SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, JUNE 8, 2015 SHAABAN 21, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Two medics G7 summit Tracking IS’ Wawrinka killed in opens with female dashes Djokovic ambulance tough line cheerleaders dream to win accident5 on10 Ukraine online14 French20 Open Government to retain 75% Min 33º Max 46º stake in Kuwait Airways High Tide 04:00 & 15:10 Move sounds death knell for privatization plan Low Tide 09:50 & 22:25 40 PAGES NO: 16545 150 FILS Saudi top court By B Izzak Expats top high school results KUWAIT: The National Assembly’s financial and eco- upholds lashes, nomic affairs committee and the government yesterday reached a deal in principle for the need to raise the gov- ernment’s stake in Kuwait Airways to 75 percent and jail for blogger make it the national carrier, a measure expected to DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s supreme court has upheld a delay or even kill the airline’s privatization plan. The sentence of 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes against move also excludes potential investors such as Jazeera blogger Raif Badawi on charges of insulting Islam, Airways. his wife said yesterday. The judgement came The privatization law, issued in 2008, stipulates to despite worldwide outrage over his case and criti- privatize the carrier by selling a 35 percent stake to a cism from the United Nations, United States, the strategic investor, 40 percent to be given to citizens, 20 European Union, Canada percent to the government and five percent to employ- and others. “This is a final ees. Under the new proposal, the remaining 20 percent decision that is irrevoca- will be offered to citizens and five percent to current ble,” Ensaf Haidar told AFP and retired employees. Secretary of the committee MP in a telephone interview Mohammad Al-Jabri said Communications Minister Essa from Canada. “This deci- Al-Kandari agreed in principle to raise the government sion has shocked me.” stake in Kuwait Airways to 75 percent, which means the Badawi received the first privatization plan will be dead. 50 of the 1,000 lashes he Jabri said that the amendment is required due to the was sentenced to outside fact that Kuwait Airways’ value has increased to around Raif Badawi a mosque in the Red Sea KD 2 billion after its plans to purchase 25 Airbus and 10 city of Jeddah on Jan 9. Boeing planes, which will make it difficult for local com- Subsequent rounds of punishment were postponed panies to purchase a strategic stake. Previous proposals put the government’s stake at 20 to 40 percent and on medical grounds. allowed strategic investors to own up to 35 percent. Amnesty International slammed the “abhorrent” Kuwait’s low-cost carrier Jazeera Airways on May 31 said decision to uphold a “cruel and unjust sentence,” it filed an interest to acquire 35 percent stake in the describing it as a “dark day for freedom of expres- state-owned carrier. The new proposal would exclude sion”. “Blogging is not a crime and Raif Badawi is domestic carrier competitors as potential bidders. being punished merely for daring to exercise his The committee and the government also reached an right to freedom of expression,” said Philip Luther, understanding to establish a shareholding company for Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa director. KUWAIT: Education Minister Dr Badr Al-Essa (right) announces the general secondary school certificate results during a press conference yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat the recruitment of domestic helpers. Continