New Cabinet to Take Oath Today Amid Controversy
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RABIA ALTHANI 27, 1441 AH TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2019 28 Pages Max 21º Min 06º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18018 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Boursa Kuwait promotion contributes Boeing ousts Muilenburg, names Not so much a dog’s life for Pakistan seal triumphant Test 2 to supporting national economy: Amir 11 Calhoun CEO amid MAX crisis 21 Jordan’s pampered pets 26 cricket return with Lanka win New Cabinet to take oath today amid controversy MPs demand special debate on traffic ‘chaos’ • Minister hails report on demographics By B Izzak Opposition Islamist MP Mohammad Al- signed by 10 MPs to hold a special session Mutair, who openly threatened to grill the on Jan 9 to debate what MPs call traffic Fire knocks out power to KUWAIT: The new Cabinet is due to take premier over Aseeri, yesterday placed anoth- chaos following the death of a Kuwaiti citi- oath in the National Assembly today amid a er condition for cooperation with the govern- zen riding a bicycle on Sheikh Jaber airport, residential areas controversy over the inclusion of Minister of ment. He called on the government not to Causeway. Minister of Finance Mariam Al- Social Affairs and Labor Ghadeer Aseeri, who stand in the way of approving a draft law pro- Aqeel said yesterday that a report on the is accused of tweeting in support of anti-gov- viding a general amnesty to opposition for- demographic structure was sent to the ernment protests in Bahrain. Islamist opposi- mer MPs and activists who were sentenced to Council of Ministers and its positive results tion MPs have threatened to grill new Prime years in prison for storming the National will be announced after its approval. Minister HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al- Assembly building in 2011. The minister described the results in the Sabah if he does not dismiss Aseeri before A group of lawmakers are also planning to reports as excellent that were achieved as a the oath session, but nothing has happened file a motion to investigate an arms deal to pur- result of decisions and regulations by the yet and the minister denied she has resigned. chase around two dozen Caracal helicopters interior ministry to amend the demographic Aseeri, a liberal Shiite academic, allegedly signed with France a few years ago. MPs have structure and others by the foreign ministry posted tweets in 2011 backing the anti-gov- been pressing to investigate a number of key to bar maids from certain nationalities. She ernment protests in neighboring Bahrain and arms deals, including the multibillion-dollar said that the decisions to increase the per- for calling on Gulf troops, sent to back the Eurofighter jet deal. Allegations of corruption centage of Kuwaitis in the private sector will government, to withdraw. Opposition MPs were one of the reasons for the resignation of be applied shortly, adding that the private insist that the minister should not have been the former government. sector is not opposed to these decisions and included in the Cabinet over her views, which Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Marzouq companies which want to employ other contradict government policies. Al-Ghanem said he has received a request nationalities should pay the specified fees. and rights groups as a travesty of justice - Saudi sentences underscores Saudi efforts to draw a line under the crisis as it seeks to reboot its international KUWAIT: Firemen battle a blaze in a main transformer in Omariya early yesterday. image ahead of next year’s G20 summit in five to death over Riyadh. By Hanan Al-Saadoun Boushehri said in a statement that “The public prosecution’s investigation Minister of Oil, Electricity and Water Khashoggi murder showed that the killing was not premeditated at KUWAIT: Kuwait Fire Service Khaled Al-Fadhel ordered setting up the start of this mission” but rather that it Directorate’s PR department said the committee to examine in detail the RIYADH: Five people were sentenced to death occurred in the heat of the moment, Saudi Ardiya, Jleeb and backup fire centers technical causes of the blaze. The yesterday over Saudi journalist Jamal deputy prosecutor Shalaan Al-Shalaan told a responded to a fire in a main trans- power lost due to the incident was Khashoggi’s murder, but two top officials were press conference. The verdict can be appealed. former in Omariya that resulted in a estimated at 185 megawatts, he said, exonerated as authorities said the killing was Khashoggi, a 59-year-old Saudi insider-turned- power outage in a number of areas adding that technicians had scrambled not premeditated. Khashoggi, a Washington critic, was strangled and his body cut into pieces including the airport. The area was instantly after the outage and restored Post contributor, was murdered in October last by a 15-man Saudi squad inside the consulate, secured and a team from the ministry power to the airport in half an hour. year in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate in what according to Turkish officials. His remains have of electricity and water cut the power The power outage affected Kuwait Riyadh called a “rogue” operation, tipping it into not been found. supply. The fire was put out and no International Airport and the residen- one of its worst diplomatic crises. Saudi prosecutors had said deputy intelli- injuries were reported. Ministry tial neighborhoods of Rehab, Rabia, Out of individuals indicted in the case - most gence chief Ahmed Al-Assiri oversaw RIYADH: An image grab from a video Undersecretary Mohammad Boushehri Ishbiliya, Ardiya, Riggae, Farwaniya, of whom remain unnamed - five were sentenced Khashoggi’s killing and the US Treasury had released by the Saudi ministry of media announced forming a panel yesterday Omariya, Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh and to death, three face jail terms totaling 24 years, claimed the royal court’s media czar Saud Al- yesterday shows Saudi deputy prosecu- to investigate the fire. Industrial Shuwaikh. and the others were acquitted, the public prose- Qahtani was “part of the planning and tor Shalaan Al-Shalaan speaking in the cutor said. The verdict - lambasted by Turkey Continued on Page 24 capital. —AFP leader of the regional Jharkhand Mukti News in brief Modi party loses Morcha party, said after claiming vic- tory. The loss comes in the middle of a sometimes deadly wave of nationwide Saudi, Kuwait sign deal today state election protests triggered by a new citizen- ship law, which critics say discrimi- KUWAIT: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will sign a amid protests nates against Muslims and has brought deal today to resume production at two major oil- thousands of people out on to the fields in a shared neutral zone after five years of NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister streets in opposition. stoppage. The Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC) Narendra Modi’s party lost control of The polls in Jharkhand opened on said yesterday the signing ceremony will take another state yesterday, adding to a Nov 30, before the demonstrations place in the neutral zone where the offshore Khafji string of electoral losses since last kicked off and do not represent the cur- field and onshore Wafra field are located. The two December amid protests that mark the rent public mood. However, the BJP’s fields were pumping some 500,000 barrels per biggest challenge to the Hindu-national- defeat will be a shot in the arm for day before production was halted first at Khafji in ist leader. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party India’s opposition parties, some of Oct 2014 and then at Wafra months later over a (BJP) conceded defeat in the eastern which have used popular anger against dispute between the two neighbors. Riyadh said at state of Jharkhand, with an alliance of the Citizenship Amendment Act to their the time the decision was due to environmental the main opposition Congress party and advantage. The Modi government insists issues.— AFP a regional bloc slated to take control of that the law is needed to help persecut- the resource-rich province. Last month, ed non-Muslim minorities from BJP also lost power in Maharashtra, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan Maid threatens to kill girl home to Mumbai, in a major setback. who came to India before 2015 by giv- RANCHI, India: Congress-JMM alliance workers celebrate results projecting an assembly “I dedicate this victory to the peo- ing them Indian citizenship. majority in Jharkhand state elections yesterday.— AFP KUWAIT: Security forces yesterday rescued a ple of Jharkhand,” Hemant Soren, Continued on Page 24 Kuwaiti girl after an angry Ethiopian housemaid put a knife to her neck and threatened to kill her at her sponsor’s house in Saad Al-Abdullah, said security Tebboune, who was seen as close to Gaid Salah. sources. The sources added that the child’s father Army chief’s death HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al- called the police to report the maid’s threats. The Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable yesterday to Tebboune, maid was arrested and the child sustained a head expressing sincere condolences over the demise of Gaid injury in the process of freeing her. Further investi- caps turbulent Salah. HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al- gations are in progress. — Hanan Al-Saadoun Jaber Al-Sabah and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah year for Algeria Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah sent similar cables. $4m drugs seized in Gulf of Oman Gaid Salah was instrumental in pushing the Dec 12 ALGIERS: Algeria’s powerful army chief General vote that elected establishment insider Tebboune - in LONDON: Britain’s Royal Navy said yesterday Ahmed Gaid Salah died of a heart attack at age 79 yes- defiance of a months-long protest movement demanding one of its warships had helped to seize a batch of terday, threatening to deepen the country’s political cri- deep-rooted political reforms before any poll.