THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2012
@alwatandaily
Issue No. 1463
12 PAGES
www.alwatandaily.com
150 Fils with IHT
Ben Ali sentenced to 20 years in prison
TUNIS: A Tunisian military court on Wednesday sentenced ousted dictator Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali to 20 years in jail in absentia for inciting “murder and looting” during a police attempt to smuggle his nephew out of the country during last year’s revolt. The case involves the death of four protesters, who were shot by police in the coastal town of Wardanein, as they tried to prevent the flight of Ben Ali’s nephew Qais, a day after the strongman himself flew out of the country on January 14. The victims’ relatives have accused the security apparatus of ordering police to open fire on the crowd. The court also slapped prison sentences of five to ten years, some in absentia, on several members of the security forces over the same incident. A military
prosecutor is also seeking the death penalty against the former dictator over a similar incident which saw at least 22 people killed in pro-democracy protests in the towns of Thala and Kasserine. Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia as protests engulfed Tunisia, has already been sentenced to decades in jail also in absentia - on charges ranging from corruption to torture and faces more charges. He and his wife are the subject of an international arrest warrant. There is, however, little indication that Riyadh would be willing to extradite Ben Ali. No senior officials have so far been convicted for the deaths of more than 300 people in last year’s uprising, angering the families of the dead and raising pressure on
Judiciary comes under attack Court acquits five officers over Al-Wasmi’s case
Mohammed Al-Salman, Mohammed Al-Khaldi, Osama Al-Qatari and Ahmed Al-Shemmari Staff Writers
KUWAIT: Kuwait’s judicial system has come under sharp criticism from certain MPs, lawyers and twitters through social networks. This development came following a decision by the High Court to acquit five security officers accused of using force against MP Dr. Obeid Al-Wasmi, who was beaten up during a symposium at MP Dr. Jamaan Al-Harbash’s diwaniya last December. The ruling has elicited immediate reactions from lawmakers. MP Al-Wasmi posted comments on his Twitter account saying, “We uphold law and the verdicts issued based on it. However, this is neither a ruling nor an application of the law. In short, I will never accept a judiciary which issues such decisions.” He added, “It has become a civil and moral duty to open this dossier and specify names. We will bear the implications and others in the judiciary also have a duty to bear the consequences of their actions.” The lawmaker went on to emphasize that each authority should be responsible and accountable. “This is closer to slavery, which is
unacceptable legally and morally,” Al-Wasmi scathingly said. The government has reportedly conveyed its discontentment to the National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun over critical comments by certain MPs in reaction to a verdict issued by the High Court acquitting five security officers Informed sources have reported that the government considers the scathing remarks as interference in the judiciary in violation of Article 50 of the Constitution. The said article stipulates that “The system of Government is based on the principle of separation of powers functioning in co-operation with each other in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. None of these powers may relinquish all or part of its competence specified in this Constitution.” The sources also pointed out that the comments are perceived to be defiance to the prerogative of His Highness the Amir in whose name verdicts are issued. In this vein, the speaker is due to pass on government’s displeasure to the MPs who have critically commented on the ruling, “blending the remarks with their political opinion.” It has been gathered that the MPs will be urged to uphold court verdicts and to respect the judicial authority.
