ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER Monday 10 June 2013 1 Shaaban 1434 - Volume 18 Number 5726 Price: QR2 QP and GDI sign ‘Clay King’ QR1.7bn deals reigns for drilling rigs supreme Business | 17 Sport | 28 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Emir receives Everest conqueror Seismic code Ministry plans for buildings by year-end DOHA: Qatar is preparing a housing zones seismic code for buildings that is expected to be issued by end of the year. This was disclosed in a meeting of the Services Committee of the Central outside Doha Municipal Council on Saturday. The CMC had called for new standards and specifications for buildings, following recent Project aimed at reducing congestion earthquakes in Iran that caused aftershocks in Qatar and other DOHA: The Ministry of called for redeveloping the older GCC countries. Currently, seismic Municipality and Urban parts of the city that were built codes of Saudi Arabia and Jordon Planning is working on a project without proper planning. are being adopted in buildings in to develop model residential Apart from being an eyesore Qatar, the meeting was told. districts in parts of the coun- with their old and dilapidated The existing building code is try, aimed at avoiding crowding buildings, such old residential being amended to include new and congestion seen in many areas are a safety and security specifications and a separate old areas. threat. chapter on natural disasters and The Ministry has prepared a “The roads are so narrow that the requirements to withstand uniform design for the project even an ambulance or fire truck them. “Although there was no which comprises schools, com- will find it hard to reach these major impact of the tremors on mercial centres, parks and areas,” said Engineer Ahmed buildings and installations in other amenities, a member of Al Jolo, president of the Qatar Qatar so far, we have to take all the Central Municipal Council Engineers Forum, in remarks to safety precautions to protect our (CMC) said yesterday. a local Arabic daily. facilities,” said Jassem Al Maliki, The project is an extension of He said the areas that require The Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani received at Al Wajbah Palace yesterday H E Sheikh Mohamed head of the Services Committee an ongoing plan to develop model immediate attention are Umm bin Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Ali Al Thani, the Goodwill Ambassador of Reach Out To Asia Foundation (ROTA), THE PENINSULA commercial complexes in resi- Ghuwailina, North Maider, the first Qatari to reach the summit of Mount Everest. dential areas that will eventually Markhiya, Mesaimeer, Najma, replace the hundreds of neigh- Mansoura, Old Al Ghanim, South bourhood stores. Medinat Khalifa and Gharafa. “I believe the first of these He pointed out that some old projects will be implemented buildings in Najma were built in in Rowdath Al Hammam on the 1970s. These buildings are Hassad can meet 60pc of food demand Al Shamal road. The new design located in the heart of the city and will have uniform standards and in the vicinity of new skyscrapers. DOHA: Hassad Food said yes- Giving an overview of the com- produce 15,000 tonnes of grain and be followed by another shipment specifications,” Mubarak Frish, The Gaza Street in Medinat terday it can meet at least 60 pany’s operations in the last five 26,000 tonnes of rice, he added. Al of 13,000 sheep”, he said . CMC member representing the Khalifa has been cited as a clas- percent of the food demand in years, he said Hassad has been Hajri said Qatar received the first In Qatar, Hassad has built a Gharafa constituency told The sic example of a haphazardly built Qatar. The country’s premier investing in three continents — shipment of 28,620 tonnes of bar- central feed stock with the capac- Peninsula. residential area in the city. investor in agriculture and live- Australia, Asia and Africa. The ley from its Australian farm last ity to feed 80,000 sheep and the He said the new residential dis- “This is a very narrow street stock would launch two rice company is seeking to secure week. This would meet at least 25 facility to store 1,25,000 tonnes tricts will also have ample parking which does not even have street brands in the local market next supplies for Qatar by buying percent of the annual requirement of grain. Hassad is currently spaces and roads will be designed lights. These are randomly devel- month. agricultural land and investing of the country. building a Silo complex at the New to prevent traffic jams. oped areas that need redevelop- Talking to reporters here yes- in food-production companies The country also received the Doha Port with a storage capacity According to him, developing ment,” said Mohammed Shaheen terday, Hassad Food