east coast

NEW YORK — The family of the alleged Fort Hood shooter held his mother's funeral at the same Virginia mosque that two Sept. 11 hijackers attended in 2001, at a time when a radical imam preached there.

Whether the Fort Hood shooter associated with the hijackers is something the FBI will probably look into, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The family of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who killed 13 and wounded 29 at the Texas military base, held his mother's funeral at the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., on May 31, 2001, according to her obituary in the Roanoke Times newspaper.

Qatar is preparing to tender construction work on one of the five rail networks it plans to build over the next 10 years, MEED has reported.
The New Doha International Airport Steering Committee has invited companies to pre-qualify for a contract to build a train station at the $11bn airport that is under construction close to Doha’s existing one.
UK-based Mace International is the project manager for the scheme, known as the Passenger Rail Station Box. The project involves building a railway station terminal for an express airport rail line that will connect to rail and metro stations in downtown Doha and other rail networks.
Sources familiar with the project say the steering committee wants to finish the station in time for the opening of the first Phase of the airport in 2011.

Construction work on the $3 billion Qatar-Bahrain Friendship Causeway, which was scheduled to begin by the end of this year, is now expected to start in 2010.

The construction of the causeway was originally supposed to begin in May 2008.

“Work on the project will start in 2010 and it is expected to take four-and-a-half years to complete,” Bahrain's Works Minister Fahmi al-Jowder said in comments published by Gulf Daily News.

“Negotiations are still underway regarding the cost and are expected to be finalised by the end of the year, but initial estimates hover around the $3bn mark. Bahrain and Qatar have already allocated a budget of $500mn to start the project,” he told the paper.

Qatar has some dizzying multi-billion dollar projects that are ongoing at the moment. Construction Week picks out the ones that will surely give you a bout of vertigo.

1- New Doha International Airport
Value: US $11 billion
Client: Civil Aviation Authority
Schedule: Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick and Company is the design consultant for airfield work, while San Francisco's HOK is providing design, MEP engineering and other services for the passenger terminal complex, and associated sites. Bechtel is the engineering, procurement and construction management contractor. The airport is expected to be completed in 2015.

When Joannes Rutten stepped off a plane with his grandson at Sydney airport after a long flight from Amsterdam, he thought they were in for the Australian holiday of a lifetime.

But the Dutch pair were shocked to learn that they had just touched down in the rather chillier climate of Sydney, Canada - more than 17,000 miles away from their intended destination.

Mr Rutten and his grandson Nick, 15, booked what they believed was a trip Down Under through a Dutch travel agency.

They flew into Nova Scotia in the east of the country from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport with Air Canada on Saturday.

They even managed to board to a connecting flight to the wrong Sydney at Halifax on the east coast of Canada without realising their mistake.

Since it's the summer season, and with scorching temperatures reaching up to 50C, I wanted to share with you a list of beaches I regularly visit around here, as well as their access route and GPS coordinate (in standard format: LAT/LOND: hddd°mm.mmm'

Generally, beaches are safe in Qatar. In the summer season, one has to worry about jelly fish, therefore a lycra or neoprene skinsuit will do the job in protecting from jellyfish and sunburns. There are some stone fish that hide between the rocks of the the Northeast beaches of Qatar and they are mostly active during night. Sea snakes are now rarer, as their season is March till the end of May. Sea snakes are generally peaceful and not aggressive, unless harassed. As for sharks, there are sharks in the Qatari water (Tiger sharks, bull sharks, great hammerheads, blacktips, and around 23species in total). However, it's rare to sight sharks, even offshore, and it is virtually unheard of sharks approaching the beaches of Qatar where swimmers ventures (within 10-100m from shore). However, the greatest risk involving swimming in the Qatari water is the drive to the beach (mind you with the high number of traffic accidents in Qatar and the highway drive to the beach!!!).

Earth Hour To Create Wave Of Participation Around The Globe

* Over 930 cities and towns in 80 countries, across 25 time zones to power down for Earth Hour 2009

* Global icons add to lights out spectacle

March 10, 2009: At precisely 8.30pm on March 28 the diesel generators will be switched off on the Chatham Islands, a small archipelago off the east coast of New Zealand, heralding the start of the greatest community event the world has ever witnessed - Earth Hour 2009.

As the first country to flick the switch for the global event, WWF New Zealand's Earth Hour organiser, Dairne Poole sees her country as playing a vital role in Earth Hour’s journey to reach one billion people in over 1,000 cities, across 25 time zones.

Plans for the Doha Metro Network have been presented to the Qatar Government and are currently under consideration.

The contract could be awarded by the end of this year, a consultant working on the project said. The plans form one “cluster” of a wider consolidated national railway network.

The wider network is designed to integrate five railway systems planned across Qatar into a “comprehensive and consolidated national railway system.”

It was prepared by DB International, the international wing of German railway company Deutsche Bahn, and local state-owned firm Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company.