US sanctions Iran despite nuclear deal compliance

32 Pages·2017·12.38 MB·English

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017 SHAWWAL 25,1438 AH www.kuwaittimes.net
Heatwave Rohingya Syrian man Sri Lanka make
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Kuwait, poverty, trailed fight paints chase to beat
Middle East by violence his heartache Zimbabwe
US sanctions Iran despite
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nuclear deal compliance
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WASHINGTON: The US slapped fresh sanctions on Iran
MP Hayef demands
yesterday over its ballistic missile program, just hours
after Washington admitted the Islamic Republic was
official statement
complying with a landmark nuclear deal signed two
years ago. Iran’s parliament retaliated by voting for extra
over ‘Abdaly cell’
funding for the missile program, a move that speaker Ali
Larijani said would show the Americans that Iran “will
resist them with all its power”.
By B Izzak
The heightened tensions came after President Donald
Trump was forced to back off from a key campaign
KUWAIT: Islamist opposition MP Mohammad Hayef
promise to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear accord with
yesterday called on the interior minister to issue a
Tehran, which eased sanctions in return for limiting its
statement as soon as possible about the reported
ability to produce material for atomic weapons. Trump
escape of 14 members of the so-called pro-Iran
had described it as “the worst deal ever” and accused
“Abdaly cell”. News reports on Sunday said 14 of the
Iran of continuing to back terrorism in the Middle East.
26 members of the cell fled Kuwait hours after the
But on Monday, the White House admitted that the
court of cassation overturned their acquittals and
Islamic Republic was sticking to the nukes agreement. It
sentenced them to various jail terms. The men
noted, however, that while Iran might be meeting its
reportedly fled to Iran by sea and are believed to be
requirements on paper, it was “unquestionably in default
living in the Islamic republic. The government has
of the spirit” of the accord. In announcing the new sanc-
remained silent over the reports.
tions against 18 individuals and entities in Iran, the State
Hayef said that it is unacceptable that the Kuwaiti
Department said it “remains deeply concerned about
people do not know the whereabouts of 14 convicts
Iran’s malign activities across the Middle East which
of the cell, which was convicted of plotting attacks in
undermine regional stability, security, and prosperity.”
the country. “The ministry of interior must clarify
It cited Iran’s support for Hezbollah, Hamas, the
whether the men are in Kuwait serving their jail
regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Houthi
terms or are outside the country,” he demanded. rebels in Yemen fighting a US-backed coalition led by
Hayef called for quickly apprehending the 14 con- Saudi Arabia. In addition to earmarking an additional
victs and those who are hiding them or who helped WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump swings a Marucci baseball bat in the Blue Room during a “Made in $260 million for its ballistic missile program, Iran’s
Continued on Page 11 America” product showcase event at the White House on Monday. — AFP Continued on Page 11
Erdogan to visit Kuwait, Gulf
Egypt ends visas on arrival for Qataris
ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will vate news agency Dogan. Turkey is a key ally of Qatar,
this month visit Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are which has been diplomatically and economically isolat-
locked in a deep diplomatic crisis, his office announced ed by its Gulf neighbors over allegations it supports ter-
yesterday. Erdogan will also visit Kuwait, the main medi- rorism. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt
ator in the Qatar crisis, during his July 23-24 tour. and Bahrain last month cut diplomatic ties with Qatar
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Ankara would and issued 13 wide-ranging demands to lift the block-
continue to play a “constructive and active” role to help ade, including the closure of a Turkish military base in
solve what he described as a “pointless” crisis. Yildirim the emirate. The crisis has put Turkey in a delicate posi-
added Erdogan’s visit would be part of this effort. tion as Qatar is its main ally in the Gulf but Ankara does
Erdogan is expected to visit Saudi Arabia then Kuwait not want to antagonize key regional power Saudi Arabia.
on July 23 followed by Qatar on July 24, according to pri- Continued on Page 11
ANKARA: This photo taken on July 15, 2017 shows Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waving to an F-16
fighter jet while travelling from Ankara to Istanbul. — AFP
US healthcare reform collapses
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump blasted con-
Saudi woman in gressional Democrats and “a few Republicans” yesterday
over the failure of the GOP effort to rewrite the Obama
healthcare law, and warned, “we will return”. Trump’s early
online miniskirt
morning tweet unleashed a barrage of criticism at
Congress over the collapse of the GOP’s flagship legisla-
video arrested
tive priority. For seven years, the party has pledged to
repeal President Barack Obama’s law. “Most Republicans
were loyal, terrific & worked really hard,” Trump tweeted
RIYADH: Saudi police said yesterday they were ques-
yesterday morning, but said, “We were let down by all of
tioning a woman who appeared in an online video in
the Democrats and a few Republicans.” He added, “As I
a miniskirt and crop top walking through a historic
have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come
site in the ultraconservative kingdom. A series of
together and do a great healthcare plan. Stay tuned!”
videos, initially posted over the weekend to the
Two GOP senators - Utah’s Mike Lee and Jerry Moran of
Snapchat account of “Model Khulood”, show a young
Kansas - sealed the measure’s doom late Monday when
woman in a high-waisted miniskirt walking through
they announced they would vote “no” in an initial, critical
a fort in Ushaiqer, outside the capital Riyadh, playing
vote that had been expected as soon as next week. That
with sand in the dunes and turning towards the
meant that at least four of the 52 GOP senators were
camera for a close-up, her long hair uncovered. The
ready to block the measure - two more than Majority
videos have since been uploaded to YouTube and
Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had to spare in the face of
tweeted by different users.
unanimous Democratic opposition.
Saudi media, including the main dailies Sabq and
“Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal
Okaz, yesterday quoted a spokesman for police in
and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not
Riyadh as saying the woman was being questioned
be successful,” McConnell said in a late evening statement
Continued on Page 11
Continued on Page 11
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
LO C A L
KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received at Bayan Palace yesterday Acting Prime Minister and
Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. — KUNA
KUWAIT: Ambassadors of Guyana (top) Dr Shamir Ally and the Netherlands
Frans Potuyt (above) visited Kuwait Times yesterday and met separately with
Editor-in-Chief Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan. — Photos by Joseph Shagra
Mogherini in Kuwait Sunday to
underline mediation efforts support
CAIRO: Kuwait’s Acting Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah meets with Egypt’s President BRUSSELS: European Union foreign poli- July 15 and 16.
Abdelfatah Al-Sisi in Cairo on Monday. —KUNA cy chief Federica Mogherini will visit Mogherini said she had discussed
Kuwait on Sunday to express with Le Drian during her visit
Sisi appreciates Amir’s efforts
EU support of mediation to Paris last week the mes-
efforts assumed by His sages he would have brought
Highness the Amir Sheikh before his travel to the Gulf
to solve Gulf row: Spokesman Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al- region. “We agreed on mes-
Sabah to find solution to the sages to be passed before-
Gulf crisis. hand and he told me today
“I will be visiting Kuwait, about his contacts he has had,”
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled meets UN Yemen envoy in Cairo the mediator that we support said Mogherini.
and accompany and with “We discussed in particular
whom we are constantly in the need to avoid tensions in
CAIRO: Egypt’s President Abdelfatah Al-Sisi touch. So I will visit Kuwait European Union for- the Gulf,” she said noting that
has expressed his appreciation of Kuwait’s next Sunday,” she told a press eign policy chief it has negative repercussions
good efforts led by His Highness the Amir conference after a meeting of Federica Mogherini on the crisis in Libya which is
Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, EU foreign ministers Monday a top priority for the EU. “This
reflecting keenness on boosting the Arab soli- evening. Meanwhile, French is a consistent message that
darity and consensus. Sisi made his remarks Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian all EU ministers who had contacts in
on Monday during a meeting with the visiting briefed his EU counterparts on the out- the Gulf region but also the heads of
Kuwaiti Acting Prime Minister and Foreign come of his visit to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, states in the Gulf are passing,” she
Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates on added. — KUNA
Al-Sabah, Presidential Spokesman Alaa Yousef
said in a statement.
The meeting was attended by Egypt’s Public Authority of Industry
Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri, and Kuwait’s
Assistant Foreign Minister for the Office of the wins int’l award for GIS app
First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign
Minister Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser Al-
Mohammad Al-Sabah, and the Kuwaiti KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Public Authority Of
Industry (PAI) announced yesterday that it
Ambassador to Egypt Mohammad Al-
had won a distinguished achievement
Thuwaikh.
award in the field of geographic informa-
The Egyptian President asked Sheikh Kuwait’s Acting Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-
tion systems (GIS). The award, described by
Sabah Al-Khaled to convey his greetings to Sabah meets with the UN special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmad.
PAI as a “great achievement,” was presented
His Highness the Amir, highly appreciating
by the leading international company, ‘ESRI’,
Kuwait’s “unforgettable” supportive stances by or tamper with people’s destinies. Meanwhile, sis and preserving the unity of Arab states.
