Ten months on from the death of a British man who was working on the construction of one of Qatar’s stadiums for the 2022 World Cup, there has still been no official reaction or recognition from the country’s authorities or the building firm involved.
Zac Cox, a 40-year-old ‘rope specialist’ was working as a subcontractor for a German company, Pfeifer, who were themselves sub-contracting for Midmac-Six Construct, a Qatari-Belgian joint venture. He was killed in January when he fell 40m from a platform at Doha’s Khalifa Stadium.
Initial investigations took place by the construction firms and by the Qatar Supreme Committee and were promised to report back in March. The Mail on Sunday reported in June this year that the two investigations had reached differing conclusions on what had caused Mr Cox’s death, and about who was liable for it.
Since then the family of Mr Cox, led by his two sisters-in-law, Ella Joseph and Hazel Mayes, have been met with silence when they have contacted the firms and the Qatari authorities.
Ms Joseph told The Guardian newspaper: “Ten months on, we still don’t have an official account of why our brother-in-law died and who was responsible. We’ve had no assurance that a horrific incident like this won’t happen again.”
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Read more:
Qatar and the soiling of the spirit of sport
Report raises doubts about whether Qatar will be able to host 2022 World Cup
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The British coroner who will lead the inquest into Mr Cox’s death has also blasted Qatar. Veronica Hamilton-Deeley said: “It has proved almost impossible to get information. We find ourselves in a most unsatisfactory situation for everyone. If it had been in this country, state agencies would have been investigating his death.
The Qatar 2022 World Cup campaign has been dogged by controversy since the country was named surprisingly as the hosts. There have been allegations of corruption in the voting process, and the NGO Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 300 people have died, although this figure has been denied by the Qatari authorities.
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India cancels school-leaving examinations
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
The UN General Assembly President in quotes:
YEMEN: “The developments we have seen are promising. We really hope that the parties are going to respect the agreed ceasefire. I think that the sense of really having the political will to have a peace process is vital. There is a little bit of hope and the role that the UN has played is very important.”
PALESTINE: “There is no easy fix. We need to find the political will and comply with the resolutions that we have agreed upon.”
OMAN: “It is a very important country in our system. They have a very important role to play in terms of the balance and peace process of that particular part of the world, in that their position is neutral. That is why it is very important to have a dialogue with the Omani authorities.”
REFORM OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL: “This is complicated and it requires time. It is dependent on the effort that members want to put into the process. It is a process that has been going on for 25 years. That process is slow but the issue is huge. I really hope we will see some progress during my tenure.”
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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