Winners of State Award for
Child Literature honoured
Winners of the State Award for Children’s Literature were honoured at a ceremony held at Qatar National Theatre recently, local daily Arrayah has reported.
The ceremony was attended by HE the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari and several officials from Qatar and the region.
In his speech, HE Dr al-Kuwari said the aim of such creative initiatives was to provide children with creative support and contribute to their development.
HE the Minister further said the fourth edition of the award was being held in Doha, which had seen a renaissance under the leadership of HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and HH the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
He also expressed gratitude to HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser for playing a key role in the institution of the award.
On children’s literature, HE Dr al-Kuwari said it involved artistic and intellectual concerns, in addition to methods of presentation through different communication channels.
He observed children in the Arab world required direction and support in the form of such events.
The awards included a prize money of QR2,000 for each field or category. The winners came from Kuwait, Egypt, Syria and Palestine.
Man caught
with cocaine
capsules in
stomach
The Criminal Court has sentenced an African man to seven years in jail and fined him QR100,000 for carrying 97 capsules of cocaine, local daily Al-Sharq has reported. The contraband was found in his stomach.
The accused was, however, acquitted of charges of Customs duty evasion and drug promotion. The narcotic substance was confiscated. The judgment was delivered in a court session headed by Judge Salah al-Shareef.
The Public Prosecution said it had referred the African man to the Criminal Court and he faced charges of import and possession of cocaine with the aim of trading. The Public Prosecution demanded that he be punished under Articles 35, 44, 49, 3, 2 and 10 of the Criminal Law and Articles 139, 140, 142 and 147 of the Customs Law, according to the news report.
The Prosecution said in its report that the accused was going to an African country and was flying from the capital of a European nation via a North African city. He was also supposed to spend some time in the transit hall of Doha International Airport.
On board the plane, the crew grew suspicious as the accused seemed tense and uncomfortable. They contacted authorities at the Doha airport and reported the matter as a precautionary step, the report said.
After the flight arrived in Doha, the Customs personnel initially could not find anything illegal on the accused. However, as he did not seem to be in good shape, the man was sent to a hospital, where an examination revealed that he had 97 cocaine capsules inside his stomach.
During the investigation, the accused said his destination was a North African capital where he had to deliver the cocaine for a payment of $2,000. He swallowed the capsules a few hours before boarding the flight and suffered the pain due to the money involved.
The court said the charge of drug promotion had been dropped as the accused did not have a visa to enter Qatar for the purpose of drug promotion.
Samsung
Galaxy S4
hits Vodafone
stores in Qatar
Vodafone has launched the Samsung Galaxy S4 with three-month free data offers for both postpaid and prepaid customers. This comes shortly after the display of the smartphone in Vodafone’s stores for customers seeking to experience the device.
Postpaid customers will get free data of 15GB a month for three months, up to QR3,000 off on Star Number and free SIM for new users.
For prepaid customers, Vodafone is offering free 6GB data valid for 90 days and free SIM or QR20 recharge.
The retail offers end on June 30 and are available to both new and existing customers for QR2,599.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 comes with a larger screen and battery, thin bezel and a light chassis. Some of the features include eye-tracking and air-view gesture capabilities, which allow users to pause a video when they stop looking and let them hover their fingers over an item to preview, TV control app, Group Play, which lets users share their music and play games live with friends, a dual-shot mode camera, which takes photographs and videos through both the front- and rear-facing cameras and combines them into one, and Sound & Shot, which takes a picture and captures up to nine seconds of audio.