the Tunisian government to ensure that justice is done. Tunisia’s government has faced persistent criticism over its failure to persuade Saudi Arabia to hand over Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi, a former hairdresser whose lavish lifestyle and clique of wealthy relatives came to be seen by many Tunisians as a symbol of the corrupt era. The weeks of protests that started in December 2010 toppled one of the most entrenched autocratic regimes in the Arab world and led to democratic elections in October that saw a moderate Islamist party rise to power. The strongman’s ouster toppled the first domino in the wave of protests which became known as the Arab Spring and is still sweeping the region.-Agencies
Iraq attacks kill at least 72 during Shiite pilgrimage
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Russia defends weapons sales to Syria, says US arming rebels
DUBAI: Russia’s foreign minister on Wednesday defended his country’s sale of arms to Syria and accused the United States of supplying rebels with weapons to fight against the government. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday Washington was worried Russia may be sending attack helicopters to Syria and described as “patently untrue” Moscow’s argument that its arms transfers to Syria are unrelated to the conflict there. “We are not violating any international law in performing these contracts,” said Sergei Lavrov, in response to a question about Clinton’s comments at a news conference during a visit to Iran. “They are providing arms and weapons to the Syrian opposition that can be used in fighting against the Damascus government,” he said on Iranian state television, speaking through an interpreter. Russia is one of Syria’s principal defenders on the diplomatic front and, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council with the power to veto resolutions, has stymied efforts by Western powers to pressure President Bashar al-Assad into stepping down. Lavrov said Russia’s position was based on concern for the Syrian people and the country’s integrity, rather than personal preference for Assad. Russia is resisting Western and Gulf Arab pressure to take a harder line against Assad, rejecting calls for sanctions and proposing a conference bringing together global and regional powers including Iran. -Reuters
Saudi king asked to lift female driving ban
This image provided by NASA on June 14, 2012 shows a color composite of Saturn and its largest moon Titan, as captured by the Cassini spacecraft. A new study released today, suggests the presence of a hydrocarbon lake and several ponds near the equator of Titan, a surprise to scientists who thought lakes only existed at the poles. (AP)
UN global food forecasts good but fears over Yemen, Syria
PARIS: The UN’s food agency said Wednesday that this year’s forecasts for global food production are positive overall but warned that some areas will likely struggle due to armed conflict and displacement. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s report forecasts “a record increase of 3.2 percent in world cereal production in 2012, mainly on the strength of a bumper maize crop in the United States.” Despite the positive trend, “several regions of the world are expected to struggle with the consequences of poor rainfall, severe weather, armed conflict and displacement,” the Rome-based agency said. Countries in the Sahel continue to face serious challenges to food security due to locally high food prices and civil strife, it said, adding that Syria and Yemen are also experiencing increasing difficul-
ties. “The situation in Yemen and Syria reminds us of the clear link between food security and peace. Internal conflict is causing food insecurity. But it works the other way around as well,” FAO head Jose Graziano da Silva said. “Throughout the world we see crisis after crisis caused, in its entirety or in part, by the lack of food or disputes over natural resources, especially land and water,” he added. The report lists 35 countries -- 28 in Africa – which are in need of external food assistance, including Afghanistan, North Korea, Haiti, Iraq and Mali. Civil unrest in Syria has left an estimated one million people in need of humanitarian assistance while in Yemen about five million people are thought to need emergency food aid due to extreme poverty and prolonged conflict. -AFP
RIYADH: Hundreds of people have petitioned Saudi King Abdullah to allow women to get behind the wheel on the first anniversary of the Women2Drive campaign launched in June 2011. The signatories, who numbered nearly 600 on Wednesday, are asking the king of the only country in the world that forbids women to drive to “encourage women who have obtained driving licenses from neighboring countries to begin driving whenever necessary.” They also called on the monarch to “establish driving schools for women and (begin) issuing licenses.” The petition thanked the king, a cautious reformer, for giving women the right to vote in municipal elections set to take place in 2015, saying “our initiative is not aimed at violating laws.” “We only want to enjoy the right to drive like all women over the world,” said the petition signed by Manal Al-Sherif, the icon of an Internet campaign launched last year urging Saudi women to defy the driving ban. Sheima Jastaniah, who was pardoned by the king after being sentenced to 10 lashes for breaking the driving ban last September, has also signed the petition. Hundreds of women have driven since the campaign was launched and many of them have been arrested and forced to sign a pledge stating they will never drive again, according to activists. The campaign, which spread through Facebook and Twitter, was the largest mass action since November 1990, when 47 Saudi women were arrested and punished after demonstrating in cars. -AFP
