SUBSCRIPTION THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2016 THULQADAL 1, 1437 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Finance Ministry Israel approves Parliament Rio action receives jailing passes landmark starts in empty Shadadiya expat ‘terrorists’ Indian tax stadium as drugs labor complex3 from age8 12 reform21 bill storm20 rumbles Emirates plane catches fire Min 35º after Dubai crash-landing Max 48º High Tide 01:22 & 12:16 All passengers, crew safe after fleeing jet • One firefighter killed Low Tide 06:47 & 19:42 40 PAGES NO: 16952 150 FILS DUBAI: An Emirates flight from India with 300 people on board crash landed at Dubai’s main airport yesterday, sending black smoke billowing into the air and halting all flights at the Middle East’s busiest airport. A firefighter died while responding to the blaze, but none of the pas- sengers or crew on board were killed. The accident was the most serious ever for Emirates, which has grown at a breakneck pace over the last three decades and turned its hometown of Dubai into a major long-haul international air hub. It was the second major air disaster for a Dubai government-backed airline in less than five months. Speaking to reporters in Dubai, Emirates Group CEO and Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum said 10 people were hos- pitalized after the incident, but stressed that all passengers were safely evacuated before the plane was engulfed in a fireball. He said one firefighter died trying to put out the fire. Emirates said the accident hap- pened around 12:45 pm local time as Flight EK521 was arriving from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram. It confirmed that “all passengers and crew are accounted for and safe,” but gave no details of what went wrong. “We do not have ... all the informa- tion. Thankfully there (were) no fatalities among our pas- sengers and crew,” Sheikh Ahmed earlier said in a video statement . “Our thoughts are with everyone involved.” The Boeing 777-300 was carrying 282 passengers and 18 crew members from 20 different countries, according to DUBAI: A Boeing 777 of the UAE airliner Emirates is seen after it caught fire following a crash-landing at Dubai airport yesterday. (Inset) Emirates CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin the airline. Saeed Al-Maktoum gives a press conference near the airport yesterday. — AFP Continued on Page 13 Call to pay citizens after fuel hike MoI explains bylaws of ‘housekeeper’ law By B Izzak and Faten Omar ing the hike only apply on expatriates, like the planned hike in electricity and Kuwaiti fencer KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker water charges. Ghanem said that based Marzouq Al-Ghanem yesterday said that on the meeting of the Assembly’s finan- a meeting is expected to take place next cial and economic affairs committee, it goes it alone, week between MPs and the government was decided that petrol prices will be lib- to study the Cabinet decision to hike eralized and at the same time Kuwaiti cit- defying odds petrol prices and find ways so that the izens will be compensated. The speaker raise does not harm citizens. Ghanem’s said that accordingly, the increase in SAO PAULO: Without a national delegation, an Olympic statement came a day after he held an petrol prices is unacceptable without scholarship or even an international ranking, Kuwait’s informal meeting with about 14 lawmak- applying the decision of the financial first fencer at the Games in 16 years knows the odds are ers, who strongly lashed out at the uni- committee to compensate citizens. stacked against him. But Abdulaziz Alshatti has beat lateral government decision and vowed Ghanem said that the informal meet- long odds before, including the stunning first place fin- that they will press for ways to compen- ing by MPs on Tuesday reiterated the ish at a qualifying event this year that punched his tick- sate citizens. decision of the financial committee and CAIRO: In this Feb 4, 2002 file photo, Egyptian-American Nobel chemistry laureate et to Rio de Janeiro. The Kuwaiti rattled off a string of The move appears to be focused now insisted on the need to compensate citi- Ahmed Zewail gestures to reporters. — AP upsets in that April tournament, starting with a second- on persuading the government to finan- zens. round win over Kazakhstan’s Elmir Alimzhanov, who cially compensate Kuwaiti citizens, mak- Continued on Page 13 Egyptian Nobel winning placed 11th in London four years ago. Even after going up 10-5 in three minutes - a blister- ing start for the cautious epee that he fences - Alshatti chemist Zewail dies at 70 kept calm, he said, shutting out the noisy throng that gathered to watch. “For me to fence well I have to be Amir sends condolences very calm. If I play too angry, I’ll lose,” said the 25-year- old. “My coach always says, ‘You need to get angry,’ but I CAIRO: Nobel prize-winning Egyptian- His work showed that it is possible hate to be aggressive. And I reached the Olympics American chemist Ahmed Zewail, who with rapid laser technique to study in because I know how to keep calm.” served as a science and technology advi- slow motion how atoms in a molecule If he were more anxious, there would be plenty to sor to US President Barack Obama, died move during a chemical reaction. worry him. