ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER Monday 17 June 2013 8 Shaaban 1434 - Volume 18 Number 5733 Price: QR2 Wide-body Federer wins battle dominates first title of Paris Air Show the year Business | 18 Sport | 28 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Summer break Blown off his feet! for schools may change Changes likely from next year DOHA: Summer vacation normal schedule by 2018. for schools in Qatar may be Several Asian schools that advanced next year, with the begin their academic year in April Supreme Education Council will be affected if they are asked (SEC) hinting that Ramadan to follow the changed schedule. will fall within the holidays over However, details of the holiday the next three years. schedules are not yet known. The summer holidays may The SEC said that the aca- begin at least 10 days earlier next demic calendar is prepared taking year given that Ramadan gets several aspects into consideration, advanced by the same number like Eid and Ramadan holidays of days every year, based on the and the national holidays, lunar calendar. Teachers of Independent school This means that in 2016, the have been given a 70-day holiday holidays may begin in the first during summer and 15 days dur- week of June, earlier by about 20 ing winter while non-teaching days compared with the current staff are getting a maximum of A protester faces a water cannon during clashes with riot police at a demonstration in Ankara yesterday. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan schedule. 45 days of leave. rallied tens of thousands of his supporters in Istanbul, hours after ordering a crackdown on anti-government protesters in a city park and sending In a statement yesterday on its Reacting to the SEC statement, tensions soaring in two weeks of unrest. See also page 7 website explaining the academic several citizens have called to calendar in Qatar, the SEC said remove the irregularities in the that in the next three years, academic calendar and divide it Ramadan will be part of the sum- into two equal semesters, with 90 mer holidays. After that, it will days each. fall within the regular school days. Currently, the first term is Kuwait’s top court dissolves parliament This schedule would apply not longer with 106 days while the only to Independent schools but second term comprises only 73 KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s top that the court had ordered a dis- turned violent. The electoral law last October, which had set up a also to private schools, since the days, said a commentator. court yesterday scrapped last solution of parliament. Last June, passed in 2006 allowed each eligi- National Election Commission, SEC has unified the summer holi- They also suggested that the December’s parliamentary elec- it scrapped an opposition-dom- ble voter to choose a maximum of was unconstitutional. days of all schools in the country. academic calendar in Qatar be tion, which was boycotted by inated parliament, saying there four candidates. The amendment Islamist, nationalist and liberal This year the holidays begin unified in keeping with the system the opposition, but approved the had been flaws in the procedures reduced the number to just one. opposition groups had rejected the on June 26 and the schools will followed by other GCC countries. controversial electoral law that that led to its election. The court ruled the amend- electoral law amendment charg- reopen on September 7. The aca- Although the academic calen- sparked the boycott. Kuwait’s Emir, H H Sheikh ment is “in line with the consti- ing that it had enabled the gov- demic year in Qatar begins in dar is now unified, schools are fol- The constitutional court, whose Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al tution” and that it was made to ernment to manipulate election September. lowing different working hours. rulings are final, dissolved the Sabah, decreed the controver- “serve national interests” and give results and subsequent legislation. For several years, summer holi- Duration of the classes also vary loyalist-dominated parliament sial amendment to the electoral minorities the chance to be rep- Several opposition MPs spoke days here start by the end of June from one independent school to and ordered a fresh election, in law last October intensifying a resented in parliament. out strongly against the court’s or early July and this is going to another. This also has to be uni- the verdict read out by presiding bitter dispute that had engulfed It said it was scrapping the decision to uphold the amend- change over the next three years. fied, said another person. judge Yousef Al Mutawah. the emirate since 2006, sparking December election because a ment. AFP The schools may return to the THE PENINSULA It was the second time in a year street protests, some of which second decree issued by the Emir Picture on page 6 Pre-G8 meeting Saudi reduces Haj pilgrims this year QCB tightens curbs on RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has security investments cut back the number of pilgrims that may perform the Haj this DUBAI: Qatar’s central bank introduced a 15pc ceiling for total year due to construction work has tightened its curbs on how securities investment outside aimed at expanding the holy much banks can invest in stocks Qatar. site of Makkah, the Haj minis- and bonds, according to a circu- Real estate investment by ter said. lar released by the central bank Islamic banks will be limited to The authorities had decided to and seen by Reuters. 