CR IP TI ON BS SU
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2016
Candidate calls to review all laws issued in last 10 years
www.kuwaittimes.net
MUHARRAM 30, 1438 AH
All-Kuwaiti podium finish for female skeet shooters in UAE
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5Police14find large 16 21 cache of weapons, explosives IS-linked suspect arrested in raid on Andalus house
Min 17º Max 35º High Tide 12:50 Low Tide 06:38 & 18:83
By Hanan Al-Saadoun
Saudis foil plot to bomb World Cup qualifiers Two cells busted RIYADH: Saudi authorities said yesterday they had foiled a plot to bomb a football stadium during a World Cup qualifying match and dismantled two “terrorist” cells linked to the Islamic State group. The interior ministry said in a statement that four suspects from each cell had been arrested. One of the cells had planned to park a bomb-laden vehicle outside Al-Jawhara stadium in the Red Sea city of Jeddah during an Oct 11 World Cup 2018 qualifying football match between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the ministry said. Its members were two Pakistanis, a Syrian, and a Sudanese, the ministry said, without providing further details of the plot or arrests. Continued on Page 13
KUWAIT: A large cache of weapons and explosives are seen after a raid on an Andalus house yesterday.
KUWAIT: Security forces raided a house in Andalus yesterday, where a citizen was arrested with a large cache of weapons, grenades and explosives. The man, suspected to be affiliated with the so-called Islamic State group, was identified by his initials N. H. He works for the army’s explosives department at the ministr y of defense. The weapons and explosives were stashed in hard-to-find concrete recesses in the house. Police also found bomb-making guides, directions to prepare car bombs, highly-inflammable chemicals, gas cylinders and a satellite phone, along with images of executions carried out by the terrorist group. Case papers indicate that investigations by weapons detectives confirmed that the suspect was storing weapons in the house. The place was then raided, which resembled an “explosives and weapons factory”, according to security sources. Further investigations are in progress.
Traffic police remove license plates of cars blocking traffic By Hanan Al-Saadoun
Popular Movement slams government TV channel prosecuted By B Izzak
ALEPPO: A rebel fighter from the Jaish al-Fatah (or Army of Conquest) brigade fires mortar shells towards western government-controlled districts yesterday from the southwestern frontline neighborhood of Dahiyet al-Assad. — AFP
Aleppo fighting spreading amid claims of gas attack ALEPPO: Syria’s regime and rebels were locked in fierce fighting yesterday on Aleppo’s western edges, where 41 civilians have been killed in an opposition offensive to break a devastating government siege. Rebels have unleashed car bombs and salvos of rockets and shells to break through government lines and reach the 250,000 people living in the city’s east. Syrian state media yesterday accused them of firing shells containing toxic gas into government-controlled districts. Rebels denied that, and said government forces had fired poison gas on another frontline. State news agency SANA reported that 35 people were suffering from shortness of
breath, numbness, and muscle spasms after “toxic gases” hit the frontline district of Dahiyet al-Assad and regime-held Hamdaniyeh. The head of Aleppo University Hospital, Ibrahim Hadid, told state television that “36 people, including civilians and combatants, were wounded after inhaling toxic chlorine gas released by terrorists”. The rebels said the army had shelled rebel-held Rashideen district with chlorine and shared videos purportedly showing victims with respiratory problems. Syria’s second city, Aleppo has been ravaged by some of the heaviest fighting of the country’s five-year war which has killed Continued on Page 13
KUWAIT: Campaigning for the Nov 26 snap elections kicked off with calls from almost all quarters for Kuwaiti voters to elect a strong National Assembly to stop the slide in the country’s political arena, but the hardline opposition group Popular Action Movement (PAM) said the new Assembly will not be able to change anything. In a hard-hitting statement, PAM, whose secretary general and former MP Musallam Al-Barrak is behind bars, said Kuwait is passing through “the worst era of its history” as corruption and bribery have destroyed state institutions, public funds remain unprotected, the constitution is breached and laws are being used to punish the government’s political opponents. The statement said public freedoms have been “confiscated” with security authorities targeting the opposition, including former lawmakers, political activists and youth. PAM said the government has become very violent in using oppression, curtailing freedoms, sending opponents to jail and even revoking their citizenships and deporting them. The movement strongly criticized the dissolved pro-government Assembly, saying it passed legislations to curtail public freedoms like the cybercrimes law, electronic publication law, the political exclusion law, the DNA testing law and others. Continued on Page 13
