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SHAWWAL 9, 1440 AH WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019 28 Pages Max 49º Min 33º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 17854 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net UN Security Council adopts Kuwaiti Inventor of guilt-free desserts Israeli court finalizes Jerusalem Warriors edge Raptors to 3 resolution on missing persons in war 19 is world’s top pastry chef 24 church land sale to settler group 28 keep NBA title hopes alive Finance minister defends foreign investment policy Hajraf’s grilling ends inconclusively • MPs allege wide-ranging violations By B Izzak gate all issues in the grilling and report Op-Ed back to the Assembly within three KUWAIT: Finance Minister Nayef Al- months. He said over 95 percent of Hajraf yesterday strongly defended Kuwait’s investments are invested in sta- UK and Canada Kuwait’s policy in managing its foreign ble countries and instruments, and that investments estimated at around $600 out of 420 funds in which Kuwait billion, but acknowledged some invest- Investment Authority (KIA) is dealing co-host world’s first ment funds performed badly. Speaking with, there have only been a few bad during a grilling by MPs Riyadh Al- performers. He said the Future ministerial conference Adasani and Bader Al-Mulla, the minis- Generations Fund grew by 152 percent, ter also defended the government’s and the authority has risk management budget policy, saying that subsidies to centers in Kuwait, the US and Ireland. on media freedom public services have been maintained in The minister however acknowledged this year’s budget, which means there a massive loss of close to €600 million in will be no further increases in charges Kuwait’s investment in French nuclear By Michael Davenport, British Ambassador to Kuwait & or fuel prices. company Areva, saying what KIA had Louis-Pierre Emond, Canadian Ambassador to Kuwait The grilling ended after several hours done was the best available option to of intense debate without lawmakers stop further losses. He also said public ritish Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and presenting a no-confidence motion. They funds may have lost more than KD 500 Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland only submitted a recommendation calling million in the investment in the so-called will next month co-host in London the KUWAIT: Finance Minister Nayef Al-Hajraf speaks during his grilling at the B on the National Assembly’s financial and port fund. National Assembly yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat world’s first ministerial conference on media free- economic affairs committee to investi- Continued on Page 24 dom. Our aim is to shine a light on abuses and raise the cost for those who would harm journalists for doing their jobs. The London Conference will bring together for- eign ministers with journalists, media professionals Iran frees Lebanese and leaders of international and civil society organisations. We look forward to broad interna- MoI: Social media tional participation, including from Kuwait. convicted of spying The United Kingdom and Canada are commit- video on barring ted to promoting media freedom across the BEIRUT: Iran yesterday freed a Lebanese man globe. It is an essential component of economic detained in 2015 on charges of spying for the United prosperity, social development and resilient States, a gesture that comes amid soaring tensions travelers inaccurate between Tehran and Washington. A US resident in his democracy. It is a right to which all governments KUWAIT: The interior ministry yesterday have committed, as enshrined in Article 19 of the 50s, Nizar Zakka was arrested in Sept 2015 during a visit to Iran, where he was convicted the following July. described as inaccurate contents of a video on Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which social media alleging residents cannot travel with- guarantees “freedom to hold opinions without He is the head of The Arab ICT Organization, a non- profit that advocates the growth and development of out a civil ID card. The ministry affirmed that expa- interference and to seek, receive and impart triates can still travel via the airport by solely pre- information and communications technology in the BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun (right) meets information and ideas through any media and senting a valid residency stamped on the passport. Middle East. Nizar Zakka after he was freed by Iran at the presiden- regardless of frontiers”. It explained that any resident who has a valid resi- Before his arrest, he had been taking part in a con- tial palace in Baabda yesterday. — AFP United Nations Secretary-General Antonio dency before ministerial decision 135/2019 was Guterres reflected in February this year that the ference in Tehran at the invitation of Shahindokht Molaverdi, then vice-president for women and family issued on March 10, 2019 (cancelling residency media has become significantly less