SUBSCRIPTION TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2016 SHAWWAL 28, 1437 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Close ranks and US launches Timberlake, Djokovic unite, Cabinet bombing raids Alba bring beats Nishkori urges Kuwaitis on Islamic seriousness to to claim on invasion3 eve State in Libya7 Teen38 Choice Toronto20 title Pain at the pump: Cabinet Min 34º hikes petrol prices by 83% Max 52º High Tide 10:40 New rates to take effect Sept 1 • Activists outraged Low Tide 05:07 & 18:23 40 PAGES NO: 16950 150 FILS By B Izzak Proud Deehani refuses to carry Olympic flag KUWAIT: The Cabinet yesterday decided to raise petrol prices by more than 80 percent from September 1 as RIO DE JANEIRO: Legendary Kuwaiti shooter Fehaid Al- part of economic reforms aimed at countering falling oil Deehani has refused to carry the Olympic neutral team revenues. A statement after the weekly Cabinet meet- flag at the Rio Games opening ceremony, where the ing said the price of low octane petrol will rise by 41 state’s athletes cannot march behind their own percent to 85 fils a litre from 60 fils, while high grade emblem. Kuwait is suspended by the International petrol will increase by 61 percent to 105 fils from 65 fils. Olympic Committee (IOC) and other leading federa- These two types account for most of the petrol con- tions such as FIFA, football’s world body, over govern- sumed in the country. It also decided to raise the price ment interference in sport. of environmentally friendly low-emission “ultra” petrol Despite last-minute calls for dialogue to get the by 83 percent to 165 fils a litre from 95 fils. The increase Kuwait government to make a concession, Deehani, is applicable to all motorists in the country. winner of Kuwait’s only Olympic medals, and seven The ministers were briefed about recommendations other athletes are resigned to having to compete in Rio presented by the economic affairs committee - tasked as so-called Independent Olympic Athletes. According with revising various state subsidies - on setting fuel to Kuwaiti media, the IOC asked Deehani, who took prices. They approved the commission’s recommenda- trap shooting bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney and tion and decided to begin rationalizing subsidies on 2012 London Games, to carry the Olympic neutral gasoline in the country, as part of the government’s team flag. reform scheme where fuel products’ prices will be But the Kuwait army officer turned down the restructured to be in harmony with the average rates in request. “I am a military man and I will only carry the other GCC states. Kuwait flag,” he said. “I cannot carry the IOC flag.” The These are the first increases in heavily subsidized IOC and FIFA have now suspended Kuwait three times petrol prices in Kuwait for almost two decades. The since 2007 over government interference. The latest Cabinet said that even with the new increases, the sub- dispute has caused anguish across the state. The gov- sidy on petrol has not been completely lifted. The gov- ernment has launched court action in Switzerland ernment liberalized the prices of diesel and kerosene in seeking $1 billion in damages from the IOC over its sus- Jan 2015 and revises their prices monthly. Kuwait is the pension, which Youth and Information Minister Sheikh LONDON: Kuwait’s Fehaid Al-Deehani, bronze medallist in the men’s trap final at the London 2012 Olympic last country among the energy-rich Gulf Cooperation Salman Al-Humoud Al-Sabah has called “unjustifiable”. Council states to increase the price of petrol. Other Continued on Page 13 Games, celebrates on the podium at the Royal Artillery Barracks in this Aug 6, 2012 file photo. — KUNA Continued on Page 13 Russian chopper downed in Syria RAK accuses top businessman of stealing $1.5bn DUBAI: A small sheikhdom in the United Arab Emirates yesterday accused a businessman who once had ties to its ruler of stealing $1.5 billion while serving as the head of its local sovereign wealth fund. The allegations against Khater Massaad, who also helped Ras Al- Khaimah create a major, eponymous ceramics compa- ny, came in an unusually strongly worded dispatch car- KUWAIT: Head of the Yemeni government delegation, Foreign Minister ried by the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency. Abdulmalek Al-Mikhlafi (center), poses with his team as they wait at Kuwait airport Massaad could not be immediately reached for prior to their departure after they attended the UN-brokered peace talks. — KUNA comment. Cynthia Beudjekian, a marketing employee for one of Massaad’s businesses based in Lebanon, said Syrian rebels gather around the wreckage of a Russian Mi-8 military transport heli- his organization planned to respond to the allegations. copter after it was shot down yesterday along the administrative border between Govt team leaves after The WAM report described Massaad as fleeing the UAE Idlib province in