SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2014 SAFAR 2, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Interior Ministry Israel cabinet Echoes of a Hamilton wins scrambles to votes to once famed Abu Dhabi react to the enshrine ‘Jewish nightlife in GP, claims rumor mill3 state’ in8 law ravaged40 Aleppo world20 title Legal panel clears bill for Min 18º Max 26º 5-year cap on expats’ stay High Tide 13:52 Low Tide MP files to grill commerce minister over alleged violations 07:18 & 19:08 40 PAGES NO: 16352 150 FILS Fees, salaries By B Izzak KUWAIT: The National Assembly’s legal and legislative committee yesterday cleared a draft law calling to at Indian, Pak impose a five-year cap on the residence of expatriate workers in Kuwait, and that the size of any single com- schools hiked munity should not exceed 10 percent of the Kuwaiti By A Saleh population, which currently stands at 1.25 million. The panel’s action is mere routine work because the com- KUWAIT: Minister of Education Dr Bader Al-Essa has mittee only examines issued a decision increasing the tuition fees and if any particular bill is staff salaries at Indian and Pakistani schools to be in line with the consti- effective from the beginning of the school year tution or not. The bill 2014-2015. According to the new decision, kinder- now must go to the garten fees at Indian schools will be KD 320, primary interior and defense fees KD 356, intermediate fees KD 410 and second- committee which ary fees KD 460. The decision also set the salaries of must discuss the sub- kindergarten teachers at Indian schools at KD 250, ject of the proposal primary teachers KD 263, intermediate teachers KD and see if it is neces- 284 and secondary teachers KD 341. sary and useful for the According to the decision, librarians, social work- country and if it can ers, computer technicians, accountants and nurses be implemented or at Indian schools will get KD 250, while student not. affairs clerks, treasurers, secretaries, storekeepers, The bill, filed by MP receptionists, administrative supervisors, section KUWAIT: Customers stand at the service counter at a branch of a sharia-compliant bank at The Avenues Abdullah Al-Tameemi, Abdullah Al-Turaiji supervisors, data entry clerks, assistant teachers and mall on Nov 19, 2014. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat calls for making the accounting clerks would get KD 200. maximum period of stay for unskilled and semi-skilled Kindergarten fees at Pakistani schools will be KD expatriates five years. Highly qualified professionals are 345, primary fees KD 375, intermediate fees KD 430 Religion and risk drive exempt from the proposal. It also says the size of any and secondary fees KD 475. The decision also set the community should not exceed 10 percent of Kuwaitis, salaries of kindergarten teachers at KD 250, primary which means that at current strength, any expat com- teachers KD 263, intermediate teachers KD 284 and Islamic finance boom munity should not exceed 125,000. This practically secondary teachers KD 341. means that around 550,000 Indians, 400,000 Egyptians, According to the decision, librarians, social work- KUWAIT: When a Muslim cleric told four years and is now worth more Islam to take loans from a non- about 100,000 Bangladeshis and tens of thousands of ers, computer technicians, accountants and nurses Ahmad Salim that sharia law for- than $2 trillion, with demand fore- Islamic bank because they charge Filipinos, Pakistanis and Syrians will become illegal resi- at Pakistani schools will get KD 250, while student bids paying interest, he returned cast to soar to new heights. Salim interest,” the white-collar worker dents because they exceed the quota under the pro- affairs clerks, treasurers, secretaries, storekeepers, his days-old loan to the bank and returned a $35,000 loan just two said. A few days later, he arranged posal. If approved by the interior and defense commit- receptionists, administrative supervisors, section turned to the fast-growing industry days after he received it from a con- for a loan from an Islamic bank tee, the bill will go to the Assembly for approval, and supervisors, data entry clerks, assistant teachers and of Islamic finance. It is a market that ventional bank in Kuwait. “A cleric after paying a $700 service charge. then to the government. accounting clerks would get KD 200. has doubled in size over the past told me it is not permissible under Continued on Page 13 Continued on Page 13 Gulf urged to protect workers By Faten Omar and Agencies her experience of being ‘sold’ into servitude. the Faculty of Law of Kuwait University yester- She was denied food and endured long work- day. Dr Ebrahim Al-Sahli, a law professor at KUWAIT: International rights and labor ing hours. She had to work 15 hours without a Kuwait University, discussed domestic work- groups called yesterday for urgent action to day off