SUBSCRIPTION THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2015 RABI ALAWWAL 24, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Expats urged to Kerry, Zarif The Real Fouz: Saudi Arabia join ‘Positive resume How to get floor North Kuwaiti’ nuclear talks the best shape Korea after initiative3 in Geneva7 for37 your brows early20 scare Assembly passes law to Min 04º Max 22º collect illegal weapons High Tide 06:42 & 18:31 Low Tide MP slams Iranian president’s comments on oil 00:46 & 12:08 40 PAGES NO: 16403 150 FILS Omair admits oil By Staff Reporter KUWAIT: The National Assembly yesterday unanimously drop unexpected passed in the first reading a law allowing the interior min- istry to collect unlicensed and illegal firearms and stipulat- KUWAIT: The depth of the oil price drop was unexpect- ing hefty jail sentences against violators. The second read- ed, Kuwait’s oil minister said on yesterday, repeating ing of the law will be debated and voted after two weeks. too that OPEC had made the right decision in not cut- The law stipulates a jail term for seven years and a fine of ting its output. The comments by Ali Al-Omair reflect KD 20,000 for those who trade in unlicensed firearms and how even core Gulf OPEC producers who had led the explosives or in materials for manufacturing them. The decision in November, blocking a call for a cut by oth- penalty applies also to those who smuggle such arms or ers, did not predict the scale of the price collapse of strike deals with terror organizations or cells to sell or buy about 60 percent in the last six months. Omair told the arms. In all cases, seized materials will be confiscated. Kuwaiti parliament the “unexpected fall in oil prices It also stipulates a three-year jail sentence and a fine of affects Kuwait and the other crude-exporting coun- KD 3,000 for those caught with unlicensed firearms or tries,” state news agency KUNA reported. explosives after the grace period to be provided by the law. Brent was trading at around $46 a barrel yesterday. The grace period is for a period of four months starting Some non-Gulf OPEC producers have already voiced from the day of publishing the law in the official gazette. their growing scepticism on whether the decision was The law gives powers to the public prosecutor to authorize correct or not. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi has said the interior ministry to search individuals, houses, vehicles he convinced his fellow OPEC ministers that it is not in and the like during a specific duration and for a specific the group’s interest to cut oil output however far mission after producing serious evidence. Those who sur- prices may fall. “We harbor no ill will towards anyone, render unlicensed firearms within the four-month grace and it is not possible for Kuwait to participate in what period will be exempted from any penalty, the law stipu- others see as oil price wars,” the Kuwaiti minister was lates. quoted as saying. Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khaled Al-Sabah The firm stance of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other said the implementation of the law will be preceded by a Gulf Arab producers in the Organization of the concerted media campaign to convince people to hand Petroleum Exporting Countries - who account for more over all illegal firearms they have. The minister assured MPs than half of the group’s production - is causing dismay that the law will be implemented within the spirit of the among some other oil exporters who need higher oil Kuwaiti traditions and habits, adding that the ministry has prices to balance their budgets. KUWAIT: MPs and ministers are seen during a session at the National Assembly yesterday. — Photo by Continued on Page 13 trained female personnel to conduct house searches. Yasser Al-Zayyat Continued on Page 13 ‘Sex slave’ jumps for life By Ben Garcia manager and supervisor were intro- duced to me. One came to me, shook KUWAIT: Forced into the sex trade in my hand and placed a towel to my Kuwait, a mother of six had to jump face. I started to lose consciousness, from a window to escape her captors, and was taken to a room in a nearby and is now in hospital with multiple building,” she said. “After I awoke, I fractures and a bleak future. After noticed three Pakistanis waiting for working for a year and a half as a me, all of whom raped me. I was still domestic helper in Kuwait, Maribel, in a haze,” she said. not her real name, met fellow Filipina The following day, Maribel was ‘Liza’, who convinced her to work in a moved from Farwaniya to Jleeb Al- restaurant in Farwaniya and offered Shoukh. She heard her captors telling her