ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER IAAF evaluation panel arrives in Doha today Sport | 32 Wednesday 29 October 2014 • 5 Muharram 1436 • Volume 19 Number 6233 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Qatar, UK sign security cooperation deal Minimum wages Crackdown hits for GCC citizens under study mobile phone DOHA: There is a proposal to fix minimum wages for GCC citizens working in both public and private sectors in member- states that are not their home repair outlets countries. The proposal is part of moves to extend the unified pension scheme to the private sector Customers worried about blackmail across the GCC states for GCC citizens working in member DOHA: Exchange of mobile drastically after the August countries. phones and the mobile repair arrests. Currently, although each business have been hit hard People have generally turned GCC state has its own pen- by the crackdown on several suspicious and were not able to sion scheme, some 22,576 GCC service outlets by the Ministry trust these outlets, said the serv- nationals who have retired of Interior last August follow- ice shop official. “The fear is on serving in member-states that ing customer complaints about both the sides — customers as are not their home countries blackmail. well as the service shops.” are beneficiaries of the pension Service shops are complaining Being a conservative society, scheme of the country in which of low customer turnout after people here don’t want to share they were working. some 35 staffers of various dig- or make public their personal and A two-day meeting of pension ital sales and service outlets were family images and video clippings authority officials of the GCC arrested in August for blackmail- as well as personal details. The Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with British Home Secretary Theresa May at his residence states in Kuwait have decided ing their clientele, mostly women. The Ministry of Interior has, in London yesterday. Qatar and the United Kingdom signed a memorandum of understanding on security to study the impact of fixing The arrested had copied images meanwhile, cautioned the public cooperation. The Foreign Minister H E Dr Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah signed the MoU on behalf of Qatar, minimum wages for GCC citi- and videos saved on customers’ that getting applications down- while Theresa May represented her government. See also page 2 zens employed in other GCC phones without their knowledge loaded on smart-phones with states on the unified regional and used them for blackmail. help from service shops can also pension scheme. They demanded huge sums from be risky as many of them require THE PENINSULA device owners threatening to post personal details. the images and videos could be For example, downloading pro- Thunder, rains likely posted on social networking sites. grammes like iCloud can be risky, After the arrests, some repair particularly for women. “So there New licensing rules for hospitals for three days and maintenance outlets are so is a need to be cautious,” said the scared that they have stopped Interior Ministry on its tweet DOHA: The Supreme Council of “The existing licensing rules He said the new standards will DOHA: The weather is entertaining Qatari customers, account. Health (SCH) is working on new were prepared several decades ago encompass all aspects of healthcare expected to be unstable from particularly, for software-related The Ministry said in a state- licensing rules and standards for and since then the healthcare sec- services such as infrastructure, today until Friday with chances work. ment earlier in August that cop- private clinics and hospitals as tor has witnessed massive changes. facilities, patient safety, hygiene, of thunder and rain at places at “If the repair is for hardware, ying data from others’ devices part of efforts to raise the quality There is a need for new rules and quality of care, medical records, times accompanied by light to we accept a mobile phone hand- without their permission is a of healthcare in the country. standards to raise the quality of medical practice, customer care, moderate northeasterly to east- set but definitely not for main- punishable offence. The new licensing standards services and meet demands of the among others. All new and existing erly wind. tenance, installation or repair of Knowledgeable circles, mean- will be linked to the national rapid developments,” Dr Jamal facilities will be required to comply The Met Office said in a press software,” said an official from a while, said that digital exchange accreditation standards that are Rashid Al Khanji, director of the with the new rules and standards, statement issued yesterday that service shop. and service centres should be also in