RABI ALAWWAL 7,1440 AH THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2018 23º 28 Pages Max 150 Fils Established 1961 Min 16º ISSUE NO: 17684 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Sri Lanka showdown looms as Pence issues sharp rebuke to Suu NASA wants people on Badminton’s big earner Sindhu 6 new PM loses confidence vote 6 Kyi over persecution of Rohingya 24 Mars within 25 years 25 sets her sights on number one Iqama expiry fines waived for 4 days as public holiday declared Govt moves to avoid rain chaos • Assembly forms probe panel KUWAIT: Cars drive through rain and mist in stormy weather yesterday. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat Men cover their heads with plastic sheets as they stand on the pavement in Kuwait City amid heavy rainfall. By B Izzak and A Saleh not be collected from citizens whose helpers’ residen- The National Assembly yesterday formed a three- heated debate in the Assembly over what lawmakers cies - as well as expats whose residencies and that of member committee to investigate allegations of gov- claimed was a government failure and lack of prepared- KUWAIT: As torrential rains and thunderstorms con- their dependents - expired yesterday or will expire ernment mismanagement and failure to deal with heavy ness to deal with the rains. MPs then approved a num- tinued yesterday, the government declared today a pub- today, because these days were declared holidays due rains that lashed the country in the past two weeks. The ber of recommendations that included the formation of lic holiday for schools and government departments to weather conditions. The source added committee was assigned to investigate the committee and asking the government to provide after it had given a similar holiday yesterday. fines will not be collected for the four days those responsible for the flooding of the Assembly within one month of the results of its Government agencies this time looked much more pre- from Wednesday through Saturday, and SEE PAGES 2 & 3 main roads and submit its report to the investigations into the disaster. pared as the government utilized all the capabilities of renewals will be made on Sunday. The house within one month. The Assembly The lawmakers also approved a recommendation the civil defense, municipality and the public works min- interior ministry also decided not to renew residency elected MPs Adel Al-Damkhi, Khaled Al-Otaibi and calling on the government to provide fair and urgent istry, in addition to the police force and the fire depart- permits of Bangladeshi and Nepalese workers without Dumaitheer Al-Enezi, who later resigned, and was compensation for all those who suffered losses and ment, which stood ready to deal with any flooding. fingerprinting regardless of their residency type in the replaced by MP Al-Humaidi Al-Subaei. damages because of the rain. They also called on the A police source yesterday said residency fines will private sector. The formation of the committee came following a Continued on Page 24 News in brief After Gabo book purge, Trump names envoy to Saudi Arabia Kuwait bans Dostoyevsky WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday tapped John Abizaid, a top US general from KUWAIT: Kuwaiti authorities have writers banned in the state, where a the Iraq war who has studied the Middle East for banned a book by Russian literary conservative trend in politics and years, as ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Abizaid is a flu- giant Fyodor Dostoyevsky, one of society is rising. More than 4,000 ent Arabic speaker of Lebanese Christian descent nearly 1,000 titles blacklisted at a books have been blacklisted by the who headed US Central Command - which covers the festival which opened yesterday in information ministry over the past five Middle East - during the Iraq war from shortly after the state. Saad Al-Anzi, who heads years, including Victor Hugo’s “The the US invasion in 2003 through 2007. The 67-year- the Kuwait International Literary Hunchback of Notre-Dame” and “One old wrote his master’s thesis at Harvard University Festival, told AFP the information Hundred Years of Solitude” by about Saudi Arabia, studying how the kingdom makes ministry had banned 948 books Colombian author Gabriel Garcia its decisions on defense spending. A California native, including Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Marquez - Gabo to his fans. Abizaid graduated from the US Military Academy at Karamazov, a novel set in 19th centu- All titles on show at the 43rd edi- West Point and later won a scholarship to study in ry Russia that explores morality, free tion of Kuwait’s book fair, which runs Jordan, where he honed his Arabic. — AFP will and the existence of God. through Nov 24, were screened in GAZA CITY: Palestinian demonstrators chant slogans yesterday before burning pic- Dostoyevsky joins a growing list of Continued on Page 24 tures of Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman in front of the house of