RABIA ALAWWAL 16, 1441 AH WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019 28 Pages Max 30º Min 14º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 17983 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net 4,608 bottles of liquor Pakistan installs statue of Indian Egypt opens Tora jail to Torfaera: Iceland’s 3 seized at Shuwaikh Port 9 pilot shot down over Kashmir 24 media after UN report 26 off-road racing mania Bushehri resigns after grilling, blames ‘influential’ contractors Tabtabaei: Roads broken like biscuits • Interior minister grilled in open session By B Izzak reform and the interests of the nation,” she concluded. KUWAIT: In a dramatic turn of events, Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem said he Minister of Public Works and Minister of received a no-confidence motion signed State for Housing Affairs Jenan Bushehri by 10 lawmakers and set Nov 21 for a spe- yesterday announced her resignation from cial session to vote on the motion. He said the government at the end of a lengthy that the session will stand until he is noti- grilling in the National Assembly, which she fied officially that the resignation has been accused “influential” contractors of back- accepted. The Assembly later began the ing. The minister announced her resigna- grilling debate of Interior Minister Sheikh tion after 10 MPs filed a no-confidence Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah by MP Riyadh motion against her amid reports that a sec- Al-Adasani in an open session, after the ond motion was also signed by 10 more government’s request for a closed door MPs. Parliamentary sources even said that session did not get the required majority. as many as 25 lawmakers were ready to The Assembly also removed a grilling support the no-confidence motion, the against the former finance minister after number required to dismiss her. he resigned. “I am proud that I stood against the Earlier, Bushehri refuted allegations by grilling of companies and contractors. I am MP Omar Al-Tabtabaei, who grilled her, proud that I did not sign some transactions that she committed several legal and finan- for some of those who stood against me,” cial violations. She said that she barred 14 the minister said. “I stood with public companies from housing projects because funds and the state and they were the they were very late in completing their price for the no-confidence motion against projects, adding that she wrote to the me. I announce my resignation and place it Council of Ministers to bar them by the in the hands of the prime minister,” she government. The minister also said she said. “Reform has become an impossible imposed a total of KD 24 million in fines, KUWAIT: Picture combo shows MP Omar Al-Tabtabaei and Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Housing Affairs Jenan Bushehri task. Companies in the Abdullah Al-Salem the highest in history, on violating during a grilling debate yesterday. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat (Assembly) chamber are stronger than Continued on Page 24 rocket hitting a house and another nar- News in brief Exchange of fire rowly missing passing cars on a highway. A factory in the city of Sderot was also hit, sparking a fire. Israeli medics said Three actors stabbed in Riyadh after Israel kills they had treated 39 people. Reports that a separate strike targeted RIYADH: A Yemeni man stabbed three actors at a top commander an Islamic Jihad member in Damascus performance in the Saudi capital, police said yes- added to the day’s tensions. Islamic Jihad terday, in the first such attack since the ultraconser- GAZA CITY: Israel’s military killed a confirmed one of its officials, Akram vative kingdom began easing decades-old restric- commander of the Palestinian militant Ajouri, was targeted in Damascus, with tions on entertainment. The 33-year-old knife- group Islamic Jihad in a strike on his Syrian state news agency SANA report- wielding assailant was arrested after state television home in the Gaza Strip yesterday, trigger- ing an Israeli strike had hit Ajouri’s home, footage showed him storming a musical perform- ing exchanges of fire and fears of a severe “killing his son Muadh and another per- ance in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Park by what escalation in violence. The targeted strike son”. Israel did not comment on that appeared to be a foreign theatre troupe. — AFP led to barrages of retaliatory rocket fire strike. An AFP correspondent at the scene into Israel followed by Israeli air raids, of the dawn strike saw a partially Jordan foils terror plot and Gaza’s health ministry reported five destroyed three-storey building in a chic people killed and 30 wounded in the neighborhood of the capital not far from Palestinian enclave. Israel said it targeted AMMAN: Jordanian intelligence recently foiled a the Lebanese embassy. Glass had been Islamic Jihad militant sites as well as plot by two