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ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER Wednesday 30 October 2013 25 Dhul-Hijja 1434 - Volume 18 Number 5868 Price: QR2 First Qatargas Bangladesh LNG cargo hammer to CNOOC New Zealand Business | 21 Sport | 32 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Qatar Airways joins Emir holds talks with Sultan Qaboos Oneworld Alliance Flight makes symbolic landing at new airport DOHA: A symbolic Qatar Airways’ flight landed at the new airport (Hamad International) here yesterday to mark the national carrier joining a coveted alliance of global airlines. The landing, however, affirmed the readiness of the new interna- tional airport to begin operating from early next year — plans the authorities announced recently. The Qatar Airways’ plane that landed was a Boeing 3-777 and had logo of ‘Oneworld’. Yesterday, a group of journal- ists — both, local and foreign — The Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with H M Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman at Bait Al Baraka were taken on a tour of the new Palace in Muscat yesterday. The Emir arrived from Bahrain on the two-day state visit to Oman. airport along with diplomats, senior government officials and businessmen. The airport, which is a few Talk of my exit Mowasalat to set up unified The Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani unveiling the Oneworld Alliance with Qatar Airways CEO false: Al Baker Akbar Al Baker at Hamad International Airport yesterday. ABDUL BASIT DOHA: Qatar Airways’ high- call centre for all taxis profile CEO, Akbar Al Baker, kilometres from Doha, is a third million passengers a year on yesterday denied he was on of Doha city in size. initial opening, but the capac- DOHA: Mowasalat is planning “The unified call centre will nearest available taxi, irrespec- his way out and said the talk Passengers will have direct ity will more than double to 50 to set up a unified call centre for primarily serve taxi operations to tive of the operator. Customers about his exit was “false and access to aircraft from the board- million after the second phase is all taxis in Qatar. better serve the public by inte- can definitely choose a specific spread by enemies”. ing gates, with 41 contact gates completed. Currently there is a separate grated pre-booking and auto- operator, but they will have more “I am a soldier of my gov- when the airport opens. In other words, per hour pas- call centre each for the Karwa mated dispatch solutions,” said a options if a taxi operated by that ernment. This talk has been By 2015, upon final completion senger handling capacity of the taxis and the cabs operated by company statement. company is not immediately avail- spread to de-motivate staff. The of the airport the number of gates new airport will work out to 8,700 two private companies — Al Besides taxis, public buses and able. Such a facility will also help decision for me to stay or go is will be increased to 65. — a big number. Million and Al Ijarah Holding. other modes of public transport reduce the operational cost of dependent on my ruler,” he said. The airport will have moving More than a half (60 percent) Mowasalat has recently invited in the country will also be con- each company to a great extent,” Replying to a question from sidewalks like most big and mod- of the airport is built on land a bid to select three new compa- nected to the unified call centre, said an official. wire agency Reuters on the ern airports in the world have. reclaimed from the Arabian Gulf. nies to run taxis on a franchise at a later stage. Al Million and Al Ijarah will sidelines of a news conference Due to its massive size, though, THE PENINSULA basis. The proposed facility would continue to operate their own if he would be leaving his post, the car parking lots outside the Continued on page 6 All these operators will be provide easier and faster access call centres until they are even- he dismissed this as “false talk terminals are quite huge with ALL YOU WANTED TO KNOW eventually served by a unified call for passengers to a taxi by giving tually connected to the unified spread by enemies”. some visitors saying they are a ABOUT HAMAD INTERNATIONAL centre, which is expected to be more options. call centre, once it becomes fully THE PENINSULA bit far away. AIRPORT on page 20 ready next year, it was disclosed “Through the unified call cen- functional, he added. The airport will handle 24 yesterday. tre, we will be able to send the THE PENINSULA Turkey opens underwater rail link CMC elects new secretary-general Gulf rail project on track ABU DHABI: Construction of a after it was recently approved by DOHA: The Central Municipal $15.5bn rail network linking the national ministers of transport Council (CMC) yesterday six Gulf states will start late next and finance, he said. “Some mile- picked its new secretary-gen- year and an overseeing authority stones have been achieved and we eral through a secret ballot. A for the project is being set up, an are targeting for the project to be woman was among the six can- adviser said yesterday. fully operational in 2018,” he said. didates who were shortlisted for The joint project is to develop a GCC countries will build their the administrative slot. But the railway network linking Oman in parts of the railway on their own. victor was a male, Matar bin the south to Kuwait in the north The UAE and Saudi Arabia have Shaheen Al Kuwari. through the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain begun construction work while This is the first time since its and Saudi Arabia. other countries will start shortly, inception in early 1999 that the Detailed engineering and he added. Oman has begun pre- civic representative body has design work will be completed liminary design on its rail project. elected the incumbent for the key by late 2013 or early 2014, with Meanwhile, the contract administrative position. construction to follow, Ramiz Al to study a proposal for a new THE PENINSULA Assar, the World Bank’s resident causeway linking Saudi Arabia Full report on page 3 adviser to the Gulf Cooperation and Bahrain, part of the GCC Council Secretariat, told a confer- rail project, will be awarded next Syrian deputy PM ence organised by MEED. month and the study is scheduled Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the opening ceremony of Marmaray railway which is a tube A GCC authority to oversee to be completed in 2014, he said. dismissed tunnel submerged into the Bosphorus waterway, in Istanbul, Turkey yesterday. The railway is located 62 metres the project is being established REUTERS deep. The project links the Asian and European parts of Istanbul. See also page 10 BEIRUT: Syria’s deputy prime minister, Qadri Jamil, was dis- missed yesterday for leaving the country and acting without gov- ernment permission after meet- ing U.S. officials in Switzerland, Obama orders curbs on NSA spying on UN headquarters state media said. The sacked minister is a mem- WASHINGTON: US President Barack on allied leaders, a senior official said yes- senior Obama administration official. Such states have been targets for aggressive ber of what President Bashar Al Obama recently ordered the National terday, following outrage in Europe over programmes are highly classified, although spying by the United States, its allies Assad calls the “patriotic oppo- Security Agency (NSA) to curtail eaves- NSA snooping. The official said the step was some details have been leaked by former and adversaries. FBI counter-intelligence sition” — political parties that dropping on the United Nations head- under consideration, but that no policy deci- NSA contractor Edward Snowden. squads have long mounted operations to try consider themselves rivals to the quarters in New York as part of a review sions had yet been finalised, as Obama awaits According to the first official, the presi- to identify spies posing as UN diplomats. president but have not joined the of US electronic surveillance, according results of several already announced reviews dent’s aides have said in briefings that the The German news magazine Der Spiegel, revolt against his rule. to a US official familiar with the decision. into US surveillance practices. White House no longer wanted to conduct citing documents leaked by Snowden, US and Middle East officials Obama’s order is the latest known move The full extent of US eavesdropping on the certain monitoring of UN targets. The official reported in August that the NSA had suc- told Reuters that Jamil met the by the White House to limit the NSA’s United Nations is not publicly known, nor said that the decision was made within the ceeded in the summer of 2012 in getting former American ambassador to vast intelligence collection, in the wake is it clear whether the US has stopped all last few weeks. The NSA declined to com- into the UN video conferencing system Syria, Robert Ford, on Saturday of protests by allies, including German monitoring of diplomats assigned to the UN ment. Spokesmen for UN Secretary General and breaking its encryption. It added that in Geneva. The two discussed the Chancellor Angela Merkel, over US spy- in New York or elsewhere around the world. Ban Ki-moon did not respond immediately within three weeks the number of decoded proposed “Geneva 2” talks. ing on foreign heads of state. “The United States is not conducting to a request for comment.