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Canada launches counteroffensive to host UN aviation agency

Agence France-PresseMay 3, 2013 16:15
Canada's top diplomat on Friday launched a counteroffensive to Qatar's bid to move the International Civil Aviation Organization from its longtime base in Montreal to Doha. "We are very optimistic but we don't take anything for granted," Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said before going into a meeting with the head of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Qatar made a surprise bid last week to host the ICAO, offering to build a spectacular new headquarters for the UN agency in Doha and tax breaks for its 1,000 staff members to sweeten the deal.

Baird and Lisee blast Qatar's blistering weather as ICAO battle heats up

The Canadian PressMay 3, 2013 04:15
MONTREAL - Canada's big guns threw cold water on Qatar's bid to lure away the International Civil Aviation Organization on Friday, ripping the Middle Eastern nation's blistering year-round heat. Qatar has begun to woo the United Nations agency to get it to move its Montreal headquarters to Doha, with one of the country's main complaints focusing on the city's bone-chilling winters.

Tories, PQ to make rare team in bid to keep UN agency in Montreal

The Canadian PressMay 2, 2013 13:00
OTTAWA - Keeping the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal is so politically and economically important that it's bringing together two foes: the federal Conservatives and Quebec's separatist Parti Quebecois. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird will stand with Jean-Francois Lisee, Quebec's minister of international affairs, at a press conference Friday to present a common front in efforts to thwart the move.

Greece pulls statues from Qatar exhibit over nudity

Agence France-PresseApril 23, 2013 07:47
Greece has pulled two ancient statues from an ongoing Olympic Games exhibition in Qatar in a dispute over nudity, a culture ministry source said on Tuesday. "The statues have already returned to Greece," a culture ministry source told AFP, adding: "Organisers in Qatar wanted to cover up the statues' members with black cloth. So they were never put on display, they went back into storage and returned on April 19." The statues -- a Classical Greek youth and a Roman-era copy of an athlete -- are both nude, the manner in which Olympic athletes competed in antiquity.

Qatar to buy Egypt bonds worth $3 billion: Qatari PM

April 10, 2013 07:00
Energy-rich Qatar has agreed to buy bonds from Egypt worth $3 billion over and above a previously announced aid package, its Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani said Wednesday. "We have agreed to add Egypt government bonds worth $3 billion," Sheikh Hamad said at a joint press conference with visiting Egyptian counterpart Hisham Qandil. Qatar has already announced an aid package of $5 billion dollars to Egypt, comprising grants and central bank deposits. fb/ak/lyn/bpz

Qatar-LED venture

April 2, 2013 22:15
SEOUL, April 3 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean company will set up a joint venture in Qatar that will produce light-emitting diode (LED) lighting systems to meet growing demands there ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals, the Seoul government said Wednesday. The Qatar Korea LED Consortium, together with Qatar's state-run QATAR Intermediate Industries Holding Co., Ltd., will invest 40 billion won (US$35.7 million) to build a production facility that will begin manufacturing LED lighting systems from 2014, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Qatar airport opening delayed over security concerns

April 1, 2013 07:45
The scheduled opening on Monday of Qatar's new international airport in Doha was indefinitely postponed after it failed to meet security standards, newspapers in the Gulf state reported. The head of Qatar's civil aviation authority, Abdel Aziz al-Nuaimi, said in a statement late on Sunday that the delay was due to Hamad International Airport "not meeting the newly introduced safety and security requirements of the civil defence department".

Tiny Qatar uses riches to forge key regional role

March 24, 2013 00:45
Qatar, the small Gulf state that on Tuesday hosts an Arab summit, has become a key regional player thanks to its support for Arab uprisings and the marginalisation of traditional heavyweights. But the "chequebook diplomacy" of this energy-rich state -- a staunch US ally -- and its backing for Islamists who have managed to seize power in some countries rocked by the Arab Spring have triggered criticism.

Qatari denial fails to dampen M&S takeover speculation

March 18, 2013 06:00
By Dinesh Nair and James Davey DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Marks & Spencer shares surged on Monday on speculation that a faltering turnaround effort and flagging profits have left Britain's biggest clothing retailer vulnerable to a takeover. Investors piled into the stock after a newspaper reported that the Gulf state of Qatar was planning a bid, sending the shares up 9.4 percent to a 12-month high. A source close to state-owned Qatar Holding denied the report, but the stock was still up 7.4 percent at 11:30 a.m. British time.

Times issues climbdown on Qatar Dream League story

March 18, 2013 01:15
By Ossian Shine (Reuters) - Britain's Times newspaper has published a full climbdown following an internal investigation of the 'Qatar Dream League' story it ran last week, an episode the paper on Monday described as a "journalistic nightmare".
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