at its annual conference held recently in San
the side of Egyptian people. Egyptians will the Kuwaiti Acting Prime Minister and Foreign Diego. Engineers Younis Al-Khilaifi and
always hold good and love sentiments Minister conveyed His Highness the Amir’s Yemen Eman Fairoz briefed the audience at the
towards the Kuwaiti people and His Highness regards to Al-Sisi, affirming his country’s keen- Separately, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled also conference on the Kuwaiti application. The
the Amir who represents a major Arab value ness on boosting ties with Egypt on all levels, met with the UN special envoy for Yemen application, which has a large and integrat-
and wise leadership, said Sisi. He also affirmed said Yousef. Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmad. During the meet- ed database, provides information in a pre-
Cairo’s keenness on continuing consultations Kuwait is looking forward to hosting the ing, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled reiterated cise, easy and flexible manner to employees
and coordination with Kuwait on various Kuwaiti-Egyptian higher committee’s meeting Kuwait’s support to the UN envoy’s efforts to and industrial investors. It provides decision
regional and international issues of mutual to discuss ways of enhancing bilateral cooper- conclude a solution to the Yemeni crisis. The makers with research, statistics, reports and
interest. ation. He reaffirmed his country’s keenness envoy, meanwhile, reviewed the latest devel- indicators to support them in gaining the
on Egypt’s security and stability, noting that opments on the Yemeni scene. The meeting best results at the lowest cost. —KUNA Engineer Eman Fairoz
Non-interference the Arab North African country is a pillar of was attended by Assistant Foreign Minister for
The Egyptian foreign policy’s constants are stability in the Arab region, and that Kuwait is the Office of the First Deputy Prime Minister and
based on several principles, including non- to continue intensive coordination and con- Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser Al- Army Chief of Staff meets
interference in the internal affairs of any coun- sultations with Cairo in the forthcoming peri- Mohammad Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti Ambassador
try, and striving to preserve the Arab national od. The two sides discussed a number of to Egypt Mohammad Al-Thuwaikh, Assistant Australian military official
security, as well as disallowing interference in regional issues, notably the ongoing dispute Foreign Minister for the Arab World Affairs
Egypt’s affairs, Sisi mentioned. He also between Qatar and a number of Arab coun- Ambassador Aziz Al-Daihani, Kuwait’s
stressed the importance of standing decisive- tries, the Presidential spokesman noted, Permanent Delegate to the Arab League KUWAIT:Chief of General Staff of Kuwait’s The meeting dealt with military aspects
ly against policies that support terrorism and adding that Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled pointed Ambassador Ahmad Al-Bakr, and senior officials Armed Forces Lt Gen Mohammed Al-Khedr and ways to develop them, said Kuwait’s
foiling attempts to destabilize the Arab states out that Kuwait’s efforts aim at solving the cri- from the Kuwaiti foreign ministry. — KUNA held talks yesterday with Australian Defense Ministry in a statement. Khedr
Defense Attache to Saudi Arabia, Col Brad praised the deep bilateral relations shared
Robertson, on issues of common interest. between two countries. —KUNA
Members of the Kuwaiti National Assembly committee pose with the Kuwaiti Ambassador to France Sami Al-Sulaiman and embassy staff.—KUNA
Committee visits Kuwaiti health office in Paris
PARIS: Members of the Kuwaiti National general state budget, particularly the Health Paris, he said. The delegation of the parliamen-
Assembly committee tasked with inquiring Ministry’s finances, head of the parliamentary tary inquiry committee is due to leave for
about healthcare violations held meeting yes- delegation MP Salah Khorshid said. Frankfurt today as part of a tour of Health
terday with the staff of the Health Office in The members of the committee also met Ministry offices abroad. The delegation
Paris. The committee discussed with the head with a number of Kuwaiti patients in Paris, includes MPs Sadoun Hammad, Osama Al-
KUWAIT: Chief of General Staff of Kuwait’s Armed Forces Lt Gen Mohammed Al-
of the office Dr Fahad Al-Rashidi, the members adding that they praised the cooperation of Shaheen, Omar Al-Tabtabai and Faisal Al-
Khedr meets with Australian Defense Attache to Saudi Arabia Col Brad
of the bureau, issues connected to Kuwait’s the Health Office and the Embassy of Kuwait in Kandari. — KUNA
Robertson. —KUNA
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
LO C A L
Amiri pardon for
prisoners in 2017
By Meshaal Al-Enezi
Multipurpose hall reclaimed
KUWAIT: Justice Minister and State The Social Affairs Ministry reclaimed
Minister for National Assembly Affairs a multipurpose hall from the Union of
Faleh Al-Azb said an Amiri decree was Consumer Co-operative Societies
issued for releasing and commuting (UCCS). It said the reason for this action
prisoners’ sentences for 2017. Azb said was due to many violations, including
His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al- the hall being used for conferences by
Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah issued the the union. It said the hall was turned
decree based on article 75 of the consti- into a multipurpose facility without
tution and article 239 of the procedures receiving the necessary licenses. A
law. He said this article of the proce- statement said current and previous
dures law says “the Amir can, after a sen- union administrations used to rent the
tence is rendered against a certain per- hall to an investor and used it as a com-
son, and before implementing it, or dur- mercial outlet in a clear violation of an
ing implementation, issue an order to administrative decision that regulates
pardon the sentence or reduce it.” He the use of halls and sets the fee at KD
said that some inmates will be released 100 in the general interest of citizens.
immediately, while others will have their Citizens also complained they were
sentences commuted to half. Some will forced to deal with the investor. The
be relieved of judicial deportation, while hall was seized in the presence of a
others will have their fines dropped. police force.
Heat wave strikes Kuwait, Middle East
KUWAIT: A record heat wave struck Degrees Celsius. The heat wave will last for lated to heated coal, usually describes the
Kuwait and the Middle East region, bring- 52 days, from mid-July until late-August. unbearable weather during this time of
ing the maximum temperatures to over 50 The term ‘Jamarat Al-Gaith,’ roughly trans- the year. —KUNA
Domestic help company
operates in September
By A Saleh a fee and possibility of a refund, provided that salaries and military allowances law that it
a six-month period has not elapsed. returned it to the Assembly on the last work-
KUWAIT: Chairman of Ishbelia Cooperative ing day before Eid. He said the fatwa and leg-
Society Bussam Al-Mutairi said the Al-Durra Report ready islation department, social security, the
Domestic Help Company will start work in A report on the resignation of former chair- finance committee and concerned ministers
September, adding that the society will pro- woman of Kuwait Airways Rasha Al-Roumi will did not oppose it.
vide all possible facilities to organize the be ready by the start of the next term of the
process of bringing in workers. Mutairi said he National Assembly, the parliamentary investi- Premier’s grilling
held a technical meeting with the company’s gation committee said in a statement. The Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and
operations director Ahmad Al-Fares in the committee will hold a meeting today with State Minister for Economic Affairs Hind Al-
presence of co-op secretary Saad Al-Rasheedi. Interior Minister Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah to ask Sabeeh said the government fully cooperates
Some Asian countries were approved for him where the Civil Aviation Department with the committee studying aspects of the
bringing in domestic help, including belongs - to the interior ministry or the state prime minister’s grilling, and it is ready to
Philippines, India, Madagascar, Nepal and Sri ministry for economic affairs. present all necessary information. She said
Lanka. He said it was also agreed to apply to she attended the committee’s meeting and Multiple drug-related
hire helpers electronically to help the elderly Defensive plan presented everything related to the issues
and those with special needs. He said the peri- MP Nayef Al-Merdas said the government brought up in the grilling. The committee
arrests made around Kuwait
od for a helper to arrive will be a minimum of is using a defensive plan against proposed held a meeting to discuss the grilling of the
two months from the date of the application, laws. He said although it should take the ini- prime minister in the presence of Sabeeh to
adding that the guarantee will be for six or tiative and have discussions with the execu- discuss the demographic structure and the
By Hanan Al-Saadoun eight pills suspected of being Lyrica.
three months as agreed. As for returned work- tive authority, it is always confronting laws high unemployment rate, but a lack of quo-
Another citizen was found wanted to
ers, the company will take them back without tabled by MPs, the latest of which is the rum prevented the meeting.
KUWAIT: Farwaniya security directorate serve a five-year jail sentence. He is also
officers arrested an Arab man with pos- wanted for using and trading in drugs.
session of 26 envelopes suspected of
containing shabu (meth), along with 107 Crackdown
Tramadol pills and three envelopes of Mubarak Al-Kabeer security arrested
chemical; a variation of ‘Spice’ (synthetic six indebted people, six absconders and
marijuana) with added chemicals. The a roaming vendor. Six vehicles wanted by
man was taken to the Drug Control authorities and three other vehicles were
General Department (DCGD) to face impounded, and 20 people were given
charges. In another case, Hawally securi- humanitarian assistance. Separately,
ty arrested a citizen in an abnormal con- General security personnel set up several
dition who was obstructing traffic. Police checkpoints, resulting in the arrest of 13
found four butts of cigarettes suspected persons including seven citizens and six
of containing drugs in the man’s posses- expats with drugs. A citizen was found
sion. Meanwhile, three Asians were wanted on a debt case.
arrested for brewing liquor. Police found
2,300 bottles and 50 drums. Also, Detour
Ahmadi security arrested a citizen with The Traffic Department announced
herbal material, along with remnants of a the opening of a detour on the Sixth
cigarette. He was found wanted on debt Ring Road at the intersection with Al-
cases. Separately, Capital police arrested Ghous Street. The traffic light will be
a citizen in an abnormal condition with removed today morning.
KUWAIT: Shoppers gather at the main fish market in Sharq seeking a good bargain during a daily auction yesterday. The fishing season for
Zubaidi (silver Pomfret) opened this week after a fishing ban imposed by local authorities to allow the marine species to reproduce in terri- KUWAIT: Kuwait Municipality inspectors disconnected electricity from five violating
torial waters. Kuwaiti Zubaidi fish are considered one of the most expensive fish in Kuwait, where the price of one kilograms is KD 15 equiva- buildings during a crackdown carried out yesterday in Abu Al-Hassaniya in Mubarak
lent to $45.— Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat Al-Kabeer governorate.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
LO C A L
In Brief
Flight from Kuwait Kuwait oil price US Dollar rate
makes emergency landing up to $45.88 pb stable at KD 0.302
KUWAIT/BUCHAREST:A KLM flight from Kuwait KUWAIT: The price of Kuwaiti oil went up 50 KUWAIT: The US Dollar exchange
to Amsterdam made an emergency landing in cents to $45.88 per barrel Monday as oppose rate was stable at KD 0.302 while
Romania yesterday. The Airbus A330 plane, trav- to $45.38 pb last Friday, said Kuwait the euro went up to KD 0.348, said
eling with 298 people onboard, requested an Petroleum Corporation (KPC) yesterday. At the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK)
emergency landing at the Henri Coanda Airport the global level, the prices were up due to yesterday. The CBK indicated the
after one of its engines began consuming extra the increase in the number of oil rigs in the Sterling Pound remained
fuel. Airport authorities instituted standard US and the surge in crude oil demand at unchanged at KD 0.396, whereas
emergency procedures, reported the National Chinese refineries. The price of the Brent the Swiss Franc was to KD 0.315.
Company of Bucharest Airports. crude was up to $49.02 per barrel, the same The Japanese Yen was firm at KD
case with the Texas West Intermediate, 0.002. — KUNA
which was at $46.64 pb. — KUNA
Photo
o f t h e d a y
KUWAIT: A bird is perched on a dry twig of a leafless tree during a hot afternoon in Kuwait City. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat
Kuwait beach cleanup
Business-friendly environment
gives impetus to development
campaign nears end
KUWAIT:It is imperative to provide an entrepreneurs and eliminate any
environment that is conducive for impediments to fledgling businesses.
business and in turn, would encour- Roudhan also spoke of a growing pen-
age development projects and help chant among many young Kuwaitis to
diversify the economy, an official said dabble in small and medium-sized
yesterday. development projects, which have
Speaking at a panel discussion, become increasingly significant.
Minister of Commerce and Industry Moreover, he added that many
Khaled Al-Roudhan noted that the entrepreneurs are often deterred by
Ministry of Commerce was eager to certain legislation that need to be
facilitate procedures related to small amended, or else, pursuing such proj-
and medium-sized development ects can be a daunting task. The panel
projects. discussion, attended by bodies from
Roudhan, who doubles as Acting across the government spectrum,
Minister of State for Youth Affairs, detailed the intricacies behind small
revealed that the ministry has set up an and medium-sized development proj-
ad hoc committee tasked with ensuring ects, including the private sector’s con-
a proper environment that would lure tributions to such endeavors. — KUNA
Deaf Sports Club grateful
after suspension is lifted
KUWAIT:Kuwait is wrapping up the bay, which is a major fish that the previous two phases of
an environmental cleanup cam- habitat in a country with a pro- the beach cleanup were success-
paign through protecting the found maritime tradition. He fully held in the last two years.