Syria’s Foreign Ministry rejects civil war status CAPITALS: Syria’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that United Nations peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous’s comments that Syria is in a civil war was an unrealistic description of the conflict. “Talk of civil war in Syria is not consistent with reality... What is happening in Syria is a war against armed groups that choose terrorism,” Syrian state news agency SANA quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as saying. On Tuesday, Ladsous said the 15-month-old conflict in Syria, which started with peaceful protests against President Bashar Al-Assad’s rule, had grown into a full-scale civil war in which Damascus was attempting to recapture large swathes of urban territory it has lost to the armed opposition. It was the first time a senior UN official has declared that the Syrian conflict is a civil war. Civil war status would present legal implicationsforAssadandrebelfightersintermswarcrimes and compliance with the Geneva Conventions. More on 3 -Agencies
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Portugal 3
Netherlands 1
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Germany 2
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Today’s Matches:
Italy vs Croatia & Spain vs Ireland
Egypt authorizes military to arrest civilians
CAIRO: Egypt’s Justice Ministry on Wednesday gave the country’s military police and intelligence agents the right to arrest civilians over wide range of suspected crimes, including “resisting authorities,” sparking charges that the country’s military rulers want to extend their grip on power even after handing over to civilians. The decision comes during heightened tensions in Egypt, three days before a highly polarized presidential runoff election and a day before rulings by the country’s highest court that could dissolve the Islamist-dominated parliament and even cancel the Saturday-Sunday presidential vote. The decision, published in the official gazette, would remain in effect until a new constitution is in place. The process of writing a constitution has hit snags. On Tuesday the Islamist-dominated parliament voted on an assembly to draft the
document, but liberals boycotted the session. An earlier attempt to name the body collapsed because of opposition from liberals. Both times they charged that Islamists were unfairly dominating the procedure. Military analysts said the military arrest powers were a temporary measure intended to fill a security vacuum resulting from last year’s uprising, when the police force collapsed and disappeared from the streets during the first days of the mass protests. “The police force has not recovered completely, and security is not back,” said Sayyed Hashim, a former military prosecutor, in a TV interview. Rights activists warned the new decision creates a reproduction of notorious emergency laws that expired recently and said that it also could extend the rule of the generals, even if they transfer power to civilians on time by the end of the See also 3 month. -AP
KSE drops 100 points, closes at 4-month low
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World oil reserves up eight percent, supply fears persist LONDON: The world’s store of oil and gas jumped 8.3 percent last year, as exploration rose and record crude prices made marginal projects commercially viable, yet supplies will struggle to meet demand due to political factors, oil giant BP said on Wednesday. BP said in its annual calculation of global oil and gas reserves, considered the industry’s most comprehensive, that oil reserves totaled 1,653 billion barrels at the end of 2011. That was up from 1,526 billion barrels of extractable oil in the ground at the end of 2010, according to BP’s Statistical
Review of World Energy last year. “One perennial question is whether there are enough energy resources for our needs?” Chief Executive Bob Dudley said as he unveiled the report. “The answer from this review is certainly ‘yes’: At today’s consumption rates, the world has proved reserves sufficient to meet current production for 54 years for oil.” The report, based on governments’ official reserves statistics, including those challenged by analysts, also showed that gas reserves rose by over 11 percent in 2011. -Reuters
10,000 germ species live in and on healthy people
Undated handout image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) shows a clump of Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria. (AP)
WASHINGTON: They live on your skin, up your nose, in your gut - enough bacteria, fungi and other microbes that collected together could weigh, amazingly, a few pounds. Now scientists have mapped just which critters normally live in or on us and where, calculating that healthy people can share their bodies with more than 10,000 species of microbes. Don’t say “eeew” just yet. Many of these organisms work to keep humans healthy, and results reported Wednesday from the government’s Human Microbiome Project define what’s normal in this mysterious netherworld. One surprise: It turns out that nearly everybody harbors low levels of some harmful types of bacteria, pathogens that are known for causing specific infections. But when a person is healthy - like the 242 US adults who volunteered to be tested for the project - those bugs simply quietly coexist with benign or helpful microbes, perhaps kept in check by them. -AP