10pc of capital and reserves; ear- reduce by half the number of pil- Banks’ total investment in lier, the limit was 30 pc. grims coming from within Saudi equities and debt instruments The central bank did not give Arabia, and by about 20 percent must be limited to 25 percent of the reasons for its new rules, but those from abroad, said Bandar their capital and reserves, though Qatar is gearing up to spend tens Hajjar. debt instruments issued by the of billions of dollars on major See also page 7 government and national banks infrastructure projects, and it is are exempt from the limits. seeking to develop its government Previously, under instructions debt market partly to help finance Four knifed in to banks issued in November 2011, this. the limits were 30 percent each The circular did not say over UK mosque for equities and debt instruments. what time frame the new rules LONDON: A 32-year-old man Among other restrictions, the would be implemented and cen- is being questioned after four central bank set new limits for tral bank officials could not be people, including a police officer, British Prime Minister David Cameron (right) with Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of a meeting in investment in individual compa- contacted to elaborate. were injured in a knife attack Downing Street in London, yesterday. Russia and the West can overcome their differences over the conflict nies and unlisted securities, and REUTERS during evening prayers at a in Syria, Cameron said after a pre-G8 summit meeting with Putin. See also pages 6 & 11 Birmingham mosque. Chief Superintendent Alex Murray praised the “heroic” actions of officers and other wor- shippers who intervened during How the UK spied on its G20 allies at London summits the incident at the Madrassa Qasim Ul Uloom mosque, in the Washwood Heath area of the city, LONDON: Foreign politicians British intelligence agencies to the exercise is to be repeated this organised for the more mundane top secret — which were uncov- on Saturday. The incident comes and officials who took part in read their email traffic. week. purpose of securing an advan- ered by the NSA whistleblower amid an increase in police patrols two G20 summit meetings in The revelation comes as Britain The disclosure raises new tage in meetings. Named targets Edward Snowden and seen by the around mosques after a number London in 2009 had their com- prepares to host another summit questions about the boundaries include long-standing allies such Guardian. of attacks in the aftermath of puters monitored and their today — for the G8 nations, all of of surveillance by GCHQ and its as South Africa and Turkey. They reveal that during G20 the killing of British soldier Lee phone calls intercepted on the whom attended the 2009 meetings American sister organisation, the There have often been rumours meetings in April and September Rigby in Woolwich, south London. instructions of their British which were the object of the sys- National Security Agency, whose of this kind of espionage at inter- 2009, GCHQ used what one doc- Murray said the motivation for government hosts, accord- tematic spying. It is likely to lead access to phone records and national conferences but it is ument calls “ground-breaking the attack was unclear but there ing to documents seen by The to some tension among visiting Internet data has been defended highly unusual for hard evidence intelligence capabilities” to inter- was no evidence it was a hate Guardian. Some delegates were delegates who will want the prime as necessary in the fight against to confirm it and spell out the cept the communications of visit- crime or linked to any other inci- tricked into using Internet minister to explain whether they terrorism and serious crime. The detail. The evidence is contained ing delegations. dents. Full report on page 11 cafes which had been set up by were targets in 2009 and whether G20 spying appears to have been in documents — classified as THE GUARDIAN MONDAY 17 JUNE 2013 02 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com HOME UK envoy has three reasons to return O’Neill wants to fly from new airport, visit after completion of two projects BY MOHAMMAD SHOEB He first visited Qatar five years ago when he was an envoy to Sharp rise in visa applications DOHA: The outgoing British Sudan during the Darfur peace Ambassador, Michael O’Neill, process in which Qatar was also DOHA: There was a sharp increase of 24 percent in the number yesterday expressed his desire involved.