SUBSCRIPTION THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2014 MUHARRAM 27, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Iran nuke talks Fouz: My A taste of home Rooney’s double get down to journey with for war-weary helps England nitty-gritty7 ‘Roacutane’38 Syrians40 in Beirut floor20 Scotland Criminals using stolen, Min 11º Max 29º missing civil ID cards High Tide 10:44 & 22:20 Alleged thief caught red-handed, detained by shopkeepers Low Tide 04:35 & 16:20 40 PAGES NO: 16348 150 FILS KUWAIT: A suspected civil ID card thief was caught by shopkeepers in Farwaniya yesterday. The Asian man had NA extends work of deposits probe panel visited several shops, using a different civil ID cards in each shop to register for a phone line and receive a new iPhone. After the man obtained phones from several By B Izzak locations within the same area, shopkeepers began to suspect him and proceeded to detain him until police KUWAIT: The National Assembly yesterday agreed arrived. to extend for another three months the work of a “The man went into several mobile shops here (in a special panel formed to investigate suspicions that small shopping complex with several mobile shops) on former MPs had received bribes worth tens of mil- several occasions - with maybe two to three weeks gap. lions of dinars. The extension came after Oil Minister Each time he registered for a new line and took a mobile Ali Al-Omair said the government will cooperate through a promotion offered by mobile companies,” one with the committee provided that the information it shop attendant told Kuwait Times. The clerk said that the seeks should be in line with the law and the consti- alleged thief’s modus operandi was the same in all the tution. He said that some of the information the cases. He would present a different civil ID in each shop, committee had sought from the government were availing of the latest mobile phone promotion. The shop- also demanded by a similar committee formed by ping place is commonly frequented by Asian expatriates. the 2012 Assembly because such information are When the man was seen again by shopkeepers in the classified and personal - and the law does not allow area buying phones, suspicions arose. “So we checked its release. with other shops here and another shopkeeper told us The minister said that the information relate to the man had also taken mobiles from their shops using data available with the central bank and the law civil ID of some people and not his own. So we held him bans exposing them. The committee was formed last and asked him for the mobile number of the people year and has held several meetings but it told the whose IDs were in his hands,” the shop attendant Assembly that it needed more time to be able to explained. But the man could not provide any numbers. complete its task. It was asked to investigate allega- Some witnesses said the thief managed to transact tions that bank accounts of 13 former MPs in the mobile promotions using the civil ID of other people and Assembly elected in 2009 were inflated with illegal actually managed to take with him two new iPhone 6s deposits worth around KD45 million. before the arrest took place. The two iPhones were then A similar committee was formed in the opposi- returned to the shop where he got them from. tion-dominated Assembly elected in February 2012 The con is straight forward. Often mobile phone com- but it could not complete its mission because the panies will offer a promotion that includes the gift of a Assembly was scrapped by the Constitutional Court new phone in exchange for signing up for an extended KUWAIT: Kuwait Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim chats with MP Adnan Abdulsamad during a parliament ses- in June. Members of that committee however said period. Customers need only to provide their civil IDs to sion at the National Assembly in Kuwait City yesterday. The National Assembly yesterday agreed to they had collected credible evidence that those for- be able to take the mobile unit home and sometimes mer MPs had received the bribes for political reasons. extend for another three months the work of a special panel formed to investigate suspicions that former with the free internet connection. Continued on Page 13 MPs had received bribes worth tens of millions of dinars. