JAMADA ALTHANI 12, 1439 AH WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2018 Max 22º 32 Pages Min 15º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 17468 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Zain Group publishes latest Syrian warplanes strike Eastern Comcast seeks to outfox Football beats politics for 17 thought leadership report 6 Ghouta despite Russian ‘truce’ 19Murdoch with rival Sky bid 15 fans as Iraq, Saudi clash Saudi shakeup sees younger generation, woman elevated Saudi crown prince to visit Britain on March 7 RIYADH/LONDON: Saudi Arabia has minister and heir apparent, has promised prompted by the short-term problems facing replaced some of its top military officers in a reforms to wean Saudi Arabia off oil exports, the military in Yemen but is part of a long-term shake-up that elevates a younger generation, create jobs and open up Saudis’ cloistered strategy that has been years in the making. brings a woman into a senior government job and lifestyles. The latest personnel changes were “The most significant order issued by King tightens Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s decreed by King Salman and published in state Salman was approval of the Ministry of grip on power. In a reshuffle announced late on media. No reason was given but the changes Defense development plan,” tweeted Faisal bin Monday, the military chief of staff, air defense appear to have enabled Prince Mohammed to Farhan, a senior adviser at the Saudi embassy and land forces heads and senior defense and put his personal stamp of authority on key in Washington, referring to Monday’s royal interior ministry officials were removed. Tamadur levers of the military. decrees. “This multiyear effort, which had been bint Youssef Al-Ramah became deputy labor The new military chief of staff was named as under review for months encompasses all ele- minister, a rare high-level job for a woman in the First Lieutenant Fayyad bin Hamed Al-Ruwayli. ments of the ministry including organization, deeply conservative kingdom. His predecessor, First Lieutenant Abdelrahman force structure and long term procurement.” The overhaul was a nod to a younger gener- bin Saleh Al-Banyan, was retired and made a Banyan’s retirement comes after he inaugu- ation, analysts said, in what has become a hall- royal advisor. The decrees included adopting a rated a global arms exhibition this week in the mark of the crown prince’s approach to ruling new strategy to restructure the defense min- Saudi capital Riyadh by the Saudi Arabian youthful Saudi Arabia, where patriarchal tradi- istry for improved organization and gover- Military Industries (SAMI), the state-owned tions have long made power the preserve of the nance, but provided few details. Prince defense company. “A military transformation is old. The appointment of a woman at the labor Mohammed has said it is “unacceptable” that underway in Saudi Arabia,” Theodore Karasik, ministry is part of efforts to modernize and high military spending has not translated into a senior advisor at the consultancy Gulf States promote a more moderate form of Islam. better performance. Analytics, told AFP. RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman yesterday received senior The crown prince, who at 32 is also defense Government officials insist the revamp is not Continued on Page 11 officers who were appointed and promoted to new military ranks. — SPA criticism for their treatment of laborers and strolled through a park in the city. “My eld- Courts tackle maids. Attorney Mohammed Al-Humaidi, est son started university this year to study director of the Kuwait Society for Human business administration. It’s expensive, and 5 lawmakers Rights, said his group regularly receives there’s no way I would have been able to all crimes with calls for help from Filipinas with abusive afford it if I had stayed in my country.” employers. “While we have a deal with a Demafelis’ body was discovered in an submit general equal zeal: MP legal bureau which represents workers and abandoned flat in Kuwait, bearing what offi- maids in court, the unfortunate reality is that cials said appeared to be signs of torture. A amnesty law KUWAIT: The murder of a Filipina maid many calls for help do not even reach us,” he Lebanese-Syrian couple suspected of the whose body was found in a freezer in Kuwait said. young maid’s murder were arrested last By B Izzak has triggered outrage and prompted Manila But the estimated 252,000 Filipinos and week in the Syrian capital Damascus, after to impose a departure ban for its citizens Filipinas already working in Kuwait must an Interpol manhunt. Philippine President Adel Al-Damkhi KUWAIT: Five opposition lawmakers yesterday planning to work in the state. But the head of weigh their fear of sharing the fate of Rodrigo