FRIDAY, JUNE 1 , 2012
@alwatandaily
Issue No. 1452
12 PAGES
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150 Fils with IHT
MP accuses ICM of implicating Kuwait in Dow deal Staff Writers
KUWAIT: Member of Parliament (MP) Faisal Al-Duwaisan launched a scathing attack on the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) accusing it of implicating Kuwait in the Dow Chemical deal through the appointment of its senior figures to leading positions at the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. Al-Duwaisan called on the people of Kuwait not to have mercy for it, as it caused Kuwait to bear the cost of the penal clause. The MP noted that widespread rumors in the United States say that there are beneficiaries from the deal. Commenting on parliamentary investigation panels, Al-Duwaisan categorically made it clear that he does not trust those probe panels set up by the majority because its members serve as defendants and judges, and stressed that they come to nothing. Addressing parliamentary queries to the Oil Minister, the MP stated in the preamble that the
MPs should be on a lookout for those who implicated Kuwait with this penal clause, noting that there is no fine in any contract in the world of this huge sum. This comes at a time when MP Al-Saifi Al-Saifi denied press reports circulated on electronic sites that he had faced pressures from MPs Musallam Al-Barrak and Khaled Shukhayyar to withdraw his interpellation motion against the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Ahmad Al-Rujaib. The MP stressed that he will proceed with his plans to question the minister. Speaking to Al Watan, Al-Saifi emphasized his respect for the Majority Bloc’s Ethics Charter which dictates that members of the bloc should present items of their interpellation to it before being presented. The lawmaker explained that he did brief members of the bloc about the issues contained in his interpellation during a recent meeting at MP Khaled Al-Tahous’s diwaniya. Al-Saifi elaborated that although the Majority
Tweeter jailed 6 months for insulting Shiites
KUWAIT: “The court of appeals Thursday reduced a seven-year jail term of a Sunni tweeter to a six-month imprisonment for allegedly insulting the faith of the Shiite minority,” his lawyer said. “The (appeals) court reduced Mohammad Al-Mulaifi’s jail term to just six months,” Fahad Al-Braikan told AFP. The case will now go to the Supreme Court for a final decision, he added. The reduction of the jail term came after the court acquitted Mulaifi, a writer, from the charges of spreading false news about the Gulf state and promoting an illegal clandestine group, according to the court ruling. He was convicted only on the count of disparaging the Shiite faith in an Internet article which he posted on his Twitter account in February. Kuwaiti Shiites, who make up around a third of the native population of 1.18 million, staged a rally in protest against the article and demanded that authorities take action. Al-Mulaifi, an employee of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and a widower with four children, had categorically denied all the charges and insisted that he did not mean to insult any faith. More on 2
Bloc gave the government ample time to dismiss Al-Rujaib from his post, it paid no heed to the demand. Hence, he added, my decision to grill the minister is consistent with the majority’s standpoint, while expressing understanding for the declared position of certain members of the bloc who voiced their unwillingness to back the motion. “I do respect all opinions ... the MPs are free to express their opinion. However, prejudgments should not be made until both sides are heard,” Al-Saifi stated. For his part, the Chairman of the Parliament’s Education Committee lashed out at government, saying that he has confirmed information that the executive authority yielded to pressures from influential figures and private university owners to send back the Jaber University Law on the grounds that the construction of universities is an executive duty, hence the Parliament’s decision to pass the law is considered an interference with the jurisdiction of the executive.