the making, a senior SCH Healthcare Quality and Patient once they are in place. This will the unstable weather will be He said customer turnout for asked to sign written undertak- official has disclosed. The pilot Safety Department at SCH and be a necessary precondition for caused by low pressure extend- repair and maintenance and ings at the time of being licensed. phase of the National Licensing acting CEO of the Qatar Council renewal of licence. ing from the Arabian Sea. exchange of old mobile phone THE PENINSULA and Accreditation Programme for Healthcare Practitioners THE PENINSULA THE PENINSULA handsets had also come down Continued on page 6 was launched on Sunday. (QCHP) told this daily yesterday. Continued on page 6 Continued on page 6 WEDNESDAY 29 OCTOBER 2014 02 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com HOME Emir meets Qatari students in UK The Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with Qatari students in the United Kingdom at the Dorchester Hotel in London yesterday. The Emir stressed the state’s keenness to provide higher learning opportunities to stu- dents and the need for them to be goodwill ambassadors of their homeland. No Interpol warrant for PM meets outgoing Uruguayan envoy Al Jazeera journalist Egypt’s request to issue red notice rejected DOHA: Interpol, the interna- earlier this month in absentia The award-winning network tional organisation for police by an Egyptian court and given that recently won an Emmy and cooperation, has rejected a a 15-year jail term for carrying has been the benefactor of multi- request from Egypt to issue one out alleged torture during the ple journalistic awards said that of its red notices against Ahmed January 25th revolution in 2011. it remained committed to its mis- Mansour, an Al Jazeera jour- Mansour rejected the charges sion of putting the human being at nalist, according to a statement as absurd, while Al Jazeera dis- the centre of its news agenda and from Al Jazeera network. missed the accusation as a flimsy giving a voice to the voiceless in An Interpol red notice is one attempt at character assassina- the face of continuing harassment of the closest instruments to an tion against of one of its leading and imprisonment of its journal- international arrest warrant. The journalists. ists by the Egyptian authorities. network says the rejection of the In an email to Al Jazeera’s law- The network also reiterated its request by Interpol is another clear yers, Interpol confirmed receiving call for the release of the three indication of how the targeted cam- a request from Egypt’s National Al Jazeera English journalists who The Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani with Uruguay’s paign by Egypt against Al Jazeera is Central Bureau about Mansour, have been in jail since December Ambassador Dr Jose Luis Remedi on the occasion of ending his tenure in Qatar. The Prime Minister wished failing in the eyes of global opinion. but said that the red notice request 29 as part of a separate case. the ambassador success in his future tasks. Mansour was convicted “did not meet Interpol’s rules”. THE PENINSULA WEDNESDAY 29 OCTOBER 2014 04 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com HOME Land prices in posh areas skyrocketing 741 sq metre plot in Al Sadd sold for QR56m; last week’s real estate deals touch QR1.58bn DOHA: Real estate prices con- with other areas of Doha as well. in the week from October 19 to by the Ministry of Justice show. the rate per sq metre being a high also witnessed large numbers of tinue to go up amidst mega A 741 square metre plot in Al 23 with the collective value of the The Ministry’s real estate reg- of QR66,400. land transactions. In expatriate- development projects being Sadd has been sold for an incred- deals being a huge QR942m. istration department put the total This was the first week in dominated working class locality launched for the 2022 FIFA ible QR56m — the per square The total value of real estate number of deals concluded in the recent times when so many plots of Ummghuwailina in Doha, a event. Land prices in the city’s meter rate being QR75,500. deals all over the country in the week at 141. One plot of land in of land were sold out in Al Sadd. 2,626 sq meters of house was sold posh locality of Al Sadd have This was among 23 plots that week was, however, a massive Al Sadd, admeasuring 1,506 sq Al Wakra, Al Rayyan, Umm for a huge QR67.84m. been skyrocketing as is the case were sold out in Al Sadd alone over QR1.58bn, details released meters, was sold out for QR100m, Salal, Al Dhakhira and Al Dayeen THE PENINSULA Deadline for biomedical programme extended DOHA: Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) has extended the deadline for applications to its Biomedical Research Training Programme for nationals.