Prime Minister Mark Rutte also announced tougher rules for immigrants and asylum-seekers wanting Dutch nationality who, in future, must show they have earned income and have not received financial assistance or benefits for at least three years.

The country’s reputation as relatively easy on immigration has changed over the past decade, reflecting voter concerns over the large number of Muslim immigrants.

“The government believes the wearing of clothing that completely or almost entirely covers the face is fundamentally at odds with public life, where people are recognized by their faces,” the government said in a statement on Friday.

“Face-covering clothing prevents this and goes against the principles of equality between men and women, especially women.”

The new measures reflect the influence wielded by populist politician Geert Wilders, whose anti-Islam, anti-immigration Freedom Party is the third-largest in parliament.

Wilders has a pact with the minority coalition government to provide crucial support in parliament in exchange for tougher policies on Islam and immigration from non-Western countries.

The Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition government has already faced tough opposition from Wilders’ Freedom Party over its support for euro zone bailouts, and needs to keep it on side in order to push ahead with crucial budget cuts.

The government said it did not consider the ban on face-covering veils a restriction of religious freedom, but that even if it was, it was “necessary and justified in the interest of protecting the character and way of life in the Netherlands.”

The proposals will first be presented to the council of state, the administrative court, and then to parliament.

No time frame was given, but Wilders has said he hopes to introduce the ban on face-covering veils this year or next.

Arabic-style niqabs which leave the eyes uncovered and Afghan-style burqas that cover the face with a cloth grid are far less commonly seen on the streets of the Netherlands than Muslim headscarves which leave the face exposed.

France imposed a ban on burqas last year and on Friday banned street prayers.

- Reuters

The street-prayer ban has highlighted France’s problems assimilating its 5-million-strong Muslim community, which lacks prayer space, and follows a long-running controversy, fanned by far-right leader Marine Le Pen, over Muslims forced to lay their prayer mats on the streets in big cities.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant directed Muslims in Paris to temporary spaces made available pending the building of a huge new prayer space and warned that force would be used if necessary as police end their tolerance of street prayers.

Seven months before a presidential election, the ban has struck some in France as an attempt to rally far-right sympathisers to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s center-right camp.

At the barracks, Cheik Mohammed Salah Hamza oversaw prayers for Muslims who had migrated from around the city. Worshippers streamed in, spreading their woven prayer mats over the floor of the hangar-like building and out into the courtyard.

“It’s the beginning of a solution,” Hamza told Reuters before the start of the service. “The faithful are very pleased to be here. The space, which holds 2,000, is full.”

Many worshippers were also upbeat. “This will be better than rue Mryha,” said one man, referring to a Paris street renowned for hosting street prayers. “Apparently, it shocked people.”

Le Pen has described the growing phenomenon of praying on the streets and sidewalks as an “invasion.”

“It’s Marine Le Pen who started all this,” a woman who gave her name as Assya said on her way into the former barracks on the outskirts of Paris. “Now the government has banned street prayers and sent us here so they can gather votes from the (far-right) National Front (party) — that’s all.”

In France, where a strict separation of church and state has been in force for a century, public displays of religious activity are frowned upon.

Yet efforts by Sarkozy’s conservative government to restrict religious displays, such as a ban on full-face veils, have drawn criticism as empty measures that unfairly single out Muslims.

France counts the largest Muslim minority of any European country. But only a portion — about 10 percent, or the same proportion as among Catholics — are practising, according to Muslim associations.

As a rule, radical Muslim voices in France are rare, but Friday’s prayers in northern Paris drew a small but angry protest from a radical minority more often seen in online posts.

An hour before the first prayer young men with beards, green headbands and banners gathered on rue Myrha to discourage worshippers from moving to the new site.

“No system in the universe can control us aside from Allah,” shouted one young man. “There is more dignity in praying in the grass than in their false mosque,” said another.

As the prayers began, dozens of young men belonging to a group called Forsane Alizza disrupted the service with shouts of “Allahu akbar” — “God is greatest” — and jostled with security.

- Reuters

The so-called Palmer Report on the Israeli raid of May 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists said earlier this month that Israel had used unreasonable force in last year’s raid, but its naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled strip was legal.

A panel of five independent UN rights experts reporting to the UN Human Rights Council rejected that conclusion, saying the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in “flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law.”

The four-year blockade deprived 1.6 million Palestinians living in the enclave of fundamental rights, they said.

“In pronouncing itself on the legality of the naval blockade, the Palmer Report does not recognize the naval blockade as an integral part of Israel’s closure policy toward Gaza which has a disproportionate impact on the human rights of civilians,” they said in a joint statement.

An earlier fact-finding mission named by the same UN forum to investigate the flotilla incident also found in a report last September that the blockade violated international law. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says the blockade violates the Geneva Conventions.

Israel says its Gaza blockade is a precaution against arms reaching Hamas and other Palestinian guerrillas by sea.

The four-man panel headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer found Israel had used unreasonable force in dealing with what it called “organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers.”

Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and one of the five experts who issued Tuesday’s statement, said the Palmer report’s conclusions were influenced by a desire to salve Turkish-Israeli ties.

“The Palmer report was aimed at political reconciliation between Israel and Turkey. It is unfortunate that in the report politics should trump the law,” he said in the statement.

About one-third of Gaza’s arable land and 85 percent of its fishing waters are totally or partially inaccessible due to Israeli military measures, said Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, another of the five.

At least two-thirds of Gazan households lack secure access to food, he said. “People are forced to make unacceptable trade-offs, often having to choose between food or medicine or water for their families.”

