Qatar Daily News

Qatar has become part of the international campaign to rush relief aid to Haiti, which is reeling from a devastating earthquake that struck the Caribbean island nation on Tuesday.

Qatar sent a strategic transport aircraft (C-17) to Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, loaded with 50tonnes of urgent relief materials to those affected in the quake-hit country

The Qatari Institution for Child and Woman Protection is tasked with the role of providing effective protection to women and children. An interview with Farida Al-Obaidly, General Director of the organisation.

What are the major objectives of the Qatari Institution for Child and Woman Protection?

The institution aims at the follwoing:

1 Assistance in the provision of accommodation for target groups and to provide integrated care for them.

2 Shielding target groups from corrupt practices in the family and society.
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The population of Qatar till Monday is 1,580,050, according to statistics released by Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) yesterday. These data represent the number of individuals of all ages (Qataris and non-Qataris) within the state on Monday, excluding Qataris and residents who were outside the borders of the State at the time of the statement monitoring. The total number of males according to these data, is 1, 225,487 compared to 354,563 females.

These figures indicate a decline in population within the state with 86,803 people compared to last October, which recorded the highest rise in population during the year. It is noteworthy that QSA started presenting data on its website showing total population at the end of each month since October last year.

As the number of women in the Qatar workforce increases, it is important for employers as well as female employees to understand the laws relating to maternity leave and entitlements (together referred to here as “maternity entitlements”).

In Qatar, minimum maternity entitlements are primarily set out in two different laws – the Labour Law (Law No. (14) of 2004) (“Labour Law”) and the Qatar Financial Centre Employment Regulations (“QFC Law”).
Set out below are brief answers to some of the most common questions that arise in relation to maternity entitlements.

1. Who is entitled to maternity entitlements?

Under the QFC Law, female employees working for any QFC body will be entitled to maternity entitlements. This will include the QFC Authority, the QFC Regulatory Authority and other QFC institutions as well as private companies, branches or partnerships established in or licensed to do business in the QFC.

The only exceptions to this basic rule may be where a female employee is regarded as a consultant or agent, or as a temporary employee (where the employment period is less than three months in a consecutive 12 month period).
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December 17, 2009, will be the official holiday to mark the assumption of power by Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani, instead of December 18 since it is a weekend. This came in a circular issued yesterday by HE the Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Nasser bin Mohamed bin Abdul Aziz al-Thani.

The number of internet users in Qatar is expected to cross 351,000 by the end of 2009, according to recent industry reports. This spur the growth of business opportunities across the country’s IT spectrum.

In line with this, NETGEAR, a leading networking solutions provider, has launched its new series of versatile wireless routers, which have been designed to meet the varying needs of Qatar clients.

“With the significant growth in number of users in Qatar, it has become all the more pertinent to introduce high quality and user friendly networking products,” said Ahmad Zeidan, Channel Sales Manager, NETGEAR Middle East.

“We recognise the importance of having a fast and reliable internet connection for users who utilise the worldwide web for business as well as for shopping and leisure, and this has prompted us to launch our new family of dependable wireless routers to support the demand within Qatar.”
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Popular Filipino television and movie actress Isabel Granada has just finished filming an international suspense-thriller “Pirate’s Blood” after their location shooting in Oman last year that took them months mostly along the great beaches of the country.

Isabel, who was here on Thursday for a promo of Natasha products at Doha Seef Hotel, told The Peninsula in an interview that the film story is all about seven people of different nationalities who meet and hatch a plan to go treasure hunting. Unfortunately for them, a pirate had been guarding the treasure, which makes for the climax of the story as the action-filled misadventures of the seven friends start to unfold in these scenes.

Isabel is proud to say the movie will come out internationally since the stars have their own legion of fans in their respective countries that the Omani and Indian producers believed could make for a good market in many parts of the globe.
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There was a fall of more than 15,000 people in Qatar’s population as on December 31, 2008, compared to figures of November 30 last year, according to data furnished by Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA).

The QSA put Qatar’s population on December 31 as 15,53,729 against 15,69,174 on November 30, 2008.
The QSA has not attributed any specific reason for the fall in the country’s population.
According to the authority, the country’s population as on October 31 was 15,41,130.
The country recorded 14,720 births in 2008 while there were 1,750 deaths in the same year.
According to the December 31 figures, there were only 3,50,348 (approximately 29.11%) females in the country.
In the previous month, women accounted for 29.60% (3,58,618) of the population, the QSA records pointed out.
While there were 900 births in the month of December 2008, the previous month saw 858 births in the country’s hospitals, according to the report.
There were 456 females and 444 males among the newborns in December. Among the Qatari nationals, there were 339 new births, of which 171 (50.44%) were females.
Among the non-Qataris (no separate break-ups of nationalities were given), there were 561 births, of which 285 (50.80%) were females.
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The Humanitarian Forum – a network of key humanitarian and charitable organisations from Muslim donor and recipient countries; the West; and the multilateral system – is organising a meeting on 1 February in Doha, Qatar, to ensure that aid earmarked for Gaza is effective and reaches the most vulnerable population.

Participants will include Qatar Charity, which will host the event, Qatar Red Crescent, Humanitarian Forum Kuwait, Islamic Relief, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, International Committee of the Red Cross and Turkey’s Foundation for Human Rights, Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

QATAR is taking part in the 8th session of Islamic Conference of Information Ministers which opens in Rabat today.
Qatar’s delegation to the three-day meeting will be led by HE the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage Dr Hamad bin Abdul Aziz al-Kuwari.

The meeting will discuss several important issues, foremost of which are the Palestinian problem and the possibility of launching an Islamic satellite channel to serve as a mouthpiece of the Muslim World and to defend its causes and rights. It will also discuss interaction with the outside world and a code of ethics to serve as a guide for media organs in member-countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) with a view to preserving the nation’s values and interests.
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