HH the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and HH Sheikha Mozah Nasser al-Misnad attended yesterday a reception banquet hosted by Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe at the Paris Municipality headquarters.

The Qatar Foundation for Protection of Women and Children has launched a new service to provide social and psychological support to victims of violence as well as those who suffer from behavioural disorders.

Young writers in Qatar still have until June 30 to submit their entries for the regional short story writing competition celebrating British Council’s 75th anniversary.

The Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued yesterday Decree No. 29 of 2009 appointing judges. The decree stipulates the appointment of the following judges. 1. Ja’afar Saleh Mohammad Ahmad as Vice President of the Court of Appeal. 2. Ja’afar Araka Abu Tahir Abdullah as President at the Court of First Instance. 3. Mubarak Sheikh Taweel Mohammad Fakeer as Judge at the Court of First Instance. 4. Adel Ahmad Mohammad Al Hajj as Judge at the Court of First Instance.

The first national survey on domestic workers in Qatar will be completed soon and the findings will be announced by the end of this year, a senior official of the Qatar Foundation for Combating Human Trafficking, the organisers of the study, has said.

The internet system puts more than 200 states in the world in a continual communication mode. The documents and information entered into the internet spread in a few seconds in all the countries which have a connection to the system. The internet was designed basically to be a device for transmitting information and documents on a limited range, but in the nineteenth century, after it became a public device which can be used by anyone, it started to convert into a device for the universal

Robert Ménard and his team have left the Doha Centre for Media Freedom. "The Centre has been suffocated. We no longer have either the freedom or the resources to do our work", he explained.

Two Indians, one of them a four-month-old infant, are among four new cases of swine flu that were detected here yesterday taking the total number of confirmed cases to 14, Qatar News Agency reported quoting the Minister of Public Health and Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Health, H E Abdullah bin Khalid Al Qahtani.

A housemaid of an undisclosed nationality has committed suicide by throwing herself out from her sponsor’s moving car in Laqta district, says a report published in the local Arabic daily Al Arab.

Six of the total 14 swine flu patients in Qatar have recovered from the illness while the condition of the remaining is improving fast, the Supreme Council of Health said yesterday.