Mediterranean

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.

The European Union will present proposals in September on reforming its immigration policy, Sweden said Monday, amid a rising wave of people risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
The proposals concern a so-called "relocation" policy, whereby refugees who land on the shores of Europe's Mediterranean countries would be transferred to other EU member states, as well as a more efficient asylum policy.

[IF you are a journalist and you THINK it's a rumour, should you REALLY be publishing it!?!?!?]

“So numerous would be the ramifications of mounting Arab ill will, of opening the door to Soviet political or military penetration, and of generally chaotic conditions in Palestine and neighboring countries that the whole structure of peace and security in the Near East and Mediterranean would be directly or indirectly affected with results… injurious to US interests.”

Congratulations to the new Owners.

Source: Gulf-Times

Taste of high life in dream homes

Tower Four
By Pratap John
The Pearl-Qatar has crossed a major milestone with first residents taking up their new homes at the QR50bn state-of-the-art island, owned and developed by United Development Company.
The first residents were handed over the keys to their new homes by senior executives of UDC recently.
The first family took up residence at Porto Arabia on May 1. The handover to other new homeowners is taking place daily and will continue in the days and weeks ahead, UDC said.

on opening page of my web browser again... Did a quick search - appears not posted as yet so here goes... and I can see some people claiming that they're doing research by sleeping with their eyes open...

http://blogs.static....

8 Brilliant Scientific Screw-ups
by the mag

By Eric Elfman

Hard work and dedication have their time and place, but the values of failure and ineptitude have gone unappreciated for far too long. They say that patience is a virtue, but the following eight inventions prove that laziness, slovenliness, clumsiness and pure stupidity can be virtues, too.

1. Anesthesia (1844)

Mistake Leading to Discovery: Recreational drug use
Lesson Learned: Too much of a good thing can sometimes be, well, a good thing

I know it has nothing to do with Qatar, i just wanted to write this article over here :)
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"Quoted from Forbes Magazine"
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You could argue that, in a contest to choose the most civilized citizens of the world, it would be a travesty not to choose Beirutis. Multi-domiciled (New York, London, Paris, Beirut), automatically fluent in three languages (English, Arabic, French) and the literature thereof, exquisitely turned out, hospitable and generous by instinct, they conduct their lives in a physical setting so glamorous it rivals Istanbul. They should be U.N.-protected as international cultural treasures.