Editor of WQ

Qatar to face off against China in 2018 World Cup qualifier Qatar’s national football team will have to get past China, the Maldives, Bhutan and Hong Kong to make it to the final qualifying rounds for the 2018 World Cup, FIFA announced during a draw earlier this week. According to sports buffs, the only real challenge for 99th-ranked Qatar will be...

Qatar-backed IAG chooses sides in Gulf airline dispute The International Airlines Group (IAG) has pulled out of a European trade group over differences in opinion about the rapid growth of the big three GCC carriers, Reuters reports. IAG is the parent company of British Airways and Iberia, which decided to withdraw its membership from the Association of European Airlines (AEA) after...

In Qatar, plenty of luxury and sports cars, but few racing fans Hoping to fill a vacuum in the local market, three Doha-based automotive enthusiasts have launched a new YouTube channel dedicated to exploring car culture in Qatar. The founders of Ignition ME include 22-year-old Egyptian expat Ramy Khalaf, 19-year-old British parkour practitioner Jake Couper, and 30-year-old racer Mark Holroyd. After experimenting...

Two Russian parties form anti-Putin alliance Russian opposition leaders from the Party of Progress and RPR-Parnas have decided to run on a joint platform for the 2016 parliamentary elections. Politicians hope to consolidate voters unhappy with Putin into one bloc. The opposition Party of Progress, led by anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, and RPR-Parnas, co-founded by Mikhail Kasyanov and by murdered Kremlin...

Bosnia cooks try to brew the world's largest chicken stew in Sarajevo Around 100 cooks and several volunteers set off to break a world record for the world's biggest stew in Sarajevo, Bosnia. They took eight hours to make over 4,100 kilograms of soup. Sarajevo's chefs tried to break a world record on Friday, cooking 4,124 kilograms of soup for around...

Clashes at a Kashmir rally turn deadly Authorities opened fire at protesters gathered for an anti-India street march in the disputed region of Kashmir, officials have said. The confrontation with the security forces follows an arrest of a separatist leader. Indian government forces killed a teenage boy amid violence with angry protesters in the dominantly Muslim region of Kashmir on Saturday....

Suicide bomber kills dozens in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad At least 30 people have been killed after a suicide bomb exploded outside a bank branch in eastern Afghanistan. Officials say more than 50 people were also injured when the blast occurred. A blast in the eastern city of Jalalabad left scores of people dead and many injured on Saturday, Nangarhar...

Germany's Ramstein airbase 'heart' of US drone program The Ramstein airbase in Germany has been serving as the center of the US' drone strikes in Africa and the Middle East, according to reports by Der Spiegel and The Intercept. The German government is aware of the program. The Ramstein airbase, in Germany's southwestern Rhineland Palatinate state, was being used as a...

Goalkeeper sacked for swearing at cop Malaysian champions Johor Darul Ta’zim goalkeeper Mohd Anis Faron Ahmad Courtesy of cikguazli.com Malaysian champions Johor Darul Ta’zim have sacked goalkeeper Mohd Anis Faron Ahmad for swearing at a policeman after a loss, local media reported. The 33-year-old was charged by a Penang court this week for the outburst which came after a second-tier Premier League...

Wakrah avoid relegation, Jaish claim third place Al Wakrah players celebrate after defeating Al Gharafa 2-1 yesterday and avoiding relegation. Right: Al Shahaniya players are dejected after they ended up losing 0-2 to Al Ahli which resulted in them being relegated. The last day of the Qatar Stars League was an action packed one with 25 goals being scored in the...

China jails outspoken journalist, 71, for 7 years Demonstrators hold placards showing portraits of Chinese journalist Gao Yu during a protest in support of her outside the China liaison office in Hong Kong on April 17, 2015 A Chinese court on Friday convicted a 71-year-old journalist of leaking state secrets and jailed her for seven years, it said, in...

Australian Stacey Eden lauded as hero for protecting Muslims Australian Stacey Eden stood up on Wednesday for a Muslim family being verbally abused. Australian Stacey Eden stood up on Wednesday for a Muslim family being verbally abused by a woman on a public train in Sydney. The abuser brought up the actions of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS),...

Iraq’s Baiji refinery not at ‘risk’ from ISIS: U.S. Baiji oil refinery, 180km (112 miles) north of Baghdad. Iraq’s largest refinery in Baiji is not “at risk” despite an offensive by the Islamic State group that has breached parts of the facility, the U.S. military’s top general said Thursday. ISIS militants have “penetrated the outer perimeter” of the vast oil refinery...

Relatives, dignitaries mourn Germanwings victims at Cologne Cathedral The families of the victims of Germanwings flight U9525 that went down in the French Alps last month have gathered for a memorial service in Cologne. All 150 people on board the Airbus A320 were killed in the crash. Around 500 of the 1,500 guests expected to attend the main memorial service in...