SUNDAY, JUNE 10, 2012
@alwatandaily
Issue No. 1459
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Disagreements threaten unity within Majority Bloc
Mohammed Al-Khaldi, Osama Al-Qatari & Ahmed Al-Shemmari
Staff Writers
KUWAIT: Cracks have been emerging in the Majority Bloc on the heels of MP Al-Saifi Al-Saifi’s interpellation against the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Ahmad Al-Rujaib. The motion has sparked a firestorm of uproar among members of the majority, as some voiced support for the interpellation, while others called for dialogue with the government on the condition that the latter addresses the core issues highlighted in the motion. MP Mohammad Al-Kandari affirmed that the threats being made by certain members of the majority against ministers do not represent the Majority Bloc, saying that the concerned MPs are only expressing their personal views. Speaking to Al Watan, the lawmaker revealed that the Bloc is currently facing disunity over Al-Saifi’s interpellation. Al-Kandari, a member of the Majority Bloc, went on to describe the items contained in Al-Saifi’s interpella-
tion as unconstitutional, and stressed that the issues highlighted therein only represent the interpellator’s standpoints, rather than the Bloc’s. In the same vein, a parliamentary source affirmed that the Majority is going through a state of anticipation in light of the three interpellations which have been included in the Parliament’s agenda for the upcoming session. The source, however, noted that the Majority Bloc does not intend to convene soon until such a time that the political scene becomes lucid. In another development, the new motion that MP Mohammad Al-Juwaihel filed to grill the First Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah has apparently prompted three MPs to target the minister. Three MPs addressed a total of about 40 questions to Al-Humoud on Saturday on a wide range of issues, including a decision by the Immigration Department to reject the processing of transactions meant for individuals facing legal cases. MP Abdulhameed Dashti asked the minister to explain the legal basis for not processing those transactions. Meanwhile, informed sources have revealed that MP
Egypt Islamist MP caught in ‘indecent’ act
Russia says is not against Assad’s departure
Killings continue in Syria as massacre outcry grows MOSCOW: Russia will not oppose the departure of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad if that is the result of a dialogue between Syrians themselves and is not imposed from outside, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday. Lavrov spoke one day after his deputies held consultations with US special envoy Fred Hof, in Moscow to push for a political transition in Syria that would see Assad leave power. “If the Syrians agree (about Assad’s departure) between each other, we will only be happy to support such a solution,” Lavrov told reporters. “But we believe it is unacceptable to impose the conditions for such a dialogue from outside.” Eager to maintain its firmest Middle East foothold and stop the West pushing governments from power, Russia has used its UN Security Council veto and other tools to protect Assad from coordinated condemnation and sanctions. Moscow insists there must be no “preconditions” in any discussion of Syria’s future, including the departure of Assad, an outcome which would suit many countries in the West as well as the many Sunni Muslim Arab states that dislike the Syrian government and its ally Iran. Lavrov cited the power transition in Yemen, where President Ali Abdullah Saleh was eventually pushed out, saying that was a result of an internal process without any conditions being set by external parties. Lavrov reiterated his call for an international conference in support of the envoy Kofi Annan’s failing peace plan and said “there was no outright rejection” of this initiative from the United States expressed during the Moscow talks, despite Russia’s recommendation that Iran take part. -Reuters See also 3
People watch the Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft which moves to the launch pad at the Jiuquan launch center in Jiuquan, China’s northwest Gansu province, Saturday, June 9, 2012. China will launch three astronauts this month to dock with an orbiting experimental module, and the crew might include its first female space traveler, a government news agency said Saturday. A rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft was moved to a launch pad in China’s desert northwest on Saturday for the mid-June flight, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing an space program spokesman. The three-member crew will dock with and live in the Tiangong 1 orbital module launched last year, Xinhua said. The government has not said how long the mission will last. China’s space program has made steady progress since a 2003 launch that made it only the third nation to put a man in space on its own. Two more manned missions have followed, one including a space walk. (AP)
Organic meat may have higher parasite risk
Al-Juwaihel will hold a press conference at the National Assembly during this week ahead of the discussion of the interpellations on June 19. The MP is expected to reveal all the documents he attached to his interpellation motion. In other news, the former Prime Minister His Highness Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah renewed his refusal to appear before the parliamentary panel which has been probing allegations that he had illicitly transferred public funds abroad. In a letter he forwarded to the National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun, Sheikh Nasser was adamant that the panel has diverted constitutionally and politically, and that it has usurped the jurisdictions of the judicial authority. The former Prime Minister further explained that the ruling of the Court for the Trial of Ministers, which acquitted him of the charges leveled against him, is final. He added that the verdict should not be appealed and that the case should not be reopened. The former premier accused the panel of flouting Article 114 of the Constitution, in the sense that it has positioned itself as a judicial authority.