Bay of Kuwait and making sure added that numerous govern- Amna Al-Refai, an official from
that its beaches are kept pris- ment bodies have joined forces the Environment Public
tine. Speaking at a press confer- to pick up heaps of trash strewn Authority (EPA), pointed out that
ence yesterday, Abdulaziz Al- across Kuwait’s beaches, which sewage and waste have wreaked
Shatti, who heads the cam- collectively stretch over 814 havoc on the Bay of Kuwait and
paign, noted that the endeavor sq/km. that EPA has initiated a plethora
aims to stave off pollution Meanwhile, Manal Al-Thifeeri, of measures to protect this envi-
caused by waste that could sully a campaign member, recalled ronmental landmark. — KUNA
ANKARA: Members of the Kuwait Sports Club for the Deaf pose for a group photo. — KUNA
ANKARA: Head of Kuwait Sports Club for lift the suspension. The conference is tack-
the Deaf Aidan Al-Shali yesterday ling a number of issues concerning deaf
expressed his gratitude to those who con- athletes across the organization’s 168
tributed to the lifting of Kuwait’s member- member states.
ship suspension of the World Federation of The 2017 Summer Deaflympics kicked
the Deaf (WFD). off yesterday in Samsun city, northern
Shali said that Kuwait’s participation in Turkey, with the participation of 3,000 ath-
the International Committee of Sports for letes representing 97 countries. The first
the Deaf (ICSD) conference comes after lift- championship for the deaf was launched in
ing the suspension on Kuwait sanctioned Paris, France in 1924. The United States of
by the Asia - Pacific Deaf Sports Confedera - America is the most decorated country in
tion. He endorsed the efforts exerted by the event, having amassed 987 medals,
KUWAIT: The Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK) sponsored a ceremony organized by the ambulance department in Jahra recently to honor dis-
Kuwait’s club chairperson and members to including 350 gold. — KUNA
tinguished emergency medical technicians.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
LO C A L
KFH participates in
Al-Rai
Believe me, corruption is far more KFSD annual ceremony
Poetry as
dangerous than terrorism.
a media tool
By Dr Khalid Al-Saleh
A
nd the poets (only) the deviators follow them
(224). Do you not see that in every valley they
roam (225). And that they say what they do not
do? (226). Except those (poets) who believe and do
righteous deeds and remember Allah often and
defend (the Muslims) after they were wronged. And KUWAIT: Executive Manager Group Public Relations
those who have wronged are going to know to what and Media at KFH Yousef Al-Ruwaieh receiving honor
(kind of) return they will be returned (227). (Holy from KFSD’s Director General Lieutenant General
Quran: Ash Shuara) Khaled Al-Mikrad.
Several sayings about the meaning of these verses
include that two men, one of them from the Ansar a KUWAIT: Director General of Kuwait Fire Service Directorate
a
(Supporters), dueled with poetry, so people came to b (KFSD) Lieutenant General Khaled Al-Mikrad commended Kuwait
n
the support of their man. Those supporters who lis- A Finance House (KFH) for its unlimited support to the firefighters,
tened to the poetry and spread it are the people who Al- expressing appreciation for the bank’s Chairman and Board of
are astray, that Almighty Allah mentioned. Poetry has — Directors, and the executive management in recognition of KFH’s
support to the efforts and initiatives of the country’s institutions,
lost its strength as a media tool in our era and
indicating this reflects the pioneering role of KFH in the social
replaced by satellite channels and social media that
responsibility. Mikrad’s statement was made during the annual
play the same role poets used to play in the past.
ceremony of KFSD in honor of media practitioners at the
Media men or ‘Tweeters’ who do not have any fear
Man attempted Regency Hotel.
of God in our era roam every valley, lie and post infor-
Meanwhile, Public Relations Department at KFSD Director
mation they make up, which are received by others, Colonel Khalil Al-Ameer said that KFH has a proven track record
who in turn repost them. All these are deviators who of social contributions, which affirms the bank’s efficient strategy
not only publish, but also participate in spreading to sell dead body in the field of social responsibility.
strife and corrupt the system of values, which is the Executive Manager Group Public Relations and Media at KFH
pillar of social peace among individuals and people. Yousef Abdullah Al-Ruwaieh reiterated the bank’s commitment
If you look left or right today, you will find poets towards supporting all initiatives that serve the society and con-
everywhere who roam every valley, and you will also tribute in achieving comprehensive development.
see large crowds of deviants, and you barely see the KUWAIT: An Egyptian man whose job is to transport Fight He added, during his speech at the ceremony, that KFH attaches
exception that came in the verse “Except those dead bodies to Kuwait International Airport was arrested A fight between a citizen and a detective ended with both great attention to the KFSD representatives and the security per-
(poets) who believe and do righteous deeds and and taken to state security after he was caught with the injured, and one of them had to undergo surgery. Police had sonnel in all sectors in recognition of their important role in the
remember Allah often and defend (the Muslims) after body of a Bangladeshi man that was supposed to be responded to a call about a fight and broke it up. Police are peace and security of the country. He affirmed that the bank is keen
they were wronged.” These have become a rare com- shipped out. The suspect took advantage of a document questioning both to find out the cause of the fight, as they on honoring media practitioners who support KFSD and focus on
are neighbors. the role of firemen in protecting the society.
modity. Today, every person, even if he is not a media showing that the official at the airport received two bod-
man, has the tools attributed to poets who are astray. ies, but delivered only one body. He told authorities that
Every one of us relays information without making he was about to sell the body to students at the college
sure about it and without knowledge of the harm it of medicine. Al-Anbaa local daily said the inspector who
may cause to human relationships that link the gave him the receipt of two bodies and did not make sure
region’s peoples. they were onboard was questioned. He claimed that the
The strange thing is that the astray get nothing hot weather caused him not to follow the matter person-
out of what they are doing other than release ally. The second body was discovered at the outer gate
grudges and entertain gossip, besides some media when inspectors saw the coffin.
people who are making a living out of differences
and gain from nations’ tragedies. We in the Gulf today
‘Too much money’
are on top of a volcano, and the circle of strife is get-
The electronic crimes department is carrying out
ting wider, so we all must understand and think
investigations to identify a person who uploaded a
about the ending of the previous verse: “And those
video on YouTube bragging about being rich and lit a
who have wronged are going to know to what (kind
cigarette with a KD 10 note. A source said detectives
of) return they will be returned,” which refers to those
are determining the authenticity of the clip, and
who do not heed the warning of Almighty Allah, stop
whether the currency note he used is real or fake. The
harming others and avoid publishing destructive
man boasted he is rich and pitied those who wait for
messages under any title.
— Translated by Kuwait Times their salaries at the end of the month, claiming he has
too much money and lights cigarettes with it.
Jail riot
News
Central prison administration sent a report to the interi-
or ministry’s assistant undersecretary for reform institu-
I n B r i e f
tions and sentence implementation affairs Maj Gen
Abdullah Al-Muhanna about events in ward 7 that end-
Agreement on reducing ed with several policemen and inmates injured. A securi-
ty source said that prison guards decided to raid ward 7
expatriates’ numbers following information about banned substances there.
When prisoners were told to leave the place, several of
them refused and attempted to take the money they
KUWAIT: Fees that expatriates in Kuwait pay for public had with them. The source added that inmates attacked
services could double in the near future as local authorities policemen, who fought back and brought the prisoners
mull ways to cut the number of foreigners living in the under control.
country and rebalance the state’s demographics in favor of
locals. There is understanding between the government
and parliament over the need to increase Kuwaitis’ per- Threats
centage in the total population from around 31 percent A Palestinian man filed two complaints at Zahra
today to 40 percent within a few years. This can happen police station, one against his brother-in-law, who
through a number of procedures that include increasing threatened to harm him, relying on his relations with
the number of national manpower in the private sector an influential person; and the other against an
(where over 90 of workers are expats), increasing fees of unidentified person who called his home several
public services offered to expats and limiting government times. He gave police the caller’s phone number. A
subsidies on products and services exclusively to Kuwaitis, man lodged a complaint against his daughter, who is
government sources said. — Al-Qabas in her 20s, accusing her of damaging the floors of his
house. Police will summon her for questioning. He
told police that she poured a liquid on the floor to
12,000 visitor’s visas renewed damage it deliberately.
KUWAIT: The Interior Ministry’s Residency Affairs
General Department renewed nearly 12,000 expired
Assault
visitor’s visas for Syrian nationals in Kuwait, and col-
An Egyptian woman was beaten badly by a compatriot,
lected around KD 900,000 as delay fines in the process.
and lodged a complaint against him at Jabriya police
Each visa was renewed for a three-month renewable
station. She told police that she came across the
period, security sources said, adding that a KD 10 fine
Egyptian with whom she had earlier differences, and he
was collected for each day of delay beyond the visa’s
attacked her in public and did not let go of her until
expiration date. — Al-Rai
passersby intervened. Police will question the man, who
faces legal action.
1,150 face legal action
KUWAIT: The Ministry of Defense started procedures to
Mugging
take legal action against Kuwaitis who failed to subscribe
A man who posed as a policeman in Jabriya robbed a
for conscription after the end of the two-month period
Filipina. The woman said that the suspect stopped
stipulated by the law to join military service, Head of the
her near a taxi office claiming to be a policeman and
National Service Authority at the ministry Major General
stole her money, IDs and ATM cards. Hawally detec-
Ibrahim Al-Omairi said. The total number of people expect-
tives are working on the case. — Translated from the
ed to face legal action is 1,150 out of 2,300 citizens eligible
Arabic press
to join conscription, Omairi added. — Al-Rai
KUWAIT: Daily cleaning works are ongoing at the historic Mubarakiya Market, reflecting commitment to taking
care of the site that is considered one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country, Kuwait Municipality’s
public relations department announced in a statement yesterday.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
Duterte seeks martial
law extension in south
Rohingya Muslims: Cornered by poverty, stalked by violence
Page 8 Page 9
SEOUL: This photo taken on May 24, 2017 shows social workers caring for babies at the Jusarang Community Church in southern Seoul. — AFP
S Korea child law sees more babies abandoned
‘Teenagers give birth in empty houses or public toilets’
SEOUL:The young woman labored up the well-intended reasons that campaigners say dust. The father had been planning to bury it ing to accept such a past. Even employment mothers. International adoptions slumped by
steps, past brightly decorated walls akin to a could make the situation even worse. alive, he explained. “When the father started checks often go into family background, and three-quarters in the wake of the 2012 law-
child’s nursery, her daughter in her arms. shovelling earth over it, the mother could not would show that a woman had had a child which tightened requirements from natural
Opening a hatch in the wall, she put her inside, Buried alive bear it any more and rescued the baby.” and given it up. The box operates in a legal and prospective adoptive parents-going from
turned around and walked away. She ran her The woman in the video footage was grey area. Authorities are fully aware of it, and 916 the previous year to 236 in 2013.
hands over her head but did not look back, sur- among the latest of more than 1,000 to have Social stigma the welfare ministry-which has a specific cate- Now Seoul says it aims to ratify the Hague
veillance camera footage showed. She may made their way to a house in a working-class In 2010, its first year of operations, just four gory for it in its statistics-neither supports it Convention, which says children should prefer-
never see the girl again. neighborhood on the outskirts of Seoul. babies were placed in the box. At the time, nor opposes it as, according to official Kim ably be adopted by families in their home coun-
South Korea has risen from the ruins of Converted into a shelter by a small Seoul South Korean women who wanted to give up Hye-Ji, “it saves the lives of newborn babies”. try, by the end of the year. Officials say that will
war to become Asia’s fourth-largest economy church, a temperature-controlled chamber unwanted babies were obliged to give adop- But the Gwanak district office has repeatedly see authorities regulate all stages of the adop-
and a member of the OECD club of devel- built into the wall functions as a baby box, tion agencies their written consent, but often urged Pastor Cho to shut it down. “We see the tion process, including the reasons children are
oped countries. It was for a time one of the enabling unwanted newborns to be taken in gave false details or no records, and operators baby box as an illegal facility that encourages given up, the qualifications of adopting parents,
world’s biggest sources of unwanted chil- without parents having to identify themselves. looked the other way. baby abandonment,” said local official Min and ensuring that as adults, adoptees will be
dren, driven by poverty, a light regulatory New arrivals-almost 200 last year, an average But two years later the country adopted a Seo-Young. able to trace their birth families.
