MONDAY, MAY 7, 2012
@alwatandaily
Issue No. 1427
20 PAGES
www.alwatandaily.com
150 Fils with IHT
Al-Shamali interpellation to be submitted today
Mohammed Al-Salman Staff Writer
KUWAIT: The Majority Bloc will file the first interpellation at today’s parliamentary session against Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shamali this afternoon, and the interpellation is expected to include state property, Kuwait Investment Authority, Social Insurance, loans, Al-Zour Station, BOT, and other issues. The interpellation will be signed by MPs Musallam Al-Barrak, Abdulrahman Al-Anjari, and Khaled Al-Tahous, who met yesterday at noon to discuss the issues included in the interpellation, in addition to including some documents and questions that the minister was asked but has not yet answered. An informed source mentioned that all MPs in the bloc wish to include more issues in the interpellation, which will result in having the highest number of supporters to approve the noconfidence vote request that will be filed against Al-Shamali. The interpellation is expected to be discussed at the National Assembly on May 22,
if the minister is willing to tackle the interpellation on that date, or else it will be postponed to June 5. MP Al-Anjari stated that he will be one of the MPs who will sign the interpellation against the minister, since there are many perceived violations committed by Al-Shamali. He revealed that several Islamic MPs will be among those who will support the interpellation, which will allow the interpellation to accomplish its objectives. Meanwhile, a government source welcomed the interpellation and asserted that Al-Shamali is ready to face the questioning, since he has documents that support his statements, conditioned on the premise that MPs commit to the issues included within the interpellation and steer away from any personal attacks. The source underlined the fact that the government has the right to resort to the available constitutional and legal frames to tackle the interpellation. MP Adel Al-Damkhi said that the Majority Bloc supports the interpellation filed against Al-Shamali and against the Minister of Interior
Red tide attacks Gem fish in Kuwait city’s wharf
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Sheikha Fadiyah Scientific Competition to go regional
Staff Writers
KUWAIT: The Deputy General Director in the Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) Dr. Haidar Murad said that the Maritime Control, a subsidiary of PAAAFR, has registered a number of dead fish known locally as the ‘Gem’ Fish in the wharf nearby the city. Speaking to Al Watan, Dr. Murad said the PAAAFR had taken immediate action in terms of conducting a full scan in the area as well as taking samples of the dead fish in order to investigate the reasons and circumstances behind the death of this type of fish. “The Agriculture Authority, after it has carried out the necessary coordination with the Environment Public Authority (EPA), on Saturday morning. Specimens were taken to determine the reasons,” he explained, adding that it was very important to find out if the reasons were accidental or whether there were serious and fatal reasons behind it, as such effect would have similar impact on other types of fish. Dr. Murad was particularly concerned about the state of another local fish known as Al-Maid, adding that precautionary measures were taken instantly, leaving no chances for any fatal mistake. Meanwhile, Maritime Control patrols toured the area in the wharf to explore the so-called ‘red tide phenomena’. According to the Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources, fortunately, the number of dead fish found were not that large and the majority of which was the Gem type, although one particular fish known by locals as Dalaa had several dead fish but not to an alarming level. More on 3
Moscow protesters arrested in march against Putin
Russian riot police try to disperse opposition protesters in downtown Moscow on Sunday, May 6, 2012. (AP)
MOSCOW: A protest demonstration by at least 20,000 people on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration as president boiled into a battle with police after protesters tried to split off from the approved venue and march to the Kremlin. Club-wielding, helmeted officers seized demonstrators and hauled them to police vehicles, dragging some by the hair. Among those arrested were three of the leaders of the opposition movement that gained new life over the winter: Sergei Udaltsov, Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov. Sunday’s demonstration started out peacefully, with protesters marching down a wide avenue to a square on an island near the Kremlin, where authorities had approved a gathering of up to 5,000. But some demonstrators aimed to turn up the pressure by trying to split off and head to the Kremlin, on the other side of the river - and called for the crowd to head for the bridge leading to the Kremlin. A phalanx of riot police blocked the approach to the bridge. After about an hour of tense confrontation, police began pushing protesters back toward the square and harshly detained some of them. Some demonstrators threw stones at the police - at least four police were seen with injuries - and throat-irritating gas wafted through the air, although it was not clear who had deployed it. Before the march turned violent, some of the demonstrators acknowledged Putin’s March election win and his inauguration See also 5 have been a blow to morale. -AP
Maya exhibit in Philly seeks to dispel 2012 myths
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud, who must face the interpellation filed against him by MP Mohammad Al-Juwaihel on Tuesday. He asked Al-Humoud to be honest and transparent in tackling the interpellation. It is worth noting that the Minority Bloc will meet today to discuss its arrangements regarding the mechanism it will follow during Al-Juwaihel’s interpellation, and to determine the speakers who will take part in the interpellation. MP Adnan Al-Mutawwa remarked that filing a no-confidence vote against Al-Humoud will be deserved if he fails to tackle the issues mentioned in the interpellation. He asked Al-Humoud to convince the MPs and the Kuwaiti people that his procedures are correct and legal, and asserted that the minister will be facing no-confidence if it is proven that he is unaware of the violations in his ministry. He complained that Kuwait is plagued with dual citizenships and nationalizing those who are unworthy.
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Indian expat arrested for setting fire to tires
His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah receives Somalia’s President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on his diplomatic visit to the country, May 6, 2012. (KUNA)
Staff Writer
KUWAIT: Police have arrested an Indian expatriate setting fire to tires near the Rahya area, where a large fire broke out recently amidst a vast tire dumping ground, which saw several million used and discarded tires erupt into flame. Police had also confiscated from the suspect’s possession a number of unidentified drug tablets. During questioning the suspect said that he was not involved in the incident which took place at the Rahya dumping ground, or the scrap yard fire which broke out over the weekend. However, he confessed that he had burned the tires during the incident he was arrested for in order to obtain the metal rims so that these could be sold.
