TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2012
@alwatandaily
Issue No. 1421
20 PAGES
www.alwatandaily.com
150 Fils with IHT
‘Majority’ to push for closed-door grilling with Al-Humoud
Mohammed Al-Salman & Mohammed Al-Khaldi Staff Writers
KUWAIT: Certain members of the Majority Bloc are reportedly mounting pressure on the bloc to demand a closeddoor discussion of MP Mohammad Al-Juwaihel’s interpellation against the Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud AlSabah to head off a potentially embarrassing situation for some members. According to parliamentary sources, these MPs have decided to meet with the National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun to underscore the need for him to strictly enforce the law in case Al-Juwaihel deviates from the issues originally in his interpellation motion. It has been revealed that some members of the Majority Bloc are concerned that Al-Juwaihel may call names of certain naturalized individuals or those holding dual citizenship. The concerned MPs are equally anxious that they might have to vote for a no-confidence in the minister if the interpellator raised the
Kuwait posts KD 13 billion in budget surplus
KUWAIT: State budget posted actual surplus of 13.3 billion Kuwaiti dinars in the end of last February, the 11th month of the fiscal year that began on April 1, according to fresh statistical figures released by the Ministry of Finance. The surplus was made as a result of actual revenues that amounted to KD 26.8 billion, actual spending of KD 10.8 billion and real liabilities standing at KD 2.6 billion, Projections for the mentioned period had put projected deficit at approximately KD 6.7 billion, as a result of forecast income of at KD 12.3 billion, approved spending at KD 17.8 billion and projected liabilities at KD 1.2 billion. Projections for the whole financial year, 2011-2012, indicated at a prospected deficit of KD 7.3 billion, through forecast revenues of KD 13.4 billion, approved expenditure, after alteration, estimated at KD 19.4 billion and More on 9 prospected liabilities at KD 1.3 billion.
Sarkozy to sue over Gadhafi cash claim
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issue of Mohammad Al-Maimuni who has allegedly died from torture at the hands of undercover security personnel. Reports have emerged that the ‘hawks” within the Majority Bloc will prevail on the government to file a request for the session to be held behind closed doors so as to avoid the minister and the government being embarrassed over the issue of naturalization. In the same vein, the bloc is due to convene a meeting next week to discuss a mechanism for countering Al-Juwaihel’s interpellation, and other relevant issues. For his part, MP Dr. Mohammad Al-Kandari has ruled out the prospect of a closed-door session. “If there is no obvious justification for the closed-door session, it will be held in public,” the MP said, adding the people of Kuwait are eager to assess the performance of their representatives in public. Moreover, the Development and Reform Bloc is due to discuss the best means of confronting the scathing attack being launched by MP Nabeel Al-Fadhl against its member MP Dr. WaCONTINUED ON PAGE 2 leed Al-Tabatabaie.
Libya’s Gadhafi-era oil chief found floating dead in Danube
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Blasts in Syria’s Idlib kill ‘more than 20’
DAMASCUS: More than 20 people were killed on Monday in blasts targeting security buildings in the city of Idlib in northwest Syria, as an explosion was also reported in the capital, a monitoring group said. The violence a day after the arrival of the chief of a United Nations monitoring mission was sure to put further strain on a UN-backed ceasefire that went into effect on April 12 but has failed to take hold fully. Most of those killed in Idlib were members of the security forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. State television put the death toll at eight, among them civilians, and said scores of people were also wounded in the two blasts in Idlib’s Hananu Square, on Carlton Street. The channel said “terrorists” were behind the attacks, a term it uses to refer to rebels seeking to overthrow the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad. It showed footage of bloodstains on the ground, and groups of angry people denouncing the violence and expressing support for Assad. “Is this the freedom they want?” shouted one man, standing near a woman who was carrying a child with blood running More on 4 down his forehead.
New organism discovered with unique roots in the tree of life
Protesting residents of southern neighborhood Lyari disperse after police fired teargas during a protest against the government and police operation in troubled Lyari area in Karachi on April 30, 2012. At least 12 people including police officials were killed and several injured in three days in Lyari operation by Pakistani police swoop in the neighborhood infested with criminal gangs, local media reported. (AFP)
NEW YORK: A single-celled organism in Norway has been called “mankind’s furthest relative.” It is so far removed from the organisms we know that researchers claim it belongs to a new base group, called a kingdom, on the tree of life, according to new findings reported on LiveScience. “We have found an unknown branch of the tree of life that lives in this lake. It is unique! So far we know of no other group of organisms that descend from closer to the roots of the tree of life than this species,” study researcher Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi, of the University of Oslo, in Norway, said in a statement. The organism, a type of protozoan, was found by researchers in a lake near Oslo. Protozoans have been known to science since 1865, but because they are difficult to culture in the lab, researchers haven’t been able to get a grip on their genetic makeup. They were placed in the protist kingdom on the tree of life mostly based on observations of their size and More on 15 shape.