suspected militants to mount terror blasted from one of the windows. rocket-launching squads in the raids. attacks against US and Israeli diplomats alongside The initial Israeli raid in Gaza early The rocket fire into Israel caused dam- GAZA CITY: Mourners chant slogans as they carry the body of Palestinian Islamic US troops deployed at a military base in the south yesterday, thought to have been carried age and several injuries, with at least one Jihad senior leader Baha Abu Al-Ata during his funeral yesterday. — AFP of the country, state-owned Al-Rai newspaper Continued on Page 24 reported yesterday. It said the suspects had planned to drive vehicles into their targets and attack them with firearms and knives. — Reuters stalemate is a setback for Mumbai, Maharashtra which is home to business tycoons, the stock market and the glitzy Bollywood EU: Israel settlement FT names first female editor film industry. placed under The move is also a blow for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nation- goods must be labeled LONDON: The Financial Times yesterday alist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which BRUSSELS: The EU’s top court ruled That way, it said, consumers can make announced that its deputy editor, Roula Khalaf, direct rule was expected to remain in control of yesterday that food products from choices based on “ethical considera- would take over as the newspaper’s editor next India’s richest state after winning the occupied Palestinian territories must tions and considerations relating to the year, the first woman to hold the post. She suc- MUMBAI: India’s financial capital was plunged into political uncertainty yes- most seats at last month’s polls. be labeled as such, drawing an angry observance of international law”. ceeds Lionel Barber, who will step down after “President Ram Nath Kovind signs response from Israel which slammed a The ECJ ruling effectively backs the almost 15 years in the top job. Khalaf joined the FT terday after the president imposed direct rule on wealthy Maharashtra state proclamation imposing President’s rule “double standard”. The European EU guidelines issued in 2015 on label- in 1995 as North Africa correspondent and went after weeks of deadlock over who would in Maharashtra,” the Press Trust of India Court of Justice said that under EU ing goods from Israeli-occupied areas, on to lead the paper’s coverage of the Arab Spring, form its government following fiercely reported, citing officials. The state was rules on food labeling, it must be clear which also prompted a furious which started in 2011. —AFP (See Page 12) fought elections. India has been battling ruled by the BJP and its rightwing where products are from - particularly response. At the time, Prime Minister an economic slowdown and the political Continued on Page 24 if they come from Israeli settlements. Continued on Page 24 Saudi video labels extremist ideas DUBAI: A promotional video published by Saudi Arabia’s state security agency categorizes femi- Lebanon protesters nism, homosexuality and atheism as extremist ideas, even as the conservative kingdom seeks to clamor for citizenship promote tolerance and attract foreigners. The ani- mated clip posted on Twitter at the weekend by a BEIRUT: Draped in the Lebanese flag, identity,” she added. The politicians who verified account of the State Security Presidency 22-year-old Dana is bursting with pride do not want to change the century-old said “all forms of extremism and perversion are at taking part in Lebanon’s “revolution” - law, she says, are “patriarchal” and unacceptable”. — Reuters even if her home country refuses to give “racist”. The right to citizenship is one of her nationality. Standing amongst other many long-standing demands to have Saudi court convicts 38 people demonstrators in the capital, she explains found new life in the mass protests she was born in Beirut to a Lebanese sweeping Lebanon since Oct 17. RIYADH: A Saudi court has convicted 38 people mother and has spent all her life in the The unprecedented show of cross- of terrorism-related crimes, state-run Al Ekhbariya country. But like thousands of others in sectarian anger in the street brought television reported yesterday. The TV channel said Lebanon, her father is a foreigner and, down the government last month - but they were charged with financing terrorism and with Lebanese women unable to pass many other of the demonstrators’ with takfir. It said one of them “set up a terrorist down their nationality, she has been demands remain unmet. Outside the seat organization in prison”. It said the specialist crimi- deprived of citizenship. of government, 17-year-old Omar said nal court in Riyadh, which was set up to try terror- “My parents divorced before I was he’d only ever been to Syria once, but BEIRUT: A Lebanese demonstrator raises an old identity card during a march enti- ism cases, sentenced one man to 25 years, another even born.