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SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013 JAMADA ALTHANI 26, 1434 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Four dead as Malaysian India cements Ten-man B’desh Islamists regime retains position as Juventus protest for 56-year hold pharmacy of secure 29th blasphemy8 law on12 power the25 world Italian20 title Tensions spiking after Max 34º Min 19º Israel hits Syria again High Tide 09:27 & 21:59 Raids target Iranian missiles bound for Hezbollah Low Tide 03:05 & 15:46 40 PAGES NO: 15800 150 FILS BEIRUT: Israeli jets devastated Syrian targets near Damascus yesterday in a heavy overnight air raid that Western and Israeli officials called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah. As Syria’s two-year-old civil war veered into the potentially atomic arena of Iran’s confrontation with Israel and the West over its nuclear program, people were woken in the Syrian capital by explosions that shook the ground like an earthquake and sent pillars of flame high into the night sky. “Night turned into day,” one man told Reuters from his home at Hameh, near one of the tar- gets, the Jamraya military base. But for all the angry rhetoric in response from Tehran and from the government of Syrian President Bashar Al- Assad, it was unclear whether the second such raid in 48 hours would elicit any greater reaction than an Israeli attack in the same area in January, which was followed by little evident change. The Syrian government accused Israel of effectively helping Al-Qaeda Islamist “terrorists” and said the strikes “open the door to all pos- sibilities”; but Israeli officials said that, as in January, they were calculating Assad would not pick a fight with a well-armed neighbour while facing defeat at home. Denying it was weighing in on the rebel side on behalf of Washington - which opposes Assad but is hesi- tating to intervene - officials said Israel was pursuing its own conflict, not with Syria but with Iran, and was act- ing to prevent Iran’s Hezbollah allies receiving missiles that might strike Tel Aviv if Israel made good on threats to attack Tehran’s nuclear program. What Israel was not doing, they stressed, was getting drawn into a debate that has raged in the United States lately of whether the alleged use of poison gas by Assad’s forces should prompt the West finally to give military backing to oust him. Israel was not taking sides in a civil war that has pit- ted Assad’s government, a dour but mostly toothless adversary for nearly 40 years, against Sunni rebels, some of them Islamist radicals, who might one day turn Syria’s armoury against the Jewish state. It is a mark of how two years of killing in which at least 70,000 Syrians have died has not only inflamed a wider, regional KUWAIT: Lightning strikes the sky over Salmiya during a thunderstorm early yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat Continued on Page 13 Grads preferred Oppn plans protests until verdict to grandmas in US immigration bill Panel approves early retirement for women WASHINGTON: US immigration authorities would give preference to better-educated and trained visa- By B Izzak election, the government under instruc- again by the government when it goes to provided no details about the cost of the seekers who can contribute to the American econo- tions of the Amir amended the electoral the floor for discussion. The government draft law. my under a less-noticed provision of the immigration KUWAIT: The opposition held a meeting constituency law by reducing the number can also reject the move even if MPs pass Chairman of the Foreign Relations bill in the US Congress. The bi-partisan bill in the US Saturday night and decided to stage a of votes a Kuwaiti voter can cast from four it in a law. Committee MP Saleh Ashour said the Senate would rewrite the half-century-old standards number of activities including a public to one. The opposition has claimed that The committee also approved propos- committee yesterday discussed the Gulf that control legal immigration to favor skills over rally on the Gulf Road, former opposition the amendment allowed the government als to increase the salaries of active and Cooperation Council (GCC) joint security family ties. The winners of this proposed “merit- MP Khaled Al-Sultan said after the meet- to elect a rubberstamp Assembly. retired policemen. Rapporteur of the pact which has come under fire from the based” system, experts say, would be primarily from ing. Sultan described the meeting as the Separately, the National Assembly’s committee MP Safa Al-Hashem said the opposition and even some MPs. Ashour Asia, particularly from India, China and the most important for the opposition which financial and economic affairs committee committee also discussed