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Tuesday in the United States. He was 70. According to the Nobel Prize website, banned Kuwait from the Games last year due to sports Zewail, a naturalized US citizen, won the Zewail’s work led to the birth of the legislation creating “undue government interference” in Nobel prize for chemistry in 1999 for his research area called femtochemistry, the Kuwait Olympic Committee. The ban, upheld by a groundbreaking work in the study of “which enables us to understand why Swiss court on Tuesday, means the country’s Olympic chemical reactions in extremely short certain chemical reactions take place but committee, and consequently its athletes, are not eligi- timescales. He was the third Egyptian to not others”. His discoveries offered scien- ble for any funding from the IOC. win a Nobel prize and the country’s first tists greater insight into chemical and Continued on Page 13 KUWAIT: Interior Ministry officials hold a press conference to explain the new scientist to do so. Continued on Page 13 domestic helper law yesterday. — MoI Saudi Arabia moves to Israel army donkey sales assist Indian workers stir Palestinian outrage AL-MALEH: “Forty donkeys for sale,” reads a notice in shekels ($526) for each donkey. JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia took steps yesterday to help Speaking to reporters in Jeddah, Singh added: “All the Palestinian newspapers. Nothing out of the ordinary COGAT, Israel’s defence ministry unit that coordinates around 2,500 Indian workers stranded without money people who want to go back can go back at the about that, except for the fact that the advertiser is the Israeli activities in the West Bank and Gaza, says that in the kingdom after a plunge in oil prices sparked expense of the government of Saudi Arabia.” Israeli army. Palestinians say the army is trying to sell animals roaming unsupervised are a public menace. construction layoffs. India’s minister of state for exter- ‘Riyadh would also honor workers’ claims against back the very animals it seized from them in the occu- Since the army has been rounding them up “road acci- nal affairs, V K Singh, said he had a “very good meet- companies that had defaulted on payments and had pied West Bank’s Jordan Valley. Israeli authorities say dents have fallen by 90 percent”, it said, explaining that ing” with Saudi Labor Minister Mufarrej Al-Haqbani agreed to allow workers to transfer to other companies they round up wandering livestock in the interests of the fines are levied to cover the costs of catching and during which they discussed the plight of the work- in the kingdom, he said. Under the kafala system, public safety, especially to reduce road accidents. looking after the donkeys. The public offer to sell 40 ers. Singh arrived in the Red Sea city of Jeddah yester- applied on foreign workers in Gulf countries, most Palestinians, however, see a policy of confiscations and head is unusual, said Daraghmeh, only the third in the day to negotiate the repatriation of the migrant work- employees are restricted from moving to a new job demolitions aimed at pushing them out of the valley past two years, before which there were none. But con- ers who lost their jobs and were left without enough without their boss’s consent before their contracts end, running along the border with Jordan. fiscations, he said, are nothing new. money to return home. leaving many trapped. It has been criticized by rights The valley has valuable water resources and farm- Sixty-year-old Sliman Besharat said his goats, housed ‘He said on Twitter that the Saudi government had groups as a form of bonded labor or even slavery. land and is seen by Israel as vital to its strategic defense. under a shelter of sacking, have in the past been quar- taken “immediate action to ensure that all camps Asian activists and officials have said that thou- The donkeys will be auctioned off if unclaimed by their antined by Israel. Like Daraghmeh, he sees a strategic where Indian workers were staying are provided facili- sands of jobless Indians, Filipinos, and Pakistanis are owners, the Arabic-language text announced, but aim behind the seizures. “By confiscating animals and ties like medical, food, hygiene and sanitation”.