SUNDAY, JUNE 3, 2012
@alwatandaily
Issue No. 1454
12 PAGES
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Egypt’s Mubarak sentenced to life in prison
• Gamal, Ala’a Mubarak acquitted of corruption charges • Ousted president enters prison hospital despite resistance
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak sits inside a cage in a courtroom in Cairo in this still image taken from video June 2, 2012. An Egyptian judge convicted Mubarak of complicity in the killings of protesters during the uprising that ended his 30-year rule and sentenced him on Saturday to life in prison. (Reuters)
CAIRO: Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison Saturday for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising that forced him from power last year. The ousted president and his sons, Gamal and Ala’a, were acquitted however, of corruption charges in a mixed verdict that swiftly provoked a new wave of anger on Egypt’s streets. Calls have gone out for a massive protest at Tahrir Square, the heart of the uprising, at 5 p.m. After the sentencing, the 84-year old Mubarak suffered a “health crisis” while on a helicopter flight to a Cairo prison hospital, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity
Relatives of people who died during Egypt’s revolutions react after a court sentenced deposed president Hosni Mubarak to life in prison. (Reuters)
because they were not authorized to speak to the media. One state media report said it was a heart attack, but that could not immediately be confirmed. The officials said Mubarak cried in protest and resisted leaving the helicopter that took him to a prison hospital for the first time since he was detained in April 2011. Mubarak stayed at a regular hospital in his favorite Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh from his arrest until his trial began in on Aug. 3. The officials said he insisted on the helicopter that he be flown to the military hospital on the eastern outskirts of Cairo where he has stayed during the trial.
Mubarak finally left the chopper and moved to the Torah prison hospital more than two hours after his helicopter landed there. Egypt’s Ahmed Shafiq, a former military man who will compete with the Muslim Brotherhood in a run-off presidential vote this month, said on Saturday that the jailing of Hosni Mubarak in a trial over protester killings proved no one was above the law. “We do not have a right to comment on judicial rulings but this verdict indicates that no one is above questioning if the law requires,” said Shafiq, who has described Mubarak as a role model on his official Facebook page.
KUWAIT: During its meeting at MP Jamaan Al-Harbash’ diwaniya, the Majority Bloc’s Coordinative Committee has reportedly discussed MP AlSaifi Al-Saifi’s interpellation against the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Ahmad Al-Rujaib. Though the committee also brought up the government’s perceived failure to regularly attend parliamentary committee meetings, the Blasphemy and Sheikh Jaber University laws were featured predominantly during the meeting. According to sources, most members of the Majority Bloc are in favor of convincing Al-Saifi to defer his grilling and to reach a gentleman deal with the minister, whereby the latter addresses the issues he highlighted in the motion. This comes at a time that reports emerged suggesting that Minister Al-Rujaib is likely to request
the deferral of the interpellation for two weeks, while a final decision is made by the Cabinet during its weekly session tomorrow (Monday). Meanwhile, sources reported that a possible decision by the government to send back the Blasphemy and Sheikh Jaber University laws will expose its real stance on cooperation with the legislative authority, particularly since these laws were endorsed by the Parliament with an overwhelming majority. The sources indicated that sending back the laws will be considered an escalation on the part of the government. It has been informed that the Majority has vowed to re-endorse the said laws in the event that they were rebuffed by the government. MP Dr. Mohammad Al-Kandari remarked that such a move will represent the starkest indicative of government’s attempt to forestall laws and undermine development. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
At least 30 missing, hundreds stranded in Philippine storm
Dusty weather to prevail until today
A view shows central Kuwait City covered in dust June 2, 2012. Kuwait’s Meteorological Center warned on Saturday of low visibility due to the dust storm that will continue to prevail until today. (KUNA)
KUWAIT: Dusty weather conditions are expected to prevail until today (Sunday), where the dust is expected to begin receding on Monday, according to the director of Kuwait Meteorological Center, Mohammad Karam. Karam told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on Saturday that the country was gripped with a current dust wave, boosted by northwesterly gales reaching 60-70 kmph.
Visibility drop will be at least to less than 500 meters in urban regions and lower than 100 m in rural areas. Strong winds are forecast to taper off at night, thus enabling dust to recede. Temperature will range between 4345 degrees and will fall at night time to 29-31 degrees. Karam urged against going to the sea, and advised allergy patients to abstain from exposure to the dusty More on 2 winds.
