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Standing protest

Turkish protesters stand on the Red Crescent square during a ‘duranadam’ (standing person) protest in Ankara yesterday. Riot police clashed briefly with groups of anti-government protesters in two Turkish cities, but there was no fresh unrest in Istanbul where demonstrators switched to silent protests after a heavy crackdown.

Call to set age limit for loans to Qataris

DOHA: Several citizens have called on the authorities to fix an age limit for disbursement of personal loans to curb extravagant spending by Qatari youth on foreign trips in summer. They urged the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) to impose stricter rules for personal loans to ensure that they are used wisely. A member of the Central Municipal Council (CMC) has suggested 30 as the age limit, while some other citizens want it to be 25. “The banks are interested only in profits. They just want to benefit from personal loans. The Qatar Central Bank must impose strict conditions to make it difficult for people less than 30 years to take personal loans,” CMC vice chairman Jassim Al Malki told The Peninsula. “Qatar is the best country in the Gulf in terms of salaries. People should learn to spend their income wisely,” he added. He said that the habit of taking personal loans for overseas trips is growing among Qatari youth. Prominent Qatari psychologist Dr Moza Al Malki said it is a pity that many Qatari youth are relying on personal loans to travel abroad. “Personal loans should be given only for emergencies like treatment or to solve a financial crisis. Giving loans just for enjoyment is not justified,” said Al Malki. She said the government should not repay unnecessary loans on behalf of the indebted, which will further encourage the practice in the community. She urged citizens to explore tourism opportunities here instead of travelling abroad all the time. “Every grown up person has the right to apply for a loan. The only solution to address this problem is to raise awareness through the media and encourage people to spend their vacation in Qatar,” said Al Malki. Several citizens talking to a local Arabic daily recently expressed similar views, while calling for an age limit of 25 for personal loans. The Qatar National Development Strategy 2011-2016 had disclosed plans to set limits on personal loans based on an individual’s income to address the deepening debt crisis in the country. According to data given in the strategy report, three quarters of Qatari families were in debt, most of them burdened with loans exceeding QR250,000. The five-year plan targets to halve the number of Qatari families in debt by 2016. The Peninsula

India’s CBSE steps in to curb tuitions

The Chairman of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Vineet Joshi (centre), addressing the media at the Birla Public School (BPS) in Doha yesterday. Also seen are, Principal of BPS, A K Srivastava (left), and Director of Academics and Training at CBSE, Dr Sadhana Parashar. Salim Matramkot DOHA: Indian schools in Qatar that have given a free hand to teachers to conduct private tuitions will face action, a senior official of the New Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) said yesterday. CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi, who is on a visit to Qatar, also said he will take up the issue of low teachers’s salaries of affiliated schools here with their managements. Joshi is in Doha to attend an orientation workshop for CBSE-i teachers at the Birla Public School (BPS). “CBSE has banned private tuitions since 2010. We will take action against any school that is found promoting this practice,” said Joshi, addressing a news conference at the BPS yesterday. He was reacting to a special story published by The Peninsula earlier this week on the tuition menace in Qatar. He, however, said CBSE can investigate the issue only if it receives a complaint. The board has banned private tuitions mainly because it can have a negative impact on the quality of coaching in school. “In most cases, parents insist on private tuitions to help children score higher marks. There is unhealthy competition in this regard. CBSE is actually trying to curb the race for marks,” said Joshi. He said the CBSE had introduced the grading and continuous evaluation system in Class X to eliminate the practice of ranking students based on marks. He, however, added that there is no immediate plans to extend the grading system to Class XII. The CBSE has not allowed schools to glorify the toppers while announcing examination results. If any school is doing this, it is against the CBSE rules and guidelines, said Joshi. “We are planning to introduce an accreditation system for schools next year. All such unhealthy practices will be curbed once this system is introduced. The accreditation will allow us to monitor the performance of each school based on a set of criteria and those failing to meet the required standards will face action, including a cancellation of affiliation,” said Joshi. CBSE is also planning to eliminate model questions for board examinations, as part of a new “open text assessment” system. This will force students to study the subject in full, instead of focusing on the “expected” examination questions. The official said CBSE will not directly interfere in the fee structure of schools, but it will also not allow them to be run as “commercial establishments”. “If we receive complaints about a clear discrepancy in the fees we will investigate it. No school is allowed to impose excessive fees for any service,” said Joshi. He said the CBSE will look to complaints about the low salaries being paid to teachers of some Indian schools here. “I will be meeting with principals and managements of all Indian schools this evening. Teachers’ salaries will be one of the issues to be discussed in the meeting,” said Joshi. When pointed out that some Indian schools here have imposed very high fees for the CBSE-International (CBSE-i) curriculum, Joshi said: “There are differences in the facilities required for the national stream and the international stream. Schools can charge a higher fee based on this, but there are limits to that. Imposing excessive fees is not justified.” He said the international stream was introduced mainly targeting overseas students giving the schools more flexibility in framing the curriculum, considering the specific requirements of each country. The Peninsula

