Lawmakers Slam Govt's New Power Consumption Tariffs
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SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 2016 JAMADA ALTHANI 25, 1437 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Municipality Foreign fighters Guns N’ Roses Ronaldo winner chief inspector are evading reunite ends Barcelona’s speaks about Europe’s early at Los 39-game challenges4 security10 net Angeles38 club unbeaten20 run Lawmakers slam govt’s new Min 14º power consumption tariffs Max 27º High Tide 09:10 & 19:27 MPs deride reform measures, privatization moves Low Tide 02:07 & 13:53 40 PAGES NO: 16833 150 FILS By A Saleh Armenian, Azeri forces in deadly clashes KUWAIT: MP Saleh Ashour urged his colleagues to take a serious stand against the new electricity and water YEREVAN/BAKU: Fierce clashes left at least 30 consumption tariffs due to be imposed on citizens and Azerbaijani and Armenian soldiers dead yesterday as expats and described them as ‘disastrous’, because they Russia and the West urged an immediate ceasefire would negatively affect their ‘already empty pockets’, as after a major escalation in violence over the disputed he put it. He also described rejecting previous proposals Nagorno-Karabakh region. Armenian President Serzh on determining the consumption categories’ pricing Sarkisian said 18 Armenian troops were killed and and coming up with current ones as a ‘pretext’. Ashour some 35 wounded in the “largest-scale hostilities” urged the government to impose the new prices on since a 1994 truce ended a war that saw Armenian- owners of fancy complexes, shopping malls, companies, backed fighters seize the territory from Azerbaijan. banks and industrial lands that were turned into shop- Sarkisian did not specify if the troops were from the ping malls in Shuwaikh and Sharq, netting them mil- forces of unrecognized Karabakh - which claims inde- lions of dinars. pendence but is backed by Yerevan - or Armenia’s Ashour also suggested imposing fees on profits of army. Earlier Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said that companies listed on the stock exchange and using the 12 of its soldiers were killed in the clashes and a mili- profits made by the Kuwait Investment Authority locally tary helicopter shot down. instead of abroad. “Citizens are closely watching how The surge in fighting over the disputed territory we act and will respond in the coming elections,” reportedly also claimed the lives of one Armenian Ashour told his colleagues. MP Saud Al-Huraiji stressed and one Azeri civilian after the arch foes accused each that the new prices suggested by the government con- other of unleashing heavy weaponry across the tradict its previous promises not to target those with volatile frontline. Armenia accused Azerbaijan of limited and medium incomes. He added that the new launching a “massive attack along the Karabakh front- rates would increase power consumption bills by 225 line using tanks, artillery, and helicopters” on Friday percent for people with limited and medium income. night. Azerbaijan, however, insisted it had counter- MP Kamel Al-Awadhi criticized recent statements by attacked after coming under fire from “large-calibre Electricity and Water Minister Ahmed Al-Jassar about artillery and grenade-launchers”. TERTER, Azerbaijan: In this image from TV, a car destroyed with blood is seen after heavy fighting erupted increasing electricity and water prices fourfold, noting Continued on Page 13 between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. — AFP Continued on Page 13 Modi begins visit to Saudi Arabia RIYADH: Indian Prime Minister Narendra discuss means “to ensure the wellbeing” Modi yesterday started a visit to Saudi of 2.96 million Indian expatriates in Saudi Pentagon warns Arabia where he will discuss energy, secu- Arabia who send home over $10 billion in rity and trade cooperation with leaders of remittances every year. Later yesterday, he Baghdadi will the world’s largest crude exporter. India, met with members of the Indian commu- which imports around 80 percent of its oil nity, whom he assured that the “Indian ‘taste justice’ needs, is keen to take advantage of low economy was rapidly progressing,” crude prices by signing overseas deals according to his website. “The reason for WASHINGTON: The Pentagon on Friday warned that will help secure supplies to meet its India’s growth was the political stability in Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi that he growing demand. “Almost 20 percent of the country,” he said. He also visited a the will eventually “taste justice” as the US military con- our crude supplies come from Saudi residential complex of workers employed tinues to target the jihadist group’s upper ranks. Arabia,” Indian foreign ministry official Shri by Indian engineering and construction “We are hunting him, and we will find him,” military Mridul Kumar said ahead of the visit. “We firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in