RABIA ALAWWAL 27, 1441 AH SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2019 28 Pages Max 25º Min 09º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 17992 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Call to award Nobel Peace Tesla suffers broken glass Syria’s ‘camps metalsmith’ Mourinho makes instant impact 2 Prize to Amir next year 11 mishap during chaotic launch 22 welds shelter for displaced 27 as Tottenham beat West Ham Tabtabaei returns to Kuwait to attend mother’s funeral Former MP thanks Amir on arrival; will turn himself in and seek pardon By A Saleh The sources said the new fee will KUWAIT: Fugitive former MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei KD 130 health cover medical and radiology tests and attended his mother’s funeral yesterday at Sulaibikhat treatment. However, the new law does cemetery, which was also attended by a number of current not specify who will be responsible for and former lawmakers. Informed sources said Tabtabaei’s insurance fees providing visitors with healthcare, but mother passed away on Thursday in Turkey, where she had explained that paying for healthcare been visiting her son. She had been hospitalized in the eyed from 2020 for dependents depends on the com- intensive care unit there, which is the reason why pany the expat is registered with. Tabtabaei did not return earlier with fellow former MP By A Saleh Moreover, the sources noted the Fahd Al-Khannah to turn himself in. health ministry will fully support the “I thank HH the Amir for allowing me to attend my KUWAIT: The health ministry and the insurance hospitals as part of its plan mother’s funeral, which is characteristic of him,” Tabtabaei to force expats to receive medical said on arrival at Kuwait airport on Friday. Sources said Health Assurance Hospitals Company (Dhaman) have started coordinating to treatment in private hospitals and Tabtabaei will turn himself in to authorities to serve a 42- leave public hospitals only for citi- month prison sentence handed by the court of cassation prepare a work plan to implement new zens. “Nonetheless, public hospitals over charges of breaking into the National Assembly. health insurance fees on expats by the However, Tabtabaei intends to file a petition to get an beginning of 2020, said official will exceptionally receive expats in Amiri pardon, similar to what Khannah did. sources. The sources added that a emergency cases for certain fees In addition, well-informed sources said more former media campaign will be rolled out to determined in related ministerial deci- MPs indicted in the same case will similarly return to explain the new health insurance sions,” the sources explained, noting Kuwait soon, including former MP Jamaan Al-Harbash. mechanism to expats, bearing in mind that fees paid to private health insur- ance hospitals will be supervised by Meanwhile, Kuwaiti citizen Mohammed Nayef Al- KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem (right) condoles for- that the new fee would be KD 130 per the health ministry to prevent “over- Doussary, who was also sentenced to 42 months in prison mer MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei during his mother’s funeral at Sulaibikhat ceme- expat working in the private sector and burdening” expats. over charges in the same case, arrived in Kuwait yesterday tery yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat the same for each of their dependents. to turn himself in and file an amnesty petition. Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi by tele- own surprise trip to Ain al-Asad a year ago, Pence avoids top phone. “There won’t be a meeting as they had where he briefly met troops just after a phone call. The prime minister isn’t going to Christmas but controversially did not see offi- Anbar” to meet Pence, one source said. cials in Baghdad. Trump’s visit was veiled in Baghdad leaders President Barham Saleh’s office told AFP it was such secrecy that there was speculation most not aware Pence was coming to Iraq and had Iraqi authorities had not been told he president during Iraq visit no meeting planned. The US embassy said it was coming. Pence’s trip came as the death toll had no details to share. from weeks of anti-government rallies across Pence did met Iraqi Kurdish President Iraq’s capital and the south rose even further. BAGHDAD: US Vice President Mike Pence Nechirvan Barzani and his prime minister One protester was killed and 17 were avoided meeting Iraqi federal government Masrour Barzani in Arbil, the Kurdish presi- wounded in clashes with security forces yes- leaders during a surprise trip yesterday to the dency said, publishing pictures of the encoun- terday on the Al-Ahrar bridge in Baghdad, a country, where deadly anti-government ters. Pence tweeted images of himself and his medical source said. Demonstrators have protests have highlighted Washington’s dimin- wife speaking to US forces and carrying a massed on three main bridges leading from ished influence. In his