Opposition Activist's Jail Upheld, Tweeters Bailed
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2015 JAMADA ALTHANI 17, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Govt refutes Afghan woman CERN restarts Ronaldo premier’s killed by mob Large Hadron hits five as resignation becomes icon for Collider, seeks Real crush rumors3 justice,14 rights dark28 universe Granada20 9-1 Opposition activist’s jail Min 21º Max 28º upheld, tweeters bailed High Tide 01:05 & 13:05 Low Tide Barrak trial on Apr 13 • Nod to scrap jail for press crimes 07:10 & 17:40 40 PAGES NO: 16482 150 FILS By B Izzak Kuwait plane in KUWAIT: The court of cassation, whose rulings are final, yesterday upheld a two-year jail term against opposi- near collision tion activist Ayyad Al-Harbi for tweets deemed offen- sive to HH the Amir. Harbi has been in jail serving the over Pakistan sentence since May, when the court of appeals handed him the prison term for re-tweeting poems by well- ISLAMABAD: A Kuwait Airways plane head- known Iraqi poet Ahmad Matar highly critical of Arab ing to Islamabad nearly collided with a rulers. The same court also rejected a request to release Malaysian Airlines plane heading to London opposition leader and former MP Musallam Al-Barrak, in Pakistani airspace yesterday, the Saudi who is serving a two-year jail term handed to him about Press Agency reported. Officials at the Civil two months ago for insulting HH the Amir at a public Aviation Authority of Pakistan said the inci- rally in Oct 2012. The court however decided to start dent happened over the Zhob district of hearing the case on April 13. Baluchistan in southwestern Pakistan due to In a related development, the public prosecutor yes- weak air traffic control radar signals. There terday freed two Shiite activists after five days in deten- were no comments from Kuwait Airways or tion for questioning over tweets objecting to the war in KUNA on the incident. Yemen and deemed offensive to the Amir and critical of The near-miss comes on the heels of a sim- Saudi Arabia. The prosecutor released lawyer and for- ilar incident last week involving jetliners from mer MP Khaled Al-Shatti and writer and academic Salah the United Arab Emirates’ two main airlines, Al-Fadhli on KD 3,000 bail each pending further investi- that avoided a midair collision after they gation. The two men were also accused of attempting apparently got too close to each other over to lower the morale of the Kuwaiti army. It was not the Indian Ocean in airspace monitored by air immediately known whether the prosecutor will press traffic controllers in Mumbai. The passenger charges against them or not. planes from Dubai-based Emirates and Abu The National Assembly’s legal and legislative com- Dhabi-based Etihad Airways were traveling in mittee yesterday approved an amendment to the so- opposite directions between the UAE and the called audiovisual law which calls to scrap jail term for island of Seychelles. most offenses and limit the penalty to director of the The carriers recently rerouted flights to the television station and the guest. The committee also archipelago nation to avoid Yemeni airspace approved a proposal calling to grant Kuwaiti couples due to fighting there. Both Emirates and who are awaiting their turn for government houses with Etihad denied that passenger safety was apartments until the houses are ready. The proposal compromised. Neither carrier would say how aims to reduce the economic burden on Kuwaiti fami- close the two planes came to each other. lies in light of the sharp increase in rents. Over 110,000 Indian media later reported that air traffic Kuwaiti families are on a waiting list for their turn to controllers in Mumbai had left their seats for receive government houses. The committee also breakfast, setting the planes on a collision approved a draft law that bans buying, selling and course. — Agencies breeding harmful animals. KUWAIT: An aerial view of Kuwait’s skyline is seen, with the Al-Tijaria tower at right. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat Continued on Page 13 Saudi firms tighten controls Regulators taking harder line before bourse opening RIYADH/DUBAI: When Saudi Cable Co said last shareholders to become more conscious of on condition of anonymity because of com- month it was delaying the release of its 2014 risk, executives and analysts say. mercial sensitivities. He added that his own earnings statement, because it was still compil- “What happened has set the alarm bills ring- firm’s business had grown substantially in the ing information required by an external audi- ing and pushed board members to revise their last few months as some customers began to tor, it was a sign of growing regulatory pressure