THULQADA 6, 1439 AH THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2018 Max 47º 28 Pages Min 35º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 17586 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Kuwaiti youngsters to set sail First Ethiopia-Eritrea flight in In China, little yellow robots ‘I want to cement my legacy’: 5 for 30th pearl diving journey 11 20 yrs met with flags, flowers 15 deliver snacks to your home 25 Joshua planning history bid Kuwaiti, Saudi FMs sign deal to establish coordination council Body to be a launch pad for shared endeavors KUWAIT: The foreign ministers of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have signed a deal to establish a “coordination council” as a launch pad for shared endeavors between the two Gulf neighbors. The initiative, undertaken by Kuwait’s acting prime minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and his Saudi counterpart Adel Al-Jubeir, reflects the Kuwaiti and Saudi leaders’ collective desire to deepen the intense camaraderie both nations enjoy, read a state- ment by the Kuwaiti foreign ministry yesterday. Prior to putting their signatures on the dotted line, the Kuwaiti and Saudi foreign ministers held talks focus- ing on the latest happenings in the region as well as global events. Earlier yesterday, Jubeir met HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at Bayan Palace. Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah said on Tuesday the coordination council aims at further boosting bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and KUWAIT: (Left) HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah receives Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir yesterday. (Right) Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Kuwait. Jubeir’s visit also aims at consulting and coordi- Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and Jubeir sign a deal to establish a “coordination council” yesterday. — KUNA nating over a variety of issues, he added. — KUNA ing expatriates and demanded to either stop serving the start of the company’s services, it is unacceptable Lawmakers slam expatriates or at least give priority to Kuwaitis. MPs that citizens face another dilemma caused by expatri- Khalil Al-Saleh and Ahmad Al-Fadhl claimed that ates,” Saleh said in a statement. He said the company recruiting maids for expatriates has made it tough for was essentially established to end the sufferings of the maids’ company Kuwaitis to benefit from the services of the company, citizens from the expensive cost of hiring maids and not which was established to break the monopoly and high to renew these sufferings through the long queues. for serving expats cost of recruiting domestic helpers from abroad. Saleh called on authorities to resolve this problem by Saleh demanded that the company should provide ordering the company to serve citizens only, adding By B Izzak its services to Kuwaitis only at this stage and expressed that the government must issue a decision urgently. outrage that it opened its doors to serve expatriates, Saleh, who heads a parliamentary committee to speed KUWAIT: Two lawmakers yesterday slammed the “thus exhausting citizens to wait in long queues”. “Amid up replacement of expatriate employees in government Khalil Al-Saleh Ahmad Al-Fadhl Durra Company for the recruitment of maids for serv- a crisis over domestic helpers and after a long wait for Continued on Page 24 Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on News in brief Google hit with European steel and aluminium exports. “Google has engaged in illegal practices to MoI tightens traffic laws cement its dominant market position in internet record €4.3bn search,” EU Competition Commissioner KUWAIT: To make citizens comply with the traffic Margrethe Vestager said as she announced the law and obtain and renew driving licenses, and to EU antitrust fine huge fine. The new sanction nearly doubles the limit vehicles of expats, sources said the interior previous record EU anti-trust fine of €2.4 bil- ministry has begun implementing new rules. A circu- BRUSSELS: The EU hit Google with its lion, which also targeted Google, in that case for lar sent to service centers states that a citizen or biggest ever fine yesterday, imposing a €4.34 the Silicon Valley titan’s shopping comparison expat must have a valid driving license to register or billion penalty on the US tech giant for illegally service in 2017. Denmark’s Vestager ordered renew the registration of vehicles in their name. If abusing the dominance of its operating system Google to “put an effective end to this conduct the license has expired and is not renewed, the sys- for mobile devices. Brussels accused Google of within 90 days or face penalty payments” of up tem will not allow the renewal of a vehicle’s registra- using the Android system’s near-stranglehold on to five percent of its average daily turnover. tion. If the profession of an expat changes, the