The other three experts were the UN special rapporteurs on physical and mental health; extreme poverty and human rights; and access to water and sanitation.

The program, called “My Future Is in My Hands,” is in association with several training centers and education experts. The mission of the organization, established in 1962 by Princess Sara Al-Faisal, is to socially and economically empower Saudi women through financial assistance, training and job skill development. It also aims to enable Saudi women to be productive members of society.

The new project follows a research conducted among women between 18 and 40 years of age who took part in Al-Nahda’s financial support projects. The study revealed that 93 percent did not enroll in university or continue higher education, and only 18 percent were able to find employment.  “Some of the major obstacles faced by this segment of society is the apparent lack of counseling, ambition and self-motivation,” said Dania Almaeena, project manager at Al-Nahda

“Therefore, Al-Nahda has launched a project to tackle such obstacles by providing college counseling, guidance and training. We try to inform our young women about the opportunities and potential they have, and motivate them to build a better future for themselves by obtaining higher degrees. We also help them choose the career that matches their interests and ambitions.”

The project will start with senior high school students and gradually expand to other age groups that are interested. The Optimum Training Center, The British Council, Education Experts and INJAZ Saudi Arabia are associated with the program. For details visit www.alnahda-ksa.org

UNRWA said that its appeal “comes amid protests against reductions in emergency activities that have already been caused by severe funding shortfalls, and against the backdrop of events elsewhere in the Arab world.”

Chris Gunness, UNRWA spokesman, said in a press statement that UN “programs in Gaza face a critical funding situation. These programs are separate from the agency’s regular education, health and relief activities, and are specifically tailored to address the most urgent humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable refugees in Gaza.”

“We call on our donors and other stakeholders to respond to this appeal as an urgent priority,” said Gunness.

According to the spokesman, “UNRWA fears that without a substantial injection of cash toward its emergency work in Gaza, food rations to hundreds of thousands of refugees, including children in UN schools, may be reduced in the coming months and community health programs will be threatened, including psycho-social support to 25,000 children.”

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities on Tuesday demolished two structures in West Bank town of Beit Ommar, to the north of Hebron, under the pretext they were built without the needed building permits.

Mohammed Ayyad Awad, spokesman of Beit Ommar Popular Committee Against the Wall, said that Israeli bulldozers backed by security forces and Israeli Civil Administration arrived at the town on early on Tuesday and razed an 80-meter-square home and 200-meter-square garage.

They say the inability to sleep results from changing sleeping habits in Ramadan, during which people stay awake the whole night and sleep during the day.

The doctors particularly warned students and employees against the dangers of sleeping pills to adjust their biological clock. They said sleeping pills and sedatives should not be taken without prescription from medical specialists because of their hazardous side effects.

Family medicine consultant Dr. Nahla Ismail said sleeping pills might be very perilous for young men and women as well as working mothers. “The excessive use of these pills might cause liver problems and adversely affect the nerves,” she said. She also warned that the use of sleeping pills might lead to mental disturbances and whimsical fluctuations, which could in turn cause drug addition.

Dr. Abdul Aziz Abdullah, an internal medicine specialist, said there were rules and regulations preventing the issuance of sleeping pills without medical prescriptions. Therefore, people tended to use other permissible medicines with the same effect, like medicines for coughing, allergy, or influenza.

He accused pharmacists of selling these medicines without any prescriptions and said the best way to help people go back to normal sleep patterns is to do this gradually and not to worry about staying awake for long hours at night.

Talking to Arab News, a number of pharmacists denied that they gave out sleeping medicines without proper medical prescriptions. They, however, admitted that the demand for cough medicines had gone up these days.

Psychiatrist Youssef Ibrahim said there was a number of methods people could resort to in order to get back to their normal sleeping habits.  “Taking lettuce, apricots and milk will help release the tension and assist people to sleep normally,” Ibrahim said. He also advised people to boil mint and drink it before going to bed.

- Arab News

“In addition to the incentives already declared, private employers will enjoy additional ones from the beginning of next Hijrah year (Nov. 26),” he said, adding that the new phase would bring about a dramatic improvement in the employment of Saudis in the private sector.

He said the ministry has received applications from 1.5 million Saudi jobseekers during the last few weeks. “We’ll finalize the list in November and this will enable us to provide the private sector with an adequate number of Saudi workers they require,” he said.

Fakeih said the ministry would start imposing punishments on companies in the red category from Nov. 26 and urged companies that are below their Saudization targets to correct their situations immediately.

“This will be the last chance for them to improve,” the minister said.

Fakeih said the ministry has presented to the Supreme Economic Council a number of new regulations related to the Kingdom’s labor market, adding that the council was finalizing these.

“We’ll start providing incentives to deserving employers from the start of the new Hijrah year (1433H),” the minister said.

He said the Nitaqat system is linked by the computer systems of various government departments. “As a result, companies in the red category will not be able to renew the work permits as well as iqamas of their workers. This will also make any foul play with regard to evading Saudization rules impossible,” he said.

Fakeih said the ministry would intensify inspections of private companies to punish violators.

“We are going to implement new mechanisms from next year (1433H) when citizens would be able to inform the ministry by phone or e-mail about the

violation of Saudization rules by private firms,” he said.

In a previous statement, the minister said his ministry would soon announce the number of unemployed Saudi men and women and the number of jobs that would be created through the Nitaqat system.

Fakeih will hold a press conference on Tuesday to announce the launch of the second phase of a program named Hafiz, which is aimed at providing necessary assistance to Saudi jobseekers.