a government said the committee discussed the agree- Philippines, whose citizens are more likely to have prepared a program of protests until June yesterday approved a proposal to allow draft law to tackle the problem of hun- ment in details and decided that certain attended college or have on-the-job training in 16 when the constitutional court is female Kuwaiti government employees to dreds of stock market dealers who were provisions must be discussed with the skilled occupations such as engineering and technol- scheduled to issue its verdict regarding go on retirement only after 15 years of severely impacted by the 1982 Manakh interior and foreign ministers and invita- ogy. The losers are likely to be Mexicans and Central the single-vote law which was ordered by service without any age restrictions. At (secondary stock market) crash. The deal- tions have been sent out to the two minis- Americans. HH the Amir late last year and triggered present, Kuwaiti women can seek retire- ers were included under the landmark dif- ters. Several opposition members have The new system, long advocated by economists one of the most bitter political crisis in ment with full benefits after they com- ficult debt settlement program law which said certain provisions of the pact are in and politicians who believe the main purpose of Kuwait. plete at least 15 years in service provided was passed by the Assembly in 1993. breach of the constitution. The Assembly’s immigration laws should be to serve economic The former lawmaker described the they reach 40 years of age. The govern- Thousands of dealers joined the program human rights and bedoons committee growth, would replace one geared mainly to reunit- court ruling as “the most decisive event” ment had in the past rejected similar pro- and repaid their debts but some dealers yesterday discussed a government-spon- ing families. As an example, an engineering graduate in Kuwait’s constitutional history, adding posals because of the financial cost as the have failed to pay. Hashem said the gov- sored draft law calling to establish a from India would have a better chance of immigrat- that if the court rules in favour of the measure overburdens the country’s pen- ernment told the committee the interest National Committee for Human Rights ing to the United States than the grandmother amendment, it means the death of the sion system which is facing a huge deficit. on the remaining debt is around KD 400 and a number of issues relating to Continued on Page 13 constitution. Ahead of the Dec 1 general The proposal is expected to be rejected million but added that the government bedoons, or stateless people. Bomb hits Qatari convoy in Somalia Booze and bikinis MOGADISHU: Around 11 people were killed in Somalia’s capital yesterday when a suicide attacker from welcome in Egypt the Al-Qaeda linked Shabab insurgents rammed a car laden with explosives into a convoy carrying officials DUBAI: Islamist-ruled Egypt is open to importance of the tourism sector, but from Qatar, police said. “Several people have been visitors who drink alcohol and wear still you have some individuals that are killed, the blast was big ... the number of those killed is bikinis as it sets out to boost numbers not from the leadership saying these around 11,” police official Mohamed Adan said. Four by at least a fifth this year, the tourism things,” added the minister, an inde- government officials visiting from Qatar were travelling minister said yesterday. Tourism is a pil- pendent who is not a member of the in armoured vehicles belonging to the interior ministry lar of the Egyptian economy but has ruling Muslim Brotherhood. Islamist when the convoy was attacked, but were unharmed. suffered since a popular uprising top- President Mohamed Morsi’s govern- “The convoy was escorting a delegation from Qatar, the pled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 ment increased taxes on alcohol in police escorted them to a safe area after they survived and set off two years of periodic rioting December but backed down after the the attack,” General Garad Nur, a senior police com- and instability. The minister, Hisham move was criticized by the tourism sec- mander, told reporters. Zaazou, said the government had “opti- tor and by liberals. The blast is the latest in a string of bloody attacks in mistic goals” for the sector, and played Before the uprising, tourism was the seaside capital, where Al-Qaeda linked Shabab down comments from radical Salafi worth more than a tenth of Egypt’s eco- insurgents have vowed to topple the government and Muslim groups who have called for a nomic output. In 2010, 14.7 million visi- have set off several bombs and launched guerrilla-style ban on alcohol and women wearing tors came, generating $12.5 billion in strikes.