www.thepeninsulaqatar.com BUSINESS | 21 SPORT | 36 Nigeria backs Qatar tops at Doha quartet deal Asian Indoor on oil output freeze Championships MONDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2016 • 13 Jumada I 1437 • Volume 20 • Number 6714 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar Emir watches tennis match 923 companies Crackdown on banned for partitioned violating laws The Peninsula villas continues DOHA: The restructured Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs has banned 923 companies last year villas and apartments which have for violating the labour law, shows been mushrooming all over due data released by the ministry. The municipality to rising demand for housing and The ministry conducted 56, recently booked shortages. 724 inspections during the year The law has banned any alter- and recorded 673 violations an Asian national ation in the building without an of the law. A total of 28, 085 who made illegal official approval from the authorities companies were covered by the concerned. The civic authorities of inspections. partitioning in seven late launched a country-wide crack- The Labour relations villas and sublet it down in efforts to strictly implement department at the ministry the law. received job-related complaints The law amended a previous from 6054 workers during the such legislation that was enforced year. Majority of the complaints The Peninsula some 31 years ago, in 1984. were related to air tickets and end Limited-income expatriate fam- of service allowance. Other major ilies and individuals mostly rely on complaints were related to non- illegally partitioned houses due to payment of leave salary and delays Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani watching Qatar Total Open women’s tennis match DOHA: The Doha Municipality has skyrocketing rents of independent in payment of wages. intensified crackdown on parti- residential units. between Fatma Al Nabhani of Oman and Donna Vekic of Croatia, at Khalifa International Tennis and Of the total complaints, tioned villas across the city, says In another major campaign, the Squash Complex, yesterday. Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin 4107 were settled while 1283 a senior official. municipality blacklisted 39 con- Khalifa Al Thani and a number of ministers, senior officials and guests were present. complaints were held up for The municipality recently tracting companies and engineering → See pages 29 & 30 further investigation and 644 booked an Asian national who consultancy firms since the begin- cases referred to the court. made illegal partitioning in seven ning of this year. villas and sublet it, disclosed The list has been circulated to all Salem Hammoud Al Shafi, direc- municipalities and all their trans- tor of monitoring department at the actions have been frozen until they municipality. rectify their status, said the official. Qatar confirms first MERS case this year Earlier he was caught in a similar Any erring company rectifying offence when he was found involved the mistakes will be immediately in partitioning two villas for sublet- removed from the blacklist. ting it to the tenants. He has been The heath monitoring section The Peninsula Syndrome Corona Virus ) in the first trip to Saudi Arabia where he owns where the MERS-CoV virus was referred to the authorities concerned closed down 16 food outlets this confirmed case this year, the Ministry a sheep and camel barn, the patient detected following laboratory tests. for further action. year and managed to end 90 per of Public Health said yesterday. His developed acute symptoms of fever, The patient is currently in criti- The amended law regulating cent of the encroachments of pub- condition is said to be critical. cough, and diarrhoea associated with cal condition and remains admitted the safety of buildings was issued lic property. DOHA: A 66-year-old Qatari cit- The last confirmed case in the abdominal pain, said the ministry. to the ICU, said a statement. in 2014, enabling civic authorities to izen has been tested positive for country was reported on May 22 He was taken by an ambulance clamp down on illegally partitioned → Continued on page 4 MERS- CoV (Middle East Respiratory last year. After his return from a to Hamad General Hospital (HGM) → Continued on page 2 Seven killed 87 killed in Syria; provisional in Michigan shootings truce deal reached: Kerry Reuters AFP of hostilities that could begin in the coming days,” Kerry said in Amman. “It is not yet done and I anticipate that our presidents, President BEIRUT: Bomb attacks in Syria’s central city (Barack) Obama and President (Vladimir) Putin, CHICAGO: A gunman killed of Homs and near a shrine outside Damascus may well speak somewhere in the next days seven people and wounded two killed at least 87 people yesterday, as Washing- or so in order to try to complete this task,” he in apparently random shootings ton pursued