MUHARRAM 28, 1439 AH WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2017 Max 36º 32 Pages 150 Fils Established 1961 Min 22º ISSUE NO: 17358 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Folktales vital to develop Iraq forces take oilfields, Grim store sales cast shadow FIFA hopes TV rights scandal 3 children’s morals, values 7 dashing Kurdish dreams 32 ahead of ‘festival of lights’ 15 ‘will not disrupt’ World Cup Hashem glad dental service fees to be hiked for expats MPs demand bedoon agency be placed under interior ministry By B Izzak because they failed to oppose the govern- ment. She said that many lawmakers acted KUWAIT: MP Safa Al-Hashem, who has like strong opponents to the government dur- federation has informed organizers been calling to tax expatriates for walking on ing the election campaign, but later turned UAE: Gulf Cup that “the Gulf Cup cannot be played the road, said yesterday that charges on pub- against expatriates because they failed to without Kuwait”, adding that the lic dental services offered to expatriates will oppose the government. boycott is over request was “nothing political”. be raised like other medical services. The An opposition MP on Monday proposed Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain lawmaker, who had also called for imposing a imposing an annual charge of KD 1,200 on cut ties with Qatar in June, including five percent tax on remittances by foreigners, every expatriate holding a driving license. MP Kuwait ban banning their citizens from visiting the said that the health minister has revised the Khaled Al-Otaibi said the proposal will be the fellow Gulf Arab state, over accusa- existing prices of dental services in a prelude best solution for traffic jams on Kuwaiti roads. DUBAI: A Qatar-hosted soccer tour- tions that Qatar supports terrorism. to raising them for expats. The proposal must be approved by the nament for Arab nations should not go Doha denies the charges. FIFA banned The lawmaker denied on her Twitter National Assembly to become effective. ahead unless Kuwait’s FIFA ban is lift- Kuwait’s national soccer federation in account that dental services have been In another issue, lawmakers are moving ed, the UAE Football Association’s 2015 over alleged government inter- spared from the hikes that include many med- quickly to propose solutions to the plight of president said yesterday, denying that ference and said recently that the sus- ical services implemented at the start of over 110,000 stateless people or bedoons liv- his country’s boycott was related to pension would be lifted “only when the October. She also blasted those who criticize ing in the country. Five MPs submitted a draft the crisis between Gulf states. Qatar is Kuwait Football Association (KFA) the health minister for raising charges on law yesterday calling to move the central expatriates, saying this is intended to protect agency for bedoons under the interior min- hosting in December the Gulf Nations and its members (the clubs) are able to medicine merchants, whom she described as istry, saying this would accelerate resolving Cup, a tournament that usually carry out their activities and obliga- “sharks” who are not concerned for the “lives Safa Al-Hashem their problem. The agency has been accused involves Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, tions independently”. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab and health” of Kuwaitis. Hashem, the only of deliberately obstructing any solution to the Asked if the UAE would compete in female in the 50-member house, has been move quickly and cancel the undersecretary’s bedoon crisis. Emirates (UAE) and Yemen. Qatar if Kuwait’s FIFA ban was lifted, At the competition’s draw in Qatar targeting expatriates with proposals and calls decision and apply the increase on expats “in A meeting of the agency yesterday chaired Bin Ghalaita said: “If Kuwait played, this the interests of the country and citizens”, last month, which was boycotted by that some of her colleagues and many Kuwaiti by the interior minister discussed ways to would solve a lot of things”. The Arab writers describe as “racist”. wondering what was the interest of the offi- speed up naturalizing bedoons who qualify Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, Gulf Cup Football Federation (AGCFF) Incidentally, a group of dentists had cial to not include expats in the fee increase for citizenship. Head of the interior and organizers said the UAE and Bahrain has said the tournament would go expressed displeasure towards a decision by decision. They said the dental sector suffers defense committee MP Askar Al-Enezi said had requested the tournament be ahead, though at least five teams are the assistant undersecretary for dental medi- from unilateral decisions without any study, yesterday that 10 lawmakers will submit a postponed. Neither country’s