SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2014 RABI ALTHANI 24, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net National flag Opposition, Pegasus to Canada raised on pro-govt launch flights claim gold manmade rallies grip to Turkey as Crosby island 5 Venezuela7 and23 beyond ends20 slump Assembly panel OKs Max 24º Min 11º High Tide telecom commission 07:23 & 17:40 Low Tide 00:27 & 23:55 40 PAGES NO: 16087 150 FILS MP calls to deport 280,000 expats annually By B Izzak several times by the Assembly and the gov- tors can own their international phone net- requires reducing expatriate numbers to Amir heading ernment, which withdrew the bill a number works. At present, all international calls pass 1,100,000 within five years, or 280,000 annu- KUWAIT: The National Assembly’s public util- of times before sending it back to the through the communications ministry. ally,” he said. to New York ities committee yesterday approved a draft Assembly. Meanwhile, a lawmaker has announced There are 2.7 million expatriates in Kuwait, law to establish the long-awaited telecom- Kuwait is the only country of the six- that he has finished preparing a proposal making up 68 percent of the country’s 3.9 KUWAIT: HH the munication commission which has been nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states that calls for deporting an average of 280,000 million population. Abdullah said that his Amir Sheikh Sabah delayed for years. Head of the panel MP Adel not to have a telecom regulator, thus nega- expatriates every year in a bid to achieve proposal provides exemption to foreigners Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Khorafi said the draft law will be referred tively impacting the progress of local tele- demographic balance within five years. MP who contribute to the state’s development, Al-Sabah leaves to the Assembly for voting on March 4. The com companies. If the law is passed swiftly Khalil Al-Abdullah explained in statements and instead focuses on unproductive labor today for New York establishment of the telecom commission, a and the commission is established, a sharp published by Al-Rai daily yesterday that the forces “whose large presence results in sharp for routine medical key measure to regulate and liberalize the drop in the rates of international phone calls bill calls for achieving equality between the pressure on infrastructures”. checkups. — KUNA telecom sector in Kuwait, has been delayed is expected, because the three mobile opera- Kuwaiti and expatriate populations. “This Continued on Page 13 Saudis ‘seeking Pak arms for Syria rebels’ DUBAI: Saudi Arabia is in talks with Saudi, Pakistan or Jordan. Pakistan to provide anti-aircraft and anti- The head of the Syrian opposition, tank rockets to Syrian rebels to try to tip Ahmad Jarba, promised during a flying the balance in the war to overthrow visit to northern Syria last week that President Bashar Al-Assad, a Saudi “powerful arms will be arriving soon”. source said yesterday. The United States “The United States could allow their has long opposed arming the rebels allies provide the rebels with anti-aircraft with such weapons, fearing they might and anti-tank weapons following the end up in the hands of extremists, but failure of Geneva talks and the renewed Syrian opposition figures say the failure tension with Russia,” said the head of the of Geneva peace talks seems to have led Gulf Research Centre, Abdel Aziz Al- Washington to soften its opposition. Sager. Providing those weapons to the Pakistan makes its own version of rebels “relieves pressure on the US in the Chinese shoulder-launched anti-aircraft short-term,” said Simon Henderson, missiles, known as Anza, and anti-tank director of the Gulf and Energy Policy rockets - both of which Riyadh is trying Programme at the Washington Institue to get for the rebels, said the source, for Near East Policy. “But the long-term who is close to Saudi decision-makers, political worry is that Manpads (Man- requesting anonymity. portable air-defence systems) will leak The source pointed to a visit to and be used to bring down a civilian air- Riyadh earlier this month by Pakistan’s liner somewhere in the world.” army chief of staff, General Raheel Sharif, Rebels have long said that anti-air- who met Crown Prince Salman bin craft rockets would help them defend Abdul Aziz. Prince Salman himself last themselves against Syrian warplanes, week led a large delegation to Pakistan, which regularly bomb rebel-held areas shortly after Saudi’s chief diplomat with barrels loaded with TNT and other Prince Saud al-Faisal visited the king- ordinance. The nearly-three-year conflict dom’s key ally. Jordan will be providing in Syria has torn the country apart, facilities to store the weapons before killing more than 140,000 people, they are delivered to rebels within Syria, including some 50,000 civilians, accord- the same