Annual inflation in Qatar rose for a third quarter running in March to a near record of 14.75 percent, the country's state Planning Council said yesterday, amid a surge in food and commodity prices, and rents.

A criminal court has jailed two drug peddlers who were found hiding large quantity of hashish in a house, car and shoes. The first accused was sentenced to 10 years in jail plus a fine of QR200,000 while the second was handed six months imprisonment and QR10,000 fine, Al Sharq reported.

Reaction to the fourth series of Doha Debates, hosted by Tim Sebastian, has been overwhelmingly positive in Qatar and abroad, according to a senior official of BBC World News.

Qatar is free to drop its peg to the US dollar, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said yesterday, as the Gulf oil producer battles with near record inflation.

ASPIRE Academy has become the first sports academy to be awarded the “Committed to Excellence” distinction from the European Foundation for Quality Management.

The number of traffic accidents has come down as a result of enforcement of the new traffic law which came into effect late last year, according to the first aid section of the Hamad Medical Corporation. A local Arabic daily said the section receives 200 to 250 notifying calls per day. This is a significant decrease compared to the calls received last year. The Pen

Qatari women who are married to non-Qataris can get monthly assistance from the Social Affairs Department at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. This is based on a draft of a new law on social security recently completed by a committee.