Monday August 18, 5:33 am ET NEW YORK, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Rubenstein Public Relations Inc. (RPR) announced the addition of several new prominent clients to its roster including; author Jerry Jenkins, musical talent Wyclef Jean and MIKIMOTO America.

Jerry Jenkins is the author of over 150 books including his recent best selling series, Left Behind. Jerry Jenkins has established himself as one of the leading Christian authors of our generation. Hitting stores this September, Soon: The Beginning of the End is the first installment of Jerry's latest project, a series entitled The Watchmen Trilogy.

An extraordinary musical talent, Wyclef Jean has been a member of The Fugees, the biggest selling rap group in history, and has produced for, and collaborated with, an incredibly diverse array of musical superstars. In his own right, he is also a multi-platinum hit-making solo artist. Wyclef's continual support of his native Haiti led him to his latest initiative, the creation of the Refugee Enterprises brand. Over one hundred years have passed since MIKIMOTO America succeeded in producing the world's first cultured pearl. MIKIMOTO has spent the past century learning the sea and guarding its pearls, helping the Company to create the standards for quality that pearl lovers around the world have grown to expect. With stores in cities including New York, Las Vegas and coming soon, Beverly Hills, MIKIMOTO pearls are also found in high-end retailers worldwide. RPR's public relations campaign will alert potential customers to the elegance, sophistication and quality that the MIKIMOTO name represents and help the company achieve its sales and marketing objectives. Rubenstein Public Relations (RPR) is synonymous with integrated media campaigns, special events, and high visibility coverage. Thirty professionals demonstrate the power of publicity every day for the firm's corporate, consumer, and entertainment clients across the country.

Rubenstein Public Relations, founded by Richard Rubenstein over 15 years ago, is one of New York City's premier media agencies.

Source: Rubenstein Public Relations Inc.

#455: 08-14-03 DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ANNOUNCES GRANTS FOR TRAINING ON PREVENTION OF IMMIGRATION-RELATED JOB DISCRIMINATION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2003 WWW.USDOJ.GOV CRT (202) 514-2008 TDD (202) 514-1888

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ANNOUNCES GRANTS FOR TRAINING ON PREVENTION OF IMMIGRATION-RELATED JOB DISCRIMINATION

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Department of Justice today announced the award of nearly $675,000 in grants to eleven nonprofit groups serving communities throughout the country, to conduct public education programs for workers and employers about immigration-related job discrimination.

The grants, which range from $40,000 to $85,000, are being awarded by the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) of the Civil Rights Division. Recipients will assist discrimination victims; conduct seminars for workers, employers and immigration service providers; distribute educational materials in various languages; and place advertisements in local communities through both mainstream and ethnic media.

“Awarding grants to professional and community-based organizations, as well as to local governments, enables us to educate workers and employers about their rights and responsibilities under the immigration laws,” said J. Michael Wiggins, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. “Our grant recipients, who are well known and respected in their communities, will work with us to assist employers in preventing discrimination and to protect workers’ rights.”

The mission of OSC is to educate both legally authorized workers and their employers about the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, enforce legal protections against citizenship and national-origin discrimination, and document abuse in hiring and firing.

OSC grant recipients are:

New York City Commission on Human Rights (based in New York), in conjunction with the New York Immigration Coalition, will provide education in all five boroughs of New York City. These workshops will focus on employers, service providers and immigrant workers from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Haiti and India. Additional workshops will be conducted in Westchester County, Rockland County and the city of Buffalo, to reach immigrant populations outside New York City;

Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California (based in Los Angeles, California), in partnership with the Asian Law Caucus of San Francisco, will educate workers and employers in Los Angeles and San Francisco, cities with two of the nation’s largest Asian Pacific-American communities;

International Rescue Committee (based in San Diego, California) will provide anti-discrimination education to refugees, asylees, and other immigrant workers;

Catholic Charities of Dallas (based in Dallas, Texas) will serve workers and employers in northern Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma;

Catholic Charities of Houston (based in Houston, Texas) will educate employers, as well as Hispanic and Asian workers in southwestern Texas, including key communities along the Mexican border;

Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (based in Atlanta, Georgia) will provide education services to employers and Hispanic workers throughout Georgia;

Illinois Department of Human Rights (based in Chicago, Illinois) will focus on employers, immigration service providers, and workers in its statewide education program;

Catholic Charities of St. Petersburg (based in St. Petersburg, Florida) will provide educational workshops to workers and small businesses through its network of service providers. Special emphasis will be placed in two counties that have a high concentration of Croatian, Serbian, Haitian, and Cuban immigrants;

Legal Aid Services of Oregon (based in Hillsboro, Oregon) will educate agricultural workers with a statewide media campaign and group presentations;

Hogar Hispano/Catholic Charities of Arlington (based in Arlington, Virginia) will educate employers, as well as Asian Pacific, Arab, African and Hispanic workers in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. area; and,

National Immigration Law Center (based in Los Angeles, California) will conduct a national program to educate immigration service providers and pro bono attorneys through a series of workshops and conference presentations around the country, as well as regional seminars in Phoenix, Arizona; Miami, Florida; and Orange County, California.

For more information about protections against job discrimination under the immigration laws, call 800-255-7688, 202-616-5594 or write to:

Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices

U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

950 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Washington, D.C. 20530

Email: osc.crt@usdoj.gov

Website: www.usdoj.gov/crt/osc http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/osc

### 03-455

Press freedom

ISRAEL - 30 July 2003

In a report issued today on the Israeli army's enquiries into the fatal shootings of two journalists in the Occupied Territories in April and May, Reporters Without Borders accuses the military of acting with a flagrant lack of rigour and determination and calls for proper investigations that could lead to the prosecution and punishment of those responsible.

Entitled "Israeli army's attitude: Regret, but no real enquiries and certainly no one punished," the report looks at the military's response to the deaths of Palestinian cameraman Nazeh Darwazi in Nablus on 19 April and British documentary filmmaker James Miller in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on 2 May.

Darwazi worked for the American television news agency APTN. Miller worked for the British production company Frostbite. Both wore vests identifying them as journalists and both were accompanied by witnesses who maintain that Israeli soldiers opened fire with no good reason.

The report finds that the enquiry into Darwazi's death was botched. The witnesses were not interviewed although they were ready to talk. The authorities have not issued any report after more than three months. The military prosecutor has very probably closed the case although a military police investigation is required when a breach of regulations is suspected.

In Miller's case, pressure from the British government and his family has forced the Israeli army to pursue the enquiry. But there have been unjustifiable delays and incorrect statements by senior army officers. The scene of the killing has been deliberately transformed, making it impossible to carry out a reconstruction of the killing. A statement has been taken from only one of the main witnesses. The enquiry is an internal one lacking any transparency and, three months after the incident, the military police have still not been asked to investigate although, at the very least, a serious error appears to have been committed.

Reporters Without Borders has established that Darwazi's death was caused by an Israeli soldier firing a shot in conditions of poor visibility and without justification. It was very probably meant to be a warning shot, and criminal intent is ruled out. But the manner in which the shot was fired was a breach of regulations, and this is grounds for a military police investigation. If appropriate, both the soldier involved and his superior officer should be punished.

The organisation calls for more transparency and zeal on the part of the military authorities in Miller's case. The weapons of the unit involved in the incident need to be tested urgently. Those initially provided for testing appear not to have been the right ones. And according to the established procedure, the military prosecutor should assign the investigation to the military police as there is every reason to suspect a breach of regulations.

If, as the report says, there are no grounds for claiming in either case that the Israeli soldiers involved acted in legitimate self-defence, the army must punish those responsible for these acts of negligence, mistakes or abuses with fatal consequences. And it is imperative that these punishments are made public so that journalists can work in the Occupied Territories without fearing for their lives.

Combatting the feeling of impunity prevailing among many Israeli soldiers today and ensuring the safety of journalists and press freedom in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict depend on this.

The deaths of Darwazi and Miller brought the number of journalists killed in the Occupied Territories since September 2002 to five. Some 60 journalists have been injured by gunfire since the start of the second Intifada.

The report is available on the Reporters Without Borders website: www.rsf.org