northwestern Syria and neighboring Aleppo. — AFP “as soon as questions arose concerning his business Houthis reject UN plan activities in 2012.” It described him as continuing to run BEIRUT: A Russian military helicopter was from the defense ministry, those in the businesses in Bangladesh, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia shot down over Syria yesterday, killing all helicopter died, they died heroically, five people on board in the single deadliest because they were trying to move the air- KUWAIT: Yemen’s government delega- accepted by the government but reject- despite “corrupt dealings he has been involved in incident for Moscow since it intervened in craft away to minimize victims on the tion to peace talks left Kuwait yesterday ed by the rebels, Mikhlafi told reporters across the globe”. the war. The attack came as Syrian opposi- ground,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry after the rebel side rejected a draft peace at Kuwait airport. Government delega- It’s unclear why authorities decided to finally make plan proposed by the United Nations, its tion spokesman Mohammed Al-Emrani a formal announcement about the case after four tion fighters and their jihadist allies battled Peskov told journalists. representatives said. “We now leave earlier told AFP: “We are leaving today years. The WAM report said Massaad had “ended nego- government forces outside Aleppo in a bid Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoy Kuwait... but are not quitting the consul- after having completed our part in the tiations” with Ras Al-Khaimah over the accusations. to ease the regime’s siege of rebel-held called the downing a “terrorist act” and said tations and not ending them before talks. The ball is now in the rebels’ court.” Massaad at one point ran the Ras Al-Khaimah parts of the northern city. Russia’s defense the defense ministry was still trying to con- ministry announced the downing of the firm the fate of the Russian servicemen August 7,” said the delegation head, The delegation was returning to Riyadh, Investment Authority, which the Las Vegas-based helicopter, which it said was carrying three “through all possible channels”. It was not Foreign Minister Abdulmalek Al-Mikhlafi. where it is based, after informing the UN Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute estimates is worth crew and two officers. immediately clear who was responsible. UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed set envoy that it was ready to sign the pro- $1.2 billion. The National, a state-owned newspaper “A Russian Mi-8 military transport heli- The incident was the deadliest single Aug 7 as the date for winding up the posed peace plan, Emrani said. based in Abu Dhabi, also described in him in 2008 as copter was shot down from the ground attack on Russian forces in Syria since talks that began April but have failed to Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he has being an adviser to Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al-Qasimi, after delivering humanitarian aid to Moscow began its intervention in support achieve any breakthrough towards end- received a letter from the government who now is the emirate’s ruler. Ras Al-Khaimah is one Aleppo,” the defense ministry said in a of President Bashar Al-Assad’s government ing Yemen’s conflict. delegation agreeing to a “draft peace of seven sheikhdoms in the UAE. Overshadowed by oil- statement quoted by Russian news agen- last September. It brought the total num- “We’ll return at any moment, even an agreement proposed by the United rich Abu Dhabi and the skyscrapers of Dubai, the small cies. The Kremlin said all five people on ber of members of the Russian forces killed hour after our departure, if the other side Nations to resolve the conflict in Yemen”. northern emirate borders Oman and is near the Strait board were assumed dead. “As far as we in Syria to 18. agrees to sign this document which the “The departure of the government of of Hormuz. — AP (UN) envoy presented” which was Continued on Page 13 know from the information we’ve had Continued on Page 13 India in talks to bring home workers NEW DELHI: India said yesterday it is negoti- construction and layoffs. The Indian con- billionaire former prime minister Saad Hariri. ating with authorities in Saudi Arabia to sulate in Jeddah has been providing free “No jobless Indian will sleep hungry. If they repatriate thousands of migrant workers food for its nationals since their plight came want to come back home, the government after they lost their jobs, leaving them desti- to light last week, but Swaraj said the situa- will ensure their safe return...we have a col- tute and with no money to return home. tion could not be allowed to continue. “This lective responsibility towards our citizens,” Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj told parlia- can’t be a permanent solution, we will have Swaraj said.