JAMADA ALTHANI 19, 1439 AH WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2018 Max 33º 32 Pages Min 16º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 17474 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Amiri envoy delivers letter Real bury PSG, Liverpool 2 to Oman’s Sultan Qaboos 16 sink Porto to reach last 8 Assembly passes law to accept bedoons in army MPs to grill minister today • New prison being built to tackle overcrowding By B Izzak KUWAIT: In a tension-packed ses- Zain signs MoU with Huawei to explore solutions sion that included a verbal exchange between the speaker and an opposi- BARCELONA: Zain, a leading tion lawmaker, the National telecommunications provider in Assembly yesterday passed several the Middle East and Africa, vowed laws including one allowing the gov- to further expand focus on digital ernment to accept stateless people transformation and talent develop- or bedoons in the army. MP Askar ment, through signing a memoran- Al-Enezi, the head of the interior dum of understanding (MoU) with and defense committee, said that Huawei Technologies. The signing over 25,000 bedoons are waiting to took place during MWC 2018 in join the army. The Assembly also Barcelona in the presence of Zain passed amendments to the fund for Vice Chairman and Group CEO small and medium enterprises, limit- Bader Nasser Al-Kharafi and Guo ing the soft loan ceiling to just KD Ping, rotating CEO of Huawei. 500,000, and also approved a law KUWAIT: MPs react during a parliament session at the National Under the terms of the agree- on regulating conflicts of interests. Assembly yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat ment, Huawei and Zain will The session also agreed to establish a Joint Innovation Team BARCELONA: Management teams headed by Zain Vice Chairman and debate a grilling against State tion MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri and inside the Assembly chamber and to explore collaboration oppor- Group CEO Bader Nasser Al-Kharafi and Guo Ping, rotating CEO of Minister for National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem over the government request is illegal. He tunities in digital transformation. Huawei, hold a meeting on the sidelines of MWC 2018. Affairs Adel Al-Khorafi today after a demand by the government to said the speaker should have imme- Kharafi commented: “Our goal at the minister requested it. The minis- investigate claims made by diately rejected the demand. Zain Group is to ensure that our solutions. We believe that our tomers and further bolster our ter is charged of failing to perform Muwaizri during a previous session. Muwaizri said if such a request is clients enjoy a world-class user strategic partnership with Huawei transformation to be a leading his duties and providing MPs with a Muwaizri protested strongly at the made again, he will immediately grill experience and benefit from the will help us continue to deliver digital lifestyle operator.” (See wrong response to a question. position of the speaker, reminding the prime minister. most cutting-edge products and outstanding services to our cus- Page 17) The session kicked off with a him that lawmakers cannot be held heated exchange between opposi- accountable for whatever they say Continued on Page 11 News in brief Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait, the majority of whom illegal and not allowed as per Kuwait laws,” said Khan. Only article 20 visa hold article 20 visas. Holders of article 20 visas are mostly “Your sponsor should be your sponsor until you end the domestic helpers, family drivers and houseboys, while contract. The Kuwaiti authorities and our labor office Russian plane crash kills 39 visa 18 holders are skilled laborers and people working in here expect that you are working with the same person ban for Bangladeshis private companies. who sponsored you to come to Kuwait, but apparently MOSCOW: A Russian transport plane crashed on By Ben Garcia On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior many of our Bangladeshi workers are working some- landing at Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in Syria, killing all Minister Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah issued a deci- where else. So they want to correct this specific prob- 39 onboard, the defense ministry said in a statement. KUWAIT: A new ban on the recruitment of sion to halt the issuance of work visas for Bangladeshis lem,” he said. The ministry said the 33 passengers and six crewmem- Bangladeshi nationals will only affect article 20 visa and sent the decision to Assistant Undersecretary for Kuwait has witnessed a series of problems with bers were all military personnel. “The reason for the workers (domestic helpers) and not article 18 (private Nationality and Passports Maj Gen Sheikh Mazen Al- regards to its domestic labor force in recent months. The crash according to preliminary information could have sector) workers, according to Abdullatif Khan, Jarrah Al-Sabah for implementation. A source said the government of the Philippines implemented a blanket ban been a technical fault,” the ministry said, adding that Councilor and Labor Attache at the Bangladeshi minister’s decision was made after the ministry noticed a on recruitment of Filipinos to Kuwait following reports of the plane had not come under fire according to a Embassy. “We were informed today (Tuesday) that the notable rise in the number of Bangladeshi workers in the abuses and mistreatment. Meanwhile, the government is report from the ground. The transporter was around visa ban that was imposed due to a number of problem- country and based on reports from various security working to reduce the numbers of expatriate workers - 500 m from the runway, the statement said.