first visit as vice presi- roast turkey, traditionally served during the their protest camp in Tahrir (Liberation) dent, Pence visited American troops at Ain al- American Thanksgiving holiday celebrated Square to the western bank of the river Tigris, Asad base in western Iraq’s Anbar province, next week. “Happy Thanksgiving from Iraq. where government offices and foreign but was not expected to travel to the capital. @SecondLady and I are so honored to be with embassies are based. Since Thursday, nine His trip came after weeks of anti-government our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines here protesters have been killed in skirmishes with rallies across Baghdad and the south. in Iraq!” he tweeted. security forces there. ARBIL, Iraq: US Vice President Mike Pence (left) is greeted by Kurdistan Prime Minister Iraqi officials told AFP that Pence spoke to The visit echoed President Donald Trump’s Continued on Page 24 Masrour Barzani as President Nechirvan Barzani looks on yesterday. —- AFP motoring debut just months after the First Saudi decades-old ban ended, competed Friday and yesterday in the Jaguar I- BJP in surprise PACE eTROPHY, an all-electric race in woman races Diriyah, close to the capital Riyadh. “The ban was lifted last year and I never comeback in car in kingdom expected to race professionally,” said Juffali, sitting in her black-and-green Maharashtra DIRIYAH, Saudi Arabia: Sliding Jaguar I-Pace, an electric sports utility behind the wheel of a sleek electric SUV, vehicle. “The fact that I am doing it... is MUMBAI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s par- Reema Juffali has blazed a trail in male- amazing,” Juffali, clad in a racing suit, ty made an unexpected comeback to power yesterday dominated motor sports as the first told AFP in an interview close to the rac- in wealthy Maharashtra state, home to the country’s Saudi woman to race in the kingdom. ing circuit in Diriyah. financial capital, after prolonged backroom negotiations Such adrenalin rushes were unimagin- Juffali, who hails from the western city saw presidential rule lifted after days of uncertainty. able for women in the ultraconservative of Jeddah and was educated in the President Ram Nath Kovind imposed direct rule on Islamic kingdom until June last year, United States, participated as what India’s richest state last week after fiercely fought elec- when it overturned the world’s only ban organizers call a “VIP” guest driver, tions last month led to weeks of haggling between par- on female motorists as part of Crown becoming the first Saudi woman to race ties over forming a government. Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s wide- on home soil. Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki ranging liberalization drive. Al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s sports authority RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s first female race driver Reema Juffali poses in front of her car The state was previously ruled by Modi’s Hindu in the Diriyah district of the Saudi capital on Nov 20, 2019. — AFP nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its rightwing Juffali, a 27-year-old who made her Continued on Page 24 regional ally Shiv Sena. But they failed to agree another power-sharing deal despite results showing the coalition had won a comfortable majority for a second consecu- tive term. Shiv Sena quit the partnership, hoping to con- Lion cub mummies vince their ideological rivals, the center-left Indian National Congress, and the Nationalist Congress Party feature in huge (NCP) to form a government instead. In the end though the BJP pulled off a major upset by joining hands with a top NCP leader to form a coalition, ancient Egypt find announcing the deal yesterday. “This bolsters the BJP and Modi’s image in the state and the country,” political SAQQARA, Egypt: Egypt yesterday unveiled a cache commentator Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay told AFP. “While of 75 wooden and bronze statues and five lion cub there were some questions being raised about their loss mummies decorated with hieroglyphics at the Saqqara of dominance following election results, this verdict will necropolis near the Giza pyramids in Cairo. Mummified cement Modi and BJP’s control in the state”, he added. cats, cobras, crocodiles and scarabs were also The coalition still needs to prove its majority in the unearthed among the well-preserved mummies and state legislature in a week’s time in order to stay in other objects discovered recently. The antiquities min- power. India has been battling an economic slow- istry announced the find at the foot of the Bastet down, and the imposition of presidential rule was a Temple, dedicated to the worship of cats among setback for Modi and for Mumbai, which is home to ancient Egyptians, in the vast necropolis. business tycoons, the stock market and the glitzy Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany described the Bollywood film industry.