Qatar Daily News

Dubai government-owned airline Emirates said on Tuesday it planned to recruit 2,000 cabin crew in 2010 as it expands its fleet and routes.

The Arab world’s largest airline has hired around 660 cabin crew and more than 60 pilots since March 2009, a statement said. The airline’s total cabin crew stands at 11,000.
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HH the Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday released the Mus’haf Qatar, the country’s first edition of the Holy Qur’an.

The special edition, which was set in exquisite calligraphy and made into templates for large-scale printing, had been in the making for nearly two decades.

The project cost totalled QR30mn. Read the rest of this entry »

The world’s biggest privately owned boat has arrived at the Dubai International Boat Show.

The ‘Dubai’, which is 531 feet (162 metres) and reaches speeds of up to 26 knots moored up within the Dubai International Boat Show and will stay there until March 13.

Dubai World Trade Centre CEO Helal Saeed Almarri said it was an honour and a privilege to have the boat at the show.

“We are looking forward to an outstanding five days of great business opportunities and providing luxurious entertainment as consumer confidence gains momentum,” Almarri added.
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After maintaining almost a week’s silence after announcing his change of nationality, artist M.F. Husain appeared on NDTV 24×7 on Wednesday to speak about the change. A day later, he spoke to Mint from his new homeland, Qatar. Edited excerpts from a phone interview:

When you spoke to Mint in October, you said you were desperate to return to India and end your self-imposed exile. What changed between then and now?

I realized that all this talk was coming in the way of my work. I’m 94 and not getting younger, and I want to focus on my art at this stage. I’m dedicating myself to finishing the artworks for three permanent museums in London and Qatar that are being prepared to host my works. There’s also this project on the 100 years of Indian cinema that I’m set to finish soon. I’m really looking forward to all of this. Read the rest of this entry »

Royal Dutch Shell Plc spent $19 billion, triple the original estimate, to build the world’s largest gas-to-liquids plant. Now, it’s pay-off time and the company says the project may generate $6 billion a year.

Shell needs the plant, known as Pearl, to bolster output, which fell for a seventh year in 2009 in part because rebel violence hampered oil ventures in Nigeria. Qatar, the arid Gulf state that’s become the world’s biggest exporter of gas on ships, may account for 10 percent of the company’s production after Pearl and a liquefied natural gas project start deliveries next year.
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Work has begun on Qatar’s multibillion-dollar metro and ground rail projects, set to be completed in phases until 2016, and central to the emirate’s dreams of hosting the 2022 football World Cup.

The three projects – a metro network within Greater Doha, overground railways covering Qatar, and then links to the rest of the GCC region – are expected to cost as much as $40bn.

Metro rail project will cover a total distance of 354km and the trains will run at speeds of 80 to 160km per hour.
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Dubai Aquarium, one of the emirate’s flagship tourist attractions, reopened on Saturday following a two-day closure after it sprung a leak and flooded Dubai Mall, UAE daily Gulf News reported on Sunday.

Chaos broke out Dubai Mall on Thursday when water began pouring out of one of the panel joints of the main tank, which holds some 10 million litres of water, forcing the evacuation and closure of part of the shopping centre.

On Saturday, however, the only evidence of the drama that unfolded was a lower water level in the main tank, the newspaper said, adding that both the aquarium’s main viewing panel and the walkthrough tunnel were once again open to the public.
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The first hanging bridge in Oman, Khor Al Bath, connecting mainland Sur and the village of Aijah, has been completed. A project of the ministry of regional municipalities and water resources and executed by Strabag Oman, the bridge spans 204m with the biggest span measuring 140m. Construction of the bridge started in February 2008. The RO6m project will also reduce the distance between Al Aijah and Khor Bath villages in Sur by 10km.

Renowned Indian artist MF Husain, under attack from hardline Hindus for his paintings of nude Hindu goddesses, has been offered Qatari nationality.

The artist made the announcement in The Hindu newspaper. It is not clear whether he will accept the honour.

Since 2006, 95-year-old Mr Husain has been living in Dubai and in London.

The Hindu said that his “impending change of nationality brings to a close one of the sorriest chapters in independent India’s secular history”.

Correspondents say that Mr Husain – who has been forced to flee the country – is one of India’s most pre-eminent artists. Read the rest of this entry »

Qatar plans to buy land in Georgia for corn cultivation and to begin this year importing as many as 70,000 sheep a year from the former Soviet republic, Georgian Agriculture Minister Bakur Kvezereli said.

“They’re interested in buying land in Georgia for agriculture and are also interested in importing our vegetables and sheep,” Kvezereli said in an interview late yesterday on a flight from Doha to the Georgian capital Tbilisi. “They’re willing to pay as much as $250 per sheep.”

Kvezereli accompanied Georgian Prime Minister Nika Gilauri to Doha this week for talks with government officials and business leaders, following President Mikheil Saakashvili’s trip to the country last November.
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