“Those rulings certainly disprove any claims that a presidential candidate can reproduce a ruling system that has ended,” he said, responding to critics who say Shafiq, who was also Mubarak’s last prime minister, would revive the old order. Earlier, Mubarak sat stone-faced and frowning in the courtroom’s metal defendants’ cage while judge Ahmed Rifaat read out the conviction and sentence against him, showing no emotion with his eyes concealed by dark sunglasses. His sons Gamal and Alaa looked nervous, but also did not react to either the conviction of their father or their own acquittals. Mubarak was convicted of complicity in
Kuwait oil revenues hit KD 5 billion in two months
Majority vows to re-endorse blasphemy, Jaber University laws
Staff Writers
Egyptians gather in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, June 2, 2012. (AP)
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KUWAIT: Despite the drop in oil prices, presumably Kuwait has achieved oil revenues worth KD 5 billion in the past two months, a specialized economic report said Saturday. The report, by Al-Shall Economic Consultants, showed that the oil prices have taken downward trend during the past period, but it retained above $100 per barrel benchmark. “By the end of May 2012, the second month of the current fiscal year 2012/2013 ended with the average price of a Kuwaiti barrel of oil being over $100 for the 15th consecutive month, i.e. since March 2011, though with a tendency to decline, sometimes sharply. The lowest average price of a Kuwaiti barrel of oil during the month was at $101.47 per barrel on 24/05 (source: KPC),” it said. “The average price of Kuwaiti crude oil for May scored $106.7 a barrel, by a significant drop of about US -10.2 or -8.7 percent, from April’s average of $116.9. However, May’s average is still $41.7 per barrel, or 64.2 percent, higher than the new hypothetical price estimated in the current budget at $ 65 per barrel. May 2011 price average for the last FY 2011/2012 scored about $107.5 per barrel. The last FY 2011/2012, which ended last March, achieved an average price of $109.9 for the Kuwaiti barrel of oil.” The report also expected the oil revenues for this year will hit KD 30 billion. “Assuming production and prices would continue at their current levels - an assumption on the price side at least, which has nothing to do with reality - it is expected that the value of potential oil revenues for the entire current fiscal year would score some KD 30 billion, which is KD 17.2 billion higher See also 6 than the budget estimate.
NATO rescues 4 aid workers in Afghanistan KUNDUZ, Afghanistan: A NATO rescue team dropped by helicopter in the remote mountains of northern Afghanistan early on Saturday freed four aid workers, including two foreigners, who had been seized by the Taliban last month, the alliance said. The aid workers, employed by Swiss-based Medair, were en route to flood-stricken parts of Badakhshan province when they were kidnapped. NATO forces entered the area under cover of darkness and after confirming the presence of the hostages, carried out a successful raid to free them, Lieutenant Commander Brian Badura, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) told Reuters. The rescue team suffered no casualties in the operation, Badura said. The kidnappers were armed with heavy machine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades. The two foreigners were identified as Helen Johnston, a Briton, and Moragwa Oirere from Kenya. British Prime Minister David Cameron, welcoming the freeing of the hostages, said their lives were increasingly in danger. “The risks to Helen and her colleagues were getting worse all time as more and more Taliban were getting involved and the risks to her life were indeed getting greater.” He said it was an operation in which British troops were involved, and that a number of Taliban and hostage takers were killed. A statement from ISAF, however, identified the hostage-takers as members of the Taliban, who have stepped up violence across the country as foreign combat forces prepare to leave by the end of 2014. “This morning’s mission, conducted by coalition forces, exemplifies our collective and unwavering commitment to defeat the Taliban,” General John Allen, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said. Medair is a humanitarian non-governmental organization based near Lausanne, Switzerland. The aid workers had been travelling by donkey to visit a clinic in the remote Yawan district, where the road had been destroyed by floods caused by melting snow after one of the worst Afghan winters in decades. -Reuters
the killing of some 900 protesters during the 18day uprising that forced him to resign in February 2011. He and his two sons were acquitted of corruption charges, along with a family friend who is on the run. Rifaat opened the session with a strongly worded statement before handing down the verdicts. He expressed deep sympathy for the uprising. “The people released a collective sigh of relief after a nightmare that did not, as is customary, last for a night, but for almost 30 black, black, black years - darkness that resembled a winter night. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
Arab League urges more UN monitors in Syria
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Seven dead, 30 wounded in north Lebanon clashes
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Seven people were killed and 30 wounded in Lebanon’s port city of Tripoli on Saturday in clashes between Lebanese supporters and opponents of a popular uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, an army doctor at the scene said. Residents of neighboring districts have fought on-off skirmishes in recent weeks, but Saturday’s death toll is the highest in a single day in Tripoli, raising fears that Syria’s unrest will spill over into its smaller neighbor. The fighting in Tripoli started shortly before midnight Friday and intensified Saturday, the officials said on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Lebanon and Syria share a complex web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries, which are easily enflamed. Clashes in Tripoli last month killed at least eight people. The conflict pits Sunni Muslims who support Syrian rebels trying to oust Presi-
dent Bashar Al-Assad against members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam of which Assad is a member. Smoke was seen billowing from several apartments near the city’s Syria street, the dividing line between the mainly Sunni Bab Tabbaneh neighborhood and the adjacent, Alawite-majority Jabal Mohsen. The area around Syria street was mostly empty and gunmen were roaming the streets. “We are being targeted because we support the Syrian people,” a Sunni gunman told Associated Press Television. “We are with you (Syrian people) and will not abandon you.” In Syria, activists said government troops fired shells at Houla, a cluster of farming villages in the central province of Homs where the UN says at least 108 people - including 49 children under the age of ten - were killed on May 25. The opposition and the government have exchanged accusations over the massacre, each blaming the other. -Agencies
A view shows central Kuwait City covered in dust June 2, 2012. Kuwait’s Meteorological Center warned on Saturday of low visibility due to the dust storm that will continue to prevail until today. (KUNA)
England ponder Anderson omission
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