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat Continued on Page 13 Saudi leans on GCC as region boils Iran nuclear work - a abiding concern for Gulf DUBAI: Gulf Arab states have shelved a bit- abide by an agreement not to interfere in ter row among themselves, hoping to one another’s internal affairs and not to FBI tracking 150 US repair an alliance that has been sorely test- support the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, ed by chaos in the Middle East and the seen as a terrorist group by some Gulf Arab citizens with IS link prospect of an Iranian states. Qatar denies that nuclear deal that could tilt charge. BOSTON: The Federal Bureau of Investigations is the regional balance of pow- Officials said the possibility tracking close to 150 Americans it believes traveled er towards their old foe of a thaw in relations between to Syria in recent months, potentially to join armed Tehran. Saudi Arabia, the Tehran and the United States, groups, FBI Director James Comey said on Tuesday. United Arab Emirates (UAE) the Gulf States’ main ally, fol- He said Americans fighting with foreign jihadist and Bahrain agreed at a lowing any nuclear accord was groups are a top concern for the FBI because of the meeting on Sunday to return a constant preoccupation of possibility they could return to the United States their ambassadors to Qatar, Gulf Arab rulers, but was not with the training, expertise and connections signaling an end to an eight- the immediate cause of required to launch an attack on home soil. month dispute over Doha’s Sunday’s agreement. The rulers GUANTANAMO BAY: In this file photo, a shackled detainee is transported by “We have tracked coming up on close to 150 backing of Islamist militants instead appear to have mend- guards away from his annual Administrative Review Board hearing at Camp people who traveled from the United States to in Syria and elsewhere and its ed fences for fear the row Delta detention center, Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base, Cuba. — AP Syria, for all manner of motivations. A significant promotion of Arab Spring would otherwise spin out of revolts. control, possibly leading to a number of them to fight,” he told reporters at a Saudi King Abdullah Controversy flares over briefing in Boston. “We are determined not to allow An official photograph boycott of the annual summit future lines to be drawn from a terrorist diaspora showed Qatar’s youthful Emir, Sheikh their six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council female guards at Gitmo out of Syria to a future 9/11,” he said. The FBI was Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, kissing the (GCC) alliance to be hosted by Qatar next paying most attention to those Americans believed head of Saudi King Abdullah, who is over month. A boycott would have been a deep GUANTANAMO: In the recently released the presence of female guards, saying it is to have joined the militant group Islamic State, 90, in reconciliation at the meeting of Gulf embarrassment to Qatar, amplifying an Arab rulers in Riyadh. The king was the driv- impression of GCC disarray and raising “Camp X-Ray,” “Twilight” star Kristen an affront to their religious beliefs. The which has captured swaths of Syria and Iraq and ing force behind the closing of ranks, ana- doubts about the point of a three-decade- Stewart plays a soldier assigned to issue has turned into a headache for US has launched a sophisticated recruitment campaign Guantanamo Bay who ends up befriend- military authorities, who bristle at the idea lysts and a diplomat said. Saudi Arabia, old union of monarchies created to stand on the internet, Comey said. ing one of the detainees. In reality, inmates of instituting any gender restrictions on Bahrain and the UAE withdrew their envoys together against common adversaries. Continued on Page 13 at the US military prison have balked at Continued on Page 13 in March. They accused Qatar of failing to Continued on Page 13 Snow blankets New York as US feels chill BUFFALO: A ferocious storm dumped “We have tried to get out of our house, and massive piles of snow on parts of upstate we are lucky to be able to shovel so we can New York, trapping residents in their open the door,” said Linda Oakley of homes and stranding motorists on road- Buffalo. “We’re just thinking that in case of ways, as temperatures in all 50 states fell to an emergency we can at least get out the freezing or below. Even hardened Buffalo door. We can’t go any further.” residents were caught off-guard as more The snowstorm forced motorists in 150 than 5 feet fell in parts of the city by yester- vehicles, including a women’s basketball day morning. Authorities said snow totals team, to ride out the onslaught in their by the afternoon could top 6 feet in the vehicles. They waited for hours to be freed, hardest-hit areas south of Buffalo, with with some waiting more than a day. New another potential 1 to 2 feet expected by York Gov Andrew Cuomo deployed 150 Thursday. members of the National Guard to help Cold weather enveloped the entire clear snow clogged roads and remove country Tuesday, leading to record-low abandoned vehicles.