SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2014 JAMADA ALAWWAL 9, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Kuwait Bomber Afghanistan’s Real Madrid Housing kills 45 in powerful back on Conference Iraqi city vice president top after kicks off2 of Hilla8 Fahim11 dies Levante20 stroll Missing jet may have Max 27º Min 20º disintegrated midair High Tide 07:55 & 17:40 Low Tide Radar shows plane may have turned back 00:59 & 12:12 40 PAGES NO: 16100 150 FILS KUALA LUMPUR: Officials investigating the disappear- ance of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner with 239 people on Assembly panel board suspect it may have disintegrated in mid-flight, a senior source said yesterday, as Vietnam reported a pos- wants answers sible sighting of wreckage from the plane. International police agency Interpol confirmed that at least two pass- over causeway ports recorded in its database as lost or stolen were used by passengers on the flight, raising suspicions of By B Izzak foul play. Nearly 48 hours after the last contact with Flight KUWAIT: The National Assembly’s public funds pro- MH370, mystery still surrounded its fate. Malaysia’s air tection committee yesterday gave the ministry of force chief said the Beijing-bound airliner may have public works one week to answer questions over turned back from its scheduled route before it vanished procedures adopted in awarding the Subbiya cause- from radar screens. “The fact that we are unable to find way project. Head of the committee MP Jamal Al- any debris so far appears to indicate that the aircraft is Omar said the panel discussed the multi-billion-dol- likely to have disintegrated at around 35,000 feet,” a lar contract with a team from the ministry of public source involved in the investigations in Malaysia told works and another from the Audit Bureau that Reuters. briefed the panel about the awarding of the contract If the plane had plunged intact from close to its of the causeway, known as Sheikh Jaber Causeway. cruising altitude, breaking up only on impact with the The bureau explained the administrative proce- water, search teams would have expected to find a fairly dures followed in the awarding process and their concentrated pattern of debris, said the source, speak- compliance to the country’s laws and regulations, ing on condition of anonymity because he was not Omar said. With regard to claims that the awarding authorised to discuss the investigation publicly. Asked process involved “suspicions”, the lawmakers said a about the possibility of an explosion, such as a bomb, number of questions were given to the ministry of the source said there was no evidence yet of foul play public works and it was given one week to answer and that the aircraft could have broken up due to them. The committee will prepare its report on the mechanical causes. issue after receiving the replies, he said. Dozens of military and civilian vessels have been Work has already started on the KD 738 million crisscrossing waters beneath the aircraft’s flight path, project to build the 36-km causeway to link Kuwait but have found no confirmed trace of the lost plane, City with Subbiya where a huge urban development although oil slicks have been reported in the sea south project is planned. MEDAN, Indonesia: Risman Siregar comforts his wife Erlina Panjaitan, parents of Firman Chandra Siregar, a of Vietnam and east of Malaysia. Late yesterday, the Civil Continued on Page 13 24-year-old passenger of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 that went missing on Saturday. — AP Continued on Page 13 Ashton on goodwill visit to Iran TEHRAN: EU foreign policy chief relative moderate who has the ear of Catherine Ashton said yesterday a final supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. accord on Iran’s nuclear program cannot The so-called P5+1 - UN Security Council Drought a be guaranteed, during a landmark visit permanent members Britain, China, that underscores a thaw in Tehran’s ties France, Russia and the United States plus threat to with the West. Ashton is in Tehran on an Germany - hopes to reach final agree- official visit that comes after Iran signed ment by July 20, when the initial pact is a preliminary deal in November with due to expire. food prices world powers under which it agreed to “This interim agreement is really curb its disputed nuclear activities in important but not as important as a AMMAN: The Middle East’s driest winter in several exchange for sanctions relief. comprehensive agreement (which is)... decades could pose a threat to global food prices, The breakthrough was made possible difficult, challenging, and there is no with local crops depleted and farmers’ livelihoods after last year’s election of Iranian guarantee that we will succeed,” Ashton blighted, UN experts and climatologists say. President Hassan Rouhani, viewed as a Continued on Page 13 Varying degrees of drought are hitting