Editor of WQ

Expect traffic diversions as Men’s Tour of Qatar opens today Some of the world’s top cyclists including Mark Cavendish, Alexander Kristoff and Greg Van Avermaet will be competing in this year’s Tour of Qatar, which gets underway today. A total of 18 teams, mostly from Europe but also representing Australia, South Africa, the US and the UAE will take part in...

Happy Chinese New Year 2016! Everything you need to know about the Year of the Monkey This year, Chinese New Year - The Year of the Monkey - begins on February 8th and lasts until Jan 27th, 2017. Happy Chinese New Year! Celebrations have started around the world - and now London is joining the festivities. People gathered at one of Hong...

Suicide bomber in Afghan city kills three, wounds 14 At least three people were killed and 14 wounded on Monday when a suicide bomber attacked a bus filled with Afghan army personnel in northern Afghanistan, officials said. The blast occurred just before 8 a.m. in Dehdadi district, not far from the Balkh provincial capital of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to a statement by...

More rescued two days after Taiwan quake; toll could exceed 100 TAINAN, Taiwan (Reuters) - Rescuers pulled out alive an eight-year-old girl and her aunt from the rubble of a Taiwan apartment block on Monday, more than 60 hours after it was toppled by a quake, as the mayor of the southern city of Tainan warned the death toll could...

Airport workers seen with Laptop used in Somalia in-flight jet blast (CNN) - Somali intelligence officials say two airport workers handled a laptop that concealed a bomb that later exploded in a passenger plane. In a video made public on Sunday by officials, one airport worker takes the laptop and hands it to another employee. The employees then hand it over to...

Qatar International Food Festival 2016 to be held from March 22-28 The annual Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF) will return this spring with a longer running time, events across several venues and a focus on Chinese cuisine, organizers have announced. The seventh edition of the festival will kick off at the Museum of Islamic Art Park on March 22 and highlight...

More than 5,000 calls to 999 made each day in Qatar in 2015 Hamad Medical Corp. (HMC) has launched a fleet of vehicles that can be set up as temporary emergency centers in the event of a major incident. The moves comes as government figures show that there were nearly 2 million (1,943,653) 999 calls made in Qatar last year. This equates...

Turkey willing to open borders for Syrian refugees 'if necessary' Turkey says it's reached capacity, but is prepared to let in the thousands of Syrian refugees trapped on its border. Ankara is facing rising pressure to open its borders to scores of people fleeing an assault on Aleppo. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey stands ready to take in...

UAE ready to send ground troops to Syria, The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Sunday it was ready to send ground troops to Syria as part of an international coalition to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group. Asked if the UAE was ready to send troops if need be, Minister of State for...

U.N. Security Council calls emergency meeting over North Korean rocket launch Seoul, South Korea (CNN) - North Korea launched a satellite into space Sunday, its state media reported, triggering a wave of international condemnation and prompting the United States, South Korea and Japan to call for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Though North Korea said the launch was...

Qatar’s first Westin hotel opens in Bin Mahmoud As Qatar ramps up efforts to expand its hospitality and tourism offerings, the state’s first Westin hotel has opened its doors to the public. The Westin Doha Hotel & Spa in Bin Mahmoud is directly across the road from one of Qatar’s longest-established high-end hotels, the Radisson Blu, and is on one of...

Al Arabi roar past Gharafa; Sailiya score over Lekhwiya Al Arabi roared in sterling fashion to rally and down challengers Al Gharafa 3-2 while Al Sailiya did the same in an identical scoreline against Lekhwiya in the pulsating Qatar Stars League (QSL) match-ups on Friday evening. In the third big tie of the evening, the Kings Qatar Sports Club left it...

Rescuers search for Survivors in southern Taiwan earthquake Taiwan's Tainan city government has reported 221 people rescued, 154 hospitalized and seven dead after a major earthquake toppled buildings in the early hours of Saturday. Rescue teams are searching through the rubble. The shallow earthquake struck early on Saturday morning when most people in the southern city of Hainan were asleep. The...

North Korea moves up rocket launch window Seoul, South Korea (CNN) - North Korea has moved up the launch window for a rocket by one day, the South Korean Defense Ministry said Saturday. The new window, which was also narrowed, is February 7 - 14; the old window was February 8 - 25. The areas where debris would fall remain...