touch, and a culture of racial purity, family of nearly four a week-are deposited covered in law banning adoption agencies accepting Pastor Lee’s colleague Cho Tae-Seung is con-
bloodlines, and shame. Around 110,000 blood, wrapped in material, sometimes with undocumented babies, in line with the Hague Blank sheet cerned that the regulations resulting from the
South Koreans have been adopted to the the umbilical cord still attached. Pastor Lee Convention, which aims to give adoptive chil- The shelter looks after new arrivals for a few convention could backfire by driving women to
United States alone since the 1950s but num- Jong-Rak of the Jusarang Community Church dren the right to trace their birth parents. It days until they are moved to orphanages to abandon unwanted babies illicitly and danger-
bers have fallen in recent years. set up the facility after hearing reports of also required all adoptions to be court- await new families. But a stigma remains ously. “It’s very hard to strike a balance between
Birth rates have plummeted to the world’s babies being abandoned in the open air or in approved. In 2013, 224 babies were aban- around adoption in Korea, where a focus on reality and international adoption norms,” he
lowest with factors such as high child-rearing public restrooms, where they risked dying of doned at the centre by parents desperate to preserving family bloodlines makes the idea of said. Instead the group wants mothers to be
costs and a workaholic culture affecting the sit- hypothermia. “Some teenagers give birth to hide their identities. raising someone else’s child anathema to legally allowed to give birth and give up their
uation. But the number of abandoned babies babies in empty houses or in public toilets. Almost all who do so are poor single many. It also has a long history of taking pride children anonymously. Next to the hatch in the
has jumped in recent years in the wake of a law They wrap them in old shirts or towels and women. More unmarried mothers are keeping in its racial homogeneity-many of the first wall, a form enables parents to state a child’s
intended to protect children. bring them to us,” he told AFP. On one occasion, their children in South Korea, but face social international adoptees were the mixed-race name, date of birth, and vaccinations. The
Now more changes are mooted, for similarly a young couple brought in a baby covered in ostracism and struggle to find husbands will- children of American servicemen and Korean mother in the video left it blank. — AFP
Separated by conflict, Iraqi
children wait for parents
DEBAGA: Adel, 15, hasn’t seen his parents for dren agency, UNICEF, more than 1,000 chil- Facebook,” said Adel. He hopes to go visit
the past nine months, but that was the price dren under the age of 18 have been separated them after September, when he is due to resit
to pay to escape the brutal rule of Islamic from their parents. Adel is cared for by the his school exams after failing at a first attempt.
State group jihadists in his northern Iraqi Terres des Hommes Italia, a children’s aid “There are just over 1,000 children who are
hometown. “I miss my family, nine months is organization, and is among 17 teenagers separated and unaccompanied,” UNICEF’s
too long,” said the teenager, among hundreds being sheltered by the charity, which organiz- Maulid Warfa said after a tour of the Mosul
of youngsters separated from their parents es English and computer science classes and area. His visit to eastern and western Mosul
because of IS and the months-long battle that sports activities. “The teachers treat us well. It’s came after the Iraq government declared the
has expelled the jihadists from Mosul, the like I’m at home here now,” said Adel. city “liberated” from the jihadists who overran
main city of northern Iraq. it three years ago.
Adel remembers the long trek on foot out Tracing families “Separated means they are with relatives,
of Hawijah-a town in Kirkuk province that is In the common room, boys wearing T-shirts but not their parents. Unaccompanied means
still held by IS-as he and others made their took turns to play ping pong or table football. they are all alone, and this group is our top pri-
way to Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. “We Others lay on mattresses in the dormitory next ority,” said Warfa. He said UNICEF was working
walked all night, around 14 hours,” said the door busy with their mobile phones, while in to trace the families. “If we can’t find them, the
teenager. He now lives in a camp for the dis- the background Arab music blared out at full courts will put them in a state institution.”
placed in Debaga region, southeast of Mosul, volume. In the kitchen, three teenagers were The UN official said he had met a boy of
where he has been reunited with one of his helping the head cook prepare the day’s around seven whose left hand had been badly
brothers and some cousins. Adel is not from lunch, and they were learning how to bake damaged in an explosion. “He was clearly very
the area, but the battle for Mosul has dis- bread. Six months after Adel fled Hawijah, his distressed, not talking or interacting, even
placed hundreds of thousands of other civil- parents also left for a camp for the displaced in when we gave him a small ball to play with, he DEBAGA, Iraq: Iraqi youth, who were separated from their families during the fighting between
ians, many of whom now reside in camps near Kirkuk province. “The only way to contact didn’t touch it. We were told his parents were Iraqi forces and Islamic State (IS) group jihadists around the city of Mosul, sit in a room at the head-
Iraq’s second city. According to the UN’s chil- them is by phone and sometimes on killed in the blast,” he said. — AFP quarters of the Terres des Hommes Italia, a children’s aid organization. — AFP
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
I N T E R N AT ION A L
US and British volunteers
Israel PM praises Hungary
fight against anti-Semitism
battle IS in Syria’s Raqqa
BUDAPEST: Israeli leader Benjamin fertile ground. Netanyahu will today
Netanyahu yesterday praised Budapest meet premiers of the Visegrad Group-
for “standing up for” the Jewish state, at Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic
talks with Hungarian premier Viktor plus Hungary-whose nationalistic Tearing out the ‘heart of darkness’
Orban who is under fire at home for stances have also increasingly placed
allegedly stoking anti-Semitism. “I want to them at odds with the rest of the EU. “All
thank you for standing up for Israel in these states are very pro-Israel,” Israeli RAQQA: Hunkered down on the top floor of an
international forums, you have done this analyst Raphael Vago told AFP. “They abandoned building, two Americans and a
again and again,” Netanyahu said at a vote in our favor at the European Union British volunteer face off against Islamic State
press conference with Orban in Budapest. and the United Nations.” Netanyahu will snipers in the Syrian city of Raqqa. The trio,
He added that Hungary, as the birth- attend Budapest’s Great Synagogue with including two who served in the French Foreign
place of modern political Zionism Jewish community leaders, before Legion and the war in Iraq, have made the war
founder Theodor Herzl, was “at the fore- departing Thursday. against IS their own.
front” of countries fighting anti-Zionism. They are among dozens of Western volun-
Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minis- Anti-Soros graffiti teers who have battled the Islamic State group
ter to visit Budapest since the fall of com- The trip comes at a sensitive time for in Iraq, and now in Raqqa, the city in northeast-
munism in 1989. The landmark trip Orban who faces a backlash over his viru- ern Syria that the militants declared the capital
brings together two right-wingers enam- lent crusade against Soros, a Hungarian- of their self-proclaimed caliphate. The men
ored of US President Donald Trump and born Jewish emigre. Some posters joined US-allied Syrian militias for different rea-
with a disdain for the left-leaning liberal daubed with graffiti have attacked the sons - some motivated by survivors’ accounts of
global order bankrolled, as they see it, by financier for his alleged support of mass brutality at the hands of the extremists. Others
the likes of US billionaire George Soros. immigration. joined what they see as a quest for justice and a
“The (Israeli) prime minister is a great Many in Hungary’s 100,000-strong final battle to tear out the “heart of darkness.”
patriot and success belongs to those Jewish population-one Europe’s largest Taylor Hudson, a 33-year old from Pasadena,
who are patriots, who don’t push nation- have accused Orban, in power since California, compares the fight for Raqqa to the
al identity and interests aside,” Orban 2010, of turning a blind eye to anti- 1945 Battle of Berlin in World War II that ended
said yesterday. “Israel’s history teaches Semitism or even encouraging it to stave the rule of Adolf Hitler. “This is the Berlin of our
that we will lose the things we don’t off growing support for the far-right. times,” said Hudson, who doubles as a platoon
fight for.” The hardline policies of the Orban however has insisted the bill- medic and a sniper in the battle against the mil-
pair-described as “spiritual brothers” by boards were not about Soros’s itants. For him, IS extremists “represent every-
Hungarian media-have sparked tensions Jewishness but the “national security risk” thing that is wrong with humanity.”
with Brussels. But in eastern and central posed by his supposed wish to “settle a
Europe, the muscle-flexing has found million migrants” in the EU. — AFP Deepening conflict
Syria’s war, now in its seventh year, has
attracted foreign fighters to all sides. Extremists
Lebanon army to act against
from Europe, Asia and North Africa have flocked
to IS as well as local Al-Qaeda-linked groups.
militants near Syria border Shiite Iranian and Lebanese militias have sided
with the Syrian government, deepening the RAQQA: In this Monday, July 17, 2017 photo, Kevin Howard, a 28-year old former US military
sectarian nature of the conflict that has killed contractor from California, who fights with an Assyrian militia, that is part of the US-backed
BEIRUT: Lebanese security forces will conditions, but rights groups urged an
over 400,000 people and displaced over 11 mil- forces battling Islamic State group militants, gives an interview to The Associated Press. —AP
launch an operation against militants near independent investigation after allegations
lion, half of Syria’s pre-war population. A much
informal refugee camps in the country’s that the men had been tortured to death. smaller number of Western volunteers fight had treated some 600 wounded ahead of the military contractor from California who
east after coming under attack there, Lebanese security forces have come under march onto Raqqa. The presence of Western fought in Iraq in 2006, the war is more per-
alongside the US-allied Kurdish militia known as
Lebanon’s prime minister said on yester- attack in Arsal before, and in 2014 jihadists anti-IS volunteers in Syria has created some- sonal. A skilled sniper who boasts of having
the People’s Protection Units, or YPG. The US
day. Saad Hariri’s announcement came as kidnapped 30 soldiers and policemen after thing of a conundrum for their governments, killed 12 IS militants so far, Howard said he is
military has developed a close relationship with
the country’s president warned against clashes in the area. which have often questioned them on terrorism doing it for the victims of the Bataclan theatre
the YPG and its extension, the Syrian
rising anti-refugee rhetoric after Lebanese charges. “I am not a terrorist,” said attack in France, where the sister of one of his
Democratic Forces, in the war against IS.
troops were attacked around Arsal, a town Renewed tensions best friends survived. The Nov 13, 2015
Before that, dozens of Westerners joined
near the Syrian border. “The Lebanese Four of the hostages were killed and a Former broker attacks, claimed by IS, killed 130 people at
army will carry out a planned-out opera- fifth died of his wounds, while 16 were even- Iraqi Kurds fighting IS, spurred on by Kurdish
Macer Gifford, a 30-year former broker in Paris cafes, the national stadium and the
tion in Jurud Arsal and the government tually released in December 2015. Another social media campaigners and a sense of duty
London, who came to Syria three years ago to Bataclan, where 90 died.
