SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2016 SAFAR 6, 1438 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Candidate says Detained mayor Millions flood Murray crowned investing in oil on Duterte’s drug Chicago streets number one can resolve list killed in for Cubs after Raonic economic3 crisis prison12 shootout victory16 parade withdraws20 Kuwait to launch foreign Min 19º bond sale to finance deficit Max 27º High Tide 14:50 & 17:44 Country’s first foreign debt in around two decades Low Tide 09:48 & 21:50 40 PAGES NO: 17042 150 FILS KUWAIT: Kuwait will issue billions of dollars worth of bonds in international markets to finance a budget deficit resulting from low oil prices, a report said yester- Tijari reports day. Finance Minister Anas Al-Saleh said Kuwait will issue US dollar-denominated sovereign bonds of up to net profit of $9.6 billion during the 2016/2017 fiscal year which ends March 31, Al-Qabas newspaper reported. This comes on top of a $6.6 billion domestic debt program which is KD 27.5 million already underway. KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait announced a Kuwait, like other energy-rich Gulf Cooperation net profit of KD 27.5 million for the nine-month peri- Council (GCC) states, has already taken on tens of bil- od of 2016 compared with KD 25.4 million in same lions of dollars in foreign debt to finance budget short- period last year, a growth of 8.2 percent. Fee income falls. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and United Arab witnessed year on year growth of 8.8 percent, foreign Emirates have sold bonds or took syndicated loans to exchange income 61 percent plug their deficits. The minister’s decree did not specify and investment portfolio the share of Islamic sukuk bonds in the planned issue. income 31.3 percent. The It will be the country’s first foreign debt in around bank continues to maintain a two decades. Kuwait recorded a budget deficit of $15 solid level of operating profit billion last fiscal year, breaking a 16-year run of surplus- before provision, amounting es. Oil income contributed around 95 percent of public to KD 74.5 million compared revenues in those years. During the past two years, oil to KD 74.0 million for the has lost around 60 percent of its value. same period last year. The state, home to 1.3 million Kuwaitis and 3 million foreigners, is also projecting a budget shortfall of $29 Yacoub Al-Ebrahim Commenting on the bank’s financial results, the billion this fiscal year. During surplus years, Kuwait piled bank’s spokesman Yacoub Al-Ebrahim said up around $600 billion in its sovereign wealth fund in Commercial Bank’s total assets at the end of Sept holdings mostly in the United States, Europe and Asia. 2016 reached KD 4,047 million (Sept 2015 - KD 4,035 Like its Gulf peers, Kuwait has taken some austerity million). The bank’s capital adequacy ratio at the end measures that include liberalizing prices of diesel and of Sept 2016 at 16.86 percent is higher than the mini- kerosene and hiking petrol prices. A dispute over petrol mum 13.5 percent required by the Central Bank of prices led parliament being dissolved and snap polls set Kuwait, while the leverage ratio at 10.6 percent is for Nov 26. Parliament a few months ago approved a more than three times higher than the minimum KUWAIT: Fireworks light the sky during celebrations of the opening of the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural law to raise heavily subsidized power and water fees requirement of three percent. (See Page 21) Center yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat (More pics on Page 4) but exempted citizens. — AFP Opposition eyes comeback in polls Fish vendor death troubles Morocco HOCEIMA, Morocco: The anger is palatable in Hoceima, a Moroccan port on the Mediterranean Sea. It has ignited protests across the country and threatens to cloud Morocco’s image as it prepares to host two weeks of high-profile UN climate talks. Tens of thousands of people marched in a silent candlelight vigil Friday night by the local police sta- tion where fish vendor Mouhcine Fikri died in a garbage compactor. Fikri had been selling 500 kg of unauthorized swordfish that police confiscated and discarded. He then climbed into a garbage truck to retrieve the fish, and was crushed when its compactor was acti- MUSCAT: Britain’s Prince Charles dances with a sword with a group of Omani tradi- vated. Local media have reported that police tional dancers as his wife Camilla watches yesterday. — AP allegedly told the driver to “grind him” although the KUWAIT: Islamist opposition leaders and candidates (from right) Osama Al- prosecutor issued a statement saying “no specific Menawer, Walid Al-Tabtabaei, Bader Al-Dahoum and Adel Al-Damkhi are seen Prince Charles, Camilla in order was given to kill” Fikri. on Oct 30, 2016 during a campaign meeting for the upcoming parliamentary The rallying cry for the protests has been “hogra”, election. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat Oman at start of Gulf visit or the deprivation of dignity, reflecting deep frustra- tion among Moroccans at impunity and corruption KUWAIT: Kuwaiti opposition groups are at the time that the change, later endorsed MUSCAT: Britain’s Prince Charles bran- taking part. He later entered the National among police and officialdom. Some have com- aiming for a comeback in parliament after by Kuwait’s constitutional court, would dished a sword and took part in a tradi- Museum, pausing at one point to look at pared Fikri’s death to the death of Tunisian vendor a four-year election boycott, seeking to allow the government to control parlia- tional dance yesterday on his trip to traditional Omani khanjars, curved dag- Mohamed Bouazizi, which sparked the Arab Spring reverse what they see as the deteriorating ment and promote autocratic rule. Oman with his wife Camilla, the first full gers carried ceremoniously at the waist uprisings across North Africa. Experts say Fikri’s political situation in the state. More than 30 “The opposition has discovered that the day of the couple’s three-nation royal by Omanis and those in neighboring death is unlikely to lead to a revolution in Morocco, prominent Islamist and liberal opposition boycott was not the right choice. In fact, tour of the Gulf. The Prince of Wales land- Yemen. Other dancers twirled shining but it is putting pressure on Moroccan leadership. figures and former lawmakers have regis- they found that they have only isolated ed in the Omani capital of Muscat on rifles. The royal couple attended a service The king himself has intervened to ensure a thor- tered to run in the Nov 26 polls in the hope themselves,” political analyst Nasser Al- Friday night, greeted at the airport by at Bait Al Noor Church afterward. ough investigation, and the government has been of forming a formidable political force. Abdali said. “I think the boycott has consid- Omani Heritage and Culture Minister The pair are taking part in a series of unusually communicative about the case, trying to Kuwait’s 50-seat parliament is consid- erably weakened the opposition as a Sayyid Haitham bin Tariq Al-Said. Camilla cultural events while in Oman and are quell an outpouring of anger on social media. ered the most powerful of its kind in the whole,” Abdali, the head of Kuwait Society landed earlier in the day. scheduled to see Sultan Qaboos bin Said, More protests are planned for today - just as Gulf Arab states thanks to its legislative and for the Promotion of Democracy, told AFP. Yesterday morning, the couple visited who has ruled the country on the eastern world diplomats gather in Marrakech for the UN cli- monitoring capacities. The opposition HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al- Oman’s new National Museum, greeted edge of the Arabian Peninsula since 1970. mate talks starting tomorrow to follow up on the groups boycotted two general elections in Sabah last month dissolved the parliament by traditional dancers. Prince Charles Prince Charles and Camilla will travel to landmark Paris Agreement to slow global warming. 2012 and 2013 in protest at a change in the over a dispute over a hike in petrol prices gamely waved the sword amid singing the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain as Continued on Page 13 voting system brought unilaterally by the and called for snap polls. and dancing, drawing smiles from those well on their weeklong trip. — AP government. The opposition alliance said Continued on Page 13 Clinton, Trump blitz Florida MIAMI: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump embarked yesterday on a campaign blitz in the battleground state of Florida, a must-win if the Republican is to stop her becoming the first woman to win the White House. There are just three days to go in America’s ugliest, most divisive presidential election campaign in living memo- ry. Tightening polls have seen both candidates pull out all the stops in a desperate attempt to win. The 69-year-old former secretary of state, looking to make history as the first US female commander-in-chief, is commanding A-list superpower in that quest, pulling in Beyonce and Jay-Z at a concert in Cleveland on Friday. Performances from Jon Bon Jovi, Katy Perry and Stevie Wonder were scheduled yesterday. In contrast, the maverick billionaire who has inflamed the political establishment with his insult- TAMPA: US Republican presidential nominee Donald dishing campaign is isolated, leaning on his family and Trump holds a baby during a rally at the Special Events only a handful of Republican politicians as surrogates.