Syria: Anti-government groups committed Houla massacre BEIRUT: Syria said on Thursday a preliminary investigation showed that anti-government armed groups committed a massacre last week in Houla, in which 108 people were killed, with the aim of encouraging foreign military intervention against the Syrian government. Brigadier General Qassem Jamal Suleiman, head of the investigation committee formed by the government, said the victims were families “who refused to oppose the government and were at odds with the armed groups”. He said many of the victims were relatives of a member of the Syrian parliament. Moreover, the government said that it wanted international envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan to succeed in ending the violence so the 14-month-old crisis could be resolved through political dialogue. Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi also called on opposition groups that reject foreign intervention to come to Syria for talks with the government. Meanwhile, a Russian cargo ship that Western officials say was heavily laden with weapons for the government of Syria docked at the Syrian port of Tartus last weekend, a rights group said on Thursday. “Today’s updated shipping databases show that the Professor Katsman did in fact dock in the port of Tartus on May 26, 2012 before heading to Piraeus, Greece,” Sadia Hameed of Human Rights First told Reuters. Western officials confirmed her remarks, adding that they understood the ship had been carrying arms for the government of Syria, which for 14 months has been using its security forces to attack an increasingly militarized opposition. A spokesman for Russia’s U.N. mission said he would look into the issue. -Reuters See also 3
Chinese bridal couples dance after their symbolic wedding in Fuessen May 31, 2012. 15 Chinese couples who already got married in China, travelled to Germany to repeat their promise of marriage at Neuschwanstein Castle, one of the most popular destinations in Europe. (Reuters)
Misbah calls for India, Pakistan revival
11-year-old played dead to survive Syria massacre
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BEIRUT: When the gunmen began to slaughter his family, 11-year-old Ali el-Sayed says he fell to the floor of his home, soaking his clothes with his brother’s blood to fool the killers into thinking he was already dead. The Syrian boy tried to stop himself from trembling, even as the gunmen, with long beards and shaved heads, killed his parents and all four of his siblings, one by one. The youngest to die was Ali’s brother, 6-year-old Nader. His small body bore two bullet holes - one in his head, another in his back. “I put my brother’s blood all over me and acted like I was dead,” Ali told The Associated Press over Skype on Wednesday, his raspy voice steady and matterof-fact, five days after the killing spree that left him both an orphan and an only child. Ali is one of the few survivors of a weekend massacre in Houla, a collection of poor farming villages and olive groves in Syria’s central Homs province. More than 100 people were killed, many of them women and children who were shot or stabbed in their houses. The killings brought immediate, worldwide condemnation of President Bashar Assad, who has unleashed a violent crackdown on an uprising that began in March 2011. Activists say as many as 13,000 people have been killed since the revolt began. UN investigators and witnesses blame at least some of the Houla killings on shadowy gunmen known as Shabiha who operate on behalf of Assad’s government. Recruited from the ranks of Assad’s Alawite religious community, the militiamen enable the government to distance itself from direct responsibility for the execution-style killings, torture and revenge attacks that have become hallmarks of the Shabiha. -AP
Six blasts across Baghdad kill at least 17
BAGHDAD: Six explosions hit neighborhoods across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens more in the most deadly attacks on the Iraqi capital in more than a month. The attacks - a truck bomb in a market, a car bomb and roadside explosives - broke weeks of relative calm in Baghdad just as Iraq’s government, shared among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs, wrangles over a crisis that risks reigniting sectarian tensions. In the largest blast, a bomber detonated a vegetable delivery truck packed with explosives near a restaurant in a market, killing at least 13 people and wounding 38 in the mainly Shi’ite Shula district, police and witnesses said. “The pickup truck came into the market and the driver left it saying he was going to get people to unload vegetables,” said Haider Fadhil, one of the wounded. “It was a huge explosion, I was knocked out and woke up in a car on my way to hospital.” A car bomb exploded near the vehicle of one of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s advisers, killing one civilian and wounding three in western Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. It was not clear whether the adviser was targeted. Two roadside bombs also exploded in Amiriya district, killing two people and wounding four more, while roadside bombs killed one and injured 15 more people in other mixed neighborhoods in western and southern parts of the capital. -Reuters
Lebanese students dressed as clowns participate in an anti-war protest organized by activists and former militiamen who were fighters during Lebanon’s civil war (1975-1990), and who marched in the former Green Line, in Beirut May 31, 2012. (Reuters)
Iran cancels $2 billion dam deal with China
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Al-Mudhaff case adjourned Ibtisam Saeed
Staff Writer
KUWAIT: The Administrative Court on Thursday adjourned a case involving the former Manager of the Credit and Saving Bank, Salah Al-Mudhaff, who has been recently dismissed by the Minister of State for Housing and National Assembly Affairs Shuaib Al-Muwaizri. The court is due to hear the case next Thursday when the particulars of the interrogation will
be presented. Both the minister and the dismissed official hired private lawyers despite the presence of the Fatwa (Edict) and Legislation Department, as far as government is concerned. Al-Mudhaff’s lawyer argued that the minister should not have hired a private lawyer in the presence of the Fatwa Department. However, Al-Muwaizri rebuffed this argument citing precedents where government institutions hired private lawyers outside government.
