SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015 JAMADA ALAWWAL 4, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Citizens, expats Liverpool treated alike, survive penalty Municipality drama to chief assures4 sink20 Saints Barrak handed two years Min 06º Max 18º in jail for insulting Amir High Tide 02:38 : 16:57 Fiery opposition leader defiant, plans to revive protests Low Tide 09:05 & 21:31 40 PAGES NO: 16442 150 FILS By B Izzak US convenes war council in Kuwait KUWAIT: The court of appeals yesterday sentenced prominent opposition leader Musallam Al-Barrak to two KUWAIT: New Pentagon chief Ashton Carter will hold years in jail on charges of insulting HH the Amir during talks today in Kuwait with top US commanders and a public rally. A defiant Barrak, an outspoken former MP, diplomats to discuss the war effort against the said jail sentences will “not defeat” him and vowed that Islamic State jihadist group, officials said. Carter flew he will make the “walls of prison explode with his ideas”. to Kuwait City from Afghanistan yesterday to chair Leading former opposition MPs, leaders of opposi- the extraordinary meeting that will see more than tion groups and activists flooded social media with two dozen senior military officers and ambassadors strong condemnations almost immediately after judge gather at the sprawling US Army base of Camp Anwar Al-Enezi passed the Arifjan, officials said. Carter, an experienced Pentagon sentence. Former speaker technocrat who took office last week, “wants it to be Ahmad Al-Saadoun and many an open conversation regardless of rank,” a senior US other former MPs and activists defence official told reporters. gathered at Barrak’s diwaniya The meeting was not intended to produce a new in Andalus, where he strategy but to allow Carter to better understand the announced a plan to revive challenge posed by the jihadists and the range of opposition-led protests fol- efforts aimed at defeating them, said the official, who lowing a lull of over a year. spoke on condition of anonymity. Carter will be look- Barrak told the crowd that ing for an update on all facets of the campaign on the Popular Action Movement both the military and diplomatic front, including the (PAM) will invite all opposition Iraqi government’s efforts to recruit Sunnis into the groups for a meeting to work fight against the IS extremists, the official said. The out a plan to revive protests. In Musallam Al-Barrak talks also will examine how to counter the IS group his speech, Barrak hit out at across the region. the government, the National Assembly and the prime Carter likely will raise questions about “what it minister, saying that MPs in the current Assembly are means when we have groups swearing allegiance to puppets in the hands of Prime Minister HH Sheikh Jaber ISIL in Libya, in Egypt, in Afghanistan,” said the official Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah. using another acronym for IS and “how are we think- He also said that the opposition has been out of the ing about the next few years of the counter-terrorism Assembly for three years but no development has taken fight,” the official said. The meeting will include the place although the opposition was blamed for blocking commander running the anti-IS campaign, development. Barrak said he is proud to be in jail for Lieutenant General James Terry, as well as the heads KUWAIT: US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter (left) is greeted by Kuwait’s Defense Minister Sheikh Khalid stances like the ones he had expressed at the public ral- of US Central Command, Africa Command, European Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah at Kuwait International Airport yesterday. Carter is on his first overseas trip since ly two years ago, adding that the most corrupt MP was a command, Special Operations Command and Joint starting the Pentagon job last Tuesday. — AFP mosque imam for six months and had received KD 9 Continued on Page 13 million in bribes. Continued on Page 13 News Sisi calls for joint Arab force, hails Gulf in brief CAIRO: Egypt’s president said yesterday a video that showed him seated on an that the need for a joint Arab military force armchair with his desk in the background No private school is growing every day as the region faces in front of a giant Egyptian white, red and fee increases: MoE the threat of Islamic militancy. President black flag. His comments were made in Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi also said in a recorded short clips interrupted by archival footage By A Saleh address aired by state television that of him meeting world leaders or speaking Egypt’s military has no interest in invading on previous occasions as well as Egyptian KUWAIT: Education Minister Badr Al-Essa yesterday issued or attacking other nations, but will defend military servicemen going through their a decision freezing school fees for the scholastic year 2015- Egypt as well as the region “if required and drills. 