Home | 2 Business | 14 Sport | 22 Sri Lankan embassy Oil ends 2015 down Turkish delight as opens at new 35pc on global Cortani storms to chancery premises supply glut Doha win The Peninsula Newspaper @PeninsulaQatar @peninsula_qatar SATURDAY 2 JANUARY 2016 • 22 Rabia I 1437 • Volume 20 Number 6663 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Nearly QR1bn Scare near French mosque spent on subsidised food High quality rice procurement tops list DOHA: The government spent babies. In 11 months since Janu- nearly a billion riyals (QR927.33m) ary last year, 3,431 marriages took on providing subsidised food items place in the country. to citizens last year under its pop- As for traffic violations, about ular ‘Tamween’ scheme. 991,097 radar violations were More than half of the money recorded in the year. (QR516.76m) was spent on pro- Radar violations mostly refer to curing high quality rice alone, breach of speed limits prescribed figures show. Sugar procure- for various roads, mainly highways ment accounted for the lowest and arterial thoroughfares. amount (QR41.38m) while about And in the first 11 months of the QR210.6m was spent on buying year, more than 1.5 million traffic grains. violations were recorded. The procurements for In whole of the year, some 501 ‘Tamweeen’ are made by the Min- serious injuries were recorded in istry of Economy and Commerce traffic accidents while minor inju- through its supply department. ries totalled 4,610, suggest figures. ‘Tamween’ in Arabic means ‘sup- Jumping the red lights is a seri- A car is pictured in front of the mosque of Valence, southeastern France, yesterday. A soldier and an elderly Muslim man were slightly injured when a plies’. A total of QR63.26m was ous traffic violation and carries the man drove his car at troops protecting a mosque in Valence in southern France. spent on buying stocks of cooking maximum fine. In 2015, though, or edible oil for the scheme, while the number of this violation was milk purchase in bulk accounted a high of 18,853. for QR95.34m, according to figures A total of 5,340 real estate cited by Al Sharq. All these stocks transactions were recorded in the were bought by floating 13 tenders year but their exact value was not Dubai begins probe into hotel blaze and five of them were for rice. known. Observers though, believe Also, the ministry permitted the value may cross well over the DUBAI: Investigators were spreading along its whole facade. All victims have been dis- praised the response of fire and some 1,220 promotions last year QR50bn-mark. working yesterday to determine But the exact cause was not yet charged from hospital except emergency services, pointing to and 2,815 publicity campaigns by Last January, there were 14,866 the cause of a spectacular fire known. for a pregnant women and an the fact that there were no major various outlets to promote their beneficiaries (retirees from differ- that engulfed a 63-storey luxury Dubai government’s media elderly man who were said to be injuries, though some questioned products and services. ent services) of the state’s social hotel on New Year’s Eve. office issued a Civil Defence state- “well” but kept in “to ensure their whether New Year’s festivities In the financial year 2014-2015, a insurance scheme who were The blaze at the Address Down- ment, saying the process of cool- safety,” the Civil Defence said. should have gone ahead. total of 41,416 commercial licences given away pension to the tune of town Dubai Hotel erupted around ing the hotel down was “ongoing” Roads leading directly to the But Emirati State Minister for were issued by the ministry. This QR62.51m. However, in November 9pm on Thursday, sparking panic after firefighters spent the night hotel were closed but otherwise Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash was more than 8,500 commercial the figure dropped to 12,224 but but no reports of serious injuries. to extinguish the blaze. Dubai City Centre appeared nor- defended the decision as “coura- licences that were issued in the the pension distributed to them in Authorities went ahead with a Authorities said only 16 people mal, with passers-by stopping to geous” and “in favour of normal previous fiscal year 2013-14. The the month totalled QR73m, which dazzling fireworks display at the suffered, mostly minor injuries, take pictures of the building with life against fear and pessimism.” figure in that year was 32,541. was more than the January total. nearby Burj Khalifa — the world’s despite the presence of thousands their mobile phones. “The fire will not leave its print Other figures cited by the daily The daily did not cite the amount tallest skyscraper — despite the in the area to watch the celebra- UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh on 2016,” he tweeted. suggest that last year, a total of or the number of social insurance inferno. tions. At least 