News

As the curtain came down on the Doha Summer Festival, a rush of last-minute shoppers was seen in the major shopping centres of the city. All the big outlets in Doha witnessed a big turnout of people yesterday.

DOHA: Mixed performances still dominate the seven Gulf stock markets. While the two small markets of Bahrain and Muscat have not passed through the correction movement of the other five, they have sustained their positive growth until now. Three out of five markets – Doha, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi – have overcome their problems and kept their positive performance so far. The Doha Securities Market achieved the best performance compared to end of 2007 and gained 21.43% (The Alshall Qatar Index

AN INCREASING number of residents in Qatar are buying surveillance equipment for private use as worries about crime grow, according to industry sources.

When Virgin Galactic unveiled its commercial space travel mothership WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) in the Mojave desert in the US this week, Debbie Samoody became the latest resident of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to sign up for Richard Branson's flight to the stars.

Qatar's telecommunications industry is in the midst of a shake-up, with domestic operator Qatar Telecom (Qtel) likely to lose both its mobile and landline monopolies while at the same time pursuing new markets abroad.

The increase in humidity and high temperature have made weather conditions more stressful across the country. The bad news is the weathermen see no respite from these conditions over the next several days.

A Qatari man, released from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, returned home on Sunday, according to an Arabic daily. Jaralla Saleh Mohammed Kahla Al Marri who was received by close family members upon his arrival thanked the Emir, H H Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, and the government for their efforts leading to his release. The Pen

Speed kills is just a punch line that looks good on awareness billboards put up at busy traffic junctions all over the world. Tragically, this is true in Qatar too. The safety awareness campaigns held periodically by the traffic department, apparently, have had little impact on motorists from the younger age group.

AS the temperature begins to drop slightly at around half past five each evening, the noise of jet ski engines can be heard at a number of Doha’s marinas along the Corniche, as well as West Bay lagoon, as jet-skiers perform tricks to a mixed response from onlookers.

The Upper Criminal Court has given a resident a one-year suspended sentence and immediate deportation for stealing shoes from a mosque.