The Met Office warns of strong wind and high sea.

WARNING: strong winds and high seas offshore.

Vodafone Qatar will help celebrate the Qatar National Day 2009 with a variety of activities, including a festival to be held at the city’s Aspire Park.

Vodafone Qatar continued the rollout of a series of expansions to its international calling offer yesterday as it introduced new rates for customers calling to Sri Lanka and Pakistan, who will now only pay QR 0.55 per minute.

Some 70 families living in four buildings in the Bin Mahmoud area of the city are on the verge of being rendered homeless as the structures have been earmarked for demolition and water and power supplies have been disconnected.

Qatar is ranked second in the world for the lowest tax rates, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.

Growing world economies will significantly increase the demand for energy, requiring trillions of dollars in investment, the Minister of State for Energy and Industry Affairs, H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, said yesterday.

Civil Defence personnel battle a fire that broke out in one of the buildings of the Asas Twin Towers in the diplomatic area last night. A tenant of the residential building said the blaze started outside the 29-storey structure around 10.45pm and it was still raging after midnight. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=December2009&file=Local_News2009121792513.xml

In a major legal reform, people convicted for minor offences can now be asked to do community service by a trial court instead of being jailed or fined.