14 were slightly Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan The government said evacuated 22,867 births were recorded in the scheme beneficiaries for 2015. They said the fire is believed injured, one was moderately hurt praised the “professional” Civil guests were being offered alterna- country and they included Qatari to have erupted from outside the and one suffered a heart attack Defence response to the fire. tive accommodation. and non-Qatari male and female THE PENINSULA building on its 20th floor before during evacuation. Many Twitter users also AFP QU among most beautiful varsities Yemen missiles kill in the world: Book DOHA: Qatar University (QU) three in Saudi; six has been chosen among the most beautiful in the world in a book Most Beautiful Universities in the die in Aden clashes World published recently. The book was written by Guil- laume de Laubier who said what RIYADH: Three civilians, of Mukalla, which has been under makes QU campus beautiful is its including two children, were their control since April. buildings including modern and killed in cross-border missile Yemen has been rocked since ancient Islamic architecture. attacks from Yemen on a residen- March by fighting between pro- It includes pictures of QU tial area in southwestern Saudi government forces and Iran- campus, library and auditoriums Arabia, civil defence authorities backed rebels, who seized the as well as campus like Bologna said yesterday. capital San’na in September 2014 founded in 1088, Sorbonne Uni- Eleven were wounded, includ- before expanding south. The con- versity in France and Cambridge ing nine children, when several flict has been exploited by jihadist University in the UK, among oth- missiles hit residential districts groups, who have made sweeping ers. QU buildings were designed in the Jazan region on Thursday, gains, particularly in southern by Architect Kamal Al Kafrawi civil defence spokesman Major regions. in the 1970s. Yehia Al Qahtani said in a state- The extremists are occupying THE PENINSULA ment. government buildings and fre- Saudi Arabia is leading a quently seen patrolling several A Syrian refugee cleans the mud as snow covers the ground outside tents supplied by the United Nations High military coalition battling Iran- districts of Aden. They have car- Saudi reopens Commissioner for Refugees for Syrian refugee families at the Tal Al Abyad camp, near the Lebanese city of Baalbek backed rebels in neighbouring ried out several deadly attacks, in the eastern Bekaa Valley yesterday. Yemen since March. The rebels assassinated government officials Baghdad mission intensified rocket attacks across and intimidated civilians. the Saudi border in recent days. The Saudis have deployed BAGHDAD: Saudi Arabia has In Aden, six people were killed Patriot missile batteries to coun- reopened its embassy in Bagh- Heavy snowfall in Lebanon, Turkey in a firefight between Yemeni pro- ter attacks and have recently dad, after a 25-year shutdown, government forces and Al Qaeda been intercepting missiles fired which will allow the two coun- BEIRUT: A snowstorm hit News Agency said. Roads were Authorities in 32 provinces, suspects travelling in a weapons- from Yemen on an almost-daily tries to cooperate more closely Lebanon yesterday, local media closed in some areas and many mostly in northern Turkey but laden vehicle towards the second basis. More than 80 people, against terrorism, Al Arabiya TV reported, stranding motorists vehicles trapped, it said. also extending into central Ana- city Aden, security officials said. mostly soldiers and border guards, reported yesterday. The kingdom and adding to the woes of tens More than half of Lebanon’s tolia, said schools had been shut Militiamen at a checkpoint have been killed in shelling and closed its embassy in Baghdad in of thousands of Syrian refugees one million Syrian refugees live and roads affected. in the southern Abyan province cross-border skirmishes in the 1990, after the Iraqi invasion of living in makeshift shelters. in tented settlements, garages or Turkish Airlines said over 200 stopped the suspected jihadists, kingdom’s south since coalition Kuwait. Its reopening will allow Emergency services deployed abandoned buildings. flights from Istanbul’s Ataturk prompting an argument that operations began in Yemen. both countries to cooperate on the bulldozers to try to clear roads in Meanwhile, heavy snow across and Sabiha Gokcen airports had sparked a gun battle, sources said. In Yemen, the conflict has left fight against extremism, Saudi mountainous inland areas in the Turkey caused the closure of been cancelled due to the bad Three Al Qaeda suspects and as nearly 6,000 people dead since Ambassador to Iraq Thamer Al north and south, but efforts were schools in more than a third of weather, Anadolu news agency many loyalists were killed, includ- March, according to UN figures.