FOR years, South Africa was an international laughing stock
for its tragically absurd approach to the deadly AIDS epidemic.
Now, that national nightmare may be ending. The new government
of President Jacob Zuma seems to have a clearer-eyed view of
the problem, its remedies and the need to improve the health
care system overall than its predecessor did. Fixing what´s
broken will not be easy, but we are encouraged by signs of a
commitment to do so. To see how far South Africa´s leaders
have come, one needs to recall where it was. The former president,
Thabo Mbeki, compiled a record that is still hard to fathom...
THE
latest results from the longest-running study yet confirm that
surgery is better than artery-opening angioplasty in preventing
strokes caused by blockage of the carotid artery, the largest
vessel carrying blood to the brain. "In contrast with endovascular
treatment (angioplasty), surgical patients had about half the
rate of strokes in long-term follow-up," said Dr Martin
M Brown, a professor of stroke medicine at University College
London Institute of Neurology, and a senior author of two reports
in the October issue of the Lancet Neurology. Brown is a leader
of the s o - c a l l e d C A V A T A S study, which has followed...
The world
might be witnessing slowdown in
the economy, but Qatar's oil and
gas business was starting to accelerate
at
its fastest pace and the country
was looking to intensify its efforts
to explore and discover new oil
and gas reserves, said...
The average incidence of autism in Qatar is slightly higher than that of the region, a senior Al Ahli Hospital doctor said on Monday. Dr Nadir Omara, a Consultant Psychiatrist who has taken charge of the Psychiatry...
Shares of
Citigroup Inc fell as much as
7.5 percent on Monday amid a broad
slide in financial stocks, after
rallying over the last week. The
sector was also hit by a report
from veteran analyst Dick Bove
at Rochdale Securities...
Former champion
Kim Clijsters reached the second
round at the US Open on Monday
with a 58- minute, 6-1, 6-1 win
over Viktoriya Kutuzova of Ukraine.
It was the Belgian player's first
match at Flushing Meadows since
she defeated Mary Pierce ...
Nina Dobrev
didn't bite right away. The 20-year-old
actress, a star back home in Canada
thanks to her role on Degrassi:
The Next Generation (2006-2009),
was newly relocated to Los Angeles
when the opportunity arose to
audition for a pilot ...
Barely six days after coming to Doha to take up his position as the new Philippine Ambassador to Qatar, HE Crescente R Relacion has his priorities fixed. He is upbeat about the success of plans. Top on his agenda are promoting the welfare and interest of about 200,000 Filipino expatriates in Doha, increasing the mutual trade between Qatar and the Philippines and highlighting the true value of Philippine culture. Ambassador-designate Relacion, who is yet to present...
Vodafone Qatar hopes that all its temporary towers found in various locations in the country will be dismantled soon and permanent ones erected in their place by the next year, Chief Marketing Officer Michaeal Portz has said. "We have already started dismantling some of the temporary towers and by 2010 we hope to replace all with permanent structures," Portz told Qatar Tribune here on Monday. He said the telecom company had achieved...
Qtel employee volunteers visited the Hamad Medical Centre Kidney Dialysis recently and provided solace to the patients undergoing treatment there. The visit was part of the company´s ´Connect With Kind Words´ campaign launched during the Holy Month of Ramadan. As visiting the sick is a key charitable obligation during the holy month, Qtel provides full support to its employees to undertake this duty. It gives them time off and transport to reach...
Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc said on Monday that it will buy BJ Services Co in a cash-andstock deal valued at $5.5 billion that the company said will allow it to drive international growth and compete for projects of companies engaged in all phases of the oil business. The acquisition is expected to produce $75 million in cost savings for Baker Hughes in 2010 and $150 million in 2011, and add to earnings per share in 2011. Baker Hughes Chairman...
Walt Disney Co said on Monday it plans to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc for $4 billion in a deal that would add characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four to its entertainment empire. Disney is striking the biggest media deal of the year so far — one that will unite the Incredible Hulk and Mickey Mouse — at a time when the media business is struggling to cope with spending cutbacks by both consumers and advertisers. Marvel, however, has a stable of wildly popular characters that it has brought to the big screen...
Beijing frets that the global economic slump is exacerbating unemployment. So it is. But the main culprit for the lack of jobs is China´s own development model. The conventional image of millions of Chinese hunched over sewing machines and workbenches churning out the world´s T-shirts and toys conveys the impression of a laborintensive economy drawing on a bottomless pool of workers. Only up to a point. A striking characteristic of China´s...