repre- needed under the competition’s current cine affairs for not including expats who visit condemning the official’s response after an proposal calling to vote on a law that deter- sentatives replied to Reuters’ format. The tournament, which rotates dental clinics in the fee increase. They escalation in the media and the “bogus” mines the number of people who can be natu- requests for explanation of their hosts, could be an early test for Qatar claimed the official is aware that the equip- achievements he continues to claim. ralized this year. This is one of the avenues to absence at the time. UAE FA which has spent billions of dollars ment and material used to treat dental cases Meanwhile, well-known Kuwaiti writer Fajr resolve the bedoon problem, he said. Enezi President Marwan bin Ghalaita told preparing to be the first Arab country to are very expensive and cost the country mil- Al-Saeed yesterday criticized lawmakers who said the committee yesterday also approved Reuters in Dubai yesterday that his host the World Cup in 2022. — Reuters lions annually. are targeting expatriates with abnormal pro- an amendment to the army law to allow the The dentists asked the government to posals and charged they are doing this admission of bedoons in the armed forces. Islamic State loses News in brief emblematic Syria MoI arrests fraudsters KUWAIT: Members of an international money laun- stronghold Raqqa dering and fraud network were arrested by a special- ized unit from the interior ministry, a statement said RAQQA, Syria: US-backed forces took full control of yesterday. The ministry’s public relations department Raqqa from the Islamic State group yesterday, defeat- said the suspects, who hold South African and Nigerian ing the last militant holdouts in the de facto Syrian cap- passports, lured victims through social media and con- ital of their now-shattered “caliphate”. The victory caps vinced them to transfer money using different pretexts. a battle of more than four months for Raqqa, and ham- The public relations department thanked all those who mers another nail in the coffin of the militant group’s provided valuable information that led to the arrest of experiment in statehood, which has collapsed in the the criminals, stressing that citizens should be vigilant face of offensives in Syria and Iraq. and aware that similar networks are still at large and Inside Raqqa, overjoyed fighters from the Kurdish- continue their illicit acts. Arab Syrian Democratic Forces celebrated and raised their yellow flag in the city’s Al-Naim traffic circle, which became known as “Hell Roundabout” after mili- tants used it for gruesome public executions. Raqqa DNA law scrapping hailed had become a byword for atrocities carried out by the militants and it was from the city that IS organized dev- RAQQA, Syria: Rojda Felat, a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander, waves her group’s flag at KUWAIT: Human Rights Watch yesterday commended astating attacks it has claimed abroad like the Paris the iconic Al-Naim Square yesterday. — AFP a decision by Kuwait to drop a controversial counterter- massacres in 2015 or August’s attacks in Barcelona. rorism law mandating DNA testing for all citizens, resi- “Hell Roundabout is now Al-Naim Roundabout tia’s name, her rifle hanging from her shoulder. “God liberation. Raqqa has been devastated by fighting and dents and visitors, which had been passed following a again,” the fighters in Raqqa cheered, surrounded by willing, joy will return to the whole city,” said fighter emptied of civilians, with the last few thousand depart- 2015 suicide attack. “The court’s decision to overturn crushed buildings and charred cars damaged in the Sevger Himo, his eyes gleaming. ing under a deal implemented over the weekend. For the DNA law is a very positive step that ends this mis- ferocious battle for the city. Rojda Felat, the SDF’s com- The defeat of IS in Raqqa was a victory “the whole Umm Abdullah, a Raqqa native who fled the city three guided and hastily passed invasion of privacy in mander for its Raqqa operation, flashed a wide grin as world was waiting for”, said Omar Alloush, a member of years ago, news of its capture was overwhelming. Kuwait,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director she waved a huge yellow flag emblazoned with the mili- the Raqqa Civil Council formed to run the city after its Continued on Page 11 at HRW. The law was passed in 2015 after a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque which killed 26 people and wounded 227 others. Najd Province, the Saudi Arabian affiliate of the Islamic State group, claimed the June Duterte declares 2015 suicide attack. Kuwait’s constitutional court, which oversees the compliance of law with the constitution, ruled on Oct 5 the DNA law unconstitutional on the Marawi liberated grounds that it contravened articles on personal liberty.