CR IP TI ON BS SU
SUNDAY, JUNE 3, 2012
Cheering crowds greet Queen Elizabeth at start of jubilee
Nadal leads Spanish onslaught at French Open
20
NO: 15468
150 FILS
7 40 PAGES
www.kuwaittimes.net
RAJAB 13, 1433 AH
Supplement Inside
Mubarak jailed for life, but anger still simmers Sons, police chiefs acquitted • Ex-strongman suffers ‘health crisis’
CAIRO: (Left) Egyptian protesters react in Tahrir square after the Muslim Brotherhood called for mass protests after a court sentenced ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his interior minister to life in prison yesterday but acquitted six security chiefs in the deaths of protesters last year. (Right) Mubarak lies on a gurney inside a cage in the police academy courthouse during his verdict hearing. — AFP
US will put more warships in Asia SINGAPORE: The United States will two largest economies on a range of shift a majority of its warships to the issues, including the South China Sea. Asia-Pacific region by 2020, Defense “We’re not naive about the relationship Secretary Leon Panetta said yesterday, and neither is China,” Panetta told the giving the first details of a new US mili- Shangri-La Dialogue attended by senior tary strategy. Fleshing out civilian and military leaders details of a strategic shift to from about 30 Asia-Pacific Asia announced in January, nations. “ We also both Panetta said the United understand that there really States would maintain six is no other alternative but aircraft carriers in the region for both of us to engage and over the long run and rebalto improve our communicaance its fleet so that 60 pertions and to improve our cent of its other warships (military-to-military) relawould be assigned to the tionships,” he said. “That’s Pacific by 2020, compared to the kind of mature relation50 percent now. ship that we ultimately have Leon Panetta The US defense secretary, to have with China.” speaking at an annual security forum in Some Chinese officials have been Singapore, also sought to dispel the critical of the US shift of militar y notion that the shift, after more than a emphasis to Asia, seeing it as an decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, attempt to fence in the country and was designed to contain China’s emer- frustrate Beijing’s territorial claims. gence as a global power. He acknowl- China has downgraded its edged differences between the world’s Continued on Page 13
Max 42º Min 31º High Tide 09:46 & 11:42 Low Tide 03:19 & 16:56
CAIRO: Hosni Mubarak, toppled by an uprising last year after 30 years ruling Egypt, was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday for his role in killing protesters after a trial that sets a precedent for holding Middle East autocrats to account. But it was not enough for thousands of Egyptians who poured onto the streets after the verdict. Some wanted Mubarak executed, others feared the judge’s ruling exposed weaknesses in the case that could let the former military strongman off on appeal. Protesters gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, focus for the uprising that drove Mubarak, now 84, from office on Feb 11, 2011. Others in the second city of Alexandria chanted: “We are done with talk, we want an execution!” State television said Mubarak suffered a “health crisis” when he was taken by helicopter from the court to Cairo’s Tora prison, where he was admitted to a hospital facility. Mubarak had been held at a luxurious militaryrun hospital during the 10-month trial. One medical source said Mubarak had argued with those around him when he had landed at Tora, refusing to leave the aircraft. Mubarak routinely appeared in court on a stretcher, but it is not clear what ailed him. He had occupied a large hospital suite and was free to see relatives, walk in the garden and exercise, news reports and a hospital source said this week. Mubarak finally left the chopper and moved to the Tora prison hospital more than two hours after his helicopter landed there. The ruling came at a politically fraught time for Egypt, two weeks before a run-off in its first free presidential election that will pit the Muslim Brotherhood, which was Continued on Page 13
Arabs want timeframe for Syria peace mission DOHA: The Arab League yesterday demanded stronger UN measures against the Syrian regime to implement a peace plan within a set timeframe, including nonmilitary action provided for by Chapter VII of the UN charter. Arab ministers evoked the UN text shortly after peace envoy Kofi Annan told a small ministerial committee on Syria that an “all-out” sectarian war was looming in that crisis-hit country. The ministers urged the “Security Council to assume responsibilities according to the UN charter, and take all necessary measures to secure the full and immediate implementation of the plan of the joint envoy, Kofi Annan, in a set timeframe,” in a statement at the end of the meeting. These actions include “imposing the implementation of the six points of the plan through resorting to Chapter VII of the UN charter,” it said, listing the non-military measures provided for in Article 41 of the chapter. Continued on Page 13
DOHA: (From left) Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani and UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan attend an Arab ministerial committee meeting to discuss the Syrian crisis yesterday. — AFP
10 dead in Lebanon clashes
KUWAIT: Cars move along a highway in reduced visibility conditions during a severe sandstorm yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat (See Page 2)
Iran vows retaliation if hit TEHRAN: Iran will respond to any Israeli or US attack against its nuclear sites with a “proportionate” reaction, the military adviser to the country’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei said yesterday. General Yahya Rahim Safavi, quoted by Fars news agency, said however that such an attack was unlikely. Despite warnings from Washington and Israel that “all options are on the table” if negotiations between Iran and major powers on Tehran’s controversial nuclear program fail, conditions do not favour an assault, he said. “They may be able to start one but they cannot end it and it remains in Iran’s hands,” the general said. “The domestic political, economic and social conditions in America
and the Zionist regime are not such as to have a new war in the region,” he said. US President Barack “Obama wants to get re-elected (in November) ... the cabinet of Mr (Israeli prime minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is a fragile one,” he said. However, in case of an attack, “we will act against their military operation smartly, proportional to any damage that they inflict on us ... meaning we will hurt them as much as they hurt us.” Rahim Safavi warned that the whole of Israel was within range of the missiles of Hezbollah, Iran’s Shiite militia allies in Lebanon, and that US forces in the region were vulnerable. Continued on Page 13
TRIPOLI: Clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian regime gunmen yesterday killed at least 10 people and wounded 31 others in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, a security official said. Among the dead were a woman and her son, killed by a rocket in the Bab al-Tebbaneh district, a mostly Sunni Muslim community which supports Syria’s antiregime opposition, the official said. At least five were wounded in Jabal Mohsen, an area mainly populated by pro-Damascus Alawites. Sporadic gun and rocket fire broke out at midnight and continued through the night, forcing some residents of the port city to flee their homes. The army and police were later being deployed in Tripoli, the source said. Sectarian violence has flared on a number of occasions in Tripoli since the revolt broke out in neighbouring Syria in March last year, including deadly street battles in May. Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen have been gripped by frequent fighting, reflecting a split between Lebanon’s parties where the opposition backs the revolt in Syria while a ruling coalition led by Hezbollah supports the Damascus regime. Yesterday’s death toll is the highest in a single day in Tripoli, raising fears that Syria’s unrest could spill over into its smaller neighbour. Lebanon’s National News Agency said there was “shelling across both areas heard every five minutes, and snipers targeting civilians”. Residents said those killed included civilians caught in the crossfire and that a Lebanese soldier was among the wounded. International peace envoy Kofi Annan said yesterday that Syria was slipping into all-out war and that the entire region would suffer if the international community did not step up pressure on Assad. “Let me appeal to all of you to engage earnestly and seriously with all other stakeholders, mindful that if regional and international divisions play out in Syria, the Syrian people and the region - your region - will pay the price,” Annan told a meeting of Arab League member countries. — Agencies
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: A Sunni gunman is seen near a burning building during clashes that erupted in this northern port city yesterday.— AP