Kuwait, Saudi and UAE Offer $2.5 Billion in Aid to Jordan
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RAMADAN 27, 1439 AH TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2018 Max 45º 28 Pages Min 32º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 17556 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net India seeks a warrant for Pope accepts resignation of Neymar lands in Russia, Messi 6 fugitive celebrity jeweler 8 three bishops in sex scandal 28 casts doubt over WCup future IMSAK 03:03 FAJR 03:13 DHUHR 11:48 ASR 15:22 MAGHRIB 18:48 ISHA 20:21 Kuwait, Saudi and UAE offer $2.5 billion in aid to Jordan Cash-strapped Jordan rocked by mass protests RIYADH: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have offered $2.5 billion in aid for Jordan to ease its economic crisis following a wave of anti-aus- terity protests, the Saudi state media announced yes- terday. Jordan has been rocked in recent days by mass protests against price rises and a proposed tax hike as the government pushes measures to slash the country’s debt, leading to the prime minister’s resignation. A four-nation summit in the holy city of Makkah, hosted by Saudi King Salman, offered Amman a bailout in the form of a deposit in the Jordanian central bank, World Bank guarantees as well as budgetary support over five years. The decision was taken in the Muslim holy city where King Salman hosted a summit with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Kuwait’s Amir HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and UAE Vice President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid. Jordan is pushing fiscal consolidation measures required under an IMF financing program including tax increases and subsidy cuts that have weighed on poor- er and middle-class families. Jordan’s newly designated prime minister, Omar Al-Razzaz, said on Thursday he would drop a proposed income tax bill, conceding to a key demand of protesters who had already brought down the previous government. “In light of the close brotherly ties... it was agreed that the three countries (Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait) would provide an economic aid package to Jordan totaling $2.5 billion,” the official Saudi Press Agency said. The crucial summit was attended by MAKKAH: Jordan’s King Abdullah II (right) attends a meeting in Makkah with Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz (2nd right), Kuwait’s Amir HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who offered his gratitude to Al-Sabah (2nd left) and UAE’s Vice President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. — AFP the three countries, adding the package will “contribute Continued on Page 24 The meeting, long sought by Ramadan Kareem US offers North Pyongyang, will be the first ever between a serving US president and a North Korean leader, and will focus on Fasting and Korea ‘unique’ the nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles the North has spent decades developing. guarantees The Trump administration will only materialism accept complete denuclearization of the By Hatem Basha SINGAPORE: The US has offered North, Pompeo stressed. In return, North Korea “unique” security guaran- Washington would offer “different and eople often complain about the materialistic tees to persuade it to give up its nuclear unique” guarantees “to provide them trend that has dominated our culture today. arsenal, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sufficient certainty that they can be PPeople are more concerned with satisfying the said yesterday, on the eve of a historic comfortable that denuclearization is not materialistic needs that seem to be growing continu- summit in Singapore. The White House something that ends badly for them”. ously in a vicious, unquenchable cycle. We are more said preparatory negotiations had He refused to go into details. But the obsessed with getting the latest fashion in clothes “moved more quickly than expected” North has long sought an end to the US and gadgets. The search for luxury in all aspects of and Trump would leave today evening military presence in the South, where life is endless. The consumerist passion is growing at after his talks with Kim Jong Un, seem- Washington has around 28,000 troops the expense of the true inner human values. ingly ruling out the possibility the stationed to protect it from its neighbor. PURI: Indian artist Sudarshan Pattnaik, 65, finishes a sand sculpture depicting US People are more obsessed with acquiring more unprecedented tete-a-tete would run to Pyongyang has demanded the end of President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Puri beach, ahead than they need or consume. Instead of consuming to two days. Continued on Page 24 of the US-North Korea summit. — AFP live, many people reverse the logic and live to con- sume more and more. This materialistic culture entraps and enslaves people so they think of nothing source with knowledge