SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013 JAMADA ALTHANI 25, 1434 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Next Iranian Obama ends Rolling Stones Dortmund, president Latin America kick off North Bayern draw in likely to have trips with American tour Champions gentler13 touch trade23 focus to38 packed house League19 warm-up Israel bombs Hezb-bound Max 30º Min 19º missile shipment in Syria High Tide 05:27 & 15:50 Low Tide Warplanes did not hit Syrian chemical weapons 10:33 & 22:38 40 PAGES NO: 15799 150 FILS BEIRUT: Israel has carried out an air strike targeting a conspiracy theories shipment of missiles in Syria bound for Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon, an Israeli official said yesterday. Israel had long made clear it is prepared to resort to force to prevent advanced Syrian weapons, including What’s the President Bashar Al-Assad’s reputed chemical arsenal, being handed over to Lebanon’s powerful Shiite guerril- las. Assad and Hezbollah are allied to Iran, Israel’s arch- problem? enemy. With Assad battling a more than two-year-old Syrian insurgency, the Israelis also worry that the Sunni Islamist rebels could loot his arsenals and eventually hit the Jewish state, ending four decades of relative cross- border calm. Lacking a side to support in its northern neighbour’s civil war, and worried about inadvertently fuelling esca- By Badrya Darwish lation, Israel has exercised restraint. Its government did not formally confirm Friday’s air strike, which was dis- closed to Reuters by an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “There was an air strike. The tar- [email protected] get was not a chemical weapons facility. It was missiles intended for Hezbollah,” the official told Reuters. A US official told Reuters the target was apparently a building. The attack - the second reported Israeli air strike on a he campaign against expats in Kuwait has target in Syria in four months - took place after Prime not stopped. I do not know why the gov- Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet ernment had this sudden awakening and approved it in a secret meeting on Thursday night, a T regional security source said. CNN quoted unnamed US why everyone in the government went along. officials as saying Israel most likely conducted the strike Suddenly, everyone seemed to have realized “in the Thursday-Friday time frame” and its jets did not that there are expats in Kuwait and that we have enter Syrian air space. The Israeli air force possesses so- to trim their numbers by any means. BANIAS, Syria: This citizen journalism image provided released yesterday shows dead bodies in this coastal called “standoff” bombs that coast dozens of kilometres Every day we hear about new laws and regu- town. Thousands of Sunni Muslims fled Banias a day after dozens of people, including children, were killed across ground to their targets once fired. lations ranging from the traffic department and by pro-government gunmen in the area. — AP (See Page 8) Continued on Page 13 the traffic-related penalties, to technical inspec- tion of cars and residency law violators. All of these are fair measures. Each country has a right Egypt mob lynches son of Islamist to implement the rules that are in the interest of safety and security of that country. Each country CAIRO: An angry Egyptian mob has Qattawiya, a village in the Nile Delta the Freedom and Justice Party said on has the right to implement laws that ensure lynched the teenage son of a Muslim province of Sharqiya, where Yussef’s its Facebook page. “This is not a politi- economic growth in the country. Brotherhood leader, accusing him of father, Rabie Abdessalam is an official cal incident,” the Islamist party said, Degree a must Unfortunately, in Kuwait, we are all obsessed killing a man over Facebook comments at the local branch of the Justice and calling on all sides to show restraint. with the idea that expats are the reason for our critical of the Islamist movement, secu- Freedom Party, the political arm of the But a security source and local for new iqamas, rity sources said yesterday. The vio- Muslim Brotherhood of President media said the violence was triggered deterioration. I do not want to repeat myself lence that took place on Thursday in Mohamed Morsi. An angry mob sur- after comments hostile to the Muslim every day. I have written many times on the top- the Nile Delta was the latest in a spate rounded the Abdessalam house seek- Brotherhood were posted on job transfers ic. But every day, I read about new laws that are of vigilante killings in the region amid ing revenge, but the family refused to Facebook. There have been several KUWAIT: Assistant Undersecretary for Labor at the to be discussed in parliament that focus on growing lawlessness since the 2011 give Yussef up and hurled stones from reports of