Afghanistan to boycott US talks with Taliban

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said yesterday his government would not join US peace talks with the Taliban and halted negotiations with Washington on a troop pact, underscoring the fragile nature of hopes for a negotiated peace in Afghanistan. The United States and the Taliban have said officials from both sides will meet in Doha today in a step forward for a stuttering peace process after 12 years of bloody and costly war between US-led forces and the insurgents. But Afghan officials, angered by the opening of a Taliban political office in Doha on Tuesday, said the US had violated assurances it would not give official status to the insurgents. Meanwhile, an official source at the Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Qatar News Agency that the office, which was opened yesterday is the Political Bureau of the Taliban Afghan in Doha, and not the political bureau of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The source added that the official name, that was agreed upon with respect to the opening of this office, is the Political Bureau of Taliban in Doha. The AFP in a late night despatch quoted the State Department as saying yesterday that the US has not scheduled talks with the Taliban, after reports that discussions with the group could begin this week in Doha. “Reports of a meeting being scheduled or on the books aren’t accurate,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, saying Washington had “never confirmed” the date and place of any specific meeting. AGENCIES

England reach final in style

England’s Steven Finn (centre) celebrates with team-mates the dismissal of South Africa’s Hashim Amla during the One Day International ICC Champions Trophy semi-final match at the Oval in London, yesterday. LONDON: Hosts England cruised into the Champions Trophy final with a seven-wicket win yesterday after South Africa once again underlined their reputation as cricket’s ‘chokers’. Alastair’s Cook men outplayed the Proteas after electing to bowl on an overcast day at the Oval where England had lost to the West Indies in the final of the same event in 2004. South Africa were reduced to 80-8 by the 23rd over before a record ninth-wicket partnership of 95 between David Miller and Rory Kleinveldt gave the total some respectability. But Jonathan Trott hit 82 not out and Joe Root made 48 during a 105-run stand to help England surpass the modest target in the 38th over of a disappointing semi-final. In Sunday’s final at Edgbaston, Birmingham, which will be worth $2m for the champions, England will meet the winners of today’s all-Asian semi-final between India and Sri Lanka in Cardiff. “That’s the sort of performance you want in a semi-final,” said Cook. He added: “To win any tournament you need everyone to fire and we’ve got that so far.” South Africa, the top-ranked Test team and a formidable opponent in world cricket, have struggled to get past the semi-final stage in major one-day tournaments since winning the inaugural version of the Champions Trophy in Bangladesh in 1998. South African captain AB de Villiers admitted the team floundered after the loss of quick wickets in the morning. “Under pressure from the word go, we just were not good enough,” said de Villiers. “There are no excuses. We had the talent to win this tournament. We just did not play well enough. “But I am proud of Miller and Rory (Kleinveldt). They kept fighting till the end and that is what I expect from our guys. “England got their plans spot on. We tried everything with the ball, but the wicket got pretty flat in the afternoon.” “We tried everything with the ball, we just couldn’t get that breakthrough and get four, five and six. There are no excuses - I believe we have the talent and the potential to have won this tournament, but we didn’t play well enough. “I won’t say the toss was that important, we didn’t play well, we were under pressure from the word go and you have to give credit to the English bowlers,” the South African batsman/wicketkeeper added. England lost openers Cook and Ian Bell cheaply to become 41-2, but South Africa-born Trott and Root flayed the attack on a good batting wicket to steer the hosts towards victory. Root was bowled by JP Duminy for 48 when 30 more were needed in 18 overs, leaving Trott to bring up the emphatic win by driving Robin Peterson to the cover fence. South Africa paid for a brittle batting display despite Miller’s unbeaten 56 and Kleinveldt’s career-best 43 in their country’s best one-day partnership for the ninth wicket. Miller, who rose to fame with a 38-ball century in the Indian Premier League tournament this year, smashed five boundaries and two sixes. Kleinveldt hit a six and four fours against an impressive England team for whom wicket-keeper Jos Buttler picked up six catches. Off spinner James Tredwell, who was named man of the match, and seamer Stuart Broad claimed three wickets each. But it was pace spearhead James Anderson who did the early damage with two quick wickets. “Jimmy was outstanding which was fantastic,” said Cook. The captain added: “It was great to see the other guys back him up, especially tricky Tredders (Tredwell).” AFP