chairman abroad. Hassad’s focus hence first shipment of its frozen meat of 270,000 tonnes. To enhance its new residential areas would be Al Ateeq, CMC member from Nasser Al Hajri also revealed will be on North America, South from Australia some days ago. local vegetable and fruit produc- better than redeveloping the old Medinat Khalifa. It is often seen plans to invest $500m in India in America and Europe, he said. “We are waiting for the arrival of tion, Hassad has launched a pilot ones that are heavily populated. that such areas are ignored while the coming months in the produc- Hassad is capable of producing another shipment of 5,000 sheep, project with support of a Spanish Some other CMC members and rapid development takes place in tion of rice, cardamom, coffee and 10,000 sheep per year at its farms which would hopefully arrive company in Shahaniya. Qatari architects have, however, other places. THE PENINSULA “ready-made food”. in Australia. Moreover, it can here ahead of Ramadan. It will THE PENINSULA US-Islamic World Forum Limit to patience, warns Erdogan Tanks in Beirut as ANKARA: Turkey’s defiant Prime Minister Recep Tayyip protester shot dead Erdogan yesterday told sup- porters his patience “has a BEIRUT: Lebanese troops with black-clad Hezbollah militia- limit” as he went on the offen- blocked streets in Beirut with men, who opened fire. sive against mass protests to tanks and barbed wire for sev- Lebanese security officials said his Islamic-rooted govern- eral hours yesterday after the one of the protesters, who was ment’s decade-long rule. killing of a protester outside unarmed, was killed and several As thousands of protesters the Iranian embassy raised fac- people were hurt. massed in Istanbul, the capital tional tensions already inflamed Fear has increased of troubles Ankara and the western city of by the war in Syria. in Syria — which long dominated Izmir, in unrest now in its 10th day, The man died during a clash its smaller neighbour — disrupt- Erdogan staged his own rallies, hit- between rival groups of Shia ing Lebanon’s fragile balance since ting three cities in one day to fire Muslims after militiamen from Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan up loyalists of his ruling Justice and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Nasrallah vowed two weeks ago Development Party (AKP). movement opened fire when to fight for Assad until a final Full report on page 7 protesters drew up at the victory. embassy. The Lebanese army, Beirut has been rebuilt after 180,000 expats left which has limited means to impose 15 years of civil war that ended itself on the many armed factions in 1990, but security has proven Saudi in two months Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud (centre) still active two decades after elusive, jeopardising the hope of and Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrive for the opening ceremony of the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Lebanon’s own civil war, deployed restoring its prosperity. RIYADH: Some 180,000 illegal yesterday. Report on page 2 armoured vehicles and set up Hotel owner Ali Hammoud foreign workers have left Saudi roadblocks to cordon off the city said yesterday’s violence risked Arabia since April 1 under an centre and neighbourhoods con- deterring tourists: “What hap- amnesty that allowed them to trolled by Hezbollah. Traffic was pened today makes us feel there try to sort out their papers or restored toward evening. is a very difficult period ahead. leave without paying a penalty, Demonstrators from a variety We are bringing disasters upon a report said yesterday. US whistleblower comes out of groups, including Sunni and ourselves by interfering in oth- “Between the beginning of Shia Muslims and Christians, ers’ affairs ... No one will come to April and the start of June, LONDON: A n e x- C I A e mpl o y e e an NSA programme codenamed live in a world where everything marched in the city centre in Lebanon now; our concern now is 180,000 foreigners left the king- working as a contractor at the PRISM, saying he had done so I do and say is recorded. That is protest at Hezbollah’s newly just to stay alive.” dom for good,” Okaz daily quoted US National Security Agency because he felt his country was not something I am willing to prominent role in support- A member of the Lebanese Badr Malek, spokesman for the said he was the man who had building an unaccountable and support or live under,” he told the ing Syrian President Bashar parliament who supports the passports department, as saying. leaked details of a top secret secret espionage machine that Guardian, which published a video Al Assad — its fighters helped Sunni former prime minister This wave brings to 380,000 the US surveillance programme, spied on every American.