SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2014 JAMADA ALAWWAL 2, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Minister admits Will Smith flop Rio revels Man City hit Iran cannot ‘After Earth’ in ‘greatest back to beat block Facebook crowned show on Sunderland in forever9 at36 Razzies Earth’40 League20 Cup Panel to summon KAC Max 23º Min 12º High Tide board, KIA officials 00:52 & 13:31 Low Tide 07:33 & 19:46 40 PAGES NO: 16093Kuwait 150 FILS Airways insists Airbus deal transparent, touts gains By Velina Nacheva and B Izzak Kuwait Airways is in the multi-year process of privati- conspiracy theories zation, but the state’s sovereign wealth fund owns the KUWAIT: Parliament will summon the board of troubled airline during this period and has the final say on all Kuwait Airways as well as officials of its owner Kuwait financial deals. Allegations of kickbacks and other irreg- Ward 10? Investment Authority as it investigates an estimated ularities have plagued the deal from its initial signing in $4.4 billion deal with Airbus. Kuwait December. Airways finalized the deal in February to “There is no commission or any buy 25 new Airbus jets - 10 A350-900 benefit for any middleman,” said long-haul jets and 15 A320 neo aircraft - Roumi, adding that all the require- along with 12 more leased aircraft, seven ments have been met and the agree- A320s and five A330s. ment is “fair” for both parties in the By Badrya Darwish Questions over the transparency of the deal. “All issues were taken into deal have fueled the controversy. KAC account to ensure that public funds chairwoman Rasha Al-Roumi hit back at are protected,” said Roumi. HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah critics yesterday, noting that the deal was The head of the National Assembly conducted with “transparency and the probe panel, which is part of the Amir undergoes [email protected] direct participation of all stakeholders.” Assembly’s legal and legislative com- She however refused to reveal the val- mittee, MP Yacoub Al-Sane, said the minor surgery ue of the deal or disclose other financial panel will hear the opinions of the two KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al- aspects of the purchase during a press bodies about the deal, specifically ou know guys, I heard the most amazing story Rasha Al-Roumi Sabah Kuwait has undergone a successful minor sur- conference yesterday, citing a confiden- whether KIA had given prior approval from a friend of mine and I want to share it gery in the United States following successful and tiality clause. She also said that KAC managed to get to KAC to go ahead and sign the agreement. The prior Ywith you. It’s bizarre and sad at the same time. reassuring regular medical tests, the Amiri Diwan said more than 10 percent off the original value during approval is essential for the deal to be legal, according Did you know that if a woman strays in Kuwait and yesterday. The Amir will leave hospital after the usual negotiations in the past two months before signing to Sane. gets pregnant - and I mean by this an expat woman convalescence period, the statement added. — KUNA who is unmarried - she is put during her pregnancy the deal. Continued on Page 13 in a special ward at the maternity hospital until she delivers? What is this special ward? Is it a prison ward? Yes. Russia tightens grip on Crimea It’s in the Sabah Maternity Hospital, known as Ward 10 or the IP ward (illicit pregnancies ward). And it has tight security with the doors locked and guard- ed 24 hours like a proper jail. Visits are not allowed Ukraine mobilizes army as West warns Moscow in that ward, by the way, so don’t get carried away and think that you can visit and go and see what’s PEREVALNE, Ukraine: Igniting a tense standoff, happening inside. Russian forces surrounded a Ukrainian army base yes- After the woman delivers, the mom and the baby terday just as the country began mobilizing its military are transported to the women’s prison. A case will in response to the surprise Russian takeover of Crimea. be filed against her by the general prosecutor, she Outrage over Russia’s tactics mounted in world capitals, will go before a judge, a verdict and sentence will be with US Secretary of State John Kerry calling on passed and she will serve a jail term after which she President Vladimir Putin to pull back from “an incredible will be deported. act of aggression”. Fearing that Europe’s borders were I’m not defending illicit pregnancies. Or encour- being rewritten by force, world leaders rushed to find a aging a woman to stray. But simple mathematics: As diplomatic