Riyadh, spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said. “Just like we have to make sure that this supply contin- where he announced the opening of a found his mentor, (Abu Musab) Al-Zarqawi and ues. And this is one of the key agenda worker resource center, his website said. killed him. Just like we found the grand master of points that the prime minister will be dis- L&T is constructing key facilities for the terrorism, Osama bin Laden, we killed him. We are cussing with King Salman,” he added. Riyadh metro lines. going to find Baghdadi, and he will taste justice.” Kumar said Modi was also expected to Continued on Page 13 Warren’s prediction comes after the US-led coali- NEW DELHI: This photo taken on March 20, 2016 shows models presenting cre- tion has targeted several senior IS leaders in Iraq ations by Indian fashion designers during the Amazon India Fashion Week and Syria in recent weeks, including Abd ar-Rahman Autumn Winter 2016 finale. — AFP Mustafa Al-Qaduli - also known as Haji Imam -who was second-in-command of the extremist group. “I don’t know if that justice will look like a Hellfire mis- sile, or if it will look like a dark prison cell some- Amazon makes foray where, but he will find justice one day,” Warren said of Baghdadi. The US Justice Department had offered a bounty into fashion world of up to $7 million for information leading to NEW YORK: Amazon has been making more under-the-radar - signal that Amazon Qaduli. He had been seen as an eventual successor moves over the past few months to position is speeding up its foray into fashion. to Baghdadi, for whom a $10 million reward has itself as a force in the ready-to-wear fashion For one, Amazon launched a daily, free been offered. Warren said Baghdadi spends his time world. The Seattle-based online retail titan half-hour online show on fashion in early in both Iraq and Syria, where the IS group seized has already revolutionized how consumers March, its first-ever live-streaming pro- large areas of territory in 2014. Pentagon chief shop and has been selling clothes for more gram. It also became the main partner of Ashton Carter last week said the military was “sys- than a decade. In 2006, it bought the site the fledgling New York Men’s Fashion tematically eliminating” the IS group’s leadership. Omar Al-Shishani, the man known as “Omar the Shopbop and snapped up online footwear Week, which held its second season of RIYADH: Governor of Riyadh province Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Chechen”, who was effectively IS’ defense minister, go-to Zappos three years later. But its steps shows in January. (center right) greets India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center left) upon his was also killed last month. — AFP in recent months - some overt and others Continued on Page 13 arrival yesterday. — AFP Fire at under-construction shopping complex in Qatar DOHA: A fire broke out yesterday the contractor working on the A previous fire at a shopping at a Doha shopping complex under complex confirmed that the fire mall was the deadliest disaster to construction near one of the stadi- broke out at 2:30 pm (11:30 GMT). strike Qatar in recent memory. The ums that will host matches during “No casualties have been reported, 2012 blaze at the high-end the 2022 World Cup, Qatar’s interior and over 14,000 laborers and staff Villaggio shopping mall in Doha ministry said. Hours after the blaze were safely evacuated from the killed 19 people, many of them for- started at the complex near Rayyan premises,” said Mowafaq Kharbat, eigners. The victims included 13 Sports Club, the ministry tweeted project director of Urbacon Trading children. Most of those killed were that civil defense authorities have and Contracting. “An investigation at a daycare center inside the shop- “completely” contained the fire and is being conducted and details will ping mall, which opened in 2006 that there were no injuries. Local be provided once the investigation and houses an ice skating rink and media said the fire broke out at the is complete,” he added. Venice-style gondolas. Investigators construction site of the Mall of Qatar is engaged in multi-bil- blamed faulty wiring for sparking Qatar, which will be the Gulf coun- lion-dollar work on projects direct- the blaze, but cited a number of try’s largest shopping center when ly or indirectly linked to the foot- factors that contributed to its it opens later this year. ball World Cup. The Mall of Qatar is spread and the deaths. Pictures circulated on social a 500,000-sq-m retail and enter- Five people were sentenced to media showing plumes of black tainment complex near the 40,000- prison in 2013 in connection with smoke billowing from the con- seater Al-Rayyan stadium, which is the fire, but an appeals court judge struction site in a western suburb undergoing renovation for the overturned those convictions last MAKHMUR, Iraq: Emirati singer Hussein Al-Jasmi poses for a picture with Iraqi Kurdish women during a visit of Doha.