News

URUMQI, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- All 194 people aboard a Qatar Airway flight from Japan to Qatar were safe after the plane made a successful emergency landing at an airport in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Thursday.

SOUTH Korean companies are expected to intensify their activities in GCC states, notably in growing economies as Qatar in the coming years, notwithstanding the global economic slowdown.

Although the impact of the global financial turbulence on Qatar is the least as compared to its neighbours, some construction companies are laying off staff to cut costs.

The Italian delegation, headed by Tourism Under-secretary Michela Vittoria Brambilla, met with the chairman of the Qatar Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (QTEA) during their visit here. Bilateral cooperation in tourism between Qatar and Italy were discussed by Brambilla and Ahmed Abdullah Al Nuaimi, QTEA chairman.

Harsh measures against journalists from the Al Jazeera TV news network announced by Israel yesterday are unacceptable, the Doha Centre for Media Freedom said. An Israeli official, who asked not to be named, said employees of the network would not have their visas renewed. The measures were the result of recent decisions by Qatar, he added.

Qatar, England, Australia, the US and South Korea were among the 13 countries to have formally expressed their interest in hosting the 2018 or 2022 World Cups, FIFA said on Tuesday.

THE National Human Rights Committee is due to host a training course on human rights. The course is scheduled to be held in the Millennium Hotel from February 22 to 26 and deal with application of the international conventions related to human rights. - QNA

MOVED by the plight of the stranded Nepalese workers, whose story the Gulf Times reported yesterday, at least three Western expatriates contacted the office of the newspaper with offers of assistance.

Customers drawing less than QR7,500 gross monthly salary are not eligible for personal loans, Doha Bank said yesterday. The bank has also decided to trim the amount of a personal loan to 10 times an applicant’s salary. “Moreover, a customer who will be eligible to borrow from us should be from a reputed company,” the bank’s Assistant General Manager for retail banking, Abdul Rahman Mohamed Al Meer, told The Peninsula yesterday.

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning (MMAUP) has given strict orders to the eateries not to serve hot food and beverages in plastic, foam plates and cups.