RABI ALTHANI 23, 1439 AH WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2018 Max 21º 32 Pages Min 05º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 17427 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net No plans to follow Gulf Netanyahu’s son under Photo comics rescued North Korea to attend 3 states in hiking fuel prices 6 fire after ‘strip club’ tape 32 from dustbin of history 16 Olympics in rival South Lawmakers trade barbs in unruly Assembly session Clashes over early retirement bill • MP slams municipal law over ‘quotas’ By B Izzak vide the Assembly with details about its cost and impact on the state budget. KUWAIT: MPs traded accusations yes- Khorshed exchanged harsh words with MP terday in tense Assembly session that end- Abdulkarim Al-Kandari and later with MP ed without any tangible output after law- Safa Al-Hashem, who accused the commit- makers decided to delay two key debates tee of acting on orders of the government for today. Following tense discussions and in a bid to block the passage of the law. exchanges, the Assembly decided to Another clash took place between debate a controversial bill on reducing the MP Hamdan Al-Azemi and committee retirement age for men and women and member Askar Al-Enezi. Azemi accused hold a second debate on the jailed lawmak- unnamed lawmakers of working against ers in today’s session. the interests of the Kuwaiti people, but The session witnessed at least two Enezi denied the accusation, saying the confrontations over the early retirement committee members cared for the bill that forced acting speaker Essa Al- Kuwaiti people as much as others. At Kandari to adjourn the session tem- one stage, acting speaker Kandari porarily. A large number of MPs protest- stopped the session due to the quarrels. ed against a decision by the financial and During the debate, new Finance economic affairs committee to withdraw Minister Nayef Al-Hajraf said he will pro- a draft law stipulating reducing the vide the Assembly with figures about the retirement age for Kuwaiti employees. government debt and the financial status of The committee’s chairman MP Salah the country after a month. This came after Khorshed explained that the action was to demands by MPs to know why the govern- allow an independent international ment plans to borrow more funds from the KUWAIT: MP Safa Al-Hashem (center) speaks as MPs Khalil Al-Saleh (left) and Khalil Abul (right) gesture during a raucous research house to study the issue and pro- Continued on Page 11 National Assembly session yesterday. — Photo by Fouad Al-Shaikh said the air strikes targeted Syrian army and Hezbollah weapon depots. The Ankara changes strikes sparked “successive explosions Israeli air and fires, causing material damage” in embassy street the depots, where land-to-land missiles have been stored among other strikes, rockets weapons, the Observatory said. The name after spat Syrian army also said Israel launched hit Syria land-to-land missiles into Syria from ANKARA: Ankara yesterday renamed the the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but street in the Turkish capital where the United DAMASCUS: The Israeli army it intercepted them. Arab Emirates’ embassy is located after an overnight carried out air strikes and Israel seized 1,200 sq km of the Ottoman governor, in a symbolic riposte to Abu fired rockets at targets in Syria, causing Golan Heights from Syria in the Six- Dhabi following weeks of tensions. UAE Foreign damage near a military position, the Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Syrian army said in a statement yester- a move never recognized by the inter- retweeted a post on Twitter last month which day. Israel’s army has carried out several national community. Syria and Israel accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip attacks on the Syrian army and its ally remain technically at war, and the Erdogan’s “ancestors of kidnapping people of Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah Jewish state fought a devastating war Madinah in the early 20th century”. The post by since the start of the conflict in Syria in against Hezbollah in 2006. In a user called “Ali Al-Iraqi” also claimed that 2011. The Israeli air force carried out December, Israeli fighter jets bombed Fahreddin Pasha - the Ottoman governor of strikes on the Qutayfeh area northeast areas near Damascus including a scien- Madinah from 1916 to 1919 - stole from the peo- ANKARA: A new street sign bearing the name of former Ottoman governor of of Damascus, causing the Syrian army tific research center and warehouses ple of the sacred Islamic pilgrimage city. Madinah Fahreddin Pasha marks the street that leads to the UAE embassy build- to retaliate and “hit one of its planes”, where weapons and ammunition of the Madinah, home to the Prophet’s Mosque, ing yesterday. — AFP the Syrian army said. Syrian air defenses regime and its allies were stocked, the which as the