Habib Toumi

Qatar’s shops have been given six months to start printing bills and receipts in Arabic beside English.

 The move to have major shopping centres to issue purchase bills to customers with the names and prices of the items written in Arabic as well as English is to help older citizens and people who cannot read or understand English, and to promote the national language, Qatar daily The Peninsula reported.

Most major outlets issue their cash bills to customers with the list of the items sold written in English along with their prices. However, the Consumer Protection Department has recently taken up the Arabic price tag issue with officials from major shopping centres during a meeting to fix the prices of some essential items during Ramadan. continue reading…

Qatar Airways will increase its weekly flights to Germany from 21 to 35 following an agreement between the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) and the German Civil Aviation Authority (Luftfahrt Bundesamt).

“The agreement was reached following some amendments to the previous air transport agreement signed by both parties in November 1996,” an official said, quoted by Qatari daily Gulf Times.

The agreement was signed by QCAA chairman Abdul Aziz Al Nuaimi and Luftfahrt Bundesamt deputy director general Hartmut Spickemann. continue reading…

A study on the increase of divorce rates in Kuwait has concluded that a major cause was the extra benefits received by divorcees. Under Kuwaiti civil legislation, Kuwaiti divorcees are able to claim a car, a housemaid and a chauffeur, as well as alimony and housing payments from their former husbands.

The study, by the parliamentary general secretariat’s research department, called for the introduction of more premarital counseling programmes for engaged couples to increase awareness about long commitments, responsibilities and duties in marriage. continue reading…