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www.thepeninsulaqatar.com BUSINESS | 21 SPORT | 30 QBA to explore Captain Cook investments leads fightback as in Mexico England holds firm SUNDAY 24 JANUARY 2016 • 14 Rabia II 1437 • Volume 20 • Number 6685 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar Deadly blizzard hits US Qatari delegation Law on water attends Davos meet and power The Peninsula DOHA: A high-level Qatari delega- tion, led by Minister of Finance H E Ali Sherif Al Emadi, attended the three- day World Economic Forum (WEF) waste in force annual meeting in Davos. The delegation also included H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al- Thani, Minister of Economy and To reach the consumers, literally Commerce, and Sheikh Abdullah a poster war has been waged in shop- bin Mohamed bin Saud Al Thani, The penalty for ping complexes and pamphlets have Chief Executive Officer of Qatar wasting water been distributed in large numbers. Investment Authority. Social media have been effectively The Qatari delegation held through a hose used to drive the message home to a number of bilateral meetings or pressure pipe people in the country that water and with high-level representatives of electricity are the most precious util- governments and leading interna- can reach up to ities so they must be rationally used. tional corporations. The Minister of QR20,000 in a first- Qatar is one of the largest consum- Finance also took part in a meeting, time violation, while ers of water and electricity although which gathered participating min- it has scarce natural water sources isters of finance and central bank wasting electricity and depends almost solely on desal- governors. The meeting was hosted can make one cough inated sea water. by Prof Klaus Schwab, founder and Talking about the law which has A worker cleans a snow-covered street in Times Square in New York yesterday. A deadly blizzard with executive chairman of the World up QR10,000 as fine been just implemented, the fines are bone-chilling winds and potentially record-breaking snowfall slammed the eastern US as officials Economic Forum, and it discussed to be doubled if a violation is repeated warning the worst is yet to come. →See also page 19 the foremost economic and finan- in three years. Reconciliations are cial trends expected in 2016. possible by paying to Kahramaa half The Peninsula the fine before charges are brought against a violator in a court of law for legal action. Electricity will be considered DOHA: Utility distributor Kahramaa as being wasted if bulbs, tubes or Return visa applications via Metrash 2 has begun implementing a law which any other such devices fitted out- prescribes deterring fines for wast- side a building are found switched ing electricity and water. on between 7am and 4.30pm. The Peninsula and Expatriates Affairs at the ministry to visit a MoI services centre to get holder lose or damage his/her pass- The penalty for wasting water The law is part of a National Pro- on January 17. They can be accessed the visas of their wives and children port before entering Qatar. In such through a hose or pressure pipe can gram for Conservation and Energy through Metrash2 mobile application renewed, if they had stayed out of Qatar cases, the sponsor or employer can reach up to QR20,000 in a first-time Efficiency, the drive is known in Ara- and MoI web portal, the ministry said for more than six months. The return update the passport details online by violation, while wasting electricity bic as ‘Tarsheed’. ‘Tarsheed’ means DOHA: Expatriates seeking a “return on its Twitter account. visas normally had a validity of two adding the new passport number and can make one cough up QR10,000 ‘To Guide’ but here the term is being visa” for people under personal spon- The return visa will be issued for weeks, which has now been extended expiry date, the ministry explained. as fine. used to refer to conservation of the sorship who have stayed out of the those who have a valid residence per- to one month. This service carries a In the case of expatriates holding The law is being put into force precious utilities and their rational country for more than six months can mit (RP). It will have one month validity, fee of QR500 per person. two visas — one existing and another by Kahramaa (Qatar General Elec- use. As part of the above programme, now apply online or through Metrash which means the visa holder can enter Passport details of a foreigner new— it is now possible to close one tricity and Water Corporation) after water waste is to be cut by 35 percent, 2, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said the country in one month after issu- can now be modified online if the visa and open the other online using an intensive awareness campaign. while the wastage of electricity is to yesterday. ance