Govt to NAME, Shame Slack Officials AS Streets Deluged
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SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 2017 JAMADA ALTHANI 28, 1438 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Travellers to Troubled EU Purchase of Arrogate Germany urged renews vows 777-300ERs a wins Dubai to apply for on 60th ‘game-changer’ World Cup visas early5 anniversary7 for21 KAC thriller20 Govt to name, shame slack Min 16º Max 27º officials as streets deluged High Tide 11:27 & 22:46 Low Tide Fire Dept uses boats, divers to rescue trapped motorists 05:08 & 17:01 40 PAGES NO: 17179 150 FILS KUWAIT: The minister of public works announced yes- terday that a panel would be formed to examine why Weary flyers some roads and public places were swamped with rain- water late Friday. Civil servants who were slack and shrug as laptop failed to deal with the situation “would be exposed” along with those who were responsible for the wide- ban takes off scale flooding witnessed in Kuwait due to heavy rain, Abdulrahman Al-Mutawa indicated. DUBAI: A controversial ban on carry-on laptops and In a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), tablets on flights from the Middle East to the United Mutawa said he held an emergency meeting with offi- States and Britain went into effect yesterday - with cials of his department to discuss the causes of the less fanfare and frustration than expected. From problem. A special and neutral committee will be Dubai to Doha, passengers on dozens of flights formed to examine the causes that led to accumulation checked in their electronic devices, many shrugging of huge volumes of water on roads and public squares off the measure as yet another inconvenience of in the country, he added, indicating that names of the global travel. “It’s a rule. I follow the rules,” said Rakan civil servants responsible for the problem would be Mohammed, a Qatari national who flies from Doha publicized. to the US two to three times a year. “The bigger The slack personnel including contractors will be problem for my family is the no smoking. On a long referred to the public prosecution, the minister flight, they become restless after three hours.” declared. The relevant panel will prepare a report about At Dubai International, one of the world’s busiest the issue and refer it to competent authorities in two hubs, flag carrier Emirates dispatched staff to guide weeks. Some low-lying locations in the country were passengers through one of the most intense travel swamped with torrential rainwater late Friday, amid weekends of the year. Around 1.1 million people are unstable weather gripping the entire Arabian Peninsula. expected to pass through as the city marks UAE Meanwhile, the fire department’s PR and media spring break, Dubai Airports said. An estimated department said firemen dealt with 49 reports during 260,000 travellers were expected each day from the stormy weather. The department added that all Friday through tomorrow. Dubai International land, marine and airport fire brigades were on full alert Airport expects 89 million passengers this year. during the stormy weather, when rainfall reached 50 Staff in red suits could be seen at the airport yes- mm in Ahmadi and boats had to be used to rescue 20 terday carrying signs explaining the electronics ban, KUWAIT: Firefighters and rescueworkers salvage vehicles submerged in rainwater on Fahaheel Expressway people trapped inside their vehicles by the rainwater. ready to appease travellers with games near Mangaf yesterday. Kuwait is experiencing unstable weather including thunderstorms, sandstorms and KFSD added that divers made sure no one was trapped Continued on Page 13 strong winds. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat (More pics on Page 3) inside completely submerged vehicles. — Agencies Trump suffers humiliating defeat Troubled Obamacare repeal bid collapses WASHINGTON: US President Donald damaging reversals and controversies, Trump faced the biggest blow yet to his Trump must now consider how to move Buck stops young presidency as his bid to repeal forward in the face of a fractured, rebel- Obamacare went down in flames at the lious Congress. “Trump will have a very hands of rebel Republican lawmakers. hard time dealing with these divides with Trump Barely two months into his term, Trump because he does not understand them,” was forced to withdraw an embattled said John Pitney, a professor of American WASHINGTON: Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office Republican healthcare bill Friday, moments politics at Claremont-McKenna College. on Friday evening in an unfamiliar position - having before a vote, leaving his campaign pledge On Trump’s agenda are a major over- to own failure. His healthcare reform, his very first to dismantle his predecessor’s healthcare