efforts for a ceasefire. added. in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, US Secretary of State John Kerry said a World powers proposed the truce just over before being arrested early yester- provisional deal had been reached on the a week ago as part of a plan that also included day, a prosecutor said. A television terms of a truce, as violence intensified on expanded humanitarian access, in a bid to pave station reported the suspect was the ground. the way for the resumption of peace talks. an Uber driver who took fares World powers have been pushing for a halt The talks, which collapsed earlier this between shootings. in fighting in Syria that was meant to take effect month in Geneva, were scheduled to resume The 45-year-old suspect, by Friday, but have struggled to agree on how on February 25, but the UN’s envoy on Syria has Jason Dalton, was believed to have it should be implemented. already acknowledged that date is no longer opened fire late on Saturday out- The latest bombings came as Kerry said realistic. side an apartment complex, a Kia he had spoken with Russian counterpart Ser- On Saturday, a key opposition umbrella car dealership and a Cracker Bar- gei Lavrov and agreed on how to implement group, the High Negotiations Committee, said Syrian government forces patrol near Aleppo’s thermal power plant after they took control rel restaurant over a period of little a ceasefire. it would agree a temporary truce only if regime more than four hours, Kalamazoo of the area from Islamic State (IS) fighters yesterday. In two days, the government forces “We have reached a provisional agree- backers halted fire. County prosecutor Jeff Getting said. have taken more than a dozen villages from IS. ment, in principle, on the terms of the cessation → See also page 7 The victims “appear to be cho- sen at random, because they were available,” he said. The carnage in Kalamazoo was the latest in a series of mass shootings that have Qatari actor to create awareness on bowel cancer screening made gun control a campaign issue before the November US presiden- tial election. The Peninsula (PHCC), is expected to gain further architecture and history from Qatar Health as accounting for 10.55 percent → See also page 18 public attention. University and Beirut Arab Univer- of top malignant primary cancers in Al Ansari started acting in theatre sity in Lebanon, respectively. Qatar. SCH data shows the 50-54 at the age of five. He then appeared Dr Mariam Ali Abdulmalik, Man- age group had bowel cancer inci- DOHA: Qatar’s highly regarded thea- in TV shows and promotional cam- aging Director, PHCC, said: “We are dence of 15.2 percent in males and Today’s edition tre and TV personality Adel Al Ansari paigns for big companies. A highlight excited to have such a well-liked 18.4 percent in females. “I am hon- (pictured), in a new role as an ambas- of his acting career was when he celebrity like Adel to help us in our oured to have been chosen by PHCC includes special pages sador, will promote bowel cancer played the lead role in the opening life-saving bowel cancer awareness to play a vital role in raising aware- screening awareness in the country. ceremony presentation for the Doha and screening initiative, especially ness among citizens and residents on Jewellery and With this, the Breast and Bowel Asian Games in 2006. with March being the Month for Bowel about the importance of bowel can- Watches →P10-11 Cancer Screening Programme, Apart from his successful profes- Cancer Awareness.” cer screening,” Al Ansari said. planned and being implemented by sion in show business, Al Ansari is a Bowel cancer has been deter- the Primary Health Care Corporation double university degree holder in mined by the Supreme Council of → Continued on page 5 02 MONDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2016 HOME QCS lines up QRCS distributes activities to mark World winter aid for Cancer Day displaced Iraqis The Peninsula Relief and Development, the project DOHA: Qatar Cancer Society QR252,258 worth involved distribution of 4,950 blan- (QCS) has announced activities to kets to 1,650 families (10,000 people) mark World Cancer Day on Thurs- of blankets benefit in IDP camps in Al Anbar Governorate day by creating awareness about 10,000 people of — Amiriyat Al Fallujah (3,750 blankets) the disease and how to take early and Khalidiya and Habbaniya (600 test and prevent it. 1,650 internally each). The beneficiaries were selected Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Jabor displaced families in from the most vulnerable groups of Al Thani, Chairman, QCS, told a IDPs, widows, orphans and the des- press conference yesterday at the Al Anbar Governorate titute who fled the violence in their society’s headquarters World Can- home towns. cer Day which falls on February 4 Among challenges that faced the unites the global population in the project team were having to trans- fight against cancer.