rather than look towards government jobs in search of pension.

“The Cabinet has recently approved to pay suitable pensions to the self-employed nationals, and a decision to this end will be issued soon,” she said.

“The committee discovered that there were many Emirati families living under the poverty line, because their breadwinners had abandoned their private sector jobs for they would not be pensioned.”…SOURCE

FNC Website Hacked

The home page of the Federal National Council website was defaced, sending visitors to another site on which a taunting message was displayed.

The message said the FNC site was breached by the “Delta Hacking Security Team”. It credited “all Iranian hackers” and listed their pseudonyms in the green, red and white colours of the Islamic republic’s flag.

The identity of the hacker was not known. A spokesman for the FNC said its web administrators would investigate.

Sometimes such sites can upload malicious software to the computers of unsuspecting visitors, but there is no indication that happened in this case.

Bulent Teksoz, a manager of systems engineering at the internet security firm Symantec Middle East in Dubai, said such pages should generally be avoided.

“If the hackers defaced the site then they probably did something else as well,” he said. “In general, people should be cautioned against visiting hacked websites.”

Word of the breach spread quickly through the Emirates’ IT community. It is not known when the page was hacked, although it seems the administrators of the FNC’s website did not discover the breach for several days, said one IT worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity…SOURCE

New Media Law Received With ‘Thumbs-Down’

The draft media law passed by the Federal National Council (FNC) was criticised for its shortcomings by media professionals on Sunday, but a senior minister said it would encourage freedom of speech and protect journalists.

The FNC has sent the new law, which details fines for irresponsible reporting and other violations, to the cabinet for ratification.

Mohammed Yusuf, chairman of the UAE Journalists’ Association, told Khaleej Times that the law was not clear on prohibiting jail sentence for journalists who criticised the ruling family or committed media-related offences.

“The law is more inclined towards publishers, dealing at length with the licensing procedures rather than the rights and protection of UAE journalists,” he said, adding, that of the 45-odd articles outlined in the amended draft law, only about four focussed on media professionals.

The new draft law ratified by the FNC “is a sharp U-turn on the principles and policies of press freedom encouraged by the UAE leaders,” Yusuf said.

“The new law is very weak, having failed to comply with the prior directives and vision of UAE leaders,” he added, while pointing out that it will be discussed by journalists in the country today.

‘They would then take up fresh proposals from the meeting with the Rulers before the law is ratified by the cabinet…SOURCE

New Media Law Far From ‘Freedom of the Press’

The Government plans to clarify its new media law, which some observers have said is too vague.

The draft law was passed by the Federal National Council (FNC) on Tuesday, although it must still be approved by the Cabinet and the President to take effect.

The first draft of the 45-article piece of legislation was written by the National Media Council, a government body that oversees journalists.

An FNC committee then reworked the draft, making changes to at least 60 per cent of its provisions.

Ibrahim al Abed, the NMC’s director general, said the Government would release an appendix to the law within eight weeks that should clear up what critics have termed “vague provisions”.

The additional pages will also help judges, media organisations and journalists better understand the new law, he said, adding that the “executive regulation… will be more specific”.

Under the proposed legislation, journalists are protected against being imprisoned for what they write, but can face hefty fines for publishing or broadcasting material that harms national interests or the economy.

Mohammed Yousef, the director of the UAE Journalists Association, said last week that he would continue to lobby for changes to the law before it was passed.

Mr Yousef said the FNC committee had integrated almost none of his association’s recommendations.

Other critics have said the articles were too open to interpretation and could have a chilling effect on the way the media is able to report.

But according to Mr al Abed, the legislation is aimed at preventing stories from being fabricated.

“If one is confident of the source, then there’s no problem,” he said. “We’re talking about rumours such as spreading false news about a major company going bankrupt or that the economy is collapsing.”

The appendix could include more details about who would be held liable in a media case, whether it will be the individual journalist, the editor-in-chief, or the news organisation as a whole.

According to the draft law, the responsibility is to be shared by the editor-in-chief and the journalist, although media organisations could be fined.

Mr al Abed defended the fines, which start at Dh10,000 (US$2,720) and rise to Dh5 million for insulting the President, the Vice President, the Rulers, and the Crown Princes and their deputies…SOURCE

Company Visit Visas to be Limited

Trading in visit visas has prompted the Ministry of Interior to consider not issuing them for small businesses and restricting the number for large companies in a bid to curb illegal workers.

“The departments of Naturalisation and Residency referred a number of these companies to the Public Prosecutor after they exploited the issuance visit visas through trading in them and profiting from them,” Brigadier Nasser Al Awadi Al Minhali, a senior official with the Ministry of Interior, said in a statement to Khaleej Times on Wednesday.

“Due to such reasons the Ministry of Interior is taking measures to limit the issuance of these visas and confine them for large companies and that will be according to strict procedures to curb their exploitation for illegal purposes,” said Brigadier Al Minhali, who is acting director-general of the Department of Naturalisation and Residency at the Ministry.