gives it freedom (to do so),” Hariri said in nine hostages are still being held. The latest many feel after Iraq, the target of a decade-long
volunteer first with the Kurdish militia. Now he “This is a continuation of that fight. I think if
comments quoted by the official National incident in Arsal has created renewed ten- US-led military campaign, collapsed under an IS
News Agency. sions in a country of just four million people offensive within days in the summer of 2014. is fighting with an Assyrian militia, also part of you leave something unfinished, it will remain
Jurud Arsal refers to the mountainous hosting more than one million Syrian Some Western volunteers have died in battle. the US-backed forces battling IS. “I am here unfinished for a lifetime,” he said, showing off
border region around Arsal, and is home to refugees. Lebanese President Michel Aoun Earlier this month, the YPG announced that 28 defending the people of Syria against terror- his 1972 sniper rifle. On his forehead and neck,
thousands of refugees from neighboring warned yesterday that anti-refugee rhetoric year-old Robert Grodt, of Santa Cruz, California, ists,” he added. Gifford has been questioned by he has tattooed “life is pain,” as well as “Rien
Syria living in informal camps. Lebanese was dangerous for both sides. and 29-year-old Nicholas Alan Warden, of British and US officials. At home, he has written N’empÍche” - or “Nothing Prevents”- from the
troops carrying out arrest raids in two of “If we are working for the return of the Buffalo, New York, died in the battle for Raqqa. and lectured about the complex situation in song of the French Foreign Legion in which he
those camps in late June were met with a refugees, it is because Lebanon is no longer Since launching the push on Raqqa on June Syria, offering a firsthand account of IS’ evolv- served. “For me this is a chance to absolutely
string of suicide attacks and grenades. A able to carry the burden,” Aoun said at a 6, the U.S.-backed forces have taken a third of ing tactics. “The Islamic State is actually an go to the heart of darkness and grab it and get
girl was killed and seven soldiers wounded meeting with local officials, and in a post the city. Hudson, who has been fighting in Syria exceptional opponent,” Gifford said. “We can’t rid of it,” he added. From his sniper position on
in the attacks, and the army subsequently on his official Twitter account. “But the for the past 13 months, said he was moved to negotiate them away, we can’t wish them Raqqa’s front line, he peeked again through
arrested dozens of people. spread of hatred and incitement are reject- tears by media reports of Iraqi Yazidi women away. The only way we can defeat them is with the rifle hole. For Howard, the orders to march
Days later, the army said four of the ed, and their consequences are severe for enslaved by IS. A pharmacy student who force of arms.” deeper into the IS-held city can’t come soon
detainees had died of pre-existing medical both peoples,” he added. — AFP learned combat medicine in the field, he said he For Kevin Howard, a 28-year old former US enough. — AP
CARACAS: Opposition activists block an avenue during a protest. — AFP
Trump threatens Venezuela
with ‘economic actions’
CARACAS: US President Donald Nationwide strike backed by a loyal military, has up to
Trump threatened Venezuela with Venezuela’s opposition coalition now shrugged off the opposition tac-
swift “economic actions” on Monday if has called a nationwide, 24-hour strike tics and the international criticism lev-
its leader pushes on with an unpopu- for Thursday to add pressure to eled at him. Despite growing public
lar bid to change his country’s consti- Maduro following an unofficial week- anger at food and medicine shortages
tution amid mounting condemnation. end vote it held that rejected the under a spiralling economic crisis that
The warning came as Venezuela’s leader’s plan. That plan, which Maduro has swelled the opposition move-
opposition coalition called a nation- has shown no sign of deviating from, ment, authorities in Caracas portray
wide strike for Thursday to kick off a entails a citizens’ body-called a the efforts against them as illegiti-
“final offensive” aimed at forcing “Constituent Assembly”-being elected mate and fomented by the US.
President Nicolas Maduro from office on July 30 to redo the constitution.
through early elections. Maduro says that path is the only ‘Demand for political change’
Maduro, Trump said in a statement, way to secure peace and economic One leader in the opposition coali-
was “a bad leader who dreams of recovery in Venezuela. His govern- tion, Freddy Guevara, said the strike
becoming a dictator”. “The United ment has dismissed the opposition this week was a “mechanism for pres-
States will not stand by as Venezuela vote against it as illegal. But Trump sure and to prepare for the definitive
crumbles,” he said. Trump did not said that, “if the Maduro regime escalation to take place next week.” A
specify what measures could be tak- imposes its Constituent Assembly on total of 7.6 million Venezuelans turned
en. But the warning dramatically July 30, the United States will take out for Sunday’s vote, at home and
raised the stakes and scope of the strong and swift economic actions.” abroad, the opposition said.
long political and economic crisis that Venezuela, with the largest proven That figure-though disputed by the
has been battering Venezuela. oil reserves in the world, is almost government-was more than a third of
Nearly 100 people have died since entirely reliant on its crude exports. The Venezuela’s total 19 million voters,
April, when street protests against United States imports around 270 mil- undermining legitimacy for Maduro’s
Maduro turned violent. Trump’s stance lion barrels of oil a year from Venezuela, future Constituent Assembly. Brazil’s
explicitly sided with Venezuela’s according to the US government’s foreign ministry said in a statement “the
opposition, which accuses Maduro of Energy Information Administration — a high turnout in the plebiscite... was an
trying to accumulate dictatorial pow- volume in decline by about a third unmistakable sign the Venezuelan peo-
ers to hang on to the reins. It risked compared to a decade ago. ple want democracy quickly restored.”
fueling Maduro’s frequent allegations Political analyst John Magdaleno
that he was the victim of a plot by a ‘Final offensive’ told AFP that “there is evidence of a
colluding right-wing opposition and Venezuela’s opposition is intent on persistent and durable demand for
the “imperialist” United States. There a “final offensive” ultimately aimed at political change.” According to the
was no immediate reaction from the toppling Maduro through early elec- opposition, the final turnout figure
Venezuelan president. tions. On Sunday, more than a third of was enough to overturn Maduro’s
Separately, Colombian President Venezuela’s 19 million voters took part mandate should there be a recall refer-
Juan Manuel Santos was in Cuba - a in the opposition ballot, giving an endum, because it exceeded the 7.5
close ally of Venezuela - on Monday for overwhelming rejection to the elec- million votes that put the president in
meetings with President Raul Castro. tion of a Constituent Assembly and power in 2013. To lend weight to the
Colombian Foreign Minister Maria backing a presidential election before vote, a group of former Latin American
Angela Holguin said the Venezuelan Maduro’s term ends in 2019. The poll presidents, including Mexico’s Vicente
crisis was discussed, but she denied was lauded by the European Union, Fox, who was declared “persona non
reports that Santos traveled to con- the United Nations, the US, Brazil and grata” by the government, took part as
vince Castro to act as a mediator. other countries. However Maduro, observers. — AFP
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
I N T E R N AT ION A L
Ukraine rebels announces plan to create new ‘state’
KIEV: Russian-backed rebels fighting A constitution presented by rebel leader gents’ “Kremlin puppet masters”. “We and figthing that has claimed the lives of promoted fears Russia was looking to
against Kiev announced yesterday a plan Alexander Zakharchenko said his self- our partners will not let this happen,” he some 10,000 people. A deal brokered by annex swathes of mainland Ukraine after its
to create a new “state” they said would declared Donetsk People’s Republic, neigh- vowed. The proposal seems to stand no the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and seizure of the Crimea peninsula. Moscow
take the place of Ukraine and have its bouring rebel-held Lugansk and other chance of gaining traction and even the Germany in Mink in 2015 has hit a wall used the tsarist-era name “Novorossiya”
capital in their territory. Ukraine’s pro- regions had agreed to “declare the estab- insurgents appeared unable to agree on but is still viewed by those involved as (New Russia) to refer to the areas the rebels
Western authorities immediately lishment of a new state, which is the suc- it. The press service for Lugansk rebel the only way of unwinding Ukraine’s war. had seized, but the term was later dropped.
ridiculed the idea as a Kremlin project cessor of Ukraine.” The document-released chief Igor Plotnitsky said he had not France’s foreign ministry called on Ukraine and the Westinsist that Moscow
that they would never allow to get off by the separatists’ news agency-said rebel been consulted on the project. Moscow “to denounce” the rebel has funneled troops and arms across the
the ground. The separatists said the pro- bastion Donetsk would become the capital, announcement, which it described as a border to fan the flames of the war in
posed country would be founded after a while Kiev would be reduced to the status A ‘violation’ “violation” of the peace deal. “Russia has to Europe’s backyard. Moscow has denied
referendum and called Malorossiya, a of a “historical and cultural centre”. The surprise announcement of intensify its efforts to put an end to this the allegations despite overwhelming
tsarist-era name meaning “Little Russia” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Malorossiya could, however, further dent conflict,” a statement said. The proposal by evidence that it has been involved in the
that once described most of the area Klimkin quickly derided the plan on an already stalled peace process that has the rebels echoed language used by the fighting and its explicit political support
covering modern-day Ukraine. Twitter as another “show” by the insur- failed to end more than three years of Kremlin in the early days of the conflict that for the rebels. — AFP
Rohingya Muslims: Cornered
News
i n b r i e f
by poverty, stalked by violence
MAUNG HNAMA, RAKHINE: Hemmed in by Myanmar tary operation has abated but the area remains in lock- Mysterious killings
security forces and menaced by abductions and killings, down, with sporadic killings by military patrols still intent In an area stained by mistrust and rumour it is unclear
Rohingya Muslims in a conflict-scarred corner of Rakhine on rooting out “terrorists”. who is behind the attacks-and the fear is intensifying in the
State say fear is one of the few constants in their lives. Last The UN believes hundreds may have died in what may face of almost daily reports of killings. Earlier this month
week foreign media were given partial access to the isolat- be the bloodiest chapter of Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s unidentified men dragged father-of-six Atthu Suwan from
ed wedge of the northwestern state for the first time since years-long persecution of the Rohingya Muslims. the bed he was sharing with his wife in Maung Hnama vil-
security forces launched a months-long operation to root The minority are widely reviled as illegal migrants from lage. They stabbed the 44-year-old, who occasionally
worked as a translator for local officials, and carried his
body into the darkness, his family and friends told
reporters on the government-run press trip.
“I haven’t even been able to eat since they took my son,”
his elderly mother Moeyeyan Khatu said, her face etched
with sadness. On Monday state media reported his body
had been found abandoned in a nearby creek. “We are
fearful it (the killings) will happen again,” his neighbour, 67-
year-old Hanumyar, told AFP. The government blames the
attacks on the self-styled Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army
(ARSA), a newly formed Rohingya militant group. KARACHI: Pakistani rescue workers move the body of a
The group denies any involvement, instead accusing victim from the rubble of a collapsed three storey
the military in statements issued through an unverified building in a residential area. —AFP
Twitter account. They do however claim the raids on police
border posts last October. The raids sparked the months- Building in Pakistan collapses,
long “clearance operation” by the military which sent more killing at least 5 residents
than 70,000 fleeing into Bangladesh. KARACHI:A dilapidated, three-storey building in a poorer
Rohingya escapees shared harrowing accounts of secu- neighborhood of Pakistan’s port city of Karachi collapsed
rity officers slaughtering babies, burning people alive and before dawn yesterday, killing at least five people and
gang-raping women-abuses UN investigators said may injuring 14, a rescue and senior police official said. Several
amount to crimes against humanity. The army denies the hours into the day, rescuers were still working and pulling
claims and says its response was proportionate in the face more bodies from under the rubble, according to Rizwan
of terrorist interlopers. But the crackdown sparked global Edhi, a top official for Pakistan’s largest private ambulance
opprobrium and the UN has commissioned a fact-finding service, Edhi. “Rescuers are using heavy machinery with
mission to probe the violence. utmost care as we can still hear voices of people trapped in
the rubble,” he said. Up to two people were still believed to
Rock and a hard place be trapped under the rubble.
