New batch of Turkish troops arrives in Qatar

Qatar's ministry of defence has announced the arrival of a new group of Turkish armed forces to the military base where Turkey began its training mission last week.

The forces are set to take part in joint exercises within the framework of a defence agreement signed between Doha and Ankara aimed at raising Qatar's defence capabilities, supporting "counter-terror" efforts, and maintaining security and stability in the region.

Russian hackers to blame for sparking Qatar crisis, FBI inquiry finds

An investigation by the FBI has concluded that Russian hackers were responsible for sending out fake messages from the Qatari government, sparking the Gulf’s biggest diplomatic crisis in decades.

It is believed that the Russian government was not involved in the hacks; instead, freelance hackers were paid to undertake the work on behalf of some other state or individual. Some observers have claimed privately that Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates may have commissioned the hackers.

Balfour Beatty and Interserve accused of migrant worker labour abuses in Qatar

Balfour Beatty and Interserve, two of the UK’s largest construction companies, have been accused of a raft of labour abuses by migrant workers employed on large-scale projects operated by companies that the firms co-own in Qatar.

Labourers on construction sites operated by BK Gulf, co-owned by Balfour Beatty, and Gulf Contracting Company (GCC), co-owned by Interserve, allege that they have been exploited and mistreated by labour supply companies hired by the firms to furnish construction sites in Doha with cheap manual workers.

Caught Between Egypt, Qatar and the Struggle for Free Press

Judgment comes in just a matter of days -- July 30 -- in the trial of us Al Jazeera journalists, after 19 months of a tormenting experience that has changed me and the lives of my loved ones forever.

Understandably, the world is preoccupied with news about nuclear deals, thugs who kill their own people under the perverted justification of jihad and the banner of Islam and the war on terror that has left many journalists -- myself included -- under constant threat by governments who consider us just collateral damage.

Qatar's Epidemic Of Migrant Worker Deaths Mars 2022 World Cup Construction

DOHA, Qatar - Men crammed together, dozens to a room, on bunk beds so close they can reach over and shake hands.

Qatar, on paper at least, has rules that forbid such uncomfortable conditions for its massive workforce of migrant labourers. Yet this is how the government-owned transport company, which the Gulf nation will use to ferry visitors around the 2022 World Cup, has housed some of its workers.

Qatar 2022 World Cup workers 'treated like cattle', Amnesty report finds

A damning Amnesty report has raised fresh fears about the exploitation of the migrant workers building the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, amid a rising toll of death, disease and misery.

The report – published a week after Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, met the country's emir and declared Qatar was "on the right track" in dealing with workers' rights – claims that some migrant workers are victims of forced labour, a modern form of slavery, and treated appallingly by subcontractors employed by leading construction companies in a sector rife with abuse.

Forced Evictions, Anti-Gay Laws, and Dead Workers: Welcome to World Cup Prep

Last week, the Guardian published a report into the slavelike conditions of Qatar's World Cup construction projects. Detailing the tragic deaths of 44 Nepalese migrant workers and the squalid conditions of thousands more prepping for the event in 2022, the Guardian's reporting has rightfully drawn the attention of the international community. But labor relations aren't the only issue in Qatar—and the Middle Eastern state is far from an exception among World Cup hosts. In fact, all three of the next Cup locations have been widely criticized for human rights and inequality issues.

Qatar World Cup 'Slaves' Dying At Shocking Rate

An investigative Guardian report published Wednesday found that Nepalese workers are dying at a rate of one per day as they toil to build stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The report finds that migrant workers contributing to World Cup infrastructure are being subjected to exploitation and abuses equivalent to modern-day slavery.

HuffPost Live’s Ahmed Shihab-Eldin took a closer look to understand how the enormous demands of hosting the World Cup have exacerbated Qatar’s already notorious workers' rights abuses.

Watch the video above and visit The Guardian for the full report.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com
Author: Huffington Post

Climate delegates agree to extend Kyoto accord

A UN climate conference with nearly 200 countries has adopted an extension of the Kyoto Protocol through 2020.

The 1997 pact, aimed at controlling the greenhouse gas emissions of major industrial countries, expires this year.

Civil society breaks the silence, confronts governments at climate negotiations

This year's relatively quiet climate negotiations turned up the volume yesterday when two members of the Arab Youth Climate Movement (AYCM) were arrested for holding up a banner. Onlookers erupted in cheers as they were escorted out. They were asking the hosts, the Qatari government, for leadership. Instead, they were immediately ejected from COP18 and instructed to leave the country.

After the cheers subsided, the mood was sombre. The process at COP18 is failing; the climate deal on the table is not an ambitious one. It is not sufficient to avert the climate catastrophe that will occur if emissions are not curbed. Civil society has been speaking loudly and clearly at COP, through the AYCM’s action and others, demanding initiative on the part of governments. But are they listening?

Qatari Human Rights Official Defends Life Sentence For Poet Who Praised Arab Spring Uprisings

Three days after the United Nations climate change conference began here in Doha, a Qatari court sentenced a local poet to life in prison, a move that shocked many activists in the Gulf region and human rights observers. The sentencing of Muhammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami came nearly two years after he wrote a poem titled, “Tunisian Jasmine," supporting the uprisings in the Arab world. “We are all Tunisia in the face of repressive elites!” al-Ajami wrote. “The Arab governments and who rules them are without exception thieves, thieves!” We speak to his attorney and a member of Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee.

Video
Source: Democracy Now!
Author: --