Beach Boys put past differences aside for reunion
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Badminton Horse Trials cancelled due to rain
LONDON: Organizers cancelled this year’s Badminton Horse Trials, arguably the world most prestigious annual three-day event, saying Monday there was “no chance” of the ground drying in time for that would have been a key part of many riders’ Olympic preparations. The competition, which takes place in the grounds of Badminton House in Gloucestershire, was due to start on Friday. As well as the upcoming London Olympics Games, this year’s Badminton had been given added significance by the fact Britain’s world number one William Fox-Pitt was gunning for the £220,000 ($358,000) Rolex Grand Slam prize awarded for any rider who wins consecutive Burghley, Kentucky and Badminton titles.
Weather instability expected to continue till Thursday
Fox-Pitt added the Kentucky title on Sunday to his Burghley victory seven months ago, both aboard Parklane Hawk. But his chance of a clean sweep has now been dashed. “The recent exceptional rainfall has left the ground at Badminton totally waterlogged and partially flooded,” Badminton director Hugh Thomas said Monday. “Further rain is due this week, leaving no chance of the ground drying out. “Very sadly, therefore, the 2012 Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials has been cancelled.” The event will not be rescheduled, with Monday’s announcement the first Badminton cancellation since 1987. The event was also called off in 1963, 1966 and 1975. -AFP
Cars drive slowly in dusty weather on Monday April 30, 2012. According to the Director of the Meteorological Department in the Civil Aviation Mohammed Karam; the weather instability is expected to continue through Thursday. More on 3 (KUNA)
Rebel chief Kony ‘in S.Sudan border areas’
KAMPALA: Fugitive rebel warlord Joseph Kony is operating in volatile border areas between Sudan and South Sudan, as well as the Central African Republic, Uganda’s army chief said Monday. Kony, originally from Uganda, is based in remote regions between CAR, South Sudan’s Western Bahr el-Ghazal state, and Sudan’s South Darfur state, said Aronda Nyakairima, Uganda’s chief of defence forces. “The last intelligence that they got from someone who surrendered indicated that Kony was somewhere in western Bahr-El-Ghazal at a point where the triangular borders meet,” Nyakairima said. Uganda is leading an African Union force in the hunt for the head of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, a force notorious for a grim campaign of rape, mutilation and murder. Nyakairima said that Khartoum had armed the LRA and
given the brutal rebel group sanctuary prior to 2002, a move widely seen as retaliation for Uganda’s backing of southern rebels battling the Sudanese government. However, Nyakairima said that although new uniforms of the Sudanese Armed Forces had been discovered with the rebels, there was no concrete proof Khartoum was still supporting or arming the LRA. “We know that area has Khartoum forces deployed in Southern Darfur... We have not come across a rifle or a bomb, but certainly we came across brand new uniforms,” Nyakairima said. The uniforms could have been stolen or taken from dead soldiers, Nyakairima added. The border between Sudan and South Sudan is undemarcated, a remote area where several armed groups are believed to operate, including both Sudanese Darfur rebels fighting the government and pro-Khartoum militia forces. -AFP
Heathrow told to stop apologizing for queues LONDON: Heathrow airport has been told by the UK Border Force to stop handing out leaflets to passengers apologizing for the “very long delays” at immigration three months before the London Olympics, an email obtained by the Daily Telegraph revealed Monday. Following lengthy queues at passport control in recent days, airport operator BAA was also directed to stop people from taking pictures of queues in the arrivals hall after images were posted on Twitter. BAA tried to defuse increasing anger at the length of queues for travelers Saturday with the leaflet explaining the delays. People arriving in the UK “deserved a warmer welcome”, the Telegraph quoted the leaflet as saying, adding it explained how travelers can complain to the Home Office about the situation. Marc Owen, director of UK Border Agency operations at Heathrow, wrote in an email obtained by the Telegraph: “The leaflet is not all right with us. It is both inflammatory and likely to increase tensions in arrivals halls especially in the current atmosphere. Some 80 percent of all visitors to the Olympics, which start on July 27, are expected to pass through Heathrow. -AFP
File photo of passengers queuing in Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. Heathrow has been ordered by the UK Border Force to stop handing out leaflets to passengers apologizing for the “very long delays” at immigration. (AFP)
As waistlines expand... Costs soar
NEW YORK: US hospitals are ripping out wall-mounted toilets and replacing them with floor models to better support obese patients. The Federal Transit Administration wants buses to be tested for the impact of heavier riders on steering and braking. Cars are burning nearly a billion gallons of gasoline more a year than if passengers weighed what they did in 1960. The nation’s rising rate of obesity has been well-chronicled. But businesses, governments and individuals are only now coming to grips with the costs of those extra pounds, many of which are even greater than believed only a few years ago: The additional medical spending due to obesity is double previous estimates and exceeds even those of smoking, a new study shows. Many of those costs have dollar signs in front of them, such as the higher health insurance premiums everyone pays to cover those extra medical costs. Other changes, often cost-neutral, are coming to the built environment in the form of wider seats in public places from sports stadiums to bus stops. The startling economic costs of obesity, often borne by the non-obese, could become the epidemic’s second-hand smoke. Only when scientists discovered that nonsmokers were developing lung cancer and other diseases from breathing smoke-filled air did policymakers get serious about fighting the habit, in particular by establishing nonsmoking zones. The costs that smoking added to Medicaid More on 16 also spurred action.
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“with an American accent”
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