CAIRO: Egypt extended an overnight curfew around the Defense Ministry on Sunday to deter a repeat of Friday’s deadly violence, less than three weeks before a presidential vote. A soldier died and almost 400 people were wounded in Friday’s clashes, the second time in a week that protests over the army’s handling of Egypt’s troubled transition from army rule to civilian government have turned violent. The military re-imposed the curfew in the Abbasiya district around the Defense Ministry for the third straight day, the state news agency quoted a military source as saying. Running from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. (2100 GMT to 0400 GMT), it is an hour shorter than on the previous two nights. A presidential election, which starts
Heavy fighting rocks eastern Syria ahead of poll
AMMAN: Fighting between rebels and President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces erupted in an oil producing province in eastern Syria, residents and activists said on Sunday, the eve of a parliamentary election the authorities say shows reforms are under way. Rebels armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked tank positions in the east of the provincial capital Deir El-Zor, in response to an army offensive against towns and villages in the tribal area bordering Iraq that has killed tens of people and stopped others reaching supplies and medical care, they said. “We do not have a death toll because no one is daring to go into the streets,” said Ghaith Abdelsalam, an opposition activist who lives near Ghassan Abboud roundabout that has become a flashpoint for the fighting in the city. “The population has been trapped and anger has been building up,” he said,
Egypt extends curfew in Cairo district for third night
adding the fighting subsided early in the morning after erupting overnight. The army still has tanks and heavy weapons in cities and towns in violation of ceasefire being monitored by a UN team and rebels are continuing their guerrilla attacks on military convoys and army roadblocks that have cut off swathes of the country, according to witnesses and opposition sources. ifty out of a planned total of 300 UN observers are now in Syria to monitor the ceasefire declared on April 12, but their presence has not halted 14 months of violence. The authorities say they are fighting what they call foreign backed terrorists in Deir El-Zor and across the country who are bent on sabotaging what state media describe as a comprehensive reform program being led by Al-Assad that is more advanced than in Western More on 4 democracies.
Scientists ‘switch off’ brain cell death in mice LONDON: Scientists have figured out how to stop brain cell death in mice with brain disease and say their discovery deepens understanding of the mechanisms of human neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. British researchers writing in the journal Nature said they had found a major pathway leading to brain cell death in mice with prion disease, the mouse equivalent of Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (CJD). They then worked out how to block it, and were able to prevent brain cells from dying, helping the mice live longer. The finding, described by one expert as “a major breakthrough in understanding what kills neurons”, points to a common mechanism by which brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and CJD damage the nerve cells. In neurodegenerative diseases, proteins “mis-fold” in a various ways, leading to a buildup of misshapen proteins, the researchers explained in the study. These misshapen proteins form the plaques found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s and the Lewy bodies found in Parkinson’s disease. “What’s exciting is the emergence of a common mechanism of brain cell death, across a range of different neurodegenerative disorders, activated by the different mis-folded proteins in each disease,” said Giovanna Mallucci, who led the research at the University of Leicester’s toxicology unit. “The fact that in mice with prion disease we were able to manipulate this mechanism and protect the brain cells means we may have a way forward in how we treat other disorders,” she said in a statement about the work. An estimated 18 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s is thought to affect around one in 100 people over the age of 60. In these diseases, neurons in the brain die, destroying the brain from the inside. But why the neurons die has remained an unsolved mystery, presenting an obstacle to developing effective treatments and to being able to diagnose the illnesses at early stages when medicines might work better. -Reuters
on May 23-24, will choose a replacement for Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in February last year. Generals have governed since then and their rule has been punctuated by unrest, sometimes violent. Many protesters who gathered near the ministry were ultra-orthodox Salafi Muslims furious that a sheikh they backed for president has been disqualified from the race. Liberals and others were also there, accusing the army of seeking to manipulate or delay the vote. The military has dismissed those allegations, insisting it will stick to its timetable of handing over power to a new president by July 1, or even earlier in the unlikely event of an outright winner in the first round of voting this month. -Reuters
Two Belgian ‘terrorism’ suspects detained in Yemen
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Socialist Hollande ousts Sarkozy in French vote
PARIS: Francois Hollande was elected France’s first Socialist president in nearly two decades on Sunday, dealing a humiliating defeat to incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and shaking up European politics. The result will have major implications for Europe as it struggles to emerge from a financial crisis and for France, the eurozone’s second-largest economy and a nuclear-armed permanent member of the UN Security Council. Hollande, a 57-year-old centre-left moderate, won the vote with between 52 and 53 percent, according to several estimates, becoming France’s first Socialist president since Francois Mitterrand left office in 1995. Joyful crowds were gathering in Hol-
lande’s adopted hometown of Tulle and in front of Socialist headquarters in Paris, as rumors of the result spread more than an hour before French media were legally permitted to publish results. Three polling institutes - CSA, TNS Sofres and Ipsos - estimated that Hollande had won 52 percent of the vote to Sarkozy’s 48, based on samples of actual ballots taken before the official end of polling at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT). Harris Interactive estimated the Socialist’s score at between 52.7 and 53.3 percent. All the estimates were in line with previous opinion polls, which were banned from publication in France from midnight on Friday. -AFP
This picture shows a tornado sweeping through Tsukuba city in Ibaraki prefecture, north eastern Tokyo on May 6, 2012. A tornado ripped through eastern Japan, injuring at least 20 people, destroying houses, and cutting power to around 20,000 households. (AFP)