Aishwarya number 9 in Harpers and Queen most beautiful list

NEW YORK: Aishwarya Rai has made it to the 100 most beautiful women list published by Harpers and Queen Magazine.

The Bollywood Beauty was placed ninth just like last year.

Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie topped the list followed by supermodel Christy Turlington, Queen Rania of Jordan and other luminaries.

UK hoteliers charged for taunting Muslim guest

Couple face charges for calling Prophet Muhammad a "warlord"
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DUBAI: Two British hotel owners face criminal charges for taunting a Muslim woman staying at their hotel by comparing the headscarf she was wearing to "bondage" and insulting the prophet of Islam, British press reported on Tuesday.
The incident took place in March at the Bounty House Hotel in Liverpool when the unnamed Muslim guest came down to breakfast wearing a hijab, or headscarf, for the first time in her four-week stay, shocking hoteliers Ben, 53, and Sharon, 54, Vogelenzang.
The Vogelenzangs are reported to have started a debate with her about Islam and went on to call Prophet Muhammad a "warlord" and described the hijab as a form of bondage.
Months after the incident the guest complained to the police and the couple were charged with using "threatening, abusive or insulting words" which were "religiously aggravated," the Daily Mail reported.
The couple denied the charges and said the guest challenged their Christian beliefs and said they were just defending themselves. The couple face a hefty fine of £5,000 (around $8,000) and a criminal record if they are convicted.
"Robust exchange"
The Muslim woman had been staying at the hotel while receiving treatment at a local hospital, which regularly refers outpatients to them.
The Vogelenzangs, who have been running the hotel for six years, say they have already lost 80 percent of their bookings and have been forced to put their hotel up for sale as the hospital has stopped referring outpatients due to the bad publicity.
The couple are receiving financial support from the Christian Institute and have been warned not to talk about the case until it reaches court in December.
But the institute's spokesman, Mike Judge, told the British press he believed the treatment of the Vogelenzangs was "heavy handed."
"Nobody was being threatened and while the Vogelenzangs were fully aware that a robust exchange had taken place and the woman had been perhaps a little offended, they were shocked when the police became involved," Judge was quoted by the press as saying.
"If someone is in a discussion and they don't like what they are hearing, they can walk away," he said.
"We feel their treatment has been heavy handed and it is not in the public interest to go ahead with this prosecution. People see the police standing by when Muslims demonstrate holding some pretty bloodthirsty placards, but at the same time come down hard on two Christians having a debate over breakfast at a hotel," he said.

New UN body to promote women

UN: The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution to create a single UN body to promote the advancement of women.
The move has been hailed by the European Union as an important step in protecting women's rights.
The vote on Monday culminated nearly three years of negotiations, in which the EU has been a driving force, to merge four existing UN bodies dealing with women and create a single entity with greater clout headed by a high-ranking UN official.
But critics complained that the 192-nation General Assembly watered down the resolution at the last minute at the insistence of some member states, deleting any reference to the new body's future mandate.

Iraqi who threw shoes at Bush released from prison

BAGHDAD: The brother of an Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush in a stunning act of protest that made him a hero around the Arab world says the journalist has been released from a Baghdad prison.

Uday al-Zeidi says his brother, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, left an Iraqi army base where the prison is located on Tuesday and was accompanied by several members of parliament.

Al-Zeidi, a little-known reporter for a small Iraqi TV station, gained instant hero status in the Arab world last December when he hurled his shoes at Bush as he stood next to Iraq's prime minister at a Baghdad news conference.

The reporter spent nine months in jail. He was to have been released Monday, but that was held up because of delays in processing paperwork.

Website closes down for prayer

JEDDAH: While the debate on stopping all commercial activity during prayer times continues, one local online newspaper in Hail province has decided to advocate for this pause by taking down its site for 20 minutes, five times a day.
If visitors to Aen Hail (“Hail’s Eye” ) visit the site during prayers, they be met with a message “Closed for Prayer” in Arabic along with a countdown to the end of the prayer break at the bottom of the page.
The site shutdown, which was unveiled this month, is automated and linked to local prayer times, according to the site’s online editor, Majid Al-Mismar.
“The page is built with integration of a software that replaces the index page with another,” he said. “We believe that prayers come first. The electronic newspaper is off during Hail prayer times and is back on after the prayer is done.” Many online commentators to the website have praised the decision, expressing their support of a similar nationwide system.
Professor at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University’s High Judiciary Institute and member of International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Mohammed Al-Nojaimi, called the newspaper’s decision “noble.”
“Closing a Saudi website for half-an-hour during obligatory prayers is a noble Islamic act,” he said. “It’s free from any search for fame or unacceptable rigidness. It contributes to reviving the habit of individuals praying on time.”
Others called the measure superficial. “You are focusing on appearances and presentation rather than the original principles of the religion,” said one of the commentators at the site. “What if the person wishing to surf the page is a non-Muslim?” Al-Watan newspaper columnist Amal Zahid wrote in an editorial piece published on Friday that putting a website on hold during prayer does little to encourage people to pray. “As if we haven’t already accumulated issues and problems to deal with,” he said in his column.
“Praying is a sacred act of worship that connects human beings to God throughout the day… Encouraging people to pray on time isn’t going to be achieved by closing websites.”
An online commenter to the opinion piece who called himself Mohammed Al-Saggaf called the measure an act of “stupidity” and said posting local prayer times was sufficient. “All those who are familiar with the website will know when to go for prayer,” he wrote.
“That does the job. Closing down the page is an act of backwardness and stupidity. Just like closing gas stations, pharmacies, and stopping service at airport immigration; it’s a disruption of interest with no positive benefit.”