SUBSCRIPTION TUESDAY, JULY 4, 2017 SHAWWAL 10, 1438 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Hundreds of Macron plans McCain-led Venus in tears cleaners on to slash delegation over crash strike over pay, France’s MPs visits Pak for as Murray, 15 arrested3 by a third7 security8 talks Nadal20 stroll Qatar responds to demands, Min 30º deadline extended by 48 hrs Max 48º High Tide 08:10 & 21:23 Trump calls Gulf leaders • FMs to meet in Cairo • Saudi king skips G20 meet Low Tide 01:40 & 15:14 40 PAGES NO: 17270 150 FILS KUWAIT: Qatar yesterday responded to a list of demands from Saudi Arabia and its allies after they agreed to give a defiant Doha another 48 hours to address their griev- ances. Details of the response were not immediately available, but a Gulf official told AFP that Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani had delivered it during a short visit to Kuwait, which is acting as a mediator in the crisis. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt had announced in the early hours of yesterday they were pushing back a deadline for Qatar to agree to a list of 13 demands they issued on June 22. A joint statement said they were extending the ultimatum, which had been due to expire at the end of the day on Sunday, at the request of HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. The demands included Doha ending support for the Muslim Brotherhood, closing broadcaster Al-Jazeera, downgrading diplomatic ties with Iran and shutting down a Turkish military base in the Emirate. Sheikh Mohammed had earlier said the list of demands was “made to be rejected” and yesterday, British lawyers for Qatar denounced the demands as “an affront to interna- tional law”. “They are reminiscent of the extreme and punitive conduct of ‘bully’ states that have historically resulted in war,” the lawyers said in a statement. Saudi Arabia and its allies announced on June 5 they were severing ties with their Gulf neighbor, sparking the worst diplomatic crisis to hit the region in decades. They accused Qatar of supporting extremism and of being too close to Saudi Arabia’s regional archrival Iran, which KUWAIT: HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (center right) looks at a letter from Qatar’s emir given to him by Qatari Foreign Minister Doha has strongly denied. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani (center left) yesterday. — AP Continued on Page 13 Total signs Iran deal, defies US TEHRAN: French energy giant Total Patrick Pouyanne said at the signing cer- defied US pressure yesterday by signing emony in Tehran. “We aren’t a political Draft law calls a multi-billion-dollar gas deal with Iran, organization, but I hope this agreement the first by a European firm in more than will encourage other companies to come to halt work if a decade. Total will invest an initial $1 bil- to Iran because economic development lion in the South Pars offshore gas field is also a way of building peace,” he told mercury hits 50 as part of a consortium with Chinese and AFP. “We are here to build bridges, not Iranian firms. The 20-year project, which walls,” he added. The project in South By B Izzak will eventually see the firms inject $4.9 Pars, a field shared between Iran and billion, is by far the biggest vote of confi- Qatar, is the first under a new Iranian KUWAIT: Islamist opposition MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei dence in the Islamic republic since sanc- Petroleum Contract which offers better yesterday proposed a draft law calling to halt work at tions were lifted under a 2015 nuclear terms to foreign investors but has faced government departments, universities and schools deal with world powers. intense criticism from hardliners who when the temperature hits 50 degrees Celsius as meas- “Today, for Total, is a historic day, the said it was too generous. ured by the official meteorology department. The bill day we come back to Iran,” Total CEO Continued on Page 13 does not apply to private sector establishments. The bill stipulates that work will be halted immediately once the temperature reaches 50 degrees and that all concerned bodies and institutions must be provided with displays to show the exact official temperature. BEIRUT: In this June 30, 2017 photo, tourists takes pictures as the sun sets over the Tabtabaei said in the explanatory note of the bill Mediterranean Sea. — AP that it aims at providing protection to employees against harsh environmental factors, especially extremely hot days in the summer months. He said the Lebanon sees tourism draft law requires authorities to take all necessary pre- cautions to protect employees and students from the heat by sending them home when the temperature rebound amid turmoil reaches this mark. Temperatures hit 50 degrees Celsius BEIRUT: Beirut’s landmark Hamra Street is the stability