ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER High rents push inflation to 3.5 percent Business | 17 Monday 5 January 2015 • 14 Rabial I 1436 • Volume 19 Number 6301 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Exit permit Attiyah wins first stage of Dakar Rally changes to be ‘simpler’ More Search and Follow-Up centres DOHA: Changes in the exit per- “And to address this, the law has mit system proposed by the new set a clear mechanism,” he added, sponsorship law are clear and without elaborating. simple and no need for people to The official disclosed plans fear about it, says a senior offi- to open branches of the Search cial of the Ministry of Interior. and Follow Up Department in Al Brigadier Nasser Mohammed Zubara, Al Sheehania, Al Wakrah Al Sayed, Director of the Search and central Doha to provide eas- and Follow-Up Department at the ier access to the public. Ministry, said that the new sponsor- He said continuous inspections ship law has been completed fully and stricter punishments have and is in the final stage for issuance. reduced violations of the residency “Work on the new sponsorship and sponsorship law. However, the law started long ago. Qatar took up massive inspection campaigns this issue many years ago, because across Doha has prompted some Mini pilot Nasser Al Attiyah (right) of Qatar, and his navigator Michel Perin of France, arrive at the departure ceremony of the Dakar Rally 2015 in there is an international system run away workers to escape to front of the Casa Rosada Presidential Palace in Buenos Aires yesterday. Al Attiyah won the first stage of the rally. See also page 27 existing in most parts of the world. areas outside the city and work in We need to cope with this develop- farms thinking that they are safer. ment. The idea was under study Some winter camps set up out- even before Qatar won the FIFA side the city are employing such 2022 World Cup bid. The law is workers. By doing so the camp First Palestinian ICC case on Gaza war: Expert completed fully and is in the final owners are inviting problems stage for issuance,” Brigadier Al for themselves. If these workers Sayed said in an interview with Al commit some crimes like steal- RAMALLAH: The first case 1, 2002, when the court’s founding West Bank after the kidnapping territories in years, arresting Watan Arabic daily. ing, they (the owners) will not be the Palestinians will refer to the treaty, the Rome Statute, came and subsequent murder of three more than 2,000 Palestinians He said the new law has taken able to lodge complaints against International Criminal Court into force. Israeli teenagers, triggering a in the West Bank and east into account the interests of the them because they are employed will be the “crimes” Israel com- If the application process goes series of events which led to the Jerusalem. employees and the employers. illegally, said Al Sayed. mitted during summer 2014, as planned, the Palestinians seven-week Gaza war that killed On June 30, troops found the Regarding exit permits, the He encouraged people falling including the Gaza war, a legal should be able to refer a case in nearly 2,200 Palestinians and 73 bodies of the three, unleashing a official said the new law has laid victims to visa trade to lodge expert said yesterday. early April, with legal prepara- people in Israel. wave of national grief and anger down a clear mechanism. “People complaints with the Department. On January 2, the Palestinians tions to that end already well Cases referred to the ICC need that saw Jewish extremists mur- need not have to fear about this. “We will investigate into the presented a formal request to join under way. “a very specific geographic loca- der an east Jerusalem teenager It is simple, to be done according complaints and if we find that the Hague-based court in a move Shawan Jabarin, director of the tion and timeframe”, Jabarin in revenge, which itself triggered to rules and standards to main- there is abuse we allow the victims which opens the way for them to Ramallah-based rights group Al said, saying the same date had furious protests in the eastern tain a balance between the inter- to change sponsorship without file suit against Israeli officials for Haq, said the Palestinians had been selected by a UN commis- Arab sector of the city. ests of both sides (employees and consulting the employers (origi- alleged war crimes in the occupied decided to file suit over Israel’s sion probing alleged rights viola- Rocket fire from Gaza also employers),” he said. nal sponsors). Workers who lodge territories. actions in the West Bank and tions during the Gaza war and the increased as a result of the opera- He said that in most cases complaints against their employers The ICC can prosecute indi- Gaza Strip starting from June period leading up to it. tion, which