Committee Approves Law Banning Raising Charges Nod to Draft Electoral Law Amendments • Dahoum Blasts Govt, Speaker

JAMADA ALTHANI 5, 1442 AH MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2021 16 Pages Max 21º Min 10º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18337 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Moroccan Jews ‘already Superfast 5G in the US Cyprus cats out in the Man United retain top spot 5 packing’ for Israel flights 8 still a work in progress 12 cold as pandemic bites 16 after Liverpool stalemate Committee approves law banning raising charges Nod to draft electoral law amendments • Dahoum blasts govt, speaker By B Izzak without the Assembly’s approval, but allows the gov- which voters were allowed to elect up to four candi- tion MPs and for allegedly “paralyzing the country”. ernment to raise the prices of petroleum products. The dates. Committee rapporteur MP Mohannad Al-Sayer Dahoum said the government has submitted its res- KUWAIT: The National Assembly’s legal and legisla- amendment says any increase in charges or prices must said one of the proposals calls to adopt a new system ignation to HH the Amir and “we are awaiting its tive committee yesterday cleared a draft law banning be approved by the Assembly first. A large number of where voters vote for a list of candidates rather than acceptance”. But he warned the prime minister, if the government from raising charges on public services lawmakers have vowed to prevent the government one individual candidate. selected to form the next Cabinet, from bringing back without the prior approval of the Assembly. The bill from imposing new taxes on citizens amid fears the Meanwhile, leading opposition lawmaker Bader Al- Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh in now goes to the financial and economic affairs commit- government is planning to impose taxes and new Dahoum yesterday sharply criticized Assembly the new line-up, strongly criticizing the minister. The tee to review it and send a report to the Assembly for charges in the wake of a sharp drop in oil revenues. Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem, calling him “an employ- lawmaker said MPs will insist that the government debate and approval. The committee also approved a number of draft ee of the government”. He also blasted the government cooperates to pass a number of essential laws, espe- The bill stipulates to amend a 1995 law that bans the laws calling to amend the electoral law, with some of and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al- cially a general pardon law, Kuwaitization of jobs, government from raising charges on public services the amendments calling to return to the 2012 law in Sabah for failing to face a grilling filed by three opposi- amending the election law and others. News in brief Egypt unveils Biden to sign executive orders treasures found WASHINGTON: Joe Biden’s chief of staff said Saturday the incoming president would sign at ancient site about a dozen executive orders on his first day SAQQARA, Egypt: Egypt yesterday unveiled in office. Ron Klain said the executive orders ancient treasures found at the Saqqara archaeologi- would address the pandemic, the ailing US cal site near Cairo, including sarcophagi over 3,000 economy, climate change and racial injustice in years old, a discovery that “rewrites history”, America. On Inauguration Day Biden will sign according to famed Egyptologist Zahi Hawass. orders including ones for the US to rejoin the Saqqara is a vast necropolis of the ancient Egyptian Paris climate accord and reverse Trump’s ban on capital of Memphis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site entry of people from certain Muslim majority home to more than a dozen pyramids, ancient countries, Klain said. — AFP (See Page 2) monasteries, and animal burial sites. A team headed by Hawass made the finds near the pyramid of King Teti, the first pharaoh of the Sudan protesters burn Israeli flag Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. More than 50 wooden sarcophagi dating to the New Kingdom KHARTOUM: Dozens of Sudanese protesters (16th century BC to 11th century BC) were found in burned the Israeli flag yesterday during a rally a burial shaft, Hawass told AFP yesterday. “This dis- against Khartoum’s recent signing of a deal on covery rewrites the history of Saqqara and more normalizing relations with Israel. specifically the history of the New Kingdom, which Demonstrators gathered outside the cabinet began 3,000 years ago,” he said. offices, chanting anti-Israel slogans and carry- Hawass said his team had discovered a total of 22 ing banners reading, “normalization is betrayal” shafts, including one containing a “soldier, with his and “normalization is a crime”. — AFP SAQQARA, Egypt: A visitor takes pictures next to an unearthed wooden coffin during the official announce- battle axe resting beside him”. ment of the discovery of a new trove of treasures at Saqqara necropolis yesterday. — AFP (See Page 13) Continued on Page 2 Aussie