haul of the tax system and a bill to upgrade significant legislative proposal, had fallen at the reforms unfulfilled. infrastructure like roads and bridges. “We first hurdle in a friendly Congress. For sure, the 70- The stinging defeat showed the limits were very, very close” to securing enough year-old businessman had faltered before - from of Trump’s power to deliver on an ambi- support for the bill, Trump said in the Oval bankrupt casinos to shuttered hotels. But until now tious legislative agenda despite Office. But with no Democratic backing, bravado was enough to keep his brand intact, and Republican control of both houses of “we couldn’t quite get there”. carry him all the way to the White House. Congress. Already rocked by a string of Continued on Page 13 MUSCAT: The lights on the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque are switched off for an Now - in the fiercest spotlight in the world, as hour yesterday as iconic landmarks and skylines plunged into darkness as the president of the United States - there was nowhere ‘Earth Hour’ switch-off of lights around the world got under way to raise aware- to hide. Fittingly perhaps, Trump addressed his fail- ness of climate change. — AFP ure from behind a desk in the Oval Office. It was in that same spot that Harry Truman kept a sign that World’s cities, monuments encapsulated all the pressures and accountability of an imperial presidency: “The buck stops here.” Trump was not ready to take quite that much switch off for Earth Hour ownership, although he did profess to be “a little SYDNEY: Sydney’s Opera House and planet. “We started Earth Hour in 2007 to surprised” by the plan’s failure. We got close, he Harbour Bridge plunged into darkness yes- show leaders that climate change was an said, as if it mattered. But Trump offered surprising- terday to mark Earth Hour, as global land- issue people cared about,” coordinator ly little criticism for his brothers-in-arms. That may marks began dimming their lights to draw Siddarth Das said. “For that symbolic come when the dust falls. His criticism of the attention to climate change. Millions of moment to turn into the global movement Democrats - none of whom were ever going to people from some 170 countries and terri- it is today, is really humbling and speaks vote for a bill that dismantled Barack Obama’s sig- tories were expected to take part in the volumes about the powerful role of people nature health reform - felt almost formulaic. annual bid to highlight global warming in issues that affect their lives.” At the end of the day Republicans control the caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas In Sydney, many harborside buildings House of Representatives, the Senate and the to drive cars and power plants. The event, switched off their lights for an hour from White House, they should not have needed which originated in Sydney, has grown to 8.30 pm local time as the call for action Democratic votes. There was no avoiding it: The become a worldwide environmental cam- began rolling out across the world. “I agree self-professed “closer” had struck out. “Trump, it paign, celebrated across all continents. with the concept, 100 percent,” said stu- turns out, is not actually able to put together any WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump, with Vice President Mike Pence (right) Conservation group WWF, which organ- dent Ed Gellert, 24, in Sydney. “I think peo- deal that he wants,” wrote Julian Zelizer, professor and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, speaks from the Oval Office izes Earth Hour, said great strides had been ple probably avoid the fact that climate Continued on Page 13 of the White House on Friday. — AFP made in highlighting the dire state of the Continued on Page 13 Filipino rescued after 56 days adrift MANILA: A Filipino fisherman cast adrift in the high seas by a storm After the storm Rolando and his 31-year-old uncle relied on rainwa- survived for nearly two months by drinking rainwater as he helpless- ter they gathered using a one-gallon jug, the woman said. “They ly watched his uncle die beside him, the survivor’s mother said yes- endured hunger and thirst and their skin was burnt by the sun terday. The PNG Post Courier newspaper, quoting local police, said a because the boat did not have any roof,” she said. She said her son and fishing vessel found Rolando Omongos, 21, adrift and without food her brother sailed off from General Santos on Dec 21 along with other on a boat on March 9. Weak and distressed, he was examined by doc- fishermen aboard the bigger vessel. tors and held on the boat on the island of New Britain while arrange- But when the fishing boat and crew returned to port after the storm ments are being made for his return home, it said, adding his ordeal without the two men, the family feared the worst.