Saudi Arabia, US in Talks on Billions in Arms Sales
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SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2017 SHABAN 11, 1438 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Kuwait has Priyanka Chopra Kipchoge runs ‘MSN’ hit 100 cemented bonds dismayed by fastest marathon, mark as Barca with Egypt since Zimbabwe child fails to break pile pressure independence2 sexual13 abuse two17 hours on20 Madrid Saudi Arabia, US in talks Min 23 º Max 35º on billions in arms sales High Tide 10:07 & 22:10 Low Tide Planning for Trump’s Saudi trip intensifies 03:42 & 16:08 40 PAGES NO: 17220 150 FILS WASHINGTON: Washington is working to push through contracts for tens of billions of dollars in arms sales to Macron target of massive email hack Saudi Arabia, some new, others in the pipeline, ahead of US President Donald Trump’s trip to the kingdom this month, people familiar with the talks told Reuters. Saudi France’s election authority attempted yester- PARIS: Arabia is Trump’s first stop on his maiden international trip, day to stop the spread of hacked documents from a sign of his intent to reinforce ties with a top regional ally. centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s The United States has been the main supplier for campaign a day before the country heads to the polls most Saudi military needs, from F-15 fighter jets to for a watershed election. Thousands of emails and command and control systems worth tens of billions of documents were dumped online by hackers shortly dollars in recent years. Trump has vowed to stimulate before midnight in France on Friday and were then the US economy by boosting manufacturing jobs. relayed by anti-secrecy group Wikileaks. Washington and Riyadh are eager to improve relations A statement from the 39-year-old frontrunner strained under President Barack Obama in part because Macron called it a “massive and coordinated” hack of his championing of a nuclear deal with Saudi foe Iran. that was intended as “democratic destabilization, like Lockheed Martin Co programs in the package that seen during the last presidential campaign in the include a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) United States”. Bound by strict election rules that ban missile defense system with several batteries, the campaigning on the day before the vote, neither he sources said. The THAAD system, like the one being nor his allies were able to respond further as allega- made operational in South Korea, costs about $1 bil- tions were circulated on social media by his oppo- lion. Also being negotiated is a C2BMC software system nents in France and abroad. for battle command and control and communications “The dissemination of such data, which have been as well as a package of satellite capabilities, both pro- fraudulently obtained and in all likelihood may have vided by Lockheed. been mingled with false information, is liable to be Combat vehicles made by BAE Systems PLC, includ- classified as a criminal offence,” France’s electoral ing the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and M109 artillery vehi- commission said in a statement. Many supporters of cle, are also under consideration as part of the Saudi Macron’s far-right opponent Marine Le Pen ignored package, people familiar with the talks said. Both vehi- the warning, however, publishing screenshots of doc- cles are in the Saudi inventory. British defense company uments allegedly found in the hacked files, which the BAE has 29,000 employees in the United States. The Macron team has warned could include fakes. Senior sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they Le Pen aide Florian Philippot suggested on Twitter were not authorized to discuss the negotiations, which that the leak might contain information the media also include previously reported contracts or items had deliberately suppressed. under discussion for years. Continued on Page 13 PARIS: Army soldiers patrol near Trocadero plaza with the Eiffel Tower in the background yesterday. — AP Continued on Page 13 Morocco cleric defies PAGE Portrait of the artist PAGE taboo on inheritance as a gunshot victim Haniya elected leader of Hamas GAZA CITY: Palestinian Islamist move- ment Hamas elected ex-Gaza Strip chief Healthcare a Ismail Haniya as its new leader yesterday, days after revising its founding charter to ease its stance on Israel. Haniya, seen as a privilege, not pragmatist within the movement, is expected to remain in the Gaza Strip, the a right in US Palestinian enclave run by Hamas since 2007. His predecessor Khaled Meshaal WASHINGTON: In 1944, US president Franklin lives in exile in Doha and had completed Roosevelt urged Congress to pass a “second bill of the maximum two terms in office. “The rights”. Number six on the list was “the right to ade- Hamas Shura Council on Saturday elect- quate medical care and