Myanmar has refused to cooperate with the probe,
denying the investigators visas. Unable to leave because of
travel restrictions and abject poverty, Rohingya villagers
Singapore voids a marriage
say they are trapped between an oppressive state and
This photo taken on July 13, 2017 shows a Muslim family at Maung Hnama village, Buthidaung township in vengeful militants. Adding to the climate of fear, death after husband’s sex change
Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state. —AFP
threats and fatwas (Islamic religious rulings) have circulat- SINGAPORE: Singapore has voided the marriage of a
out militants who attacked border police posts. Bangladesh, although many Rohingya families say their ed on social media aimed at anyone who dares to stand couple after the husband underwent a sex change,
The UN wants to establish if that campaign amounted ancestors have lived in the area for generations. Now a against the militants, according to several analysts and making their partnership a same-sex union that con-
to ethnic cleansing after accounts of mass rape, killing and new peril has emerged: scores of local men have been Rohingya sources. On the media visit, officials sought to travened the city-state’s laws, a report said yesterday.
arson emerged from Rohingya who fled to neighboring abducted and murdered by unknown gangs of knife- play down the military’s campaign and the murders. Police The couple married as man and woman in 2015 but
Bangladesh. For those left behind in the rattan-walled fron- wielding men, with state media reporting they are dressed Brigadier General San Lwin, chief of Rakhine’s state police, the husband underwent a sex change operation and
tier villages the violence and insecurity is unrelenting, in black and often wearing masks. said some of the killings might relate to “personal grudges” updated his national identity card to read “female”. But
locals told reporters, under the watch of Myanmar border Authorities say the assassins are targeting leaders from and not militancy. But locals say they are now frightened to when the unidentified couple tried to buy a govern-
forces who steered the visit. the Muslim minority and anyone perceived to be a state take official posts in case they too become targets. A 35- ment-built apartment, they had to inform the authori-
“Our husbands are on the run. They left us because they collaborator. They blame Rohingya militants for the mur- year-old Muslim man, recently appointed as a household ties. Married couples receive state grants for first-time
are afraid of border guard police,” one Rohingya woman ders. International Crisis Group analyst Richard Horsey says head in Tinmay village, said his predecessor was killed in purchases of government apartments. The marriage
told AFP, requesting anonymity for safety reasons. “They some 60 people may have been targeted in a “systematic” April after talking to local reporters. “I do not sleep at was voided several months later, making them ineligi-
burned our house. We have no home and nothing to eat. campaign “to take out Muslims who are in some way con- home,” he added, requesting anonymity. “I sleep at a police ble to buy the apartment they wanted.
Our husbands are hiding somewhere.” The large-scale mili- nected to, or perceived to be connected to, authorities”. outpost with security.” — AFP
Suspected rebels, Indian
547 boys were abused at
soldier killed in Kashmir
German Catholic choir SRINAGAR: Two suspected rebels and an Indian soldier
were killed yesterday in disputed Kashmir along the de fac-
to border with Pakistan, where the two sides traded fire for
school: Investigator
a second day. Army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said
Indian soldiers exchanged fire with unknown combatants
MUNICH: At least 547 boys at a Georg Ratzinger, the elder broth- as they tried to cross the Line of Control (LoC) into Indian-
German Catholic choir school suf- er of former pope Benedict XVI. administered Kashmir. “Two bodies and three weapons
fered sexual or physical abuse in As head of the choir from 1964 were recovered from the site of the firing,” Kalia told AFP. In
what victims have likened to to 1994, Georg Ratzinger could a separate incident an Indian soldier shot and killed his
“prison, hell or a concentration be “blamed for looking the other senior officer at a frontier post in Uri following a dispute
camp”, said an investigator releas- way and failing to intervene” on between the two, Kalia said.
ing a final report yesterday on the physical violence, said Weber,
one of the country’s worst such who added there was no evi-
scandals. The Regensburger dence Ratzinger knew of the sex- Malaysia leader challenges
Domspatzen (“Cathedral ual violence. Ratzinger, 93, has
PM to attend 1MDB meet
Sparrows”), a 1,000-year-old denied knowledge and said that
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s former leader Mahathir
cathedral choir in the southern the alleged sexual abuse was
Mohamad urged the prime minister yesterday to
state of Bavaria, was in 2010 “never discussed” while he ran
attend a town hall meeting focusing on a massive
dragged into the massive sexual the choir. Weber also charged
financial scandal, heaping fresh pressure on the scan-
abuse and paedophilia scandal that the Regensburg cardinal, Smoke and flames rise from a fire in the village of Podstrana, near the Adriatic coastal town
dal-hit premier. The saga surrounding the 1MDB state
plaguing the Catholic Church Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, had of Split. —AFP
investment fund has rocked Prime Minister Najib
around the world. failed to sufficiently clear up the Wildfires rage in Europe
Razak’s government, with claims the premier took part
Many victims remembered the decades of abuse or engage in in the alleged looting of huge sums from the fund.
world-famous choir school in the dialogue with the victims. from Croatia to Portugal Mahathir, 92, has come out of retirement from politics,
town of Regensburg as “the worst formed his own party and joined forces with his old
time of their lives, marked by fear, ‘All made mistakes’ foe Anwar Ibrahim in an opposition alliance that aims
violence and helplessness”, said Weber said the attacks were to unseat Najib at elections due by 2018. He has exco-
lawyer Ulrich Weber, who was concentrated in the boarding ZAGREB: Firefighters battled to douse wildfires not known. In Italy, authorities said a blaze in a riated Najib over 1MDB, saying that Malaysia is “con-
commissioned two years ago by schools’ primary section, but also on the Adriatic coast of Croatia and Montenegro pine forest at a popular park outside Rome, now trolled by thieves”.
the diocese to look into the cases. occurred in the secondary sec- yesterday, as blazes also raged in Italy, France and under control, was deliberately set and that a sus-
Presenting his final report on tion. He said that 49 alleged per- Portugal. About a dozen wildfires had broken out pect has been arrested. But fires continue burn in
abuses between 1945 and the petrators had been identified, but late Sunday in the villages surrounding Split, a southern Italy in parts of the Calabria region and Swiss couple found on glacier
early 1990s, Weber said he had that they were not expected to popular tourist destination, but firefighters man- in the outskirts of Naples where one person died
75 years after disappearance
uncovered 67 cases of sexual face criminal charges as the aged to control the blaze on the outskirts of on Monday after falling off his roof where he
abuse and 500 cases of other alleged crimes took place too Croatia’s second largest city. went to look at how the forest fire was progress- GENEVA: A couple that disappeared in the Alps 75 years
physical violence, with some for- long ago. Late Monday the fire spread to the suburbs of ing not far from his home. ago has been found preserved in a receding glacier, ending
mer singers having fallen victim The known victims are now Split where a shopping centre had to be evacuat- Winds, high temperatures and dry conditions decades of uncertainty for their seven children. The bodies
to both. expected to receive 20,000 euros ed and several cars were burned. The city waste prompted fires to break out the past several days were found lying near each other in the Diablerets massif
($23,000) each in compensation. dump caught fire, while the town was covered in southern France and the Mediterranean island in southern Switzerland, along with backpacks, a bottle, a
Rape, severe beatings The diocese apologized in a with thick black smoke, but the blaze was put of Corsica. More than 450 firefighters were still book and a watch. The head of the Glacier 3000 ski resort,
This more than doubled the statement and said that “we all under control overnight. “It seems that the worst battling a forest fire at Castagniera, north of Nice, Bernard Tschannen, told Le Matin that the bodies were
231 reported abuse cases by made mistakes and we have is behind us ... Split has been saved,” mayor Andro which has destroyed some 100 hectares but found last Thursday. “It was a man and a woman wearing
school clergy and educators learnt a lot”. Weber agreed in a Krstulovic Opara told HRT state-run television. appears not to be spreading further, authorities clothes from the last (world) war”, Tschannen was quoted
Weber had uncovered through press conference that the diocese Local media reports however said some parts said. On Monday fire swept through around 200 as saying. “The ice preserved them perfectly and their
interviews by January 2016, when had rectified organizational of Split were without electricity or water on hectares of scrubland near Bonifacio in southern belongings were intact”.
he said victims had spoken of weaknesses, and that there was a Tuesday as Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic Corsica. On Europe’s Atlantic coast nearly 1,400
rape, sexual assaults, severe beat- “heightened awareness” about arrived to take stock of the situation. According firefighters supported by water-bombing planes
6.4 earthquake
ings and food deprivation. Weber, the past abuses. to initial estimates some 4,500 hectares of land, and helicopters have battled three major blazes
who was not able to speak with The abuse scandal is one of mostly pine forests, bushes and olive groves, in northern Portugal since Sunday. Civil protec- hits Peru: UGS
all former students, said he esti- several to have rocked the were destroyed. Houses were burned but there tion authorities say firefighters have managed to LIMA: A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck just off
mated the true number of victims Catholic Church in recent years, were no casualties. mostly bring the fires under control and the Peru’s southern coast Monday, the US Geological
at around 700. notably in Ireland where one In neighboring Montenegro, where the forest weather on Tuesday was cooperating as tempera- Survey said, with no immediate reports of injuries or
The investigator pointed to a priest admitted sexually abusing fires forced the evacuation of more than a hun- tures dropped from 35 degrees Celsius (95 damage. The quake hit at approximately 9:05 pm local
“culture of silence” that aimed to more than 100 children. Several dred campers on the Lustica peninsula, the situa- degrees Fahrenheit) to 30 C. time with a depth of 44 kilometers. It occurred some
protect the reputation of the German institutions have also tion was slightly better yesterday. Fires however Last month Portugal battled a giant fire in the 220 kilometers west of Arequipa, Peru’s second most
renowned choir of boys and been engulfed by the scandal, were still active in several municipalities further central region that raged for five days, killing 64 populous city. Though there was no initial evidence of
young men that has made many including an elite Jesuit school inland but were all under control, an interior min- people and injuring more than 250, with many damage the tremor provoked alarm among Peruvians,
recordings and performed in Berlin which admitted to sys- istry statement said. trapped in their cars by the flames. Following the with the Mayor of the southern town of Caraveli saying
around the world. He placed part tematic sexual abuse of pupils tragedy, experts said Portugal is likely to see residents there had taken to the streets. “The tremor
of the blame for the situation on by two priests in the 1970s and Under control more massive forest fires because the country is has been very strong here in Caraveli,” Mayor Santiago
the school’s former choir master 1980s. — AFP The cause of the fires in the two countries at highly exposed to global warming’s climate-alter- Neyra said. “It has generated fear in the population.”