almost two thirds of the limited arable land across Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and ABU DHABI: Egyptian Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayyeb (left) talks Iraq. “Going back to the last 100 years, I don’t think with UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahayan you can get a five-year span that’s been as dry,” said during the opening session of a two-day forum entitled ìPromoting Peace in Mohammad Raafi Hossain, a UN Food and Muslim Societiesî yesterday. — AFP Agriculture Organisation (FAO) environmental economist. The dry season has already hurt prospects for UAE backs Saudis with the cereal harvest in areas of Syria and to a lesser extent Iraq. Several of the countries under pressure Brotherhood blacklist are already significant buyers of grain from interna- tional markets. “When governments that are Saudis, Emiratis quit Qatari media responsible for importing basic foodstuffs have shortages in production, they will go to outside DUBAI/RIYADH: The United Arab on Friday. Those who join or support the markets, where the extra demand will no doubt Emirates has thrown its support behind groups could face five to 30 years in push global food prices higher,” said Nakd Khamis, neighboring Saudi Arabia’s decision to prison under the new Saudi policy. seed expert and consultant to the FAO. The label the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist The Gulf moves against the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) shows the region organization, increasing Gulf Arab pres- Brotherhood follow an Egyptian decision has not had such low rainfall since at least 1970. sure on the Islamist group. Saudi Arabia to label it a terrorist organization in This was part of the initial findings of a joint listed the 86-year-old Brotherhood along December. The move by the military- technical study on Drought Risk Management with several other groups, including Al- backed interim government in Cairo Continued on Page13 TEHRAN: Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani welcomes European Union’s foreign Qaeda affiliates, as terrorist organizations Continued on Page 13 policy chief Catherine Ashton yesterday. — AP in the news Bahrainis could be US committed Oman businessman executed over blast to Gulf security jailed over bribes DUBAI: Four Shiites who “confessed” to taking part in ABU DHABI: The United States is committed to preserv- MUSCAT: A court in Oman yesterday sentenced a for- an attack that killed three policemen in Bahrain this ing security in the oil-rich Gulf region despite its growing mer executive of an engineering firm to a total of 15 month could face the death penalty if convicted, prose- energy independence, US Commerce Secretary Penny years in jail for five counts of bribery in exchange for cutors said yesterday. Death sentences are usually com- Pritzker said yesterday. “The United States and the UAE contracts from a state-owned oil company. The trial, muted to life imprisonment - 25 years - in the Gulf king- share a commitment to preserve security and stability part of a crackdown by the government on corrup- dom, which has been rocked by a Shiite-led uprising throughout the Gulf,” Pritzker told a business forum in tion in the Western-allied country, was the second against the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty since 2011. The Abu Dhabi. “That commitment will not change even as against former managing director of Galfar public prosecution service has ordered Sami Mirza the United States becomes more energy independent,” Engineering and Contracting, Mohammed Ali, who Ahmed Mushaima, Abbas Jamil Tahir Alsameea, Ali she said. Washington was interested in “making sure that was sentenced to three years in jail in January over Mohammed Jamil Taher Alsameea and Yusuf Ahmed oil markets throughout the world remain stable and well bribes made to Petroleum Development Oman (PDO). Mohammed Taher Alsameea “jailed on remand after supplied,” she added. Pritzker is leading a trade mission In the latest case, the prosecutor accused Ali, an being charged with establishing and joining a terrorist on a Gulf tour that will also take her to Saudi Arabia and Indian national, of giving bribes to PDO employees to group... (and) killing security personnel,” a statement Qatar. In October last year, oil production in the United facilitate the awarding of contracts to his firm. The said. The four, who have “confessed” their involvement States surpassed crude imports for the first time in nearly judge sentenced Ali to three years in jail for each of in the blast, are also accused of manufacturing and pos- two decades, helped mainly by production from newly the five counts of bribery and ordered the sentences sessing explosives to disturb “public security and for a tapped shale-based reserves. The shift has taken US ABU DHABI: US Commerce Secretary Penny to run consecutively, for a total of 15 years.