of the return visa, explained the person holds a valid entry visa to Metrash2 or MoI e-services, after pay- Awareness drives have been be curtailed by 20 percent. This is among the three new ministry. Qatar and his passport was lost or ing the service charges. It is no more launched in government offices, online services launched by the Gen- This will simplify the procedures damaged. required to visit a services centre for mosques, schools as well as for homes. →Continued on page 7 eral Directorate of Borders, Passports for many expatriates who earlier had There are cases in which a visa this purpose, said the ministry. Israeli guard shoots dead UK-based union offers help on labour rights Palestinian girl By Fazeena Saleem visit here told The Peninsula that the “We can assist the government to that we can talk to them about how the companies in Doha. However, the del- The Peninsula union is looking to support the local enforce those (labour) laws and to make trade unions can help them achiev- egation did not meet Qatari officials. Reuters authorities in bringing to book the com- sure that they are monitored, and any ing vision 2030. We can assist making “The visit was arranged by the BWI. panies which violate the labour law. abuses of workers are brought to their that they achieve the vision, without We went through the Qatari officials, they An eight-member delegation from (officials’) attention. And we can raise exploiting workers,” he added. know that we are here and we were able DOHA: A UK-based trade union Unite, British and Ireland’s largest the standards,” said McCluskey. The delegation has met with to have access to a number of sites, and JERUSALEM: A 13-year-old Pal- expressed its interest in helping the union, Building and Wood Workers “We have met with the British construction and hospitality sector talk to many construction workers and estinian girl was shot dead by an Qatari government to monitor labour International (BWI) together with UK’s ambassador, and we want him to try employees working for different com- hospitality workers,” said McCluskey. Israeli security guard she tried to rights. Len McCluskey, General Secre- Labour Party MPs Naz Shah and Ian to open up a channel of communica- panies and visited several labour camps. stab at a settlement in the Israeli- tary of Unite, who was on an official Lavery were in Doha on a four-day visit. tion with the Qatari government, so The visits also included some UK based →Continued on page 7 occupied West Bank yesterday. It was the latest fatality in an almost four-month-long surge of violence that has raised concern of wider escalation, a decade after the Burning oil tanks in Libya last Palestinian uprising subsided, Saudis and Indians top on and it followed two stabbings this week inside settlements carried out by Palestinian teenagers, accord- ing to Israeli authorities. list of visitors to Qatar Holding a knife, she ran towards the security guard at the entrance to Anatot settlement and he opened The Peninsula on the list of the countries from where fairly fire at her, Police spokeswoman large numbers of tourists arrived here in 2015. Luba Samri said. Her father arrived Egypt sent 92,036 visitors, while Kuwait, at the scene shortly after the inci- 91,843 and Pakistan, 86,670. These were the top dent and was arrested, she added. DOHA: Tourist arrivals in the country totalled 10 nationalities who had visited Qatar in 2015. Eight seconds of security cam- 2.93 million last year, more than a third of whom From the GCC region alone, the arrivals era footage published on Israeli were visitors from the neighbouring Saudi Ara- totalled more than a third (over 1.3 million), Channel Two News’s website bia and India. Asia (735,841), Europe (437,122), Other Arabs showed the armed guard running Some 855,555 Saudi citizens paid a visit here (274,530), the Americas (145,555) and other through the settlement gate and a last year while Indians were the second largest Africa (36,364). young woman running after him group of tourists numbering 375,910. The total number of tourist arrivals in 2015 with an object, possibly a knife, in Tourists from the UK (numbering 135,645) was 3.7 percent up over the previous year, while her hand. The family of the teen- were the third largest group on nationality- the average annual growth between 2010 and ager, Ruqayya Abu Eid, confirmed wise, followed by Bahrain (132,913). 2015 was 11.5 percent. her death. Her mother, Reeda Abu Figures released by the Qatar Tourism Among the GCC nationals who visited Qatar, Eid, said there had been no trouble Authority (QTA), yesterday showed the UAE, Bahrain, the UAE, Oman and Kuwait trailed before her daughter left the fam- Smoke rises from burning oil storage tanks in the port of Ras Lanuf, Libya, yesterday Oman and the US trailing with 117,575, 102,332 Saudi Arabia.