a higher salary. “I had a one- her that she was part of a prostitution month part-time job in Jahra when I ring and told her to do whatever they met Liza. She told me to try the job, say or she’ll be killed. “The following and assured me I could learn quickly. I day in Jleeb, the men queued up to was tempted because the work was in have sex, one after the other - I think a restaurant with a better salary, so I 25 men every day. Another Filipina in This NASA image obtained yesterday shows the first notable solar flare of 2015. thought it would be great to try it the room shared the same fate. When The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 11:24 pm EST on Jan 12, 2015. out,” she told Kuwait Times. I had my monthly period, they inject- NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured So Maribel, 41, went to the small ed me with some medicine to stop this image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radi- restaurant in Farwaniya, where Liza the bleeding,” she cried, recalling her ation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect introduced her to her alleged employ- ordeal. KUWAIT: ‘Maribel’ is seen in a hospital bed after humans on the ground, however - when intense enough - they can disturb the ers. “At the restaurant, a Pakistani Continued on Page 13 escaping from a prostitution den. atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. — AFP Qaeda claims French France arrests Anger, calls for calm attack, derides rally comedian for over new cartoons CAIRO/ISTANBUL: Muslim clerics in the leaders around the world have strongly Middle East who have denounced last condemned the attack that killed 12 DUBAI: Al-Qaeda in Yemen claimed ‘hate speech’ week’s attack on Charlie Hebdo criticised people, many said the decision to print a responsibility for the attack on French PARIS: Controversial French comedian Dieudonne the French satirical weekly yesterday for new cartoon of Muhammad (PBUH) was satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, say- was arrested yesterday over a comment suggesting he publishing a cartoon depicting Prophet a provocation that would create a further ing it was ordered by the Islamist militant sympathized with one of the Paris attackers as France Muhammad (PBUH) in its first issue after backlash. group’s leadership for insulting Prophet cracked down on those who condone terror. The the killings. While mainstream Muslim Continued on Page 13 Muhammad (PBUH), according to a video arrest was one of 54 cases for “condoning terrorism” or posted on YouTube. Gunmen killed a “making threats to carry out terrorist acts” opened total of 17 people in three days of vio- since Islamist gunmen last week killed 17 people in a lence that began when they opened fire three-day shooting spree targeting satirical magazine at staff in Charlie Hebdo’s offices last Charlie Hebo, police and a Jewish supermarket. week in revenge for publication of satiri- Nasser bin Ali Al-Ansi In the midst of a mounting debate on the limits of cal images of the Prophet (PBUH). One get, laid the plan and financed the oper- free speech, prosecutors started a case against the Western source said no hard evidence of ation is the leadership of the organisa- comedian Monday after he posted a Facebook mes- a direct operational link to Al Qaeda in tion”, without naming an individual. sage saying “Tonight, as far as I’m concerned, I feel like the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) had yet He added without elaborating that Charlie Coulibaly”. The message was a mix of the been found. the strike was carried out in “implemen- catch-cry “Je suis Charlie” used in global homages to But this was the first time that a group tation” of the order of overall Al-Qaeda the slain magazine journalists and the name of one of officially claimed responsibility for the leader Ayman Al-Zawahri, who has called the gunmen, Amedy Coulibaly, who shot dead four attack, led by two French-born brothers for strikes by Muslims in the West using Jews at the supermarket on Friday and a policewoman of Algerian extraction, Cherif and Said any means they can find. Ansi also gave the day before. Kouachi, who had visited the poor credit for the operation to slain AQAP The comedian’s lawyer David de Stefano said his Arabian peninsula country in 2011. propagandist Anwar Al-Awlaki, a preach- arrest was “shocking”. “We are in the land of freedom of Authorities in France hunting possible er cited by one of the gunmen in remarks expression? This morning, the government provided accomplices say they are on alert for fur- to French media as a financer of the the demonstration of that,” he said sarcastically.