Meanwhile Retired General Ali Majid Al Matroushi, member of the Federal National Council, Chairman of the Internal Affairs and National Defence Committee of the FNC said, “The committee conducted a survey about the visit visas and discovered that a large proportion of the smaller shops have taken advantage from the issuance of visit visas facility for trading in them.”…SOURCE

Ministry of Interior Considers Tougher Visa Rules Suggested By the FNC

Tourism doesn’t seem to be a priority any more.  What happened UAE?

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) is considering a Federal National Council (FNC) proposal that visitors to the UAE will have to furnish a clean police record and a bank statement from their country of origin, senior immigration officials told Khaleej Times on Monday.

Ministry figures show that 80 per cent of pickpockets and thieves, nabbed in recent crimes, entered the country on tourist and business visas.

Brigadier Nasser Al Awadhi Al Minhali, Acting Director General of Naturalisation and Residency Department at the ministry, said the restrictions under consideration would be applicable for visit, business and tourist visas.

“General Shaikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Interior, has issued these directives calling for studying the proposal of the FNC, and take action on it as soon as possible, if the new restrictions prove practical and realistic,” he said.

“The Naturalisation and Residency departments in the country have arrested many criminals, the majority of whom had entered the country on visit, tourist and business visas. This has prompted the department to chalk out new steps, including the ones proposed by the FNC,” the minister said.

Major General (retired) Ali Majid Al Matroushi, a member of the FNC and the Chairman of the Internal and Defence Affairs ad-hoc committee in the House, told Khaleej Times the high statistics had been taken seriously and prompted the recommendations…SOURCE

Unified Freehold Law Being Considered by the FNC Will Kill Promised Visas

Seems like the death-knell for the property market in the UAE.  Freehold without a Visa is meaningless.  Given property law in the UAE, there basically are no property ownership rights for anyone purchasing in the UAE.

Draft legislation is under way that aims to protect the UAE by restricting expatriates from automatically acquiring residency visas through freehold property ownership, according to a Federal National Council (FNC) member.

The council will shortly submit a draft law on freehold property to the government which will unify the divergent laws relating to the sector in the seven emirates.

Dr Abdul Rahim Shaheen, council member, speaking to Khaleej Times, said the council was moving to enact the proposed legislation as soon as possible.

“The Council’s interim committee is studying the impacts of the Ministry of Labour’s decisions and rules on expatriate workforce in view that the seven emirates handle the freehold property under different rules, which led to chaos in the sector.”

“Therefore, it called for the government to issue a federal law unifying rules on dealing with foreigners regarding the freehold of properties, and pinpoints strict punishments against whoever exploits the ownership in jeopardising public interest,” he said.

He said the issue endangered national interest and the identity of the UAE as Emiratis were increasingly outnumbered by expatriates, and that some residents had begun demanding rights.

“The statute was badly needed and expeditiously, for some voices belonging to countries of expatriates living and working in the country had begun to talk of granting rights, which are not stipulated in the constitution.”

Expatriates are not entitled to a 25-year residency through property ownership, a senior official at the Ministry of Interior has clarified.

Ministry of Labor Proposes Visa Quotas, New Visa Fees and Other Proposals to Increase Emaratis in the Workforce

ABU DHABI – The Ministry of Labour (MoL) has proposed restructuring of visa fees for bringing in expatriate workers in a bid to create more job opportunities for Emiratis, according to a plan unveiled on Tuesday.

Minister of Labour Saqr Ghobash Saeed Ghobash told the Federal National Council (FNC) session that the ministry wants to encourage skilled expatriate workers to come to the UAE.

However, the government is under pressure to find jobs for 250,000 nationals to raise the strength of the UAE national workforce to 500,000 by 2020. Reminding the national jobseekers that the public sector would not accept more newcomers, the minister urged them to foray into the private sector.

On the expatriate workers, the ministry proposes to reduce the visa fees of highly skilled professionals and increase the fees for bringing menial and unskilled workers into the country.

The plan would be submitted to the National Demographic Structure Committee soon to decide on its enforcement. “The Federal Government is in the process of forming a permanent council for demographic structure with a mandate of finding drastic solutions to the issue,’’ Saeed Ghobash revealed.

The council would restructure the economic pattern so as to diversify the labour market in the country to create new job openings.

He noted that 65 per cent of the expatriate workers in the country are in the construction and retail sectors.

“We are also drafting another plan to tackle the imbalance in the demographic structure through extensive use of modern machinery by the public and private sectors.” This move, in his view, would eliminate unwanted workforce.

Members of the FNC, meanwhile, proposed to the MoL to consider varying fees for bringing in workers in accordance with the importance of the business and the economic activity for which they are to be employed…SOURCE

FNC Will Address the Banking Crisis in the UAE

Let’s just hope they are not too late.

FNC seeks answers on effect of global crisis on local banks

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/12/14/10267028.html

12/13/2008 11:45 PM | WEAM

Abu Dhabi: The Federal National Council (FNC) will ask the government to describe the precise effect of the global financial crisis on the banking sector in the UAE.

It will also address questions to the government on the issue of the fictitious investment portfolios. A number of other key topics will also be debated when the FNC convenes on Tuesday in the second round of the third ordinary session in the 14th Legislative chapter.