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Venezuela was the next stop for the Emir of Qatar and his wife, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned, as they tour Latin America. They were greeted by Hugo Chavez at the presidential palace, and right after a welcoming ceremony, got to work on trade agreements with their countries. 
Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and Chavez signed an accord which agreed that the companies from Qatar and Venezuela would work together. The accord also means to set up a joint venture on natural gas transportation and liquefaction.
Later, the Venezuelan leader awarded the Emir and Sheikha Mozah with some of his country’s highest honors. The Emir received the Order of the Liberator Simon Bolivar in recognition of his support on peace efforts, while Mozah got the Sword of Honor for her work on education and other social issues.
After Venezuela, the royal couple will head to Costa Rica, the final destination on their tour.
During his one-day visit to Brazil, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani signed several deals to further cement ties with the South American nation.
 AP Photo/Eraldo Peres The Emir and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva witnessed the signing of a number of pacts. They included agreements on the prevention of double taxation, air services, economic and trade cooperation, establishment of a cooperation committee between their two governments, on visa exemptions, and finally a memorandum of understanding between the Qatari Foreign Ministry and the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations.
Also witnessing those deals was Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani and other ministers from Qatar.
 AP Photo/Eraldo Peres While this was going on, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned was with Marisa Leticia Lula da Silva, the First Lady of Brazil and Mariza Campos Gomes da Silva, wife of the Vice-President of Brazil at Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations.
The three women discussed ways to boost co-operation, particularly in social and educational fields, which is close to Sheikha Mozah’s areas of concern.
In the evening, the Emir and his wife attended a state dinner host by the President in their honor.
The Emir of Qatar and his wife, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned, are currently on tour of Latin America. Their first stop was Argentina, arriving on Sunday but got down to business the following day.
 AFP/Juan Mabromata At the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani met with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner. After a round of talks, the two leaders oversaw the signing of three agreements between their countries. The agreements were on economic and commercial cooperation, air transportation and one on sports.
While this was happening, Sheikha Mozah was shown around the Museum of Latin American Art, where she was briefed on the region’s artistic history. Accompanying her was one of her daughters, Sheikha Hind.
Later in the night, there was a state banquet held the Emir and Sheikha’s honor.
Tomorrow, the Qatari royals head for Brazil. Their Latin America tour will include Venezuela and Costa Rica.
The heir to the Danish throne is now on a five-day visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Crown Prince Frederik arrived in Riyadh on Friday with the intention of promoting alternative energy. Denmark hosted the Climate Change summit last month, so it seems natural for its future King to encourage eco-friendly uses.
 REUTERS/Saudi Press Agency/Handout Frederik spent his day in Saudi Arabia meeting with royals and local politicians. He took part in a conference on food security at the Saudi Food & Drug Authority, organized in collaboration with the Danish Agriculture and Food Agency. Later, he met with the Trade and Industry minister, the Riyadh Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Governor of Riyadh.
The Crown Prince then met with several members of the Saudi royal family, including Crown Prince Sultan and Interior Minister Prince Nayef. For his final appearance in the desert Kingdom, Frederik dined at the Danish Embassy with Saudi and Danish business leaders.
On Sunday, Frederik went to Qatar, where he visited Maersk Oil before meeting with Crown Prince Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. The Crown Prince will also tour the Museum of Islamic Art and Souk Waqif.
Tomorrow, Crown Prine Frederik will participate in the World Future Energy Summit, where he would be one of the keynote speakers on the use of green technologies.
On Monday, Qatar’s Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned officially opened the World Innovation Summit for Education, or WISE, which is part of the Qatar Foundation. Over 1,000 international education leaders attended, and as a special envoy to UNESCO, the Sheikha told them her thoughts on the importance of education.
 globalarabnetwork.com “Education is a main and decisive factor in ensuring our readiness in facing the major transformations which are shaping our contemporary world. Therefore, the possession of knowledge and its application to the progress of humanity must be at the core of our priorities and at the forefront of our commitments.
“Innovation in education,” Mozah continued. “Which is the focus of this Summit should become an achievable and executable process. It should be at the heart of the education which is the force which exerts human energy and guides it wisely for the purpose of expanding human intelligence and creativity to serve the objective of just and equitable human societies.
“Therefore this Summit requires us to debate deeply and discuss a series of issues at the core of the right to education in order to draft an agreement on which we can build our next steps.”
“I do not make a distinction between powerful and weak, nor between developed and less developed; everybody is responsible and everybody has the duty to raise the level of education,” the Sheikha added.
Also in attendance was the newly appointed UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. In her speech, she praised Sheikha Mozah for her efforts.
“Her Highness has consistently showed commitment to her responsibilities and we had taken actions whenever she alerted us that education was facing problems in several parts of the world.”
On Monday, King Mswati III of Swaziland arrived in Qatar to begin his state visit to the Gulf nation. He came with one of his wives, Princess Cinahl Carol Dlamini. The couple were greeted at the airport by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and Sheikha Mozah.
 Gulf Times/Maher Attar The King’s visit is meant to discuss international issues that affect both Swaziland and Qatar, as well as strengthen bilateral ties between them.
“Business opportunities will not just come to Swaziland just because we are Swaziland and we are peaceful. We need to go out and look for business opportunities for our nation, just like every other country is doing,” said SIPA Chairman Musa Dlamini, who is also part of the delegation to the Gulf States, as reported by The Swazi Observer.
On Monday evening, there was a banquet held in the King’s honor.