free in recent missed the case against him. “There was no espionage,” stickers) can travel by solely presenting the resi- affairs, according to his family. He was stopped on his years, including through unprecedented threats to he said after meeting President Michel Aoun, accusing dency on the passport. way to the airport, his family and lawyer have said. At journalists and media outlets, and attempts to con- Tehran of “kidnapping him” on false charges and stag- Those who got a new residency as of March 10 the time, Iranian state television said he was accused of trol the media. ing a “show trial”. and later, or transferred data from an old passport “deep ties to the military and intelligence services of Media freedom is indeed under attack across For his part, the general security chief denied specu- to a new one, are obliged to present the civil ID the United States”. It broadcast photographs of a man the world. Reporters Without Borders assess that lation Iran’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah played a primary upon travelling, where the Latin first name and sur- 2018 was the most dangerous year on record to be in military uniform it said was of Zakka at a US base. role in brokering Zakka’s release. “The issue was name must be compatible with the names in the a journalist - at least 99 journalists were killed, Yesterday, Zakka arrived in Lebanon, after his resolved at the request of the president,” Ibrahim told passport. The nationality of the holder must match another 348 imprisoned and 60 held hostage. The release by Iranian authorities. He was escorted back to reporters. “Hezbollah definitely played a role but the the one mentioned on the card, along with the cor- latest World Press Freedom Index describes how his native country by Lebanon’s General Security chief basis (for the release) was a request from the presi- rect passport number. The ministry explained that the number of countries regarded as safe, where Abbas Ibrahim, who was in Tehran one day earlier, dent.” His comments came in response to a report by it had executed an awareness campaign regarding journalists can work in complete security, contin- according to the security service. In a speech at Iran’s Fars news agency on Monday that Zakka’s the issue and urged social media to be accurate in ues to decline. Nine in ten cases of killed journal- Lebanon’s presidential palace, Zakka declined to elabo- release followed “the request and mediation” of publicizing security matters. — KUNA ists remain unresolved. rate on the circumstances behind his arrest but dis- Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. — AFP0 Journalists face particular threats in war zones and at the hands of extremists. Unfortunately, how- ever, journalists face dangers beyond conflict and extremism. Continued on Page 24 Indian toddler dies after 110 News in brief hours down well Catholic Church fined NEW DELHI: A two-year-old Indian boy stuck in a narrow well for more than four days was pulled out KUWAIT: The manpower authority’s official dead yesterday, triggering protests over delays in spokesperson Aseel Al-Mazyad said the Catholic reaching the toddler. The case of Fatehveer Singh cap- Church in Kuwait was fined KD 100 for not respect- tured national attention after he fell into the 33-m deep ing the condition of employing Kuwaitis as a certain well in the Punjab state district of Sangrur while playing percentage of its staff, despite the fact that Christian on Thursday. The disused well was just 23 cm wide, Kuwaitis are very few in number. Mazyad said the complicating desperate efforts by dozens of rescue authority executes the Cabinet’s decisions in this workers and volunteers as locals and television cameras regard, namely resolution number 1104/2008 per- looked on. taining the ratio of the national workforce in non- “The child is not alive anymore. He was pulled out at governmental bodies including worship places. She 5 in the morning by the NDRF (National Disaster also noted resolution number 962/2010 excluded Response Force) personnel,” Vijay Inder Singla, a state BHAGWANPURA, India: Family members and close relatives carry the coffin of two-year-old boy Fatehveer Singh some bodies from the previous resolution, including Continued on Page 24 to the cremation ground to pay their last respects yesterday. — AFP worship places. Mazyad said other churches are excluded from this condition. — A Saleh is going to play at Teddy,” the hardcore “La Familia” torched. In 2017 club manager Eli Cohen resigned under Man dies of heat stroke Fans of Israeli team group posted on its Facebook page, which has 36,000 pressure after pledging never to sign a Muslim player. followers. Beitar, based at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium, Last year Beitar’s new owner said such events were KUWAIT: Kuwait saw the first death in the has historically been considered anti-Muslim and anti- in the past and religion would no longer be a criterion country due to high temperatures, as an Egyptian demand player named Arab.