roles, made investors carefully check financial find fees charged by the big international audi- on companies in the kingdom. Regulators are statements, and caused company manage- tors too steep. signalling they want corporate managements ments to review their accounts carefully,” said Another sign of the regulatory pressure is a to tighten governance and strengthen internal Turki Fadaak, head of research and advisory rise in fines levied by the CMA on listed compa- controls as the $500 billion Saudi stock market services at AlBilad Capital in Riyadh. “It has nies for violations such as inadequate disclo- prepares to open up to direct foreign invest- made us, the analysts, keen on meeting with sure of information. They rose 46 percent from ment in the next few months. company managements more often, and a year earlier to 1.83 million riyals ($488,000) in The process has become more urgent since caused us to look more carefully at everything the first quarter of this year - not a huge bur- an accounting scandal erupted at telecommu- being said and everything that managements den for the companies involved, but a signal of nications firm Mobily, which in February announce.” the regulator’s intentions. The CMA is acting to revised its 2014 earnings to a loss of $243 mil- One sign of the new mood is that the fees ensure a successful stock market opening, lion from the $58.6 million profit previously charged by some auditors are rising as demand which is an important part of the government’s claimed. The Mobily affair, and the probe into it for their services grows. “The risks associated strategy to create jobs and diversify the econo- RIYADH: A member of Saudi security forces stands next to a replica of a fighter launched by the Capital Market Authority with what happened to the listed companies my beyond oil, said a Gulf executive who does jet of the Saudi armed forces during the daily media briefing on Operation (CMA), have prompted many company man- have caused companies to raise their fees,” said business in Saudi Arabia. Decisive Storm on April 2, 2015 at an airbase in the Saudi capital. — AFP agements, board members and even major a partner at a regional auditing firm, speaking Continued on Page 13 Saudi PR offensive Secret weapon backs Yemen ops at Iran talks: A whiteboard RIYADH: The lights fade and rapid-fire The modern version with video and a images flash across a large screen to the charismatic presenter was pioneered - in WASHINGTON: In this hi-tech age of gadgets and sounds of war: marching men, the flaming Riyadh - by US General Norman gizmos, a simple whiteboard found in classrooms afterburner of a fighter jet, radio traffic and Schwarzkopf during the 1990-91 Gulf War, around the globe was the tool that helped negotia- adrenaline-pumping music. Cue multilin- otherwise known as Operation Desert tors seal the complex parameters of a Iran nuclear gual Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri and Storm, when American troops were based deal. Until the final hours, US diplomats who had his nightly media briefing on Operation in the kingdom. Assiri and the coalition are spent eight days locked in a Lausanne hotel ham- Decisive Storm, the Saudi-led coalition following in that tradition, and have the mering out the outlines of what could be one of the which began air strikes against Shiite mili- help of a Dubai-based public relations most complex arms-control treaties ever feared their tia in neighboring Yemen on March 26. In firm. The daily briefings are delivered just efforts would be in vain. a highly conservative Islamic kingdom, after 7:00 pm at the Riyadh Air Base in a Three times US Secretary of State John Kerry’s where cinemas and alcohol are banned, red-seated theatre chilled by air condition- BENGHAZI: An image taken on April 1, 2015 shows a Libyan boy sitting behind plane was put on stand-by to leave. Luggage was women are not allowed to drive and they ing, far from the stench of death and terror birdcages at a market on the grounds of slain Libyan dictator Muammar collected from his team of negotiators and staff as must dress from head to toe in black, this of gunfire on Yemen’s streets. Gaddafi’s former palace in this eastern city. — AFP well as from the travelling press. Three times the is an unusual display of public relations. After the short video clip to set the flight was pushed back. “It was quite a rollercoaster. It coincides with a more forceful Saudi mood, Assiri speaks from a lectern, stand- We’d get close, we kept on changing the plane foreign policy under King Salman, who ing in front of 11 flags representing the Gaddafi palaces now schedule. It would go, it wouldn’t go. We had to reset ascended the throne in January. “They members of the coalition.