father, son released company chief Claude Alain Roten SYDNEY: An Australian father and son have Swiss sleuths told AFP in an interview at his home in been released after almost six months in deten- western Switzerland. tion on unknown charges in Qatar. Professor The conspiracy movement is based Lukman Thalib, 58, and his son Ismail, 24, have unpick QAnon on messages by “Q Clearance Patriot”, been released, said a Doha-based source, who who claims to be a US intelligence added that they flew to Turkey on Jan 5. In origin mystery official leaking classified information. October, the US Department of the Treasury The so-called Q-drops began appear- designated another son of Professor Thalib, GENEVA: The mysterious “Q” ing on fringe messaging board 4chan Ahmed, as a “facilitator” of Al-Qaeda, along behind the QAnon conspiracy move- in Oct 2017 and later moved to 8kun, with that son’s gemstone company. — AFP ment, which was instrumental in the promoting a vast conspiracy theory storming of the US Capitol, is in fact claiming President Donald Trump is two people, according to Swiss waging a secret war against a global Israel to vaccinate inmates experts. Swiss startup OrphAnalytics liberal cult of Satan-worshipping said it had used its algorithm-based pedophiles. machine-learning text analysis soft- There has been speculation about JERUSALEM: The Israel Prison Service said ware, developed to detect plagiarism, Q’s identity and whether one person is yesterday it will begin vaccinating all incarcerat- to help crack the mystery behind really behind thousands of these Q- ed people against COVID-19, including OrphAnalytics CEO Claude-Alain Roten poses with a laptop using text analysis QAnon. “There are clearly two styles drops but Roten said it was now clear software on Jan 6, 2021. — AFP Palestinians, following calls from right groups, characterizing the QAnon messages,” Continued on Page 2 Palestinian officials and Israel’s attorney general. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, about 250 Palestinians in Israeli prisons have a year it had reached the heady tested positive for the novel coronavirus. — AFP What’s bitcoin heights of eight cents. At today’s mar- ket rates, bloated by a surge in insti- tutional demand, the digital unit’s mar- Ozil moves to Fenerbahce really worth? ket capitalization is worth some $670 billion with myriad other crypto coins ISTANBUL: Mesut Ozil LONDON: After the latest wild ride such as ethereum lifting the sector confirmed yesterday that took the poster child of cryptocurren- nominally close to the trillion mark. he was leaving Arsenal cies above $40,000 before a stomach- Although that’s small potatoes for Turkish team churning plunge, the million dollar ques- compared to the $68 trillion or so Fenerbahce after being tion won’t go away: How much is bitcoin swilling around world stock markets, it frozen out for months at actually worth? The virtual currency is nonetheless the sort of financial ter- the Gunners. “I’m very barreled to new highs to rise more than ritory staked out by Wall Street tech happy, very excited. God 400 percent over the past year, before royalty such as Google, Apple or has given me the chance to wear the Fenerbahce promptly sliding some 20 percent and Tesla. One tech site, AssetDash.com, shirt. I will wear it with pride and give every- then settling around $36,000. notes that bitcoin is currently worth When it started life in 2009 as around as much as Facebook and a thing for the team,” Ozil said in an interview MARSEILLE, France: In this photo taken on Jan 8, 2021, the logo of bitcoin is pic- with Turkish television channel NTV. — AFP open-source software, bitcoin was little more than Chinese e-retail giant essentially worth zero - though within Alibaba. — AFP (See Page 8) tured on the front door of an ATM. — AFP 2 Established 1961 Monday, January 18, 2021 Local Interior Minister orders probe into Kuwait waters infiltration incident Ministry applauds citizens who helped in suspects’ arrest KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Minister of stated in a press statement released “They have established the principle the scene after receiving a call about Interior Sheikh Thamer Ali Sabah Al- by the General Directorate of that every citizen is a guard on the a number of people jumping out of a Salem Al-Sabah ordered the forma- Security Relations and Media yester- security of the homeland and that the boat and into territorial waters. Cops tion of an investigation committee to day that a number of citizens, in integrated security system can only were able to arrest nine men, who look into the infiltration incident that cooperation with the relevant securi- be achieved with the cooperation of admitted that they came from Iran on took place from the sea side in the ty services, managed to arrest 10 citizens with the security establish- a boat that dropped them off and Abdullah port chalets area recently, people who tried to sneak in from the ment,” it said.

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