smartphones and tablets to promote the use of The Google decision comes just one week license will be revoked, especially if the new profes- its own Google search engine and shut out before European Commission chief Jean-Claude sion does not meet the conditions mentioned in the rivals. The decision, which follows a three-year Juncker is due to travel to the United States for BRUSSELS: European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe ministerial decision. — Al-Anbaa EU investigation, comes as fears of a transat- crucial talks with US President Donald Trump lantic trade war mount because of President Continued on Page 24 Vestager gives a joint press at the EU headquarters yesterday. — AFP Trump asked Rouhani 8 times to meet and watched as they played with footballs on a TEHRAN: The chief of staff to Iran’s President Thai cave boys small makeshift pitch before taking their seats. “It Hassan Rouhani said yesterday that his US counter- is a miracle,” Adul Sam-on, 14, said of the rescue, part Donald Trump asked for a meeting eight times as the boys were gently quizzed about their terri- during the UN General Assembly last year. “During relive moment of fying experience by a moderator before dozens of Rouhani’s last visit to New York for the UN General cameras. The team had no food at all until they Assembly session, Trump asked the Iranian delega- ‘miracle’ rescue were found deep in the complex, surviving only on tion eight times to have a meeting with the presi- water that dripped down the side of the cave. “We dent,” Mahmoud Vaezi told reporters yesterday, CHIANG RAI, Thailand: Twelve Thai boys and drank water that fell from the rocks,” said Pornchai according to the conservative Mehr news agency. their football coach who were rescued by divers Khamluan, 16. He said the Iranian team had not responded to the after being trapped in a flooded cave for over two Coach Ekkapol Chantawong told reporters requests. “We have a transparent policy and clear weeks spoke publicly yesterday of their incredible that they prayed before the first night they went position with regard to our relations with the US... ordeal. Appearing at a press conference beamed to sleep in the cave, and later tried to find a way that (we) will not yield to pressure,” Vaezi said. A worldwide, the “Wild Boars” team members out by themselves. “We tried to dig out as we Trump-Rouhani meeting would have been the first appeared healthy and happy despite the nine days thought we cannot only wait for authorities to between the presidents of the two countries since they spent in the dark before being found by an get us,” he said. Doctors said all 13 were in good CHIANG RAI, Thailand: Twelve Thai boys and their football coach, res- Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. — AFP international rescue team and extracted days later. physical and mental health after recuperating in cued from a flooded cave after being trapped, attend a press confer- A packed crowd greeted the youngsters after hospital. ence yesterday following their discharge from the hospital. — AFP they were discharged from hospital in Chiang Rai, Continued on Page 24 Iran builds new centrifuge rotor factory TEHRAN: Iran has built a factory that can produce the bespectacled and wiry ambassador record- rotors for up to 60 centrifuges a day, the head of its Japanese envoy ed a missive wearing an Iraq football jersey atomic agency said yesterday, upping the stakes in ahead of a potentially divisive World Cup quali- a confrontation with Washington over the Islamic conquers Iraqi fier. The opponents? Japan. Republic’s nuclear work. “Instead of building this Iraqi civil servant Haydar Al-Banna remem- factory in the next seven or eight years, we built it bers this dispatch by Iwai - in June last year, during the negotiations but have not started it,” said hearts and minds since watched by over 730,000 people - fondly. The ambassador said “I will be happy if our Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy BAGHDAD: While foreign diplomats often Organization of Iran. The factory would have the team (Japan) win, and I will be sad if the Iraqi struggle to win over ordinary Iraqis, Japan’s team loses”, recalls 35-year-old Banna. capacity to build rotors for up to 60 IR-6 cen- departing ambassador has stolen hearts - trifuges per day, he added. Separately, Salehi said Moments like this have seen Iraqis claim the thanks to witty social media videos in classical diplomat as their own, impressed by his deft that Iran now had a stockpile of up to 950 tons of Arabic and local dialects. Fumio Iwai has been uranium. He said Iran had imported 550 tons of ura- navigation of a country still engulfed by chaos in post in Baghdad for less than three years, but 15 years after the US-led invasion that toppled nium before the nuclear agreement and had his fan base reaches far beyond the heavily for- acquired approximately another 400 tons after the dictator Saddam Hussein.