ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER Home | 3 Business | 13 Sport | 20 Hamad Saudi Aramco Tamim, Imrul Bin Khalifa and oil thwart Pakistan University gets ministry to be on day four in new president restructured Khulna Test SATURDAY 2 MAY 2015 • 13 Rajab 1436 • Volume 20 Number 6418 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Lekhwiya lift Qatar Cup Baltimore death: Thousands 6 officers charged WASHINGTON: Prosecutors in Baltimore yesterday charged six officers with multiple counts including in connection of workers to with the death of a 25-year- old African American man in police custody. Warrants have been issued for the arrest of the Baltimore Police Department officers over get IT training the death of Freddie Gray, which sparked days of protests and riot- ing in the US East Coast port city. Ministry signs deal with companies Nigeria frees 234 DOHA: Some 10,000 construc- tion workers and other blue- from Boko Haram collar expats are to be provided The Better Connections training in the use of comput- ABUJA: Nigeria has freed ers and information technology Programme, launched another 234 women and chil- (IT) as part of the government’s last year on the occasion dren from Boko Haram’s digital inclusion strategy. of Labour Day, will be Sambisa forest, the military said Known as Better expanded this year with yesterday. The hostages were Connections Programme, the 100 computer rooms rescued on Thursday through Ministry of Information and the Kawuri and Konduga end of to be set up in labour H E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani handing the trophy to Lekhwiya SC captain after the team won Qatar Communications Technology is Sambisa forest. AFP expanding its digital literacy ini- accommodations. Cup. Lekhwiya defeated El Jaish 1-0 in the final at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha yesterday. See also pages 21 & 22. tiative which is meant for low- income workers. The idea is to ensure labour- ers have access to computers and The Better Connections multi-lingual ICT training. Programme was launched in The Ministry has signed agree- May last year on the occasion Afghan team heads to Doha for Taliban talks ments with a number of compa- of International Labour Day nies to set up rooms or designated and this year the Ministry has KABUL: An Afghan delegation in February that senior figures in said. “The open discussions are as part of a US-sponsored push to space in labour camps where announced its expansion and said is heading to Qatar for “open the Taliban were open to direct based on peace in Afghanistan. promote talks, have led nowhere. computers could be set up and that some 100 computer rooms discussions” with representa- talks with Kabul to end the war, There will be representatives A senior Taliban official in training provided to workers. are to be set up in labour accom- tives of Taliban insurgents over but until now there had been little from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Qatar confirmed that a meet- To begin with, 25 such rooms modations across the country as the next few days aimed at end- sign of progress. Taliban and some other organisa- ing was set for the coming days are to be set up and training is to part of the initiative. ing Afghanistan’s long war, an The Taliban and their militant tions,” Ludin said. with Afghan figures, as well as be offered in ICT in different lan- Qatar is home to more than official said yesterday. allies have if anything shown more He said there would be some from Pakistan and other guages, including Arabic, English, 1.2 million low-income work- The meeting is intended as a desire to fight than to talk. Last two representatives of Hizbe countries. Hindi, Nepali, and Bengali. ers, a vast majority of whom are step towards opening formal talks week, Taliban fighters entered the Islami, another group fighting The Taliban official also said Deals have also been con- engaged in the booming construc- to ending the war, but it was not outer districts of a northerly pro- Afghanistan’s US-backed govern- that Hizbe Islami figures would cluded with charities that will tion industry. clear yesterday whether it had vincial capital, Kunduz. ment that also has a political wing. participate. “It’s top secret so far,” provide volunteers who will train The influx of low-income work- been approved by the Taliban’s The 20-member Afghan delega- Few other details were immedi- he said. He added that the aim of some low-income workers in IT ers continues and they are being supreme leader, who has not been tion will attend preliminary talks ately available. Previous efforts to the meeting was “to sit in front and they would in turn train engaged in development projects seen in public for