Word: qatar
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...long Geneva's newspapers reported threatening letters received by the police from French right-wing activists, and cafe sitters all but flinched in anticipation of the explosion of a plastic bomb. As the Algerian F.L.N. delegation moved into the luxurious tile-roofed villa belonging to the Sheik of Qatar, nervous Swiss soldiers crouched low behind sandbagged defense posts. One panicky recruit fired a burst over the 'head of a photographer who was aiming his camera...
...Doha, capital of Qatar (pronounced gutter), gaudy pink, green and gold palaces sprang up around the huddle of malodorous mud hovels; one vast pile, reserved for the visiting heads of state, was equipped with air conditioning and window curtains operated by pushbuttons; the outside walls of the Sheik's own palace were studded with bare light bulbs that went on by night even when the Sheik was away, which was more often than...
Foreign merchants awaited his trips with anticipation, for the aging Sheik was a generous man. When Saudi Arabia's King Saud went to Qatar for a royal visit laden with gifts in the form of bags of precious stones, Sheik Ali reciprocated by presenting Saud with 16 automobiles, one with gold fittings...
...generosity grew, so did his debts (about $14 million at last count) with Doha's local bankers; he just could not make ends meet, even though he got $12.5 million from Qatar's $50 million annual oil revenue. Soon Qatar's anxious bankers were backing young (30) Sheik Khalifa bin Hamad, Ali's nephew, who thought he was in line for the throne, and was pressing the old man to step down. The British, who watch over Qatar as a protectorate, took a hand when they detected signs of simmering insurrection among the Sheik...
...word was passed that all the decisions in the new regime will be made by Khalifa as new Crown Prince, who is determined that more of the state's revenues will be channeled into public-welfare projects. Celebrating, the Al Thanis feasted on lamb and rice, and Qatar's bankers and merchants flocked in to congratulate the old man, and wish his successor well. Everyone was happy when the new advisory council agreed to pay old Ali's debts out of state revenue and give him an annual pension big enough to continue his travels abroad, provided...