The next day, King Mswati toured the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, where he was briefed on the company’s plans and goals for the future, plus its real estate investments outside of Qatar.
After that, the King and his Queen were given a tour of the Museum of Islamic Art.
Tuesday, the couple flew back to southern Africa, where Swaziland is located.
The wife of the Qatari Emir, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned, gave a rousing speech at the UNESCO General Conference in Paris on Wednesday. She called for all children, everywhere in the world, to be granted the right to be educated.
 Maher Attar/Gulf Times “Depriving education is equal to depriving right to live,” she said. “The right to education is facing a structural crisis- the repercussions of which might not be revealed in the same way as the repercussions of the financial or the environmental crisis- but which in a long run might well be stronger and more dangerous. This is because quality education prepares the child, the teenager and the young man to face life, armed with the necessary knowledge, experience and skills which allow him to adapt to all the changes and pressures regardless of their causes. This is the type of education which enables us to face the challenges of the millennium.
“75 million children are deprived of the right to education, and 150 million children, 65 percent of whom are female, will not be able to complete their primary education.”
“Aren’t these people suffering from the injustice exercised by the international community, from discrimination and from the violation of the sacred right to education?” asked the Sheikha. “We should all question our ethical, legal and human credibility regarding the right to education if, whenever the sanctity of the educational system is violated by any party willfully and with premeditation, we fail to take the required, firm and appropriate action,”
Sheikha Mozah also called for peace studies to be included in classrooms all over the world.
Mozah, who is UNESCO’s Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education, was also awarded the gold Victor Hugo medal for her work. It was given to her by the out-going UNESCO chairman, Koichira Maatsura, whom the Sheikha praised for doing “a wonderful job.”
The Emir of Qatar sign a series of economic agreements with Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul on Monday, as part of his two day visit to the country. One of the agreements was to have a gas pipeline run to Turkey via Qatar.
 Reuters “We are eager to have a gas pipeline from Qatar to Turkey. We discussed this matter in the framework of cooperation in the field of energy. In this regard, a working group will be set up that will come up with concrete results in the shortest possible time,” Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
“In the same vein, we exhaustively discussed the pipelines, storage facilities and refineries to be established. We also held talks concerning the supply of liquefied natural gas [LNG] from Qatar,” the Emir said.
“This working group will work hard to obtain concrete results in line with our negotiations.”
In addition to the pipeline agreement, Turkey and Qatar signed a memorandum of understanding for media outlets between both countries. There was also an agreement to end private passports.
Emir Sheikh Hamad called the new relations between his country and Turkey “historic.” He also thanked President Gul for Turkey’s role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. When asked if the two countries will host a joint meditation session between Israel and the Palestinians, the Emir replied, “If the Palestinian parties wish, we are ready, acknowledging Turkey’s role in this regard.”
 Getty Images File The fashion bible Vanity Fair is out with its annual international best-dressed list – and two royal women are included! Spain’s Crown Princess Letizia and Qatar’s Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned have been wowing fashion lovers worldwide with their style, and Vanity Fair took notice.
Crown Princess Letizia was not under the radar when it comes to fashion, or any type of news in the English speaking world – save for her 2004 marriage to the heir to the Spanish throne. All that changed in late April, when France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and wife Carla Bruni stopped by Spain for a state visit. The media was geared up for Bruni, a former model, to upstage the Spanish royals. However, when Letizia wore her stunning berry colored ripple dress, she turned heads everywhere, and the French First Lady was nearly forgotten about.
Suddenly, the British newspapers and the American online news site, The Huffington Post, focused on the Crown Princess’ style. She has been praised for promoting Spanish fashion, which is largely overlooked on the world fashion scene.
Given Letizia’s new status as a fashion icon, and her recognition by Vanity Fair, expect her style and clothing choices to make more news in the future!
 - Reuters File
Onto Qatar, where the wife of Emir Sheikh Hamad, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned, has been stunning fashionistas worldwide by combining Persian Gulf style with European name brands. The Sheikha also upstaged Carla Bruni, when she and her husband visited France for a state visit in June. By wearing a berry colored gown and head covering, plus a pearl belt, Mozah also left Bruni in the dust when it came to deciding on who was the best dressed during the state dinner at the Champs-Elysees.
Seems like Carla Bruni better be careful when someone wears a berry colored outfit!
By being named by Vanity Fair for being one of the world’s best dressed, Crown Princess Letizia and Sheikha Mozah join a long list of well-dressed people, including U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, actress Anne Hathaway, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and girlfriend Diana Taylor, and of course, Carla Bruni – who always looks good no matter what.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his wife Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Misnned are on a state visit to France until Wednesday. The visit is meant to cement ties between the two countries.
 - Reuters
This is the third time the Emir has been to France. In 2007 and 2008, he was a special guest for France’s National Day.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed the relationship between France and Qatar as “long-standing and ideal.” He pointed out that many French companies increasingly have branches in the Gulf state.
Sarkozy also mentioned the need for the two countries to boost scientific and cultural ties. He praised Sheikha Mozah’s promotional efforts through the Qatar Foundation of Education, Science and Community Development.
After initial meetings with each other, the Emir and Sarkozy had a glitzy state dinner at Elysees Palace Monday night with their wives dressed to the nines.
Once this state visit is over, both countries would hopefully gain something from one another. France is looking towards Qatar for gas development, and imports Qatari nuclear technology and security equipment. Qatar meanwhile, sees French bilateral ties as a way to diversify its economy.
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