2016 at all private Arab, bilingual, British, American, French, in coordination with our Arab brothers”. “The need for a unified Arab force is Indian, Filipino, Pakistani and Iranian schools. The schools A soldier-turned-politician, the growing and becoming more pressing will charge the same fees of the 2014-2015 school year, Egyptian leader says both Jordan and the every day,” said Sisi, who took office in during which many schools had United Arab Emirates have offered to dis- June. As military chief, Sisi led the July already raised their fees. According patch military forces to aid Egypt following 2013 ouster of the Islamist Mohammed to the decision, all schools will also last week’s beheading in Libya of 21 Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, follow instructions about wages of Egyptian Coptic Christians by Islamic State after millions took to the streets to teachers and administrative staff as militants. Egyptian warplanes struck demand that he step down. Sisi’s assertion per decision number 19724/2002 Islamic State positions in the eastern that a joint Arab military force was needed issued on March 17, 2002. The Libyan city of Darna early last Monday, just was the first public confirmation by an decision also authorized the assis- hours after the release of a video showing Arab leader that the creation of such a tant undersecretary for private the beheadings. Sisi said in his address force was a possibility. education in setting the regula- Badr Al-Essa that the warplanes struck 13 targets which Last November, the AP reported that KOBANE, Syria: A Turkish soldier gestures on top of an army vehicle in a tions needed for fees to be collect- had been “carefully surveyed and studied”. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab ed for the school year 2016-2017 by Dec 3, 2015. The deci- street in this town yesterday during an operation to evacuate a garrison He gave no further details. Emirates and Kuwait were discussing the guarding the Suleyman Shah mausoleum in northern Syria. — AFP sion added that schools that violate its regulations will be Sisi delivered his recorded comments in Continued on Page 13 warned by a 30-day notice, after which concerned schools’ transactions would be stopped for a month unless the vio- lation is undone. It said that if violations remain after the Saudi effort to promote Turkey pulls tomb, one-month period, the school’s license would be cancelled as of the end of the school year. open society in tatters guards from Syria Met refutes foul VIENNA: Austria was enthusiastic when figures who sit on its board with Muslim, Saudi Arabia said it was ready to bankroll Hindu and Buddhist representatives, and Damascus slams ‘flagrant aggression’ weather reports a center for religious and cultural under- experts who view KAICIID as a cautious ANKARA: Almost 600 Turkish troops area inside Syria close to the Turkish standing in Vienna - but two years after attempt at outreach by the late king who pushed deep into Syria early yesterday border where officials said the tomb By Nawara Fattahova its launch, the desert kingdom’s foray hoped that reforms - however modest - in an unprecedented incursion, evacu- will be relocated within days. Turkish into promoting a more open society initiated by the center would trickle ating Turkish soldiers guarding a his- television showed pictures of troops KUWAIT: Reports on social media warning against abroad while continuing to repress rights down into Saudi society. toric tomb who had been stranded in triumphantly planting the Turkish flag hurricanes, thunderstorms, heavy rain and floods at home is in tatters. Its vice president, a Continued on Page 13 territory controlled by Islamic State at the new location in the nighttime were denied yesterday by Meteorologist Mohammed former Austrian justice minister, has quit jihadists. The Damascus government, operation. Turkish tanks had earlier Karam, Director of the Civil Aviation’s Weather over comments interpreted as down- which no longer controls the area but driven through the ruined streets of Forecast Department. “The weather is little windy playing Saudi beheadings. And the cen- tonight, but wind speed will is at loggerheads with Ankara over the the Syrian town of Kobane - controlled ter’s silence over the flogging of a Saudi decrease and the weather will Syria conflict, lashed out at what it by Kurdish fighters after a months- blogger for criticizing Islam has drawn be stable. The wind will be described as a “flagrant aggression” on long battle with jihadists - on their weekly street protests and condemna- northwesterly and moderate, Syrian territory. way to the tomb. tion from Austria’s chancellor - who said with some clouds tomorrow. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet There were reportedly 40 Turkish the nation “will not tolerate” the center’s Reports about unstable Davutoglu said the mission had suc- soldiers guarding the mausoleum refusal to repudiate Saudi human rights weather are just rumors,” ceeded, with the soldiers returning complex of Suleyman Shah on the violations.