South Korea´s MJ Hur birdied the second playoff hole on Sunday to defeat Suzann Pettersen and Michele Redman and win the LPGA Safeway Classic. Redman was already out of the playoff when Hur and Norway´s Pettersen arrived at the par-four 17th at Pumpkin Ridge. Hur landed short of the green in the left rough, while Pettersen nearly drove into a creek. Hur pitched to seven feet and Pettersen launched her chip 20 feet past the flag. When the Norwegian missed her birdie attempt coming back...
Paul Byrd was pitching to kids a little less than a month ago. He felt like one after his return to the majors. Making his first major league start and appearance since last September, the 38- year-old Byrd pitched six shutout innings on Sunday and the Boston Red Sox completed a three-game sweep with a 7-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. "I got the game ball today," Byrd said. "I´m like a kid. (Takashi) Saito gave it to me. It´s a real nice gesture. I just forgot to put it down and here it is." Byrd was pitching batting...
Having toyed with Pakistan and New Zealand, Kumar Sangakkara´s men are eyeing India as their next scalp as the battle heats up to be the world´s top Test team. Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan and New Zealand by identical 2- 0 margins at home to climb to the number two spot in the official rankings with a rating of 120 behind number one team South Africa´s 122. With India just one rating point behind Sri Lanka on 119 and Ashes losers Australia in fourth place with...
Teen pop star Nick Jonas, taking a break from touring with his brothers to raise awareness of juvenile diabetes, said he dreams about being US president and may study political science in college. The 16-year-old singer, songwriter and member of pop trio the Jonas Bros, spoke recently to a sold-out audience at the National Press Club, a venue often reserved for presidents, kings and chief executives but for Jonas had many seats occupied by teenage and pre-teen girls. Jonas talked about raising awareness and funding...
Hollywood actress Kelly Preston has cancelled plans to talk in public about the death of her son Jett because she´s still wracked with grief. Jett, 16, died accidentally in January this year after suffering a seizure during a family holiday in the Bahamas and Preston had agreed to break her silence about his death at a women´s conference in October 2009, hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger´s wife Maria Shriver, but now she has backed out, reports starpulse.com. "It is with my sincere apologies that I must pull...
Sohail Khan is the most underrated Khan in the film industry. But Sohail knows his craft and he uses it with transparency in comic roles and in this intense melodrama called Kisaan. Sohail had earlier done a fairly watchable take on the question of Indianness in I... Proud To Be An Indian with the same director. In Kisaan, Sohail champions the cause of rural life with a plot that nudges Manoj Kumar´s Upkar. It´s a nudge that doesn´t topple the...
Qatar Airways will increase its weekly
flights to Nepal from 11 to 28 apart
from the seven cargo trips. An agreement
to this effect was reached on
Monday between Qatari and
Nepalese governments represented
by the Chairman of the Qatar Civil
Aviation Authority Abdul Aziz al
Noaimi and Under-Secretary of the
Nepalese Tourism and National
Aviation Ministry Nagendra Prasad
Ghimire, in Doha on Monday.
The successful launch of
Indosat’s Palapa D satellite from
the Xichang Satellite Launch
Centre in south-west China on
Monday marked a new era in pan-
Asian communications.
The Qtel Chairman and Indosat
President-Commissioner, HE
Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed
bin Saud al Thani, witnessed the
satellite launch along with Qatar’s...
Barely six days after coming to Doha to take up his position as the new Philippine Ambassador to Qatar, HE Crescente R Relacion has his priorities fixed. He is upbeat about the success of plans. Top on his agenda are promoting the welfare and interest of about 200,000 Filipino expatriates in Doha, increasing the mutual trade between Qatar and the Philippines and highlighting the true value of Philippine culture. Ambassador-designate Relacion, who is yet to present... 
Vodafone Qatar hopes that all its temporary towers found in various locations in the country will be dismantled soon and permanent ones erected in their place by the next year, Chief Marketing Officer Michaeal Portz has said. "We have already started dismantling some of the temporary towers and by 2010 we hope to replace all with permanent structures," Portz told Qatar Tribune here on Monday. He said the telecom company had achieved... 
