When I took my children to receive their polio vaccines a few years ago, I thought about how lucky we are to live in a place where we can access lifesaving interventions with such ease. We didn’t need to take a long bus ride or walk great distances to get to the clinic, and there was no reason to think that there would be no doses in stock. Although I was fully aware of the protection my children were receiving, I never considered that poliovirus could pose a real threat in Washington, DC. After all, the virus hadn’t been found in the United States for years. But recent developments are a wak ..read more

Indonesia is on track to secure a clean energy partnership with rich countries when it hosts a G20 summit in November, obtaining international funding to cut its reliance on coal power and to implement a green and fair transition, energy analysts said. The multi-billion-dollar agreement is expected to help Indonesia retire coal-fired plants early and ramp up investment in renewables, backed by wealthy nations, development and private banks, and philanthropists. Fabby Tumiwa, head of the Indonesia-based Institute for Essential Services Reform, an energy and environmental think-tank, said the d ..read more

      Building on the learning experience of its ‘Qatar Host’ programme, Qatar Tourism is offering complimentary in-person Service Excellence training courses to frontline service professionals working in hotels and tourism companies. The training is designed to equip visitor-facing staff and leaders in the tourism sector with the skills required to deliver a truly memorable visitor experience. To date, more than 510 service professionals have received the training, with plans to train more than 5,000 customer-facing staff and managers in hotel establishments and tourism compan ..read more

La Brasserie Restaurant at the Mercure Grand Hotel will have a three-day Indian Food Festival from Friday, a statement said. Chef Sekhar together with executive chef Lahcen will be preparing a wide range of dishes from different regions of India. Besides a buffet featuring soups, appetisers, salads, main courses and desserts, there will be live counters for Pani Puri and Dosas. The festival will be held from 7pm onwards on all three days. Mercure Grand Hotel is located next to the Msheireb Metro Station and close by to Souq Waqif. Advance bookings can be made at 4446 2222 ..read more

VCUarts Qatar’s Fashion Design students are getting into the spirit of FIFA World Cup 2022 by creating exciting new apparel designs inspired by sport and movement within Qatar’s cultural context. As part of the celebration of sports attire and the World Cup countdown, the campus hosted international sports personality and World Cup ambassador, David Beckham recently to listen in on the students’ presentations on their sports-inspired creations. Beckham was interested to see the innovative designs, including some that integrated nanotechnology and Vitamin D capture into the design, and to lear ..read more

Abdulrahman al-Thani, a graduate of Qatar Foundation (QF) and Abdullah Nazeer, an undergraduate at QF, have created a digital platform offering interactive one-on-one private tutoring in Math, Science and English ensuring quality learning and affordability. The platform ‘Muallemi’ was launched by an educational startup incubated, supported, and guided by QF’s Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP). “We came up with the idea for the startup in 2021 to meet the needs of students and parents for private tutoring in a way that ensures quality education, and one that is affordable,” explained ..read more

Chinese ambassador Zhou Jian Wednesday hailed the arrival of the two giant pandas in Qatar. "Today is my happiest day in Qatar for the past three years," he said while addressing the ceremony held at Panda House, Al Khor, Wednesday to welcome the giant pandas. "We are gathering at this newly completed and beautiful Panda House in Al Khor to welcome the special envoys of friendship from China, two giant pandas - JingJing (Suhail) and Sihai (Thuraya)." The envoy noted that co-operation on giant panda conservation and research between China and Qatar "came as an important consensus reached by Pr ..read more

Monday’s AFC Executive Committee decision to award the AFC Asian Cup 2023 hosting responsibility to Qatar Football Association (QFA) meant history was created. Qatar will be the first country to host the Continental showpiece for a third time and all indications point to a fiesta of football when Asia’s best converge for the 18th edition of the AFC Asian Cup. Having previously been tied with  Iran, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates in having hosted the tournament twice, Qatar has promised the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 will be a festival of football for the continent. The AFC Asian Cup ..read more

• Jockeys Tomas Lukasek and Szczepan Mazur register two victories each Tomas Lukasek guided Yousuf Abdulla al-Lingawi-owned Harab Al Naif to Asherij Cup victory in third race meeting of the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club at Al Rayyan Racecourse on Wednesday. Harab Al Naif, trained by Engineer Mohamed Rashid Seif al-Kuwari, sprinted in all its glory in the final stretch to take a comfortable win in the 1,200m Local Purebred Arabian Conditions race. Moneeaty, ridden by Hugo Besnier, was a distant second, while Giuseppe Cultraro led Alzubarah Katara to third place in the feature race, which c ..read more

World Cup coaches must submit a preliminary selection of players for the tournament by Thursday, October 21, as they begin the process of finalising their squads for the finals in Qatar. Each of the 32 participating countries must send a list of a minimum of 35 players up to a maximum of 55 by the end of the day, in the first step in the selection process. Coaches then have until November 14 to decide on their final list of 26 players by an 1800GMT deadline. FIFA will publish all the squads the next day. The final squad must come from the preliminary list, with no allowance for any late chang ..read more