source said. AFP could not ing to the Britain-based Syrian obtain confirmation from officials in Observatory for Human Rights. — AFP SOCHI: Performers recreate the fifth Olympic ring that didnít open in the opening ceremony during the closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics yesterday. — AP Curtain falls on Putin’s Games SOCHI, Russia: Sochi’s $50 billion Olympics, Just over two weeks ago, Bach, aware of four years from now in PyeongChang to cele- closely interwoven with President Vladimir the global resentment felt in large parts of the brate with us the 23rd Olympic Winter Putin’s image and plagued by controversy in world over Russia’s notorious anti-gay law, Games.” the build-up, closed yesterday with bold had made an impassioned call for politicians Russia guaranteed top spot in the medals praise and Russia supreme on top of the to stay out of sports. Yesterday, he insisted table earlier yesterday after a clean sweep of medals table. In a glitzy closing ceremony, that those involved in the organisation of the the men’s 50-km cross country race thanks to aimed at conveying a confident state at ease Sochi Games had revealed a Russia to be Alexander Legkov, Maxim Vylegzhanin and Ilia with its past as well as present, International respected. “Through you everybody with an Chernousov. The hosts then hammered home Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas open mind could see the face of a new Russia their supremacy when Alexander Zubkov Bach said “Russia delivered all what it had - efficient and friendly, patriotic and open to claimed his second gold in Sochi by leading promised”. “What took decades in other parts the world,” he said. the four-man bobsleigh team to victory. Russia of the world was achieved here in just seven Bach then closed the Black Sea coast show- ended their own Games with 13 golds and a years,” he said. “I would like to thank the piece in the traditional manner of looking total of 33 medals, topping the table ahead of President of the Russian Federation, Mr ahead to the next Games in South Korea in Norway. Canada had the honour of claiming Vladimir Putin, for his personal commitment 2018. “I declare the 22nd Olympic Winter the last gold when they comfortably defended KIEV: An anti-government protestor waits with a bat at the entrance of to the extraordinary success of these Olympic Games closed. In accordance with tradition, I their ice hockey title with a 3-0 win over Independence Square yesterday. — AFP Winter Games.” call upon the youth of the world to assemble Sweden in the final. — AFP (See Page 20) Ukraine ushers in new At 90, Mugabe Drone flaps to future era as president flees DELFT, Netherlands: Dutch scientists ‘feeling like 9’ have developed the world’s smallest KIEV: A new era dawned in Ukraine yes- Yanukovych’s grasp on power was in lim- autonomous flapping drone, a dragon- terday as parliament appointed a pro- ited evidence in Kiev yesterday as the MARONDERA, Zimbabwe: Thousands of people fly-like beast with 3-D vision that could Western interim leader after ousted pres- city’s police presence vanished and pro- turned out yesterday to celebrate the birthday of revolutionize our experience of every- ident Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev to testers took control of everything from Zimbabwe’s veteran President Robert Mugabe, who thing from pop concerts to farming. “This escape retribution for a week of deadly traffic management to protection of gov- threw 90 balloons into the air to mark his 90th year is the DelFly Explorer, the world’s small- carnage. The ex-Soviet state’s tumul- ernment buildings after a week of blood- and continuing hold on power. Fresh off the plane est drone with flapping wings that’s able tuous three-month crisis culminated in a shed that claimed nearly 100 lives. The from Singapore, to fly around by itself and avoid obsta- dizzying flurry of historic changes over United States vowed to drum up finan- where he had trav- cles,” its proud developer Guido de Croon the weekend that saw parliament side- cial help that could pull Ukraine out of a elled for eye surgery of the Delft Technical University told AFP. line the pro-Russian president and call a crisis sparked in November when last week, Mugabe DelFly Explorer new poll for May 25. Lawmakers then Yanukovych spurned a historic EU deal Weighing just 20 gm, around the same as was in typically defi- four sheets of printer paper, the robot avoid crashing into things. And like an went a step further by approving the and secured a $15-billion bailout for the ant mood as he release from her seven-year jail sentence struggling nation of 46 million people, dragonfly could be used in situations insect, the drone which has a wingspan launched his birth- where much heavier quadcopters with of 28 cm, would feel at home flying of former prime minister Yulia from its old master Russia.