Vodafone Qatar revenue rises by 25pc; customer base grows

DOHA: Vodafone Qatar’s annual revenue recorded a 25 percent growth to QR1.53bn reflecting a growing market share of 27.4 percent of mobile revenues for the full year ending March 2013. Addressing the company’s annual ordinary/extraordinary general assembly here yesterday, Rashid Al Nuaimi, the board member noted the company’s revenue crossed 30 percent during the final quarter of the year. “The EBITDA margin improved to 19 percent or QR284m allowing our net loss to improve by 18 percent to a loss of QR401m. On the very important measure of ‘distributable profits’, we broke even for the first time in the financial year, ending the year with QR2m profit”, he said. Al Nuaimi said Vodafone Qatar’s customer base grew by 30 percent to 1,084,000 during the year, meaning that more than half of the population of Qatar use its services every month.As well as achieving good financial results we are also proud of many other achievements as we build for our long term future success here in Qatar. Vodafone Qatar invested close to QR400m in its network last year and now have complete mobile coverage throughout the country with excellent voice and data performance. Vodafone Qatar’s network now benchmark well against Vodafone’s other global markets. “We launched our Post Paid service in June 2012 and this has been well received by the market attracting a large number of higher value customers increasing our average spends and driving improved profitability. We have made our first step into Fixed Line Services and are already serving customers in The Pearl, Barwa City and our first Business Customers are now live in West Bay and in Qatar Foundation .We are working closely with Qnbn and expect the coming year to be the first year when Fixed Line Services start to make a contribution to the financial success of our business.” One of our major priorities this year was to further integrate ourselves into Qatari culture and society. We have achieved this in a number of ways, including the successful Qatarisation programme. Through our most successful ever Qatar Career fair, we recruited 15 young Qataris to help grow our business. The Peninsula

Step into health: Beat the heat, walk in a mall

By Fazeena Saleem Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF), together with shopping malls in Qatar, is giving a valuable and different offering to visitors this summer. It is encouraging residents to walk the corridors of the malls before the stores open every day. ‘Walk More, Walk in Malls’ started at Villaggio last week and will be expanded to Hyatt Plaza and Al Khor Mall on Saturday, and then to Landmark as a part of the Step into Health campaign of AZF. The step into health programme is an AZF initiative designed to engage the people of Qatar in a self-managed lifelong programme based on a moderate amount of daily healthy activity. The programme promotes walking 10,000 steps or more a day in a non-competitive, recreational and social way. As summer has arrived and few outdoor activities are possible, this initiative will help people continue walking. It aims to motivate people to walk and experience the invaluable benefits of a healthy lifestyle. During the summer months, mall walking is the perfect workout: along with controlled temperatures, malls provide clean and safe environments to exercise. If someone starts a walk from any of the gates at Villaggio, walks the corridors and returns to the same gate, it would take an estimated 3,000 steps and 30 minutes, and would burn 150 calories. Such information is given on maps available at each mall. The maps can be downloaded from the step into health website(stepintohealth.qa). Flyers giving health tips and walking times for each mall will also be available. Villaggio received a large number of participants for the inaugural walk, according to the organisers. When the initiative moves to other malls, they will feature special walking trails with signs and maps, and members of the AZF team will be at hand to help. Participants will receive stamps to prove that they have completed the circuits. Around 100 pedometers were given away to the first group of participants. The step into health team is ensuring that the malls have signs and maps that mention the distances and the number of steps per circuit, enabling participants to track their progress. The Peninsula What is Mall walking? In mall walking, people walk or jog through the usually long corridors of shopping malls. Many malls open early so that people may walk. However, the shops and other facilities generally do not open early. Many choose to mall walk as the indoor climate is comfortable and there is easy access to restrooms. Mall walking can be undertaken individually, in groups, or as part of an organised mall walking program. Mall walking in the United States is especially popular among senior citizens. Health tips • Walking in a group can help to keep you motivated and reach your long-term goals. • Make sure you drink approximately 1.5 litres of water daily to avoid dehydration in summer, especially when engaging in physical activity. • Create specific health goals and work towards achieving them. Never give up; you deserve to be the healthiest version of yourself. • Creating a walking group can help keep you motivated and social. Getting started • If you haven’t been active for some time, start slow and easy. • Wear comfortable clothing and shoes. • Stretch before and after walking. • Good posture is important. Keep your back straight and swing your arms as you walk. • Maintain a steady pace and take long, even steps, • Drink plenty of water. • Walking causes a slight increase in the breathing and heartbeat rates, but you should be able to comfortably carry on a conversation. Why walking? • Studies have found that walking briskly for 30 minutes or walking 10,000 steps a day can help: • Lower the risk of heart disease and stroke • Reduce blood cholesterol • Decrease the risk of high blood pressure • Prevent and control type 2 diabetes • Lower the risk of some cancers • Control body weight • Reduce stress levels • Improve sleep • Maintain bone density and reduce the risk of osteoporosis and fractures • Improve balance and coordination • Increase energy levels and overall happiness