years. in Qatar tomorrow and Monday, open channels of communication, of each other and listen to each blue-collar workers in the labor being launched for the 2022 FIFA Pakistan’s army chief told Attaullah Ludin, deputy chief of including the establishment of other’s point of view”. accommodations. World Cup. THE PENINSULA Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, a political office in Qatar in 2013 REUTERS Protest against Milan Expo Only 30 percent drink tap water Security Council fails to back in Qatar: Survey Russian appeal on Yemen DOHA: As the debate over tap UNITED NATIONS: The UN reporters following the meeting. in the room on the exact working versus bottled water rages, a sur- Security Council was unable Russia had requested the of the statement,” said a diplomat. vey shows only 30 percent of the yesterday to agree on a Russian- meeting after UN Secretary- Russia’s diplomacy has been local population regularly drinks drafted statement demanding General Ban Ki-moon warned on greeted with some degree of sus- tap water, while most people pre- an immediate ceasefire or at Thursday that dire fuel shortages picion given the country’s close fer to drink bottled water. least humanitarian pauses in were threatening to bring all relief ties to Iran, which is supporting Both tap and bottled water in the fighting in Yemen. operations to a halt “within days.” the Houthi rebels who have seized Qatar are safe to drink, says a Russian Ambassador Vitaly Diplomats said the Russian the capital Sana’a and forced study that was part of the survey Churkin criticised the 15-mem- statement was not rejected out Yemen’s president into exile. conducted by Qatar Environment ber council, saying fellow envoys of hand during the closed-door Top UN official Jeffrey Feltman and Energy Research Institute showed “amazing indecision” in meeting but that the delegations told the council that the new UN (QEERI), a member of Qatar the face of the worsening humani- needed time to consider the word- envoy for Yemen will travel to Foundation for Education, Science tarian situation in Yemen. ing. “There was a strong degree the region next week for talks on and Community Development. “If you cannot agree to a of council agreement on the des- advancing prospects for a return to “The quality of Qatar’s drinking motherhood-and-apple-pie state- perate humanitarian situation peace negotiations, diplomats said. water is very high, higher than Anti-riot policemen run in front of a burning car during a rally against Expo ment, what can you agree on? I in Yemen and need to return to AFP many local consumers think,” said 2015 in Milan, Italy, yesterday. Italy opens the Milan Expo amid fears that don’t understand,” Churkin told political talks, but no agreement See also page 4 & 5 Nora Kuiper, a leading researcher it will be overshadowed by scandal and street protests. on the project at QEERI. “The real take away message is that tap water in the country is just as safe as bottled water, either locally produced or imported brands,” added Candace Rowell, a Al Furjan Markets lack toilets for employees fellow researcher working on this project. QEERI scientists used advanced DOHA: Built with much fan- in these markets to remove staff small companies owned by analytical tools to characterize fare by the government, Al toilets or they wouldn’t be given Qataris through an online raffle 113 tap water and 62 bottled Furjan Markets that cater to the license to operate. and monthly rent of the shops is water samples collected across residents of remote areas have “Where do we go to ease our- QR6, 000 ($1,648) each. Qatar. All samples were analysed no public toilet facilities. selves,” Al Sharq quoted some Many outraged staff members for elemental content and volatile And the employees of some out- employees of the bakery shops of bakery shops and restaurants compounds. lets in these markets, like baker- and eateries in these markets as in these shopping complexes said “We interviewed people in their ies and restaurants, are outraged saying. that they would have used com- homes to get an idea of what people that they have been asked by the The Ministry of Economy and mon public toilets but the mar- were drinking and why. We needed civic ministry to remove staff toi- Commerce has built Al Furjan kets have no such facility. to understand how local resi- lets from their premises. Markets in some 44 remote loca- They said there are mosques dents feel about drinking water,” All shops in Al Furjan tions of the country and they nearby so people could use the explained Candace Rowell. Markets have staff toilets together have 645 shops of dif- toilets therein but the mosques The answers were clear, only although the market as a whole ferent types.