and was even locked in the house ers’ rights in the GCC. protect migrant workers from abuse in the when the employer went on holiday. Tahera Marieke Koning, Equality Officer of the Gulf countries. Ahead of a meeting this week was in tears as she talked about the threats International Trade Unions Confederation, of Gulf and Asian labour ministers, 90 groups she received from her employer, who twisted said all six GCC states signed the landmark issued a statement saying millions of Asians her arm and broke a bone. She managed to International Labour Organisation Convention and Africans are facing abuses including run away, but was hit by a car and covered issued in 2011 to extend the labor laws cover- unpaid wages, confiscation of passports, with blood. Someone called the police. age to domestic workers, but none imple- physical violence and forced labor. This is just one of the thousands of horror mented it. “Even though domestic workers Take the example of Tahera, a 27-year-old stories that illustrate the systematic exploita- provide critical services that families depend woman with a husband and son. She had to tion and abuse of female migrant domestic on - cooking, cleaning, and childcare - we leave Indonesia a year ago to earn some mon- workers in countries throughout the Gulf. A have faced discrimination and marginalization ey, and worked as a domestic helper in the seminar on “Domestic workers’ rights in Gulf for generations,” she said. UAE. She still looked broken as she recounted Cooperation Council countries” was held by Continued on Page 13 TUNIS: A Tunisian woman raises her ink-stained finger in front of a national flag after casting her vote in the country’s first post-revolution presidential election Facebook paper yesterday at a polling station in the capital. — AFP spells trouble Tunisians vote for first for news media freely-elected president WASHINGTON: Facebook’s move to fulfill its ambition TUNIS: Tunisians voted yesterday in their transparent,” he said. to be the personal “newspaper” for its billion-plus first presidential election since the 2011 But voting appeared slack and three members is likely to mean more woes for the ailing revolution that sparked the Arab Spring, in hours after polling stations opened at news media. The huge social network has become a a ballot set to round off an often fraught 0700 GMT, officials estimated turnout at key source of news for many users, as part of a dramat- transition to democracy. The favourite only 12 percent. Some 5.3 million people ic shift in how people get information in the digital among 27 candidates was former premier were eligible to vote, with tens of thou- age. Company founder Mark Zuckerberg told a forum Beji Caid Essebsi, an 87-year-old veteran sands of police and troops deployed to in early November that his goal is to make Facebook’s whose anti-Islamist Nidaa Tounes party guarantee security amid fears Islamist mili- newsfeed “the perfect personalized newspaper for won a parliamentary election last month. tants might seek to disrupt polling day. every person in the world.” Others vying for the presidency included Polling was restricted to just five hours in Zuckerberg said that while a newspaper provides outgoing President Moncef Marzouki, sev- about 50 localities near the Algerian bor- the same information to every reader, Facebook can eral ministers who served under ousted der, where armed groups are active, while tailor its feed to the interests of the individual, deliver- dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, leftwinger polls elsewhere were due to close at 1700 ing a mix of world news, community events and Hamma Hammami, business magnate GMT. A run-off vote will be held at the end updates about friends or family. “It’s a different Slim Riahi and a lone woman, magistrate of December if no candidate secures an approach to newspapering,” said Ken Paulson, a former Kalthoum Kannou. absolute majority. editor of USA Today who is now dean of communica- Whatever the outcome many Tunisians Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa hailed the tions at Middle Tennessee State University. “It’s neither saw the election as a milestone in the his- vote. “It’s a historic day, the first presiden- good nor bad, but it’s something a traditional newspa- tory of the North African country, where tial election in Tunisia held under per can’t do.” for the first time they could freely choose advanced democratic norms,” Jomaa said. With Facebook, editorial decisions about what mem- their president. “This election is very “God willing, it will be a great festival of bers see are made not by a journalist, but an algorithm important. It’s the culmination of the revo- democracy.” Tunisia has won international that determines which items are likely to be of greatest lution and something that we really plaudits for largely steering clear of the interest to each person.