KUWAIT: The traffic department said article 42 of the traffic law went into effect yesterday, which allows the Traffic Department’s director general to suspend driving licenses or car titles and confiscate license plates of violating cars for a maximum of four months. The department said this move aims to stop obstruction of traffic flows by vehicles. The law also warns a car cannot be driv-
en without license plates. Accordingly, traffic patrols have already started citing violating vehicles. The department said license plates of 197 vehicles were removed for obstructing traffic. It said a campaign carried out yesterday morning resulted in confiscating 50 plates in Hawally governorate, 38 plates in Capital governorate, 40 plates in Farwaniya governorate, 20 plates in Jahra governorate, 20 plates in Ahmadi governorate and 29 plates in Mubarak Al-Kabeer governorate.
KUWAIT: A traffic policeman removes the license plate of a violating car yesterday. — MoI
Polls narrow amid Clinton email fallout
SHARJAH: A strange fruit covered by writing found by Sharjah police is seen on Saturday. — AP
UAE police find fruit with writing, nails DUBAI: Police in one of the sheikhdoms of the United Arab Emirates said they found and determined a strange fruit covered in writing and nails was not dangerous. Police in Sharjah, a conservative emirate neighboring Dubai, posted a picture and video of the fruit found Saturday on a beach there. The yellow melon bore Arabic writing and appeared to have a cartoon picture of a person on it, with nails hammered into neat rows on the figure. Police say they spoke with officials at the emirate’s Islamic Affairs Department and determined it not to be a threat. While more relaxed on social issues than its Arab neighbors, items associated with black magic and witchcraft are illegal in the United Arab Emirates. — AP
MIAMI: Polls showed the US election tightening yesterday as Hillary Clinton campaigned in the crucial state of Florida, grappling with the fallout from the FBI director disclosing more of her emails were under review. With the US elections now just nine days away, an ABC News/Washington Post poll put the former secretary of state just one point ahead of her bombastic Republican challenger, Donald Trump, at 46-45 percent of likely voters in a four-way race. In Florida, which is a must-win if Trump is to have any hope of victory, the tycoon overcame a one-point deficit to lead, according to a New York Times Upshot/Siena College Research Institute poll. The poll gave Trump 46 percent of likely voters compared to Clinton’s 42 percent, with former governor Gary Johnson dropping to four percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein on two percent. While the 69-year-old former first lady looking to make history as America’s first female commander-in-chief is still overwhelmingly expected to win the November 8 ballot, Trump was quick to crow yesterday. “We are now leading in
many polls, and many of these were taken before the criminal investigation announcement on Friday - great in states!” the 70-year-old real estate tycoon tweeted to his followers. Clinton was in Florida a second day yesterday after addressing thousands of supporters at a Jennifer Lopez concert in Miami and calling the FBI director’s move “deeply troubling” on Saturday. FBI boss James Comey wrote to lawmakers on Friday, announcing that his agents are reviewing a newly discovered trove of emails, resurrecting an issue that the Clinton campaign thought was behind it. “It was long on innuendo, short on facts, so we’re calling on Mr Comey to come forward and explain what’s at issue here,” Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta told CNN yesterday, referring to Comey’s announcement. “It’s unprecedented and it is deeply troubling because voters deserve to get full and complete facts,” Clinton said in Florida on Saturday. “So we’ve called on Director Comey to explain everything right away, put it all out on the table, right?” she declared, to rapturous cheers. Continued on Page 13
WILTON MANORS, Florida: Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign event at The Manor Complex yesterday. — AFP