in Turkey and the Gulf region. several times during the summer months from May to bustling again and hotel occupancy rates But now, Lebanon’s tourism sector is September. The mercury has already exceeded 50 are on the rise as Lebanon’s tourism on the rise as the Gulf and Turkey, to the degrees a few days this year. Meanwhile, five lawmakers yesterday submitted industry rebounds, thanks in no small part surprise of many, are looking shaky. While a draft law to regulate and organize charity soci- to the misfortunes of its Middle East neighboring Syria and Iraq burn, the eties and fundraising operations, which proposes neighbors, engulfed by wars, chaos and Lebanese industry is looking - cautiously hefty jail terms for violators. It calls for the establish- political upheaval. It was just four years but optimistically - at the promise of a ment of a committee comprised of the undersecre- ago when Lebanon seemed to be losing new beginning. “I know the region is taries of the ministries of social affairs, interior, its grip on its internal security. The specter going through very difficult times, but finance and foreign affairs, in addition to heads of a of war spilling over from neighboring Lebanon has gotten lucky,” said Tourism number of concerned departments. TEHRAN: Patrick Pouyanne (left), Chairman and CEO of French energy company Syria hung low over the capital and Minister Avedis Guidanian. Continued on Page13 Total, shakes hands with Ezzatollah Akbari, Managing Director of Petropars Group, Lebanese proprietors looked longingly to Continued on Page 13 after signing an offshore gas field agreement yesterday. — AFP (See Page 21) Fiery Germany bus crash kills 18 STAMMBACH, Germany: Eighteen people the small Bavarian town of Stammbach, in a because the bus was so badly damaged. were killed yesterday in one of the deadliest region dotted with spas and castles that are When firefighters first arrived, the site was so road accidents in recent Germany history popular with summer vacationers. Television hot that they couldn’t get anywhere close to when a tour bus carrying pensioners smashed images showing only the charred skeleton of the burning vehicle to rescue those locked into a trailer truck and burst into flames. the vehicle remaining. inside, he said, adding “All they could do was Emergency workers retrieved 11 bodies and a Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced “great dis- extinguish the fire.” The relatives of the victims search for the remains of seven other victims may” over the crash. “Our thoughts and con- have not yet been contacted because experts was underway, Transport Minister Alexander dolences go to the victims and their family are still working on identifying the bodies, Dobrindt said. The blaze was so powerful “that members, as well as to the injured,” a Dobrindt said. A phone number was activated only steel parts are still recognizable on the spokesman said. “We hope that those who to provide family members with information. bus, and from that you can understand what have been rescued will recover from their Psychologists and counselors were talking to it means for the people on this bus,” he said. injuries.” Some 200 emergency workers were the injured and also to the rescue personnel. Thirty people were hospitalized, two of them deployed to the site, including firefighters, With the likely toll, the accident at the start of with life-threatening injuries, the minister told rescue personnel and police, while south- the summer holiday season is one of the reporters at the site of the accident. The bus bound traffic on the motorway remained worst to hit Germany in recent memory. In was carrying 46 passengers and two drivers blocked. June 2007, 13 people were killed when a tour from the east German state of Saxony, head- Forensic specialists were brought in from bus plunged down a slope in eastern Members of the fire brigade work at the scene where a tour bus burst into flames ing for Nuremberg, when it rammed into the Germany’s federal police office to remove and Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt state. In September following a collision with a trailer truck on highway A9 near Muenchberg in south- truck in a traffic jam on the A9 motorway, Bild identify bodies from the charred vehicle. 1992, 21 people died when a bus swerved out ern Germany yesterday. — AFP newspaper said. The accident happened near Dobrindt said rescue work was difficult Continued on Page 13 TUESDAY, JULY 4, 2017 LOCAL First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al- KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and top Kuwaiti officials meet with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah welcomes Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Bin Abdulrahman Al- Mohammad Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.