Duterte responded to the murder submitted a draft law calling to pardon all those Kuwait’s parliamentary human rights com- Demafelis against the potential loss of vital by accusing employers of raping and starv- jailed for storming the National Assembly building mittee, Adel Al-Damkhi, says the judiciary income for their families. Many have rela- ing their Filipina workers, and announced a over six years ago. MPs Adel Al-Damkhi, Omar Al- does not discriminate when it comes to tives back home who depend on remittances ban on the country’s citizens heading to Tabtabaei, Ali Al-Deqbasi, Al-Humaidi Al-Subaei crimes in Kuwait. “There have been several to survive, and some say they are forced to Kuwait for work. Duterte also launched a and Osama Al-Shaheen demanded that the draft horrific incidents on both sides, but crimes choose between their own wellbeing and repatriation plan. legislation be discussed and approved urgently. The committed by Kuwaitis are more prominent that of their children. Kuwait, whose image was dealt a serious first article of the law calls for granting a pardon to in the media than crimes committed by the Luzviminda has worked in a hair salon in blow, earlier offered an amnesty to illegal those jailed for the incidents that took place on maids,” Damkhi said. He called the murder of central Kuwait City since 2013 to support workers wanting to fly back home. As of last Nov 16 and 17, 2011, a reference to the storming of Joanne Demafelis “a heinous crime”. “The her five children, who live with her mother in week, 2,500 Filipinos had taken advantage the Assembly building by opposition demonstrators suspects have been arrested and will be the Philippines. Despite being rattled by of the amnesty and left, while another 2,500 following a protest outside the building. tried, just as any Kuwaitis who attack their news of her compatriot’s murder, the 40- were awaiting repatriation. Continued on Page 11 workers will be punished,” he said. year-old told AFP going home was not an Gulf countries have long drawn harsh option. “I need the money,” she said as she Continued on Page 11 Mohammad Al-Humaidi in other rock art forms in the Saudi desert. required ropes or scaffolding. One engraving Rock art mystery: They could help unravel the mysteries of in particular stands out - a camel facing what ancient life in the Arabian peninsula. “They appears to be a donkey, mule or horse, ani- are a work of artistry and creativity,” Khalifah mals that have rarely been represented in the Ancient sculptures said, giving AFP a tour of the desolate area in region’s rock art. Al-Jouf, now well known in archeological cir- “The three dimensional carvings show in Saudi desert cles as “the camel site”. great skill in their level of naturalism and their Khalifah, part of a Franco-Saudi research sheer size,” Maria Guagnin, from the AL-JOUF, Saudi Arabia: Squinting in the team that explored the site in 2016 and 2017, Germany-based Max Planck Institute for the Saudi desert, Hussain Al-Khalifah points at said he accidentally discovered the carvings Science of Human History, told AFP. “This his unprecedented archaeological discovery - some years ago when a local friend told him may potentially change our understanding of camels carved on russet-hued rocky spurs about a “camel-shaped mountain”. “Instead prehistoric population dynamics and cultural that could shed new light on the evolution of when I visited the area, I found camels were traits.” But the site is shrouded in mystery, rock art. Around a dozen humped sculptures, carved in the mountain outcrops. This is truly with little information on who created the some of them damaged from erosion and unique,” he said. Camels - for centuries ven- carvings or the tools they used. Khalifah said vandalism, are possibly around 2,000 years erated as the “ship of the desert” - are a the closest may be the Nabateans, a nomadic old and were recently found in a private familiar motif in artworks from the kingdom. Arab tribe known for founding the city of property along a desert crossing in the north- But the three dimensional engravings in Al- Petra in modern-day Jordan that was carved ern province of Al-Jouf. Jouf, some featuring only part of a camel’s out of sandstone desert cliffs. The discovery Chiseled on three rocky spurs, the sculp- body such as the hooves, differ from those has shone a spotlight on Saudi Arabia’s rich SAKAKA, Saudi Arabia: A picture taken on Feb 22, 2018 shows carved sculptures tures, which also depict equids, or hoofed discovered at other Saudi sites. Many are bedouin heritage. of a donkey facing the partial head of a camel at the site of an archaeological dis- mammals, show a level of artistic skill unseen perched high on the outcrops and would have Continued on Page 11 covery in Saudi Arabia’s northwestern Jawf province.