solution to reverse what had already hap- an expat woman, she may be from another country pened on the ground: Russia captured the Black Sea that does not require marriage before being preg- peninsula on Saturday without firing a shot. nant. Most Western countries and many Asian ones Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said do not treat pregnancy before marriage as a crime. there was no reason for Russia to invade Ukraine and I’m not encouraging this in Kuwait. I know we are warned that “we are on the brink of disaster”. “We an Islamic country and we should abide by sharia believe that our western partners and the entire global laws. But my argument is this: Many of these maids community will support the territorial integrity and uni- don’t know our rules and regulations and system. ty of Ukraine,” he said Sunday in Kiev. NATO held an And sometimes they are abused by the employer emergency meeting in Brussels, Britain’s foreign minis- who has the upper hand and she cannot challenge ter flew to Kiev to support its new government and the him even in the police station. Also, as we are US, France and Britain debated the possibility of boy- accepting maids from all over the world with differ- cotting the next Group of Eight economic summit, ent nationalities and cultures, we cannot force them being held in June at Sochi, the host of Russia’s success- to accept our traditions, culture or religion. ful Winter Olympics. So simple mathematics: Instead of sending her to In Kiev, Moscow and other cities, thousands of pro- a ward and then to jail, just deport her. Actually like testers took to the streets to either decry the Russian this, you will save on budgets as you’re saying occupation or celebrate Crimea’s return to its former spending is too high in Kuwait and we need to cut ruler. “Support us, America!” a handful of protesters the budget on every corner. So that’s one corner. chanted outside the US Embassy in Kiev. Send the poor girl back to her country and you save Continued on Page 13 KIEV: People attend a rally against Russia on Kiev’s Independence Square yesterday. — AFP on the expenditure and the costs of guards, a spe- cial ward and the jail. Most of all, I’m worried about the babies. A jail is Afridi blitz downs World caught off guard a very unhealthy environment to grow up in, and why should an innocent baby be delivered in a prison ward and raised with its mom in a jail? Why, India in thriller by thirst for democracy when Kuwait could very simply send the mom back WASHINGTON: Time was, overturning strations against the elected leaders in to her home country and let her raise her child there a freely-elected government would Ukraine and Egypt, analysts and diplo- and face her problem in the system in her country? have earned a sharp US rebuke. But as mats argue there is often a common This is her problem, so why is Kuwait making it our people power revolts sweep some core. It is “an incredible yearning for problem? And then we face lots of questions from countries, Washington is increasingly modernity, for change, for choice, for human rights advocates. As it is we have enough giving its blessing to ousting leaders empowerment of individuals that is issues with human rights besides moms and babies accused of betraying democracy. From moving across the world, and in many in jail in Kuwait. Egypt, where the nation’s first demo- cases moving a lot faster than political Have a good day! cratically-elected president Islamist leadership is either aware of or able to leader Mohamed Morsi was toppled in respond to,” Kerry said. July by the army, to Ukraine where Viktor Yanukovych, brought to power in ‘People Must Act’ Abu Ghaith to 2010 polls, fled his post after months of French intellectual Jacques Attali, street protests, the US has had to fine- once an advisor to former president tune its response. FranÁois Mitterrand, asked “what are go on trial Indeed US Secretary of State John the people supposed to do when Kerry said bluntly last week: “A democ- democracy has been betrayed by those in New York racy is not defined solely by an elec- they brought to power?” “The people tion.” “You can have a democratically- have to act, demonstrate, remind the NEW YORK: A son-in-law of Osama bin Laden and elected government, but you don’t leaders of their promises. And if they former Al-Qaeda spokesman goes on trial in New have democratically-instituted reforms don’t succeed in convincing them, they York today, accused of conspiracy to kill Americans that actually give you a democracy, a have to bring them down,” wrote Attali and supporting terrorists.