quickly escalated into there is stable working relations will not be detained,” said Al Sayed. viduals accused of genocide, 13, 2014. Following the teens’ kidnap all-out war which lasted 50 days. between the two sides, although THE PENINSULA crimes against humanity and That was the date Israel began on June 12, Israel began its AFP there are problems in few cases. Continued on page 6 war crimes committed since July a massive crackdown in the biggest sweep of the occupied See also page 7 Navigating icy maze Statute change gives Bashir US, Russia in danger more power of renewing N-rivalry KHARTOUM: Sudan’s par- liament yesterday passed LONDON: A widening rift Those submarines, which have constitutional amendments between Moscow and Washington been making forays across the allowing President Omar over cruise missiles and increas- Atlantic, routinely carry nuclear- Hassan Al Bashir to appoint ingly daring patrols by nuclear- capable cruise missiles. state governors directly and capable Russian submarines The rise in tension comes expanding the mandate of its threatens to end an era of arms at a time when the arms con- powerful security agency. control and bring back a danger- trol efforts of the post-cold-war “The amendments were ous rivalry between the world’s era are losing momentum. The approved unanimously,” national two dominant nuclear arsenals. number of strategic nuclear assembly speaker Al Fatih Tensions have been taken to a warheads deployed by the US Ezzedine Mansour said after par- new level by US threats of retalia- and Russia actually increased liament agreed to 18 changes. tory action for Russian development last year, and both countries are Elections for state governors of a new cruise missile. Washington spending many billions of dollars had also been due to take place in People visit a maze which was built by ice bricks and illuminated by coloured lights during a trial operation ahead alleges it violates one of the key a year modernising their arsenals. April along with presidential and of the 31st Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin city in China’s Heilongjiang province yesterday. arms control treaties of the cold Against the backdrop of the war parliamentary polls. The proposed war, and has raised the prospect of in Ukraine and a failing economy, amendments pushed the date of redeploying its own cruise missiles Vladimir Putin is putting increas- the elections back by 11 days, and in Europe after a 23-year absence. ing emphasis on nuclear weapons polling is now scheduled for April On Boxing Day, in one of the as guarantors and symbols of 13. Man killed in work site accident more visible signs of the unease, Russian influence. In a speech pri- Bashir, 71, is standing again in the the US military launched the marily about the Ukrainian con- election which is widely expected to first of two experimental “blimps” flict last summer, Putin pointedly extend his reign but that opposi- DOHA: An expatriate worker other two workers were rescued work on the site immediately and over Washington. The system, referred to his country’s nuclear tion parties have said they will was killed and two others from the mudslide and rushed to started an extensive investigation known as JLENS, is designed to arsenal and declared other coun- boycott. Another amendment injured when part of an excava- the Hamad General Hospital for from its side to know the reasons detect incoming cruise missiles. tries “should understand it’s best expanded the responsibilities of the tion site at Hamad Bin Khalifa treatment. of the accident and identify the The North American Aerospace not to mess with us”. powerful National Intelligence and Medical City collapsed yes- The Ministry of Interior is responsible parties. If any failure Command (Norad) did not specify The Russian press has taken Security Service. terday afternoon, the Public currently investigating the inci- from any parties is detected, they the nature of the threat, but the up the gung-ho tone. Pravda, The amendment means the Works Authority (Ashghal) dent, said a statement issued by will be held accountable, it added. deployment comes nine months the former mouthpiece of the NISS is now a “regular force said yesterday. Ashghal yesterday. All safety procedures imple- after the Norad commander, Soviet regime, published an arti- whose mission is to oversee inter- The accident happened on the The Civil Defence, Al Fazaa and mented on the site by the project General Charles Jacoby, admit- cle in November titled “Russian nal and external national secu- project site of the Simulation ambulance team rushed to the spot contractor and the project con- ted the Pentagon faced “some sig- prepares a nuclear surprise for rity”, Badria Suleiman, head of Centre building when a worker and launched a rescue operation.