burial place of Prophet Muhammad intercepted one rocket, but several more Observatory said. In September, Israeli (PBUH) is the second holiest site in Islam, was ous” to the memory of Turkey’s Ottoman prede- Monday that 613 Street would be renamed hit “near a military position, causing strikes hit a weapons depot by then part of the Ottoman Empire and now a cessors. He later said the minister was “too spoilt “Fahreddin Pasha” while the nearby avenue material damage”, it added. Damascus airport, targeting a ware- major city in modern Saudi Arabia. Erdogan hit by oil and money”, in a reference to the UAE’s would be renamed “Madinah Defender” instead The Syrian Observatory for Human house belonging to Hezbollah, the mon- back at the Emirati minister, telling him to “know rapid growth in recent decades. of 609 Avenue. Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, itor said. — AFP your place” and that the claims were “slander- Ankara mayor Mustafa Tuna said late Continued on Page 11 Khamenei claims FBI: Encryption Iran foiled plot to ‘urgent public overthrow system safety issue’ BEIRUT: Iran has foiled attempts by its foreign enemies to NEW YORK: The inability of law enforcement authori- turn legitimate protests into an insurgency to overthrow the ties to access data from electronic devices due to pow- Islamic Republic, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said erful encryption is an “urgent public safety issue,” FBI yesterday. Comments on his Twitter feed and in Iranian media Director Christopher Wray said yesterday as he sought underscored the establishment’s confidence that it has extin- TEHRAN: Iran’s Supreme Leader to renew a contentious debate over privacy and securi- guished the unrest that spread to more than 80 cities in which Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a state- ty. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was unable to NEW YORK: FBI Director Christopher Wray at least 22 people died since late December. “Once again, the ment yesterday. — AFP access data from nearly 7,800 devices in the fiscal year speaks during a cyber-security conference nation tells the US, Britain, and those who seek to overthrow that ended Sept. 30 with technical tools despite pos- yesterday. — AFP the Islamic Republic of Iran from abroad that ‘you’ve failed, promising “great support from the United States at the sessing proper legal authority to pry them open, a and you will fail in the future, too.’” Khamenei tweeted. appropriate time!” The Iranian leader tweeted: “... this man growing figure that impacts every area of the agency’s untenable. The Revolutionary Guards, the military force loyal to who sits at the head of the White House - although, he seems work, Wray said during a speech at a cyber-security “We face an enormous and increasing number of Khamenei, said on Sunday security forces had put an end to to be a very unstable man - he must realize that these cases that rely heavily, if not exclusively, on electronic the unrest that it too said had been whipped up by foreign conference in New York. extreme and psychotic episodes won’t be left without a The FBI has been unable to access data in more than evidence,” Wray told an audience of FBI agents, inter- enemies. At least 1,000 people have been arrested in the response.” As well as Washington and London, Khamenei national law enforcement representatives and private biggest anti-government protests for nearly a decade, with half of the devices that it tried to unlock due to encryp- blamed the violence on Israel, exiled dissident group People’s tion, Wray added. “This is an urgent public safety issue,” sector cyber professionals. A solution requires “signifi- the judiciary saying ringleaders could face the death penalty. Mujahedin of Iran and “a wealthy government” in the Gulf, a cant innovation,” Wray said, “but I just do not buy the A judiciary official announced yesterday that a detainee in Wray added, while saying that a solution is “not so clear probable reference to Iran’s regional rival, Saudi Arabia. cut”. Technology companies and many digital security claim that it is impossible.” Arak, a town approximately 200 km south of Tehran, had In a rare public appearance, the head of Israeli intelligence experts have said that the FBI’s attempts to require that Wray’s remarks echoed those of his predecessor, died after committing suicide, according to Mizan, the web- agency Mossad said the protests were due to Iranian site of the Iranian judiciary. On Monday, a separate judiciary devices allow investigators a way to access a criminal James Comey, who before being fired by President President Hassan Rouhani’s failure to improve people’s eco- Donald Trump in May frequently spoke about the dan- official announced that a detainee had committed suicide in nomic or social circumstances, but he said they were unlikely suspect’s cellphone would harm internet security and Tehran’s Evin prison.