Qtel employee volunteers visited the Hamad Medical Centre Kidney Dialysis recently and provided solace to the patients undergoing treatment there. The visit was part of the company´s ´Connect With Kind Words´ campaign launched during the Holy Month of Ramadan. As visiting the sick is a key charitable obligation during the holy month, Qtel provides full support to its employees to undertake this duty. It gives them time off and transport to reach... 
Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc said on Monday that it will buy BJ Services Co in a cash-andstock deal valued at $5.5 billion that the company said will allow it to drive international growth and compete for projects of companies engaged in all phases of the oil business. The acquisition is expected to produce $75 million in cost savings for Baker Hughes in 2010 and $150 million in 2011, and add to earnings per share in 2011. Baker Hughes Chairman... 
Walt Disney Co said on Monday it plans to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc for $4 billion in a deal that would add characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four to its entertainment empire. Disney is striking the biggest media deal of the year so far — one that will unite the Incredible Hulk and Mickey Mouse — at a time when the media business is struggling to cope with spending cutbacks by both consumers and advertisers. Marvel, however, has a stable of wildly popular characters that it has brought to the big screen...
Beijing frets that the global economic slump is exacerbating unemployment. So it is. But the main culprit for the lack of jobs is China´s own development model. The conventional image of millions of Chinese hunched over sewing machines and workbenches churning out the world´s T-shirts and toys conveys the impression of a laborintensive economy drawing on a bottomless pool of workers. Only up to a point. A striking characteristic of China´s...
South Korea´s MJ Hur birdied the second playoff hole on Sunday to defeat Suzann Pettersen and Michele Redman and win the LPGA Safeway Classic. Redman was already out of the playoff when Hur and Norway´s Pettersen arrived at the par-four 17th at Pumpkin Ridge. Hur landed short of the green in the left rough, while Pettersen nearly drove into a creek. Hur pitched to seven feet and Pettersen launched her chip 20 feet past the flag. When the Norwegian missed her birdie attempt coming back...
Paul Byrd was pitching to kids a little less than a month ago. He felt like one after his return to the majors. Making his first major league start and appearance since last September, the 38- year-old Byrd pitched six shutout innings on Sunday and the Boston Red Sox completed a three-game sweep with a 7-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. "I got the game ball today," Byrd said. "I´m like a kid. (Takashi) Saito gave it to me. It´s a real nice gesture. I just forgot to put it down and here it is." Byrd was pitching batting...
Having toyed with Pakistan and New Zealand, Kumar Sangakkara´s men are eyeing India as their next scalp as the battle heats up to be the world´s top Test team. Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan and New Zealand by identical 2- 0 margins at home to climb to the number two spot in the official rankings with a rating of 120 behind number one team South Africa´s 122. With India just one rating point behind Sri Lanka on 119 and Ashes losers Australia in fourth place with... 
Teen pop star Nick Jonas, taking a break from touring with his brothers to raise awareness of juvenile diabetes, said he dreams about being US president and may study political science in college. The 16-year-old singer, songwriter and member of pop trio the Jonas Bros, spoke recently to a sold-out audience at the National Press Club, a venue often reserved for presidents, kings and chief executives but for Jonas had many seats occupied by teenage and pre-teen girls. Jonas talked about raising awareness and funding... 
Hollywood actress Kelly Preston has cancelled plans to talk in public about the death of her son Jett because she´s still wracked with grief. Jett, 16, died accidentally in January this year after suffering a seizure during a family holiday in the Bahamas and Preston had agreed to break her silence about his death at a women´s conference in October 2009, hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger´s wife Maria Shriver, but now she has backed out, reports starpulse.com. "It is with my sincere apologies that I must pull... 
Sohail Khan is the most underrated Khan in the film industry. But Sohail knows his craft and he uses it with transparency in comic roles and in this intense melodrama called Kisaan. Sohail had earlier done a fairly watchable take on the question of Indianness in I... Proud To Be An Indian with the same director. In Kisaan, Sohail champions the cause of rural life with a plot that nudges Manoj Kumar´s Upkar. It´s a nudge that doesn´t topple the... 
Qatar Airways will increase its weekly
flights to Nepal from 11 to 28 apart
from the seven cargo trips. An agreement
to this effect was reached on
Monday between Qatari and
Nepalese governments represented
by the Chairman of the Qatar Civil
Aviation Authority Abdul Aziz al
Noaimi and Under-Secretary of the
Nepalese Tourism and National
Aviation Ministry Nagendra Prasad
Ghimire, in Doha on Monday.