Egypt on edge before verdict in Mubarak trial, emergency law ends
CAIRO: Egyptians could hardly believe their eyes when Hosni Mubarak went on trial for complicity over the killing of protesters last year, but those who toppled him doubt Saturday’s verdict will deliver justice for the almost 850 who died. Still less will it deal with the legacy of an autocratic ruler who ran a police state that rode roughshod over human rights for 30 years until popular frustration exploded. “Justice will not be achieved,” said Ahmed elFekky, who was blinded in his left eye during the protests against Mubarak. The verdict promised by Judge Ahmed Refaat more than three months after he closed the trial on February 22 is keenly awaited, not least because of its timing, bang in between two rounds of Egypt’s first truly contested presidential election. If Mubarak, 84, is convicted, he could face anything from three years in jail to the death penalty. Few expect the ex-air force chief to hang, given his age and the perceived weakness of the prosecution case. Appeals could prolong the case for years. An acquittal or a light sentence could ignite a furious reaction on the streets from Egyptians already disappointed that their “revolution” has yet to bring much real change.
Many of those who took to the streets are frustrated that reform has yet to touch the army, the hated police force, the judiciary and much else of the system that propped up his rule. Acquittals of low-ranking officers accused of shooting protesters have raised fear that no one will be brought to book. Meanwhile, Egypt’s decades-old state of emergency came to an end on Thursday as its last renewal expired, the ruling military said, vowing to continue to “protect” the nation. The military will continue its “national and historic responsibility, taking into account that the state of emergency has ended, in accordance with the constitutional declaration and with the law,” it said. It said it would continue in that role until it hands over power, as it has promised it would to an elected president by the end of June. A runoff between the two frontrunners from the first round of the election is to be held on June 16-17. Egypt has been under a state of emergency continuously since president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981, allowing authorities to detain people without charge and try them in emergency security courts. More on 3
Warming gas levels hit ‘troubling milestone’ WASHINGTON: The world’s air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant. Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. The number isn’t quite a surprise, because it’s been rising at an accelerating pace. Years ago, it passed the 350 ppm mark that many scientists say is the highest safe level for carbon dioxide. It now stands globally at 395. So far, only the Arctic has reached that 400 level, but the rest of the world will follow soon. “The fact that it’s 400 is significant,” said Jim Butler, global monitoring director at the National Oceanic and Atmo-
spheric Administration’s Earth System Research Lab in Boulder, Colo. “It’s just a reminder to everybody that we haven’t fixed this and we’re still in trouble.” Carbon dioxide is the chief greenhouse gas and stays in the atmosphere for 100 years. Some carbon dioxide is natural, mainly from decomposing dead plants and animals. Before the Industrial Age, levels were around 275 parts per million. For more than 60 years, readings have been in the 300s, except in urban areas, where levels are skewed. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused the overwhelming bulk of the man-made increase in carbon in the air, scientists say. More on 8
A woman reads a book in front of her house in a street decorated with flags, soccer symbols and the Dutch national soccer colors, in Goirle, the Netherlands, Thursday, May 31, 2012. The European soccer championships in Poland and Ukraine starts on June 8. (AP)