the height of the summer tourist season is still ing impacts. — AFP
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
I N T E R N AT ION A L
Duterte seeks martial law extension in south
Critics warn that country edging towards dictatorship
MANILA: President Rodrigo Duterte Congress is to convene Saturday to wide martial law declaration, he will go for
plans to extend martial law in the south- discuss an extension after Duterte met it,” Trillanes told AFP. The country’s constitu-
ern Philippines to defeat Islamist mili- with its leaders late Monday, presidential tion allows the president to impose martial
tants who have seized a major city, his spokesman Ernesto Abella told law for up to 60 days, as well as allowing
administration said yesterday, as critics reporters. The president also asked authorities to detain suspects for up to
warned the country could be edging Congress to suspend a constitutional three days without charges to suppress
towards a dictatorship. Duterte had safeguard against warrantless arrests. invasion or rebellion. Beyond two months,
imposed military rule for 60 days in the “This is not only a step back, but several the president can extend it “for a period to
Mindanao region, home to 20 million steps back for our democracy,” opposi- be determined by the Congress”.
people, after gunmen waving black tion lawmaker and prominent martial
Islamic State flags occupied Marawi city law critic Edcel Lagman told AFP, calling ‘Extraordinary measure’
on May 23, triggering clashes that have Duterte’s request illegal. But Duterte’s allies dominate
killed more than 550 people. Lagman and Senator Antonio Trillanes, Congress, and House Speaker Pantaleon
While the military said at least 60 mili- a fellow critic, also warned of a potential Alvarez said yesterday he saw no obsta-
tants continued to hold out against gov- repeat of human rights abuses under the cle to approving an extension. Duterte
ernment forces nearly two months later, late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, whose 20- had initially consulted the military and
critics expressed surprise by Duterte’s year rule was ended by a bloodless popu- police on extending martial rule. His
request for a martial law extension until lar revolt in 1986. Trillanes, a retired naval spokesman would not say if the plan to
December 31. “I have come to the conclu- officer, also accused Duterte of using mar- extend by five months was their idea. In
sion that the existing rebellion in tial rule as preparation for installing a rev- May, Duterte said he had made the
Mindanao which has prompted me to olutionary government that would allow move to stamp out an attempt by mili-
issue (the martial law proclamation), will him to stay in office beyond his six-year tants, including foreign fighters, to
not be quelled completely by 22nd July MANILA: Protesters hold placards to protest the extension of martial law on electoral mandate. “Once he feels that establish an IS caliphate on Philippine
2017,” Duterte said in a letter to Congress. Mindanao island in southern Philippines. —AP there is not enough opposition to a nation- territory. — AFP
Indonesian Islamists protest
attempts to curb radicals
JAKARTA: Conservative Islamic groups cumscribed in some countries, is estimat-
protested yesterday in the capital of ed to have tens of thousands of members
Indonesia, the world’s most populous in Indonesia.
Muslim nation, denouncing President Joko
“Jokowi” Widodo’s attempt to ban radical Major graft case
organizations. Demonstrators from an Meanwhile, Indonesia’s anti-corruption
alliance of Islamic groups waved flags and agency has named the country’s speaker
held up banners calling the government of parliament as a suspect in a major graft
tyrannical and repressive. The crowd, which scandal which is estimated to have
swelled to an estimated 2,000 people, was siphoned around $170 million out of gov-
divided into separate rows for men and ernment coffers. The Corruption
women and was mostly peaceful, said Eradication Commission named house
Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono. speaker Setya Novanto as a suspect late
A decree signed by Jokowi last week Monday in the giant graft case that has
that amends a law regulating mass organi- also implicated other senior politicians,
zations will give the government almost including the justice minister, ex-interior
unfettered power to ban groups it deems minister and several governors.
contrary to the country’s constitution. The head of the commission, Agus
Parliament has one year to reject or Rahardjo, said Novanto “allegedly abused
approve it. It is likely that Hizbut Tahrir, a his authority and position for personal
group that campaigns for Indonesia to gain or for the interest of a corporation”.
adopt Shariah law, is among the targets of Investigators allege that Novanto was
the decree, with the government among many politicians who received
announcing in May that it planned to ban kickbacks from funds earmarked for a gov-
the organization. ernment project to issue new ID cards to
“Jokowi’s anti-Islam decree is proof this the country’s 255 million inhabitants. “The
is a dictatorial regime,” a rally coordinator, accusations are all untrue,” Novanto told a
Kholilulloh Al-Habsyi, told the crowd from press conference yesterday.
a truck. Rights groups have criticized the Indonesia’s special anti-corruption
decree as a draconian and anti-democratic court has said that more than one-third of
measure and say governments could easi- the 5.9 trillion rupiah ($443 million) fund
ly abuse its power. Jokowi’s measure fol- was embezzled by a network of politicians
lowed months of sectarian tensions in and businessmen in a scheme that
Jakarta that shook the government and allegedly ran from 2009 to 2015. Novanto,
undermined the country’s reputation for who is also the chairman of the ruling
practicing a moderate form of Islam. coalition party Golkar, is the fourth sus-
Hizbut Tahrir, along with groups such as pect announced in the case, which could
the violent Islamic Defenders Front, was turn into a test of President Joko Widodo’s
behind a series of massive protests in willingness to take a tough stance against
Jakarta, the capital, against the city’s corruption since many of those implicated
minority Christian governor, an ally of are government officials. Novanto was
Jokowi who was accused of blaspheming previously named a suspect in another
Islam. He subsequently lost a bid for re- corruption case which forced him to quit
election to a Muslim candidate and was as speaker in 2015 when he was accused
imprisoned for two years for blasphemy of extorting a stake from US mining giant
despite prosecutors downgrading the Freeport-McMoRan in exchange for
charge to a lesser offense. Hizbut, a global extending the company’s right to operate
organization that is already banned or cir- in the archipelago. —Agencies
JAKARTA: Indonesian Muslims gather during a rally. —AFP
Macron puts France top
of ‘soft power’ rankings
PARIS:France has leapfrogged the United “With Macron having long campaigned for
States and Britain as the world’s top so- cooperation and integration, it is not
called soft power, helped by the election of unreasonable to expect France’s global
President Emmanuel Macron, a study of engagement and influence to grow.”
countries’ non-military global influence France also remains the world’s top
showed yesterday. tourist destination, the report said. The ter-
While France has risen, Donald Trump’s ror attacks that have cost the lives of more
ascent to the White House has seen the US than 230 people since 2015 “have not
slip from the top last year to third place in stopped tourists flocking to France and
the Soft Power 30 study, compiled by PR enjoying its rich cultural offering, cuisine,
company Portland Communications and and lifestyle,” the report says. The top five
the University of Southern California. Soft countries by order are France, Britain, US,
power measures a country’s ability to Germany and Canada. Japan has risen to
secure international alliances and influence sixth place from seventh, Switzerland is
others through its attraction and appeal. seventh and Australia slips to eighth.
The study uses polling in 25 countries The survey attributes the US decline-it
and digital data to measure a country’s has slipped from first last year to third-to a
influence. It takes into account factors such deterioration of “global sentiment” as a
as the ability of countries to attract foreign result of Trump’s “America First” policy. The
students to its universities and tourists, as US was still “unrivalled” in higher education,
well as its cultural allure. France’s rapid rise technological innovation and the produc-
from fifth place last year, when it was in the tion of film, music and TV, it pointed out.
doldrums under unpopular ex-president Meanwhile, the report’s authors warn that
Francois Hollande, is partly due to the cen- Britain’s fall-it was top of the rankings last
trist Macron’s election in May. But the coun- year-”should serve as a warning of what is
try’s diplomatic reach also played a key role. likely to come for post-Brexit British influ-
“France’s greatest strength lies in its vast ence”. With negotiations under way for
diplomatic network,” the study says. “It is Britain to leave the European Union within
unrivalled in terms of membership to mul- two years, the report says: “It is hard to imag-
tilateral and international organisations, as ine the direction of travel for British soft pow-
well as in its diplomatic cultural missions. er... will be upwards in the future.” — AFP
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2017
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Focus
Could it be Kasowitz
is actually voice of
restraint for Trump?
By Alison Frankel
O
ver the weekend, Axios and Bloomberg ran
stories about a shakeup in President Donald
Trump’s legal team, reporting that longtime
Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz of Kasowitz Benson
Torres is expected to play a diminished role as the
president responds to investigations of his campaign’s
ties to Russia. Kasowitz spokesman Mark Corallo told
me in an email on Monday that the Axios and
Bloomberg stories are incorrect and that Kasowitz
remains the head of Trump’s outside legal team.
Kasowitz’s role as outside counsel is distinct from
that of newly-hired special counsel Ty Cobb. Cobb will
work from within the administration to coordinate its
response to Russia inquiries. Kasowitz has savored
and even promoted his reputation as Donald Trump’s
Officials fume as Philip Morris eyes youth
legal pit bull, a lawyer as pugnacious as his most
famous client. When Trump needed a lawyer during
the campaign to threaten the New York Times with lit-
igation, after the newspaper published accounts of SK Arora spent more than three years World Health Organization estimates that tobacco products are clearly and categori- several people in this group, including
women who claimed Trump had sexually harassed trudging through the Indian summer tobacco-related diseases cost the country cally permitted,” ITC said in response to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman,
them, Kasowitz was his man. heat and monsoon rains to inspect about $16 billion annually. questions from Reuters. Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, and
When the president wanted to counter testimony tobacco kiosks across this sprawling Philip Morris is not alone in using mar- Arora, however, said all advertising is pro- Amit Shah, president of the ruling
by fired FBI director James Comey, he had Kasowitz megacity, tearing down cigarette adver- keting methods that Indian officials say are hibited - “There are no two ways about it,” he Bharatiya Janata Party. Modi and the other
announce plans to file a Justice Department com- tisements and handing out fines to store illegal. The country’s largest cigarette mak- insisted - but he can’t start legal proceed- politicians didn’t respond to requests for
plaint against Comey. It may be hard to think of owners for putting them up. But as fast as er, ITC Ltd, uses similar tactics, such as ings until getting further guidance from the comment. Philip Morris International also
Kasowitz, who relishes his tough-guy reputation, as a he removed the colorful ads, more advertising at kiosks. British American federal government. He has yet to receive an didn’t comment on the plan.
force of moderation. But if you look at the record of appeared. The chief tobacco control officer Tobacco Plc and Indian state-run compa- answer. Federal health officials say in inter-
the client relationship between Trump and Kasowitz, at the Delhi state government, Arora asked nies have large, passive stakes in ITC, which views that the ads are out of bounds. Amal Marlboro Parties
there’s a notable streak of restraint. Trump and the major cigarette companies to put a controls about 80 percent of the market. Pusp, a director for tobacco control at the The tobacco giant’s efforts to fend off
Kasowitz, for instance, never followed through with stop to the cat-and-mouse routine. In offi- Tobacco-control officer Arora, a short, mus- health ministry, told Reuters that “there is no anti-smoking steps have had limited impact
libel suits against the Times - or against any other cial letters and face-to-face meetings, he tachioed man with a gruff demeanor, sent a confusion”: All advertisements - inside and so far. Last year, for instance, India ordered
news organization in the last 30 years. (Kasowitz did told them India’s tobacco control laws letter to Philip Morris and other tobacco outside shops - are illegal. manufacturers to cover 85 percent of the
represent Trump in his unsuccessful libel suit against barred such public advertising and promo- companies in mid-April, giving them until surface of cigarette packs with health warn-
Trump biographer Timothy O’Brien and O’Brien’s book tion of cigarettes. the end of the month to remove all adver- ‘Innocent Minds’ ings, up from 20 percent. The rule, which is
publisher.) That included the Indian arm of Philip tisements. “Legal action will be initiated The 2003 law allows tobacco companies still being challenged in a state court by the
Nor did Kasowitz file the threatened DOJ complaint Morris International Inc, the world’s largest against the company” if it did not comply, to advertise at shops, but subsequent rules tobacco industry, including Philip Morris’
against Comey. According to Bloomberg, the Trump publicly traded tobacco company. Early last he wrote in the letters, copies of which issued by the government prohibit it. In India partner, was implemented by order of
team decided the wiser course was to stop attacking year, Arora said, he met with a Philip Morris were reviewed by Reuters. 2004, India became one of the first coun- the Supreme Court. Marlboro has just a 1.4
the integrity of the Russia investigation being con- director for corporate affairs in India, a man tries to ratify the World Health percent share of the almost $10 billion ciga-
ducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In fact, the named R Venkatesh, and told him the signs Cigarette Raid Organization’s Framework Convention on rette market in India. The industry is domi-
New York Times has been reporting that the president were an unequivocal violation of Indian A day after Arora’s deadline passed, he Tobacco Control (FCTC) treaty. The pact has nated by ITC, which has a strong grip on dis-
is chafing under Kasowitz’s advice to keep quiet on law. Like other tobacco companies, Philip and his team conducted a raid in an afflu- 181 members and contains a raft of anti- tributors and retailers.
