SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, MAY 13, 2013 RAJAB 3, 1434 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Sharif in Vendor’s Chris Brown’s ‘Killer’ Nadal talks to form suicide reflects scary curbside wins Madrid Pakistan despair of art irks LA title for fifth government7 Mideast14 youth neighbors38 triumph16 of 2013 MPs sharpen knives as Max 41º Min 30º grilling fever strikes High Tide 02:44 & 12:53 Opposition launches national campaign for constitution Low Tide 07:44 & 20:38 40 PAGES NO: 15807 150 FILS By B Izzak Israel opens KUWAIT: In fast-paced developments yesterday, two lawmakers said they are filing to grill the ministers of oil and interior as Speaker Ali Al-Rashed said the grilling Gulf mission moratorium is over and called MPs for an emergency meeting. Also, a former opposition MP warned against JERUSALEM: Israel has opened a new diplomatic mis- dissolving the National Assembly now to hold fresh sion in the Gulf, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported yester- election on the basis of the controversial single-vote day, citing finance ministry costings for 2014 prepared law. MP Nasser Al-Marri said he will file to grill Oil for submission to the government this week. “The paper Minister Hani Hussein and MP Safa Al-Hashem said she is an economic plan for the next year and does not will submit a grilling against Interior Minister Sheikh name the location of the new mission,” Haaretz said. Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah today. Questioned by AFP, a foreign ministry spokesman would The new development came as speaker Rashed said say only that Israel “officially has no diplomatic represen- a moratorium on grillings has ended, opening the way tation in the Gulf”. In May 2010, then Israeli trade minister Binyamin Ben to start debating grillings before the summer recess Eliezer attended an international economic conference after MPs had earlier decided to postpone grillings until in Qatar. The first Israeli minister to visit the Gulf state the next term starting late October. Rashed described since Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Nov 2008. Qatar, the $2.2 billion penalty payment to US giant Dow increasingly influential in the region, broke off diplomat- Chemical as “highly suspicious” and said there must an ic ties with Israel and closed the Israeli trade mission in investigation at a very high level. Marri said in a state- Doha in protest against the Israeli military offensive in ment that he will file a request today to grill the oil min- Gaza in Dec 2008-Jan 2009. ister over the Dow payment as several other MPs sup- Besides Qatar, only Oman had established relations ported the surprising move. Hashem warned the interi- with Israel but they were broken in late 2000 after the or minister that he has to face the grilling or quit, while beginning of the second Palestinian intifada. In Jan MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan advised the minister to step 2010, then national infrastructures minister Uzi Landau, down as he will have no supporters. attended a meeting of the International Agency for Marri said in a statement that “we have sworn to Renewable Energy in Abu Dhabi. But the United Arab safeguard public funds and we will not allow the Dow Emirates stressed that his presence did not mean nor- payment to pass off easily”. “As a result, the malisation between the two countries. — AFP Independents Bloc met and assigned me to file to grill the oil minister over the payment,” he said. The lawmak- er said the grilling will tackle all the steps followed in KAC to buy 25 signing the deal with Dow Chemical from the idea of the investment, to feasibility studies followed by reviewing it by concerned councils and government jets, lease 13 approvals before the parliamentary opposition to the deal and eventually the Cabinet cancellation. KUWAIT: Kuwait’s national carrier is due to sign a multi- He said the payment of the huge penalty will not billion-dollar deal with Airbus to purchase 25 new air- pass off easily as all those responsible will be held to craft valued at $3.0 billion with the first delivery expect- account and there will be no forgiveness because the ed in 2019, a local newspaper reported yesterday. The issue relates to public funds which must be protected. deal will be signed “very soon,” Al-Watan newspaper Marri said that MPs have pledged to HH the Amir to said quoting sources close to decision-makers. Last ensure a quiet period but “we cannot remain silent on week Kuwait Airways Co (KAC) board of directors decid- this issue because the penalty payment was not debat- ed to choose an offer made by Airbus because it carried ed with the National Assembly which did not know any- a price tag $280 million lower than