lynchings in Egypt in recent Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour Jamal Al-Dousary expats. Don’t we have anything else to do in revolution that toppled former presi- inside the residence at the protesters. months. In March, villagers in Sharqiya said a circular will be issued to labor departments in all Kuwait but to draft laws against expats? dent Hosni Mubarak. Yussef Rabie A man outside the house was fatally province beat up a man and then governorates today that will make university degrees a Abdessalam, 16, pulled out a gun and wounded. lynched him, accusing him of car theft The latest one amazed me. State Minister for must when work permits are issued to foreign workers opened fire indiscriminately, killing a Police tried in vain to contain the days after residents of another town for the first time or when transferring from an employ- Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al- passerby and wounding another after violence and attempted to evacuate strung up two men accused of kidnap- Sabah gave a statement to the media with er to another. Dousary said this requirement is limited a heated argument with a man who the Abdessalam family but the mob ping a girl. Crime rates have increased to specialized professions like managers, doctors, engi- regards to a draft law referred for discussion in had openly criticised the influential set fire to the house and in the confu- across Egypt since the uprising and a neers etc and only when the permit is issued for the parliament. The law seeks to raise the service fee Brotherhood on the Internet, the sion grabbed Yussef and lynched him. police officer reported in March that at first time. When renewing the permit, the degree is not sources said. The mob beat him up “and dragged least 17 lynchings had taken place in applicable to expats. According to the state- needed to be presented again. His action sparked fury in him across 500 metres to his death,” Sharqiya since 2011. — AFP ment, the state spends KD 6 billion a year on subsidies for services like electricity and water, two thirds of which is utilized by expatriates. Applying simple math, it means that the govern- Croatia opens ment is spending more on the Kuwaitis if we cal- culate this amount per capita considering that Kuwait’s population is 3.8 million, 1.2 million of Islamic centre whom are citizens. This is not my main argument. You cannot RIJEKA, Croatia: Some 20,000 Muslims try of the rule of law and religious free- make expats pay more for electricity and water from Croatia and abroad gathered in dom,” he said at the ceremony. because, in general, we Kuwaitis have a far high- the Adriatic port city of Rijeka yester- Almost 87 percent of Croatia’s 4.2 er income than expats. Plus, we are getting day to inaugurate an Islamic centre and million inhabitants are Roman many other services which expats do not get - the third mosque in the staunchly Catholics, while Muslims make up only such as free healthcare. Expats have to pay some Catholic country. “Multiculturalism and some 1.5 percent of the population. Of diversity are among basic values on Croatia’s 63,000 Muslims, around healthcare fees. We do not pay school fees for which the European Union is built,” the 10,000 live in the Rijeka region. “The our children. There are no free university place- head of EU delegation here, Paul building of this mosque was crucial for ments for expat children. Expats pay rent. The Vandoren, said in a reminder that me because my daughter will go to money they make in the private sector is far less Croatia was set to join the bloc on July kindergarten here,” Sadmir when compared to Kuwaitis working in the pri- 1. Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said Kukuruzovic, a 27-year-old truck driver MONTREAL: (From left) Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum, federal Minister of vate sector. If a Kuwaiti works in the private sec- the centre showed “that diversities are from Rijeka, told AFP. Foreign Affairs John Baird, and provincial Minister for International Relations tor, he gets a rent allowance from the govern- possible and good”. “Croatia is a coun- Continued on Page 13 Jean-Francois Lisee leave the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) ment in addition to a national labour allowance. headquarters following a meeting on Friday. — AP We receive many allowances per child. We receive housing loans too. Expats are deprived Canada accuses Qatar of of all this and they are not asking for that. Is it fair to increase the fees for water and trying to buy UN agency electricity and ask the poor to pay higher bills? TORONTO: A bid by Qatar to relocate the resulting from staff terminations and sev- The poorer sections of society are not in the United Nations’ civil aviation agency from erance packages, according to the UN country for charity.