SUBSCRIPTION THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016 SHAABAN 19, 1437 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Kuwaiti expert Email scandal Babies behind Murray conducts weight returns to bars: Should survives fresh loss operation on dog Clinton moms do time five-set German4 patient presidential7 bid with newborns?9 Paris16 battle Municipality bill passed Min 24º Max 39º as MPs slam corruption High Tide 03:28 & 13:38 Low Tide Lawmakers refer KIA budget for investigation 08:29 & 21:20 40 PAGES NO: 16885 150 FILS Kuwait to sign By B Izzak KUWAIT: The National Assembly yesterday passed major $1bn deal for amendments to municipality law in the first reading amid a strong onslaught by MPs on what they described as rife corruption in the municipality. State Minister for Mutlaa project Municipality Essa Al-Kandari said the government has reservations over a number of articles in the draft law DUBAI: Kuwait is expected to sign within two and will submit amendments to them before the second weeks a $1 billion contract with Italy’s Salini and final vote after two weeks. Impregilo and Turkey’s Limak Construction for its MP Youssef Al-Zalzalah criticized corruption in the planned South Mutlaa City project, an official said municipality, saying that for every violation and every yesterday. It is the first phase of the planned license, there is a price at Kuwait Municipality. He called 100,000 sq km urban development, which is situat- for holding corrupt people accountable. MP Mohammad ed in central Kuwait and is expected to house Tana and others spoke about flagrant violations in con- around 400,000 residents when completed. structions because of corruption. Tana asked why author- The project is part of a larger effort by the gov- ities can’t hold accountable foreign contractors and engi- ernment to implement billions in megaprojects neering offices. Tana also threatened to grill the com- under its five-year development plan, despite a pro- merce and industry minister if he does not remove the jected state budget deficit of around KD 22 billion scrapyard from Jahra. for the next three years as a result of lower oil prices. MP Jamal Al-Omar said it is almost impossible to pass The government has called for ‘cost-cutting’ pro- any transaction through the municipality without paying grams including unsuccessfully reducing salaries a bribe. MP Ahmad Lari said the new law will allow resi- and benefits of the country’s oil sector workers. dents of 28 new areas to take part in the elections for the Kuwait suffers a significant shortage of govern- municipal council, while MP Hamdan Al-Azemi called for ment-funded housing which particularly impacts making the number of voters equal in each constituency, young people, who often wait for years for a family adding that the number of voters is over 100,000 in some home. districts, while it is around 16,000 in others. Continued on Page 13 KUWAIT: MPs are seen during a session of the National Assembly yesterday. — KUNA Continued on Page 13 Yemen talks ‘closer’ to agreement UN chief wants to ramp up peace effort KUWAIT: The UN envoy said yesterday the peace talks which began on April 21 that Yemen’s warring parties were closer but have been clouded by repeated walk- to agreement at peace talks in Kuwait as outs by the government delegation. He India counting he prepared to brief the Security Council clarified on Twitter that he will make the on progress in negotiations. “We are briefing by video conference from Kuwait. cost of reduced moving towards a general understand- Face-to-face meetings resumed on ing that encompasses the expectations Monday for the first time in nearly a week Gulf transfers and visions of the parties,” Ismail Ould after the latest government boycott. Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement. “The Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban NEW DELHI: Having quit his low-paid job with a con- discussions have become more sensitive Ki-moon is proposing a plan to beef up tractor in Qatar, electrician Kurian Joseph scrabbles and delicate bringing us closer to a com- the UN mediation in Yemen to overcome for work each day in his hometown in Kerala, a south- prehensive agreement,” he said. deep differences in peace talks, accord- western state that has one of India’s highest unem- Ould Cheikh Ahmed was to brief the ing to a letter obtained by AFP yesterday. ployment rates. He’s a casualty of the global oil price UN Security Council in a closed session collapse. Stories like Joseph’s explain why remit- later yesterday on the progress made in Continued on Page 13 tances from Indians working abroad slumped 27 per- cent in the fiscal year through March to $48 billion - the lowest since the 2008 global financial crisis. Making $250 a month, and faced with a pay cut as KIEV: Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko presents the Hero of Ukraine award construction jobs in Qatar became scarcer, Joseph to Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko yesterday. — AFP realized he could no longer afford monthly install- ments on his house and son’s education. In January, after 15 years in the Gulf, he decided to go home. Ukrainian pilot returns “Working conditions became bad after the oil crisis hit construction. Our company could not sustain its home to hero’s welcome large work force,” Joseph, 56, told Reuters from Changanassery, a ramshackle town strung along KIEV: Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko someone’s rotten soul and sick mind,” she Kerala’s main north-south road. “I am told the compa- returned home to a hero’s welcome yester- added in an apparent reference to Putin. ny is planning to retrench workers. Many of my day after nearly two years in a Russian jail While in prison, the pilot launched sev- friends are planning to return.” following a prisoner swap with Moscow eral hunger strikes to protest her deten- Most of India’s remittances come from the oil-rich that drew a line under a major diplomatic tion, refusing both food and water during Gulf, where some seven million Indians have been spat. The 35-year-old army helicopter pilot her high-profile trial in southern Russia. working, but more and more are being forced to flew home as part of a carefully choreo- She constantly defied the Russian authori- come home. Earlier this year, 1,000 Indian profession- graphed exchange with Moscow, with two ties and even raised her middle finger at als were laid off by Qatar Petroleum. The prospect of alleged Russian soldiers leaving Ukraine the court in March. Kiev and its Western further falls in remittances is a hindrance for the earlier in the day. “I’m ready to once again allies view Savchenko as a pawn in Reserve Bank of India, as it seeks to “bulletproof” the give my life for Ukraine on the battlefield,” Moscow’s broader aggression against economy against sudden capital outflows. a defiant Savchenko declared after she Ukraine that has seen Russia seize the Whereas India’s external balances are in a far bet- SANAA: A Yemeni woman and a girl walk past cars as they beg for money in a touched down on home soil, barefoot and Crimean peninsula and fuel the separatist ter shape than three years ago, when a sudden burst street in the Yemeni capital on Tuesday. The United Nations says more than 80 percent of the population in Yemen is in dire need of food, medicine and other wearing a white T-shirt bearing the uprising in 2014. Continued on Page 13 Ukrainian trident, a national symbol. The French presidency said Savchenko’s basic necessities. — AFP Soon after the presidential plane brought release was agreed by the leaders of the crop-haired Savchenko home, a presi- France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine dur- dential motorcade whisked her from Kiev’s ing phone talks earlier this week. main Boryspil airport to Poroshenko’s office Savchenko’s return will be seen in Ukraine Afghan Taleban appoint new leader where he awarded her the Hero of Ukraine as a rare political victory for Poroshenko, order, the country’s highest honor. In who has been struggling with mounting KABUL: The Afghan Taleban yesterday announced It added that Sirajuddin Haqqani, an implacable Ukraine, she has become a symbol of resist- economic troubles, squabbles among his Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader, ele- foe of US forces, and Mullah Yakoub, the son of ance against what Kiev sees as Moscow’s allies and festering violence in the east of vating a low-profile religious figure in a swift pow- Taleban founder Mullah Omar, were appointed his aggression in the east and has even been the ex-Soviet country. Savchenko, an Iraq er transition after officially confirming the death of deputies. Analysts had previously seen them as the elected to parliament in absentia. war veteran, was convicted in March over Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike. The surprise most likely candidates for the leadership. “The leader The president vowed that Ukraine the killing of two Russian journalists in announcement coincided with a Taleban suicide of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and commander of would take back Crimea, which was eastern Ukraine and sentenced to 22 years bombing that targeted court employees near faithful, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was martyred in a annexed by Russia in 2014, and the rebel- behind bars. She had been held in captivi- Kabul, killing 11 people in an assault that illustrat- US drone strike in... Pakistan’s Balochistan province,” held territory in the east of the ex-Soviet ty in Russia since June 2014. ed the potency of the insurgency despite the the statement said, in the insurgents’ first confirma- country.