— AFP atic cases involving our nationals will be temporary. departments, which show that after a previous ban on especially marginal laborers - in the country, making Bangladeshis and probably Kuwaitis are involved in visa Bangladeshi workers was lifted, they became a target of obtaining visas more difficult and cracking down on trading, so until corrective measures are implemented, iqama traders, resulting in irregularities and abuses. human trafficking networks. There are more than Bibi: Saudis to open airspace recruitment will be temporarily suspended,” Khan told “Apparently there are people involved in visa trading. 500,000 domestic laborers in Kuwait and an unknown Kuwait Times in an exclusive interview. For example, many Bangladeshis who came to Kuwait are number of marginal laborers. Tens of thousands of expats JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin According to Khan, there are around 200,000 not actually working with their original sponsors. This is are also living illegally in the country. Netanyahu said Saudi Arabia has agreed to allow Air India to use its airspace in flights to and from said was an unknown substance in the Israel. But Air India said yesterday that while it had UK warns Russia city of Salisbury. Both are still critically ill issued such a request, the regulator had yet to give in intensive care, police said. “We don’t it a positive answer. The new Israel-India route was know exactly what has taken place in announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra over spy’s illness, Salisbury, but if it’s as bad as it looks, it is Modi during his visit to Israel in July. In his January another crime in the litany of crimes that reciprocal visit to India, Netanyahu implied the may skip WCup we can lay at Russia’s door,” Johnson told route could pass over Saudi Arabia, which beyond the British parliament. “It is clear that significantly shortening flight time would be a public SALISBURY, England: Britain warned Russia, I’m afraid, is now in many respects indication of a warming of ties with Israel. — AFP Russia yesterday of a robust response if a malign and disruptive force, and the UK the Kremlin was behind a mysterious ill- is in the lead across the world in trying to ness that has struck down a former dou- counteract that activity.” Blockade impact on Qatar fading ble agent convicted of betraying dozens Prime Minister Theresa May was of spies to British intelligence. Foreign briefed at a meeting of the National DUBAI: The economic and financial impact on Secretary Boris Johnson named Sergei Security Council on the investigation into Qatar of a nine-month Saudi-led blockade is fad- Skripal, once a colonel in Russia’s GRU the incident, her spokesman said without ing, but some risks for the emirate remain, the military intelligence service, and his elaborating. If Moscow were shown to be International Monetary Fund has said. In a report daughter Yulia as the two people who behind Skripal’s illness, Johnson said, it released late Monday, the IMF said the effect of were found unconscious on Sunday on a would be difficult to see how UK repre- the blockade on economic activity in Qatar had bench outside a shopping center in sentation could go to the World Cup in been “transitory” as new trade routes were quickly Russia in a normal way. A government southern England. MOSCOW: Former Russian military intelligence colonel Sergei Skripal attends a hearing established and growth remained positive. Foreign source said that meant attendance Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old at the Moscow District Military Court in this Aug 9, 2006 file photo. — AFP financing and resident private sector deposits had daughter were exposed to what police Continued on Page 11 fallen by $40 billion but that had been offset by cash injections by the central bank and the sover- eign wealth fund. — AFP Saudi women will drive ‘No dancing’ at Saudi concert but face bumpy road RIYADH: A “No dancing or swaying” instruction KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia: Mervat Bukhari, women to drive from June, attend football on tickets to Egyptian pop sensation Tamer Hosny’s a force of nature draped head-to-toe in games and take on jobs that once fell out- upcoming concert in Saudi Arabia has triggered an the Islamic niqab, braved insults and taunts side the narrow confines of traditional avalanche of mockery and ridicule on social media.