the opportunity to achieve ed Ismail Haniya as head of the move- People look at the wreckage of a bus that had been transporting primary school and enjoy good health”. Seventy-three years later, ment’s political bureau,” the group’s offi- pupils from Arusha to Karatu before plunging into a gorge yesterday. — AFP despite the passage of many health care reforms, his cial website announced. dream remains as controversial as it was back then. He beat Mussa Abu Marzuk and Under former president Barack Obama, more than Mohamed Nazzal in a videoconference 35 dead as school bus 20 million previously uninsured Americans gained vote of the ruling council’s members in healthcare coverage. Those who would have once Gaza, the West Bank and outside the had to sell their homes to pay for cancer treatments Palestinian territories. The 54-year-old crashes in Tanzania or limited doctors’ visits because of the cost gained with a salt-and-pepper beard takes Ismail Haniya at least some peace of mind. charge of Hamas as it seeks to ease its Israel as an occupier. The original 1988 char- DAR ES SALAAM: Thirty-two school- tigating the incident to determine if it But in the land of rugged individualism, healthcare international isolation while not margin- ter will not be dropped, just supplemented, children, two teachers and a minibus was caused by a mechanical defect or has never attained the status of fundamental right, alizing hardliners within the movement. in a move some analysts see as a way of driver where killed in Tanzania when human error on the part of the driver.” unlike education. Health insurance is simply a product On Monday, it unveiled a new policy doc- maintaining the backing of hardliners. their vehicle plunged into a roadside The students killed in the accident, like any other, say Republicans who, under the leader- ument easing its stance on Israel after “The new charter and Haniya’s elec- ravine in the northern tourist region of which occurred at about 9:30 am in Karatu ship of President Donald Trump, are trying to repeal having long called for its destruction. tion are two of the biggest events in Arusha yesterday, a senior police official district, were standard seven pupils, aged most of Obamacare, the landmark law signed in 2010. The document notably accepts the cre- recent years,” a European official based in said. “The accident happened when the 12 to 13, from the Lucky Vincent primary After World War II, the idea of national health ation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Jerusalem told AFP yesterday, speaking bus was descending on a steep hill in school on their way to visit another school, insurance supported by Roosevelt’s successor Harry east Jerusalem and Gaza, the territories on condition of anonymity. “The ques- rainy conditions,” Arusha regional police Mkumbo said. President John Magufuli Truman ran into the new geopolitical reality. occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War of tion is how is Hamas going to build on commander Charles Mkumbo told described the accident as a “national Continued on Page 13 1967. It also says its struggle is not against this momentum,” he said, speaking in Reuters by telephone. “We are still inves- tragedy” in a statement. — Agencies Jews because of their religion but against English. — AFP (See Page 8) Twin blasts in Manila kill 2 MANILA: Two explosions in the Philippine capital country but it has a significant Muslim minority, a week ago, which occurred as Southeast Asian yesterday night killed two people and injured six some of whom live in Quiapo. The first blast dam- leaders were meeting for a summit a few kilome- others, police said, just over a week after another aged part of the Islamic center and shattered win- ters away, injured 14 people. blast in the same area. An initial blast occurred dows in nearby buildings, according to the AFP pho- The Islamic State group claimed responsibility around 6:00pm (1000 GMT) yesterday near a tographer and witnesses. “It was very powerful,” for the April 28 explosion, but police insisted it was mosque in Quiapo, one of the older parts of Manila Omar Yahya, 22, who was at the Islamic center when not a terrorist attack, nor was it related in any way where there are big slums, city police chief Oscar the first explosion occurred, told AFP afterwards at a to the gathering of political leaders. Police said the Albayalde said. The explosion killed two and Manila police station. “Windows were broken and April 28 explosion involved a home-made pipe injured four others, he said. the wooden part of the building collapsed”. bomb and was carried out by people involved in a A second blast occurred in the same area Police chief Albayalde said the first blast private grievance. They said one person had been around 8:30 pm, according to an AFP photogra- appeared to have come from a package that was arrested over that attack.