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Michael Phelps Announces He Will Retire After 2016 Rio Olympics Michael Phelps has indicated all along that the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro would be his last, and he confirmed as much Friday night after he ended his individual career with a silver medal in the men's 100-meter butterfly. "I'm ready to retire, and I'm happy about it," Phelps said,...

The largest hotel in the world is set to open in Mecca next year. The building, called Abraj Kudia, will contain 10,000 rooms and span 1.4 million square metres. As well as hotel rooms, it will contain 70 restaurants, a large shopping mall and a lavish ballroom. The construction of the hotel is set to amount to around £2.7 billion. The hotel's...

More than 2,000 Isis hostages freed from Manbij Syria war: ISIS flees Manbij with 'human shields' The Islamic State stronghold of Manbij, in northern Syria, has fallen to allied Arab and Kurdish fighters, who freed more than 2,000 hostages held there by the terrorist group. A spokesman for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said they had taken over the city after the...

Report: High-end housing costs in Qatar fall in Q2 of 2016 The cost of renting a luxury apartment or villa in Qatar dropped between QR1,000 to QR3,000 a month in the second quarter of this year, a new report has found. According to real estate company DTZ’s Q2 2016 Qatar Market Report, an exodus of white-collar employees has contributed to the...

Qatar Ministry issues 23 demolition decisions in three months The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has issued 31 decisions for the maintenance and demolition of old buildings in the last three months. These include 23 decisions for demolition and eight for maintenance of different buildings, according to a statement from the MME. Twelve decisions have been issued so far this month,...

Look up! The Perseids meteor shower will peak TONIGHT creating hundreds of shooting stars The annual Perseids meteor shower has been lighting up the sky since July 17, with stunning images of the shower appearing over various sites around the world. If you have missed out on seeing the display, there is good news - the shower will peak tonight and...

Russia fines Google $6.7 million over anti-trust charge Russia's anti-trust authority on Thursday fined Google 438 million rubles ($6.75 million) after finding it guilty of abusing its dominant market position by forcing smartphone makers to install its search engine on Androids. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) in September last year deemed Google in breach of a law on "protecting competition" after...

Doha - Qatar welcomed 1.4mn visitors in the first six months of 2016, including 665,355 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nationals, according to Qatar Tourism Authority’s (QTA) tourism performance summary for the first half of 2016. Saudi Arabia remains the largest source market and responsible for the bulk of the growth recorded in the number of GCC visitor arrivals. Saudi Arabia brought...

MPHC profit rises 22% to QR490 million in H1 DOHA - Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC), a subsidiary of Qatar Petroleum, has reported a net profit of QR489.7 million in the first half of 2016, a rise of 22 percent, compared to the net profit of QR402.8 million in the same period last year. The company's earnings per share (EPS) was...

Rio de Janeiro - Frenh star goalkeeper Omeyer Thierry lived up to status and lifted his team to a runaway 35-20 victory against Qatar with a dozen blocks in a Group A match during the Rio Olympic Games men's handball on Tuesday. Luc Abalo led the winners with seven strikes off 11 attempts. On a big 10-man scorers' list, Nikola...

Real Estate Transactions Worth over QR222 Million in Week Doha - Real estate transactions between July 31 and August 4 for the sales contracts registered at the Ministry of justice are worth QR222,678,000. The real estate registration department at the Ministry said in its weekly report, that the list of properties that were traded by sale includes open plots of land,...

Qatari Philanthropists Donate for Construction Of 79 Mosques in 18 African Countries Qatari philanthropists have donated for the construction of 79 mosques in 18 African countries at a total cost of about QAR 5 million. At least 40,000 worshipers benefited of the "Construction Of Mosques" Project being implemented by the Islamic Dawah Organization in 42 African countries. Director General of the Islamic...

Rio De Janeiro - Asian Continental Cup qualifiers Jefferson Santos Pereira and Cherif Younousse of Qatar brightened their chances of advancing to the knock-out stage of the Rio Olympic Games men's beach volleyball with a gritty come-from-behind victory over FIVB World Tour veterans Adrian Gavira and Pablo Herrera of Spain on Monday. At the picturesque Copacabana Beach arena, Pereira and...

Sheikh Joaan meets IAAF chief Sebastian Coe in Rio Rio De Janeiro - HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al-Thani , Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) President and Head of the Qatari delegation taking part in Rio 2016, met here Monday with Lord Sebastian Coe, President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and member of the International Olympic Committee (OIC)...