Afghan Landslide Leaves More Than 2,100 Dead
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SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, MAY 4, 2014 RAJAB 5, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Tunisia Ukraine street India deploys Getafe dent embroiled battles army in Barca’s in debate over kill at Assam; 31 title Israeli tourists7 least 429 Muslims11 die defense20 More lawmakers Max 39º Min 26º High Tide 03:52 & 14:10 resign in protest Low Tide 08:57 & 21:50 40 PAGES NO: 16155 150 FILS Rashed, Hashem quit; Assembly dissolution looms conspiracy theories Code of conduct By Badrya Darwish [email protected] was very impressed with Theresa May of the UK during the House of Commons debate the other Iday. May is the United Kingdom’s Home Secretary - a post which is similar to the position of the Minister of Interior in Kuwait and the Arab world. What would be rather intriguing for everybody in KUWAIT: Kuwaiti MPs Safa Al-Hashem and Ali Al-Rashed (right) address the media during a press conference yesterday. The two senior MPs announced their resig- Kuwait, May was asking the police force to have a nation from the National Assembly yesterday. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat strict code of conduct in stop and search operations. She was not happy with the conduct of the By Staff Reporter police. Her argument was grounded on a survey that most of the individuals police stop and search Afghan landslide leaves KUWAIT: Two senior MPs announced their resignation are unnecessary and based on ethnic and racial from the National Assembly yesterday in protest against judgments. She even said that 27 percent of the the Prime Minister and the Speaker, raising the number stop and search operations are illegal. Quoting more than 2,100 dead of MPs who quit to five amid reports that more resigna- recent figures, she said that black people are six tions are possible to put the National Assembly, elected times more likely to be stopped than those who are just under 10 months ago, under tremendous pressure. white. MPs Ali Al-Rashed and Safa Al-Hashem, both known of I have never heard in Kuwait or the Arab world their unlimited support for the government in the previ- something called code of conduct of the police. It ous parliament, told a joint press conference that they would be beautiful if any of our ministers of Interior were unable to continue working in the current in the Arab world could initiate something similar. If Assembly. it exists, we have never heard of it, because it has They said they will officially submit their resignations not been discussed in parliament or elsewhere. to the Speaker today as the Assembly office was sched- Some of our police do pick on certain people, and it uled to meet to discuss the resignations of three other is usually the expats. People are not angels. Some MPs-Riyadh Al-Adasani, Abdulkarim Al-Kundari and policemen might pick on expats on purpose. This Hussein Quwaiaan-who quit last week after the was very visible during the intensified campaign Assembly rejected their demand to question the Prime that took place on Kuwait’s roads a few months ago Minister. Under the law, the National Assembly should that saw many people deported. Some deportations debate the resignations of its members 10 days after may be justified, and others not. the official submission. The Assembly cannot force MPs The other day I witnessed a particular case in to continue after they quit but can appeal to them to point. I entered the parking near the bank complex. continue. So did an Asian driver who pulled behind, following Rashed, a veteran MP began as an opposition liberal me. He entered from the main road and parked in lawmaker but split from the opposition and became the bank parking. I noticed police running and very close to the government. Under the former Prime shouting. I thought I was the target. Without any Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, excuse or greeting, he opened the door of the Asian he was briefly appointed as a Cabinet minister. He was BADAKHSHAN: Afghans search for survivors after landslide buried Abi-Barik village in Badakhshan motorist’s car, got inside and ordered the man to fol- elected as Speaker of the previous Assembly which was province, northeastern Afghanistan yesterday. — AP low him in the police car to take him to the police elected in December 2012 but scrapped in June the fol- station. The Asian guy was flabbergasted and shak- KABUL: Afghan officials gave up hope yesterday of dead,” Naweed Forotan, a spokesman for the lowing year. The government however sided with cur- ing. finding any survivors from a landslide in the remote Badakhshan provincial governor said. Villagers and a rent Speaker Marzouk Al-Ghanem for the post in the My Western friend whose husband is Asian told northeast, putting the death toll at more than 2,100, few dozen police, equipped with only basic digging current Assembly in what analysts say is a marriage of me that her husband prefers her to drive because as rescuers turned their attention to helping the over tools, resumed their search when daylight broke but it convenience between major merchant families and an police stop them and harass him if he drives. That is 4,000 people displaced. Officials expressed concern soon became clear there was no hope of finding sur- important section of the ruling family. why usually she is behind the wheel when they go the unstable hillside above the site of the disaster vivors buried in up to 100 meters of mud. “Seven Rashed and Hashem both strongly criticized the out together. There are many other such examples may cave in again, threatening the homeless as well members of my family were here, four or five of them Assembly Speaker for not being neutral in conducting and we cannot deny them. It is great if the police as the UN and local rescue teams that have arrived in were killed ... I am also half alive, what can I do?” said the proceedings, frequently interrupting MPs who are have a code of conduct and are trained according to Badakhshan province, which borders Tajikistan. an elderly woman, her hair covered in a pink shawl. against the government and not giving them the it and held responsible for their conduct. “More than 2,100 people from 300 families are all Continued on Page 11 chance to speak. Continued on Page 11 Kuwait moves to phase MERS death toll in out sponsorship system Saudi reaches 111 KUWAIT: The Labor Public Authority could Kuwait has suspended a common process start operating this week, ending months of through which foreigners can come to the speculation on when the state could reopen country for work since February, pending the door for foreign labor recruitment. Since preparations to launch the labor authority. Two First MERS case confirmed in US the government appointed a general director periods were given to allow people to transfer RIYADH: Saudi health authorities Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a health care for the state-owned authority last March, commercial visit visas into work visas during announced yesterday two new deaths provider who had travelled to Riyadh for work has been ongoing to complete the staff that time, and the last one expired on May 1. from the MERS coronavirus, raising to work, they said. and finalize the mechanism through which it The general belief is that a decision to will handle the process of recruiting expatri- allow companies to hire workers from outside 111 the number of fatalities since the dis- Last week, Egypt recorded its first ate labor forces. again will be announced simultaneously with ease appeared in the kingdom in infection after a person who arrived from While a specific date is still uncertain, an official announcement to launch opera- September 2012. A 25-year-old man has Saudi Arabia tested positive. Public con- sources in the Ministry of Social Affairs and tions at the Labor Public Authority. Employers died in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah cern in Saudi Arabia over the spread of Labor said that decisions to allow the Labor will have to submit requests with the authori- and a woman of 69, who suffered from MERS has mounted after the resignation Authority to start operating are expected to ty to hire foreign labor forces, and the authori- tuberculosis and anaemia, died in of at least four doctors at Jeddah’s King be released this week. They include transfer- ty will grant requests based on the remaining Makkah, also in western Saudi Arabia, Fahd Hospital who refused to treat ring the ministry’s Labor Department employ- job openings as it appears in the company’s the health ministry said. It later said the patients for fear of infection. MERS is ees to the new authority, and hiring staff for profile and database. death toll has now climbed to 111, revis- considered a deadlier but less-transmissi- newly established divisions, Al-Anba reported The authority will supposedly have a clear ing its earlier figure of 109 deaths. ble cousin of the SARS virus that erupted yesterday. mechanism to set labor requirement stan- At the same time, 35 new cases of the in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 peo- The new divisions include one that will dards for major businesses in Kuwait. In addi- severe respiratory disease have been ple, nine percent of whom died. There handle labor recruitment procedures, and tion to bringing workers from outside, the recorded, raising the number infected in are no vaccines or antiviral treatments another which will take care of labor forces authority will also assume sponsorship for Saudi Arabia over the past two years to for MERS, a disease with a mortality rate protection duties, said the sources.