Ismail Iran executes ‘sultan of coins’ Haniya, the head of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. — AFP while in effect. The idea came to officials GENEVA: Iran executed two men accused of eco- doing now as a state is buying short- CIA sought of the CIA’s Office of Medical Services nomic crimes yesterday, part of an effort to stem Hamas hails term quiet, with the price being severe (OMS) amid frustration that Abu financial misconduct as the country faces an econom- long-term damage to national security.” Zubaydah “showed remarkable ic crisis and new US sanctions targeting its oil sector. He added later: “We should agree on a ‘truth serum’ resilience” despite being put through One of the two executed men was Vahid Mazloumin, ‘victory’ after date for elections as early as possible.” vicious treatment, including stress posi- dubbed the “sultan of coins” by media, a trader Netanyahu has defended Tuesday’s for prisoners tions and sleep deprivation. accused of manipulating the currency market, accord- Israel defense ceasefire deal that ended the worst esca- “The intensity and duration of AZ’s ing to Mizan, the news site of the Iranian judiciary. lation between Israel and Palestinian mili- interrogation came as a surprise to OMS Mazloumin was allegedly caught with two tons of tants in Gaza since a 2014 war. An official WASHINGTON: CIA interrogators and prompted further study of the seem- gold coins. The second man was part of Mazloumin’s minister quits from Netanyahu’s Likud party hit back at sought a truth serum to use on Al-Qaeda ingly more benign alternative of drug- network and had been involved in the sale of gold speculation that early elections would be prisoners in addition to waterboarding based interviews,” said the report. But coins, Mizan reported. Both of them were convicted of JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister called and said the prime minister would and other torture techniques after the they found an absolute lack of historical “spreading corruption on earth”, a capital offence Avigdor Lieberman announced his resig- take charge of Lieberman’s portfolio at Sept 11, 2001 attacks, according to for- evidence that drugs could induce a sub- under Iran’s Islamic laws. — Reuters nation yesterday and called for early least temporarily. “There’s no obligation merly top secret documents released ject to give up information. “No such elections after a sharp disagreement over to go to an election in this time of securi- Tuesday. Desperate to get information magic brew as the popular notion of a Gaza ceasefire deal, throwing the gov- ty sensitivity,” the official said on condi- about possible future attacks from Abu truth serum exists,” said a 1961 intelli- Assad urges Druze to join military ernment into turmoil. Hamas called the tion of anonymity. A Likud spokesman Zubaydah, who was believed to have gence review. “It seems likely that any minister’s resignation a “victory for said later in the day that Netanyahu had helped plot the 9/11 attacks, interroga- individual who can withstand ordinary DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has Gaza”. Lieberman also said his party was begun consultations with heads of par- tors reached back decades to the intensive interrogation can hold out in called on the country’s Druze community to do mili- quitting Prime Minister Benjamin ties in his coalition to stabilize it. The par- agency’s 1950s experiments with mind- narcosis,” it said. tary service, days after members of the minority were Netanyahu’s coalition, leaving the pre- ty of far-right Education Minister Naftali altering drugs like LSD and also to Still, the interrogators considered the released following a mass abduction in July by the mier with only a one-seat majority in Bennett, a Netanyahu rival, was threaten- Russian testing of alleged truth serums drugs could trick a prisoner into thinking Islamic State group. Since the conflict erupted in 2011, parliament. Elections are not due until ing to withdraw from the coalition if he in the 1980s. that he had done so. “Such drugs, thousands of Druze, especially those in Sweida Nov 2019, but Lieberman’s resignation was not given the defense portfolio. In “Project Medication,” the CIA doc- although widely regarded as unreliable province, have refused to be conscripted, instead join- increases the likelihood of an earlier vote. Lieberman, a security hardliner, heads tors weighed barbiturates like sodium sources of ‘truth,’ were believed poten- ing local militias promising to protect the region. “What happened yesterday - the the rightwing Yisrael Beitenu party, amytal and psychotomimetics, which tially useful as an ‘excuse’ that would Speaking to a group of former hostages and their truce combined with the process with which holds five seats in the 120-seat create symptoms of psychosis. They allow the subject to be more forthcoming families on Tuesday, Assad thanked the army, saying Hamas - is capitulating to terror,” parliament, the Knesset.