of the investiga- ther. “After assessing the situation our The handwriting on the note was else but how to ‘get more and have more’. Every day US-bound tion said. The 207 passengers and 11 crew made the decision to divert to the being analyzed to see if it matched with we are flooded with thousands of advertisements crew members disembarked the Boeing nearest available airport,” it said. any other such notes, which are periodi- that brainwash us into buying and consuming more Co 767-330 at Shannon Airport at 2:15 “Additional security screenings will be cally found on aircraft, the source added. than our basic needs. The advances in mass produc- flight diverted pm, according to Jim Molloy, a represen- performed on all customers and bag- Police were also taking handwriting sam- tion, the competition among industrial nations, means tative of Ireland’s police force. The pas- gage.” The airline said on Twitter that ples from the passengers, the Irish Times of communications and transportation have made the sengers of flight UA971 were in the the flight was now canceled and would reported. The message was found in the problem more severe. to Ireland A United Airlines flight process of being searched, he said in an depart for Chicago on Tuesday. The US plane toilet, it said, without citing Materialism has greatly affected both the individ- NEW YORK: from Rome to Chicago was diverted to emailed statement. He gave no further government was aware of the incident sources. The United jet completed its ual and the society. Fasting is an effective way to Shannon Airport in Ireland yesterday details about the nature of the threat. and trying to establish if there was any descent after jettisoning some of the fuel curb this severe competition for the materialism. after “a message” was discovered on United said in a statement that the kind of violent intent behind the threat, a loaded for its transatlantic crossing, Ramadan reminds Muslims of the other side of their board, Irish police said. The message landing was due to “a potential security US government source familiar with the according to recordings on air traffic being, which is the spiritual side. Fasting trains referred to a bomb on the plane, a concern” but declined to comment fur- investigation told Reuters. control site LiveATC.net. — Reuters Muslims to transcend all the basic instinctive needs of the body to nurture the spirit. The important les- son is that if we are capable of exercising self- restraint over the basic things like food, drink and they wrote in the scientific journal Nature sex. We are in a better position to resist the material ‘Shocking’ Plants, describing “an event of an appetites that surround and entice us every day. unprecedented magnitude.” Abstaining from these physical needs has pro- die-off of “It is definitely shocking and dramatic found implications on the psychological and spiritual to experience during our lifetime the levels. Fasting teaches Muslims self-restraint, demise of so many trees with millennial patience and endurance. Prophet Muhammad Africa’s oldest ages,” said the study’s co-author Adrian (PBUH) described it as a shield in a famous hadith Patrut of the Babes-Bolyai University in narrated by Abu Hurayrah, who said that the baobabs: Study Romania. Among the nine were four of Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, “Fasting is a shield. the largest African baobabs. While the So the fasting person should avoid obscene speech PARIS: Some of Africa’s oldest and cause of the die-off remains unclear, the and should not behave foolishly and ignorantly, and if biggest baobab trees—a few dating all researchers “suspect that the demise of somebody fights with him or insults him, he should the way back to the ancient Greeks—have monumental baobabs may be associated tell him twice, ‘I am fasting’”. abruptly died, wholly or in part, in the past at least in part with significant modifica- The hadith acquires a new significance in the decade, researchers said yesterday. The tions of climate conditions that affect modern materialist world since fasting can help trees, aged between 1,100 and 2,500 southern Africa in particular.” believers resist the lures and enticement of being years and some as wide as a bus is long, Further research is needed, said the trapped in following one’s desires and lusts. A key may have fallen victim to climate change, team from Romania, South Africa and the the team speculated. “We report that nine United States, “to support or refute this aspect in fasting is that it develops the sense of sym- OLTUKAI, TANZANIA: Maasai people gather under a baobab tree at Oltukai, 100 km of the 13 oldest... individuals have died, or supposition.” Between 2005 and 2017, pathy and feeling of the poor and the needy. west of Arusha, Tanzania, during a political rally organized by the incumbent at least their oldest parts/stems have col- the researchers probed and dated Continued on Page 24 Monduli Member of Parliament.