Twitter and elsewhere about the Russia case - advice Morris kept up its ad blitz. ent area of cafes and coffee shops in New smoking provisions, including tobacco tax- One major method Philip Morris is
almost every defense lawyer would endorse. Venkatesh says Philip Morris is doing Delhi that showed his letters did not have es, warning labels on cigarette packs and deploying to gain ground, the marketing
nothing wrong. In response to questions the desired effect. On that hot afternoon in advertising bans. The country enacted its documents show, is the free distribution of
Early Battles from Reuters, he said the company’s adver- May, the team cut down about a dozen national tobacco control law the year cigarettes at bars and nightclubs - known
The best example of Kasowitz’s relatively meas- tising is “compliant with Indian law” and advertisements for Marlboro and various before ratifying the FCTC, and since then as Legal Age Meeting Points, or LAMPs, in
ured approach to litigation for Trump may be an enor- that Philip Morris has “fully cooperated with ITC brands. As word of the raid spread, wor- the government has added rules to company jargon. The hiring of young
mous case Kasowitz handled early in his relationship the enforcement authorities” on the matter. ried vendors covered their ads with news- strengthen the law in line with FCTC treaty women and men to work at these gather-
with the president. In a prolonged battle against But Indian government officials say Philip papers or took them down. provisions. ings is outsourced to event management
Hong Kong real estate partners whom Trump accused Morris is using methods that flout the One kiosk owner, Rakesh Kumar Jain, The health ministry published rules in companies, according to people with
of underpricing West Side real estate, Trump replaced nation’s tobacco-control regulations. These removed his Marlboro ads before Arora’s 2005 that banned any display of brand knowledge of the gatherings. Some of the
Kasowitz after he lost a key motion. Once Kasowitz include tobacco shop displays as well as the team arrived. Jain said the signs had been names, pack images or promotional mes- recruiting takes place online. “Hey girls...We
was out, Trump pursued tactics so aggressive that free distribution of Marlboro - the world’s put up by Philip Morris representatives. In sages. The rule specified that tobacco are searching A++ Hot & Gorgeous girls for
best-selling cigarette brand - at nightclubs return, he said, he received free cigarettes retailers could only display a 60-by-45 cen- the Marlboro pub activity...Pay:
they nearly cost him and Kasowitz’s replacement a
and bars frequented by young people. each month worth about 2,000 rupees timeter board, roughly 24 by 18 inches. The 2000/day...Work: Promotion in clubs in
sanction finding.
In internal documents, Philip Morris (about $30). Jain knew that putting up the sign can have a description of the type of Delhi,” read one post on a Facebook public
The litigation stemmed from a 1994 deal in which
International is explicit about targeting the posters was illegal, but they helped tobacco products sold - such as cigarettes group in June last year. There was no com-
Trump sold a 70 percent majority interest in residen-
country’s youth. A key goal is “winning the pany name attached to the ad.
tial-zoned real estate in midtown Manhattan, along
hearts and minds of LA-24,” those between At several parties attended by Reuters in
the Hudson River waterfront, to a consortium of Hong
legal age, 18, and 24, according to one slide Delhi and Mumbai, young women dressed
Kong billionaires. They maintained the property for 11
in a 2015 commercial review presentation. in the colors of the latest Marlboro variant
years, then reached a deal to sell it in 2005 to a joint
As with the point-of-sale ads at kiosks, pub- handed out packs of cigarettes. During one
venture of the Carlyle Group and Extell Development
lic health officials say that giving away ciga- party at a nightclub in a Delhi hotel, a
Company. The sale price was $1.76 billion, at the time
rettes is a violation of India’s Cigarettes and young woman walked around with a tablet
the highest publicly-disclosed amount ever paid for
Other Tobacco Products Act and its accom- showing an ad that highlighted Marlboro
residential property in New York.
panying rules. features. A television screen played a video
Trump insisted it wasn’t enough. Represented by
Philip Morris’ marketing strategy for promoting the brand: “For trendsetters, for
Kasowitz, he sued in both federal and state court, India, which relies heavily on kiosk advertis- forward thinkers, a smooth and balanced
offering evidence that New York developers, including ing and social events, is laid out in hundreds smoking experience.”
Trump friend Richard LeFrak, might have paid $3 bil- of pages of internal documents reviewed by In many ways, it was right out of the
lion for the property. The case ended up being litigat- Reuters that cover the period from 2009 to Philip Morris 1990s playbook. The
ed in state court before New York State Supreme 2016. In them, Philip Morris presents these American Journal of Public Health study,
Court Justice Richard Lowe. Trump asserted both promotions as key marketing activities. In drawing on previously secret industry doc-
direct and derivative claims, alleging among other recent years, they have helped to more than uments, found that Philip Morris ran bar
things that certain of the Hong Kong majority part- quadruple Marlboro’s market share in India, promotions in 1990 using racing jackets,
ners had received kickbacks in exchange for agreeing where the company is battling to expand its and added “neon message boards and
to undervalue the property. reach in the face of an entrenched local cocktail trays” in 1991. The study described
Judge Lowe put enough early credence in Trump’s giant. Reuters is publishing a selection of methods for collecting names for a compa-
side of the story to issue an order attaching $1 billion those documents in a searchable repository, ny database “to generate smoker profiles,
in proceeds from any sale of the property. But the The Philip Morris Files. direct mailing campaigns, and conduct
judge eventually came to believe the Hong Kong improve sales, he said. About a dozen kiosk or chewing tobacco - but cannot include telephone research studies after the bar
partners had sold at a fair price. In 2006, he dismissed ‘Within Walking Distance’ owners interviewed by Reuters said that any brand advertising and must carry a events”. At the parties in India, people who
all of Trump’s claims except for a request to examine The company’s goal is to make sure that tobacco companies paid them a monthly large health warning. took the Marlboro packs were asked their
his majority partners’ books and records. Up to that “every adult Indian smoker should be able fee for advertisements and product dis- The health ministry’s rules were chal- names, ages and preferred brands. Philip
point, with Kasowitz representing Trump, the litiga- to buy Marlboro within walking distance,” plays, with the amount determined by fac- lenged in court by a group of cigarette dis- Morris calls this distribution of free ciga-
tion had been fierce but not outside the bounds of according to another 2015 strategy docu- tors such as location, volume of business tributors and put on hold by a state-level rettes “sampling”, which it says in an inter-
convention. ment. In targeting young adults, Philip and type of promotional material. In pay- High Court for seven years. They finally nal document is allowed under the law.
Morris is deploying a promotional strategy ment receipts seen by Reuters, Philip Morris’ came into force in 2013 on orders of India’s
After Trump lost the 2006 dismissal motion, how-
that it and other tobacco companies used India unit promised to pay 500 Indian Supreme Court. The High Court had over- Brief Respite
ever, he replaced Kasowitz with his appellate counsel,
in the United States decades ago. A study rupees ($7.50) a month to a cigarette seller looked the fact that advertisement of The company has spent millions of dol-
Jay Goldberg. With Kasowitz out of the case, the litiga-
published in the American Journal of Public with a small roadside kiosk in New Delhi for tobacco products “will attract younger gen- lars on these activities. In 2014, for exam-
tion skipped well beyond those bounds. — Reuters
Health in 2002 found that during the 1990s, putting up Marlboro ads. The receipts were eration and innocent minds, who are not ple, Philip Morris estimated it spent $1.6
“tobacco industry sponsorship of bars and signed by a company representative. aware of grave and adverse consequences million on LAMP events and sampling at
nightclubs increased dramatically, accom- During the raid, fines were issued to of consuming such products,” the Supreme kiosks in India, according to the 2015 com-
All articles appearing on these pages are panied by cigarette brand paraphernalia, some vendors, many of them repeat offend- Court said in its ruling. mercial review presentation. The company
advertisements, and entertainment events ers, and they were threatened with court Philip Morris has lobbied against the planned to use LAMPs in 2015 to generate
the personal opinion of the writers. Kuwait
in bars and clubs.” action if the ads went up again. Like Philip passing of stricter tobacco control rules by 30,000 “trials,” or samplings of cigarettes.
Times takes no responsibility for views With cigarette sales declining in many Morris, ITC says that it is in full compliance the Indian government. In documents And it planned to generate another
countries, Philip Morris has identified India, with India’s 2003 tobacco control law. If it detailing the company’s plans for the bien- 500,000 trials that year through sampling
expressed therein. Kuwait Times invites population 1.3 billion, as a market with wasn’t, the company said in a statement to nial FCTC treaty convention in India last at cigarette shops and kiosks, according to
readers to voice their opinions. Please send opportunity for significant growth. “India Reuters, then “the relevant government November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi the 2015 strategy document. The company
remains a high potential market with huge authorities would have initiated action”. emerges as a prime target. A key goal: to instructs employees to watch their words.
submissions via email to: opinion@kuwait- upside with cigarette market still in infan- Since Arora’s threat of legal action in pre-empt Modi from taking “extreme anti- An undated training manual for market
times.net or via snail mail to PO Box 1301 cy,” says a 2014 internal document. April, there are fewer Philip Morris adver- tobacco measures” before delegates were researchers says: “Do not say this is a ‘PRO-
According to government data, India has tisements outside cigarette shops in the to gather from around the world for the MOTION’ or ‘ADVERTISING’.”
Safat, Kuwait. The editor reserves the right about 100 million smokers. Of those, about capital. But both Philip Morris and ITC say treaty meeting, according to a 2014 corpo- Indian health ministry officials say that
two-thirds smoke traditional hand-rolled that advertising inside a shop is allowed. rate affairs PowerPoint presentation. anyone who hands out free cigarettes,
to edit any submission as necessary.
cigarettes. Tobacco use kills more than “Advertisements of tobacco products at the The company planned to gain Modi’s whatever the circumstances, is breaking
900,000 people a year in India, and the entrance and inside the shops selling ear through those close to him. It identified the law. — Reuters