ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER Smith ton puts Australia on top Sport | 26 Sunday 28 December 2014 • 6 Rabial I 1436 • Volume 19 Number 6293 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Nepalese gain De-icing the plane most from currency flux Pakistanis are major losers BY SACHIN KUMAR Nepalese rupees for one Qatari Riyal in early January when the DOHA: Nepalese expatriates rupee was quoting 27.16 against gained the most while those the Riyal. Now, he would get from Pakistan were among the around 28 rupees because the major losers due to currency currency is trading weak at 27.92 fluctuations this year. per Riyal. The Pakistani Rupee strength- On the contrary, appreciating ened by about five percent against currency is a bad news for expa- the Qatari Riyal in 2014, eroding triates. A Pakistani expatriate in the earnings of Pakistani expatri- Qatar was getting 29 rupees for ates. Pakistani currency was the one Riyal at the beginning of this only Asian currency to appreci- year when Pakistani currency was ate significantly against the Riyal quoting 29 against one riyal but while Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri now he is getting around 27.50 Lankan and Nepalese curren- as the rupee is trading at 27.62 A Qatar Airways plane is de-iced at the Frankfurt airport in Germany yesterday. cies weakened in the year. The against Riyal. Philippine Peso, like past years, The Indian community was the was seen to be stable against the second biggest gainer as the rupee Riyal. Nepalese Rupee depre- weakened by two percent or 35 ciated the most, registering a paise during the current year. The Syria ready to decline of three percent in 2014, Indian Rupee is now trading at Huge marijuana haul at airport giving additional value to the 17.45 against one Riyal. However, participate in earnings of Nepali expatriates. during the year, rupee had a roller DOHA: Customs authorities at marijuana during the inspection. Customs has made 1,500 seizures “This year has been of sharp coaster ride as it strengthened up Hamad International Airport He said smugglers and the in 2013. The seizures include 282 Moscow talks volatility for the currency mar- to 15.96 against one Riyal in May have foiled an attempt to smug- seized parcels were handed over narcotic substances, 102 nar- kets. Except Peso, all the major but it has been on downward jour- gle 17 kilogramme of marijuana to security organisations who will cotic pills, 80 tobacco products, Asian currencies have witnessed ney since then. by a passenger coming from one complete legal procedures and 162 seizures pertaining to intel- BEIRUT/CAIRO: Syria said sharp fluctuations,” Zuber Abdul Sri Lankan Rupee depreciated of the Asian countries on board investigations prior to referring lectual property rights, 19 weap- yesterday it was willing to par- Rahman, Operations Manager, by about one percent to 36.22 a direct flight to Doha. them to the attorney general’s ons and ammunition, in addition ticipate in “preliminary con- Al Zaman Exchange, told yesterday from 35.90 in the first Khalid Hamad Rashed Al office. Al Kaabi explained that to 689 commercial fraud and sultations” in Moscow aimed The Peninsula. week of January. The Bangladeshi Kaabi, Director of International the Customs Authority in the past other seizures related to porno- at restarting talks next year A depreciating currency augurs Taka weakened one percent to Airport Customs Department has made big hauls of banned sub- graphic materials, the smuggling to end its civil war but the well for expatriates as a given 21.60 yesterday from 21.38 at the said customs officers monitoring stances like hush, narcotic pills, of endangered species of animals Western-backed opposition dis- amount fetches more because of beginning of the year. X-ray detectors became suspi- opium, cocaine hidden in unex- and other banned materials. missed the initiative. the decline. For example, a Nepali THE PENINSULA cious and inspected a bag. They pected places. THE PENINSULA Two rounds of peace talks this expatriate was getting around 27 Continued on page 5 found three large parcels of The General Authority of Picture on page 2 year in Geneva failed to halt the conflict which has killed 200,000 people during more than three years of violence and there was Qatar beat Estonia little sign of the latest move gain- ing traction. Malaysia in major flood rescue Syrian state television quoted a source at the Foreign Ministry PENGKALAN CHEPA, MALAYSIA: Rescuers struggled yes- saying: “Syria is ready to partici- terday to get help to the tens of thousands of people affected by pate in preliminary consultations Malaysia’s worst flooding in decades as angry victims accused the in Moscow in order to meet the government of being slow in its