Iraqi Airways resumed flights from Baghdad to the Qatari capital on Friday for the first time in 18 years, an AFP journalist reported.

A supermarket and spa will open in less than two months at Barwa Housing Programme’s Mesaimeer Compound, it has been announced.

Some of the local plants that will feature in Qatar Foundation’s upcoming garden project include acacia tortilis (Arabic name is Samr, umbrella thorn), cymbopogon parkeri (Khabar, a tall, scented grass), lycium shawii (Awsaj, a thorny shrub), rhanterium epapposum (Arfaj, a shrub), and ziziphus nummularia (Sidra).

Renowned Islamic calligraphy artist and VCUQatar Joint Advisory Board member Mohamed Zakariya has been commissioned by US President Barack Obama to create a gift for King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia.

The Sony Ericsson W715 walkman phone is now available exclusively throughout Vodafone Qatar stores in Qatar.

The controversial Qatari soap opera Hearts for Rent, which has been seen by some as an “insult and unrealistic” for depicting a Qatari family living in a tent under the pressure of the rental crisis, continued to stoke a public debate during its third week of screening.

The Criminal Court has sentenced four men to 10 years’ imprisonment and deportation upon completion of their jail term after they were convicted of impersonating police officers and stealing more than QR43,000 from the residence of three Asians.

Qatar will ban the import of counterfeit electrical goods. It would also come out with a quality guideline for elevators, which would be mandatory from 2010.

Several types of superior quality glass in high demand for Qatar’s booming construction sector will soon be produced in the country with the setting up of a QR43m glass factory.

Many tenants as well as real estate agents want the existing rent law to be extended for another period.