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CAIRO: Egyptian prosecutors asked parliament on Saturday for permission to investigate an Islamist MP police say was caught performing an “indecent” act with a woman in public, official media reported. The official MENA news agency quoted a police report saying that Ali Wanis, a cleric and MP for the ultra-conservative Al-Nur party, was found engaged in an “indecent” act with a 22-year-old woman in a car parked on a highway on Thursday. Wanis has issued a public statement denying the allegation and said in a video posted in his website that he had parked along the side of the road because his pas-
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Attack on UN came from Liberia, Ivory Coast says
ABIDJAN: Gunmen who killed seven United Nations peacekeepers, two civilians and at least one soldier in Ivory Coast came from neighboring Liberia, the Ivorian defense minister said on Saturday. Paul Koffi Koffi said the raid, on Friday afternoon, highlighted the need for Ivorian troops to carry out cross-border operations in Liberia to improve security. There was no immediate comment from Liberia but the U.N. said it was reshuffling some of its several thousand troops deployed in the zone as a result of the incident. The attack highlights simmering tensions and security threats in the west of the world’s top cocoa grower despite a year of progress stabilizing much of the
rest of the country since months of postelection violence last year. “These people came from the other side of the border. They are militias and mercenaries,” Koffi Koffi said, confirming two civilians and “one or two” Ivorian soldiers were killed. “We must go to the other side of the border to establish a security zone. We will clean up and secure the zone. This will be done, of course, with the agreement of the two countries.” Alassane Ouattara won a 2010 election but only came to power after months of violence that killed thousands after incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede. -Reuters See also 5
Universe’s first objects after big bang possibly seen: NASA
WASHINGTON: New observations from a NASA space telescope have spotted what may be the very first objects created in the universe in unprecedented detail, scientists say according to SPACE. The faint objects, imaged in infrared light by NASA’s Spitzer space telescope, might be hugely massive stars or black holes, but are too distant to see individually. The Big Bang is thought to have kickstarted the universe about 13.7 billion years ago.
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senger “became sick.” Judicial sources told AFP that the prosecution’s request in such cases, when someone is caught in the act, is a formality and the prosecution has summoned Wanis for questioning. Al-Nur party, which represents the more conservative brand of Salafi Islam, won the second largest number of seats in parliamentary elections last winter. It was hit with a scandal in March when another lawmaker was forced to resign from parliament and from his party after claiming he was injured in a carjacking -- to explain bandages on his face -when in fact he had had a nose job. -AFP
Sharapova downs Errani to claim Roland Garros crown
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US failed to consult Afghans on airstrike: Karzai
Afghan burqa bomber kills four French troops
KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghanistan’s president said Saturday that the United States failed to consult Afghan forces when calling in an airstrike that killed 18 civilians, and warned that in the future his government will consider such actions as violating the country’s pact with Washington. In the east, meanwhile, a Taliban suicide bomber disguised as a woman wearing a burqa killed four French soldiers when he blew himself up in a market. Both Karzai’s condemnation of the US operation and the French deaths as that country rushes to pull out its combat forces were reminders that the international exit from Afghanistan is going to be far from orderly. As more agreements are signed promising Afghan sovereignty and more NATO troops are assigned the role of train-
ers or advisers, the international mission in the county is becoming increasingly muddled. Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said that President Hamid Karzai met with investigators earlier in the day and concluded that US troops had called in Wednesday’s strike without coordinating with Afghan units. The incident occurred during a nighttime raid on militants taking cover in a village. These raids are a major irritant in Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s relationship with the international military coalition. Karzai says the raids put civilians at risk of injury or death. Military officials say such operations are key to capturing and killing Taliban leaders. The US and Afghanistan signed an agreement in April that put the Afghan government in charge of most such “special operations” - a move designed to resolve some of the longstanding tensions. -AP
LinkedIn breach puts site’s reputation on the line
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Spain will make formal request for bank aid
PARIS: Spain will formally request aid for its troubled banks which will be approved by eurozone ministers, according to sources with knowledge of emergency talks held by the bloc’s finance ministers Saturday. The International Monetary Fund will provide oversight of the aid’s use and the total amount to be made available could reach as much as 100 billion euros ($125 billion), the sources told AFP. Eurozone finance ministers agreed to back Spanish banks in exchange for conditions “focused on the financial sector,”
one source said. The IMF will only have an oversight role, separate sources added. IMF chief Christine Lagarde participated in the eurozone telephone conference on the crisis. In Brussels, a European government source told AFP the eurozone would not require that Spain draw up austerity measures in exchange for the aid. “There is no macro-economic program because this is unnecessary,” the source said, though the question was a matter of debate. -AFP
At first, the universe was too hot and dense for particles to be stable, but then the first quarks formed, which then grouped together to make protons and neutrons, and eventually the first atoms were created. After about 500 million years, the first stars, galaxies and black holes began to take shape. The scientists can’t confirm for sure that the objects they see date from the early universe, but say that’s the most likely explanation. More on 8
US ‘disappointed’ by Iran-IAEA atom talks failure VIENNA: Lack of progress in talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency is disappointing and it shows Tehran’s continued failure to abide by its commitment to the UN nuclear watchdog, a US envoy said on Saturday. The IAEA and Iran failed at talks on Friday to unblock an investigation into suspected atom bomb research by the Islamic state, a setback dimming any chances for success in higher-level negotiations between Tehran and major powers later this month.
The IAEA, a Vienna-based UN agency, said no progress had been made in the meeting aimed at sealing a framework deal on resuming its long-stalled investigation. Six world powers were scrutinizing the IAEA-Iran meeting to judge whether the Iranians were ready to make concessions before a resumption of wider-ranging negotiations with them in Moscow on June 18-19 on the decade-old nuclear dispute. “We’re disappointed,” Robert Wood, the acting US envoy to the IAEA, told Reuters in an emailed comment.
“Yesterday’s outcome highlights Iran’s continued failure to abide by its commitment to the IAEA, and further underscores the need for it to work with the IAEA to address international community’s real concerns,” he said. The IAEA had been pressing Tehran for an accord that would give its inspectors immediate access to the Parchin military complex, where it believes explosives tests relevant for the development of nuclear arms have taken place, and suspects Iran may now be cleaning the site of any incriminating evidence. -Reuters
A girl stands at La Chureca, Managua’s municipal garbage dump, which is located near Lake Managua June 9, 2012. According to a study carried out by the NGO International Foundation for Global Economic Challenge (FIDEG), Nicaragua reduced extreme poverty by one percent during 2010 to 2011. (Reuters)