response. aspirations of Syrians to find a Malaysians have vented their anger at Prime Minister Najib Razak way out of crisis.” after photos went viral on social media showing him playing golf with But there are many obstacles to US President Barack Obama during the storms. peace. The most powerful insur- The number of people forced to flee their homes climbed past 120,000 gent group, the hardline Islamic with weather forecasters warning of no respite for the northeastern State, controls a third of Syria but states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang. From the air, parts of has not been part of any initiative Kota Bharu, the state capital of badly-affected Kelantan, resembled to end the fighting. a vast, muddy lake. Other rebel factions are not unified. The opposition is also suspicious Bahrain opposition leader re-elected of Russian-led plans as Moscow has long backed President Bashar DUBAI: Bahrain’s main opposition movement Al Wefaq said yes- Al Assad with weapons. terday that it had re-elected the leader of the banned Shia group, Hadi Al Bahra, head of the who was summoned by police hours later. Sheikh Ali Salman, 49, Turkey-based opposition National was handed a new four-year term at Al-Wefaq’s general congress on Coalition, met with Arab League Friday night, in a meeting held to comply with a law on associations Chief Nabil Elaraby in Cairo that led to the three-month ban. yesterday and told a news con- The interior ministry ordered Salman to appear before police inves- Qatar’s Hassan Al Haidos (left) vies for the ball with an Estonian player during a friendly at the Lekhwiya Stadium ference “there is no initiative as tigators today, said Al-Wefaq, which described the move as “serious”. in Doha yesterday. The Maroons notched up a comfortable 3-0 victory before leaving for Australia where they rumoured”. AGENCIES will take part in next month’s Asian Cup. See also page 27 REUTERS Picture: MOHD OBAIDALI Report questions double standards of labour rights unions DOHA: An article published by Asian region. They continually dominate media the report. ANI said that bodies like the to lobby the ILO on this issue in return staff wages increased by ¤600,000 between News International (ANI) last week headlines with allegations of wrongdoing ITUC have employed dubious means dur- for maintaining its funding!” 2011 and 2012, a rate of eight percent or has questioned the sincerity of inter- taking place against workers in places ing their alleged investigation of workers’ “Junior employees are paid minimally approximately three times inflation. It is national trade unions in their scath- like Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi condition. and the trade union uses ineffective even harder to understand the justifica- ing attacks against the alleged labour Arabia, to name a few,” says the report. “A series of interactions with various retired people to save costs, whereas tion for this pay rise when you consider rights violations in Gulf countries, For example, the International stakeholders revealed a different perspec- the management leads a lavish lifestyle. that their affiliation fees — paid by real especially Qatar. Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has tive regarding their lifestyle, administra- Racquel Gozalez, the head of Geneva workers — only rose by 1.1 per cent to 11.9 The report titled “International trade severely criticised Qatar for its failure to tion, agenda and financial angle,” said the office, for instance, arrives at work in her million, said the report. unions need to be less combative, encour- give more rights to the work force and report. BMW 5 series car valued at ¤70,000 and Interestingly, one of the ways ITUC is age more interaction with workers” pub- appears relentless in its pursuit to help A personnel stationed at the Swiss- lives in a ¤500,000 apartment,” he added. funded is through contribution by global lished on December 26 was reproduced by strip Qatar of its right to host the FIFA based office of ITUC located in the ILO The ITUC’s accounts show that in 2012, affiliates. Spending money every year to several leading newspapers across Asia. 2022 World Cup. building in Geneva was quoted as saying it paid its 75 staff at its Brussels office have an organisation like ITUC fighting “Trade unions around the world are “They have ensured that the campaign on conditions of anonymity, “in 2013/14, almost ¤6m in salary, which equates to for your piece of the pie needs to be justi- playing a leading role in the protracted is not only relentless, but also aggres- the ILO fired more than 600 employees in ¤80,000 per person, almost 2.5 times the fied, it added. THE PENINSULA global debate on various issues in the Gulf sive, and at times, questionable,” says an effort to save costs.