one made by thing about it”. The lawmaker said he will submit the Boeing, the report said. The deal includes 10 Airbus A- grilling request at noon. 350-900 and 15 A-320 neo and the delivery of the Several other MPs have strongly lashed out at the planes will start after six years, Al-Watan said. payment of the penalty to Dow, with some of them KAC made no comment on the report but its new vowing to grill the oil minister and others calling for a chairman Sami Al-Nasef told AFP in January, after parlia- debate in the Assembly and a more serious investiga- ment passed a bill to transform the airline into a com- tion to hold those responsible to account. It was not mercial company, that they planned to buy around 21 MANCHESTER: Manchester United’s Scottish manager Alex Ferguson kisses the Premier League trophy at immediately known why members of the pro-govern- new aircrafts within two years. In the meantime, KAC the end of an English Premier League football match between Manchester United and Swansea City at Old ment Assembly have become increasingly upset over will lease 13 big and small Airbus planes with the first Trafford yesterday. Ferguson said farewell to Old Trafford with a typically passionate speech after his side’s the government, but it appears that the way the two A320 due to arrive in July, Al-Watan said. — AFP 2-1 victory in his final home match in charge of the team. — AFP (See Page 20) Continued on Page 13 Branson swaps suit for skirt SEPANG, Malaysia: British business poned in early 2011 after he injured him- magnate Richard Branson has lost his lat- self while skiing. There was no escape est job because of orange juice. The yesterday however, when Branson was New virus can Virgin Group founder had his legs recruited to serve coffee, tea and meals shaved, put on lipstick and squeezed on the five-and-a-half-hour flight. pass between into a red skirt to honor a bet by serving Though he kept his trademark beard, he as a flight attendant yesterday on an shaved his legs to show them off in black humans: WHO AirAsia trip from Perth, Australia, to fishnets beneath his red AirAsia uniform. Malaysia. But he earned a reprimand He topped off the outfit with bright red RIYADH: World Health Organisation (WHO) officials from AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes after lipstick, heavy eye make-up and his said yesterday it seemed likely a new coronavirus that he deliberately dumped a tray of orange blonde hair pulled back in a quiff. Photos has killed at least 18 people in the Middle East and juice on Fernandes’ lap. Branson lost a from the flight showed him chatting with Europe could be passed between humans, but only bet to Fernandes in 2010 after they passengers and serving food to after prolonged contact. A virus from the same family wagered that their Formula One racing Fernandes, who used to work for triggered the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory teams would finish ahead of each other. Branson in the music industry. Fernandes’ team landed two spots above Fernandes gleefully declared after MANAMA: A US Navy River Command Boat cruises off the coast of Bahrain’s Syndrome (SARS) that swept the world after emerg- ing in Asia and killed 775 people in 2003. Yesterday, Branson’s. yesterday’s flight on his budget airline Salman port, near the capital yesterday, one day before the start of the biggest But his stint as a stewardess was post- Continued on Page 13 exercise of mine countermeasure maneuvers in the Arabian Gulf. — AFP French authorities announced that a second man had been diagnosed with the disease after sharing a hos- pital room with France’s only other sufferer. Gulf navy drill not WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda told reporters in Saudi Arabia, the site of the largest clus- ter of infections, there was no evidence so far the directed at Iran: US virus was able to sustain “generalised transmission in communities” - a scenario that would raise the spec- MANAMA: Vice Admiral John Miller, com- nuclear activities, it would block the strate- tre of a pandemic. But he added: “Of most concern ... mander of the US Fifth Fleet, said yesterday gic Strait of Hormuz, a major oil conduit. is the fact that the different clusters seen in multiple that a massive naval minesweeping exercise Miller said that “critical to the global econo- countries ... increasingly support the hypothesis that involving 41 countries was not directed at my... is a maritime environment that has when there is close contact, this novel coronavirus Iran. “It is not about Iran,” Miller said at a free-flowing commerce, ships can safely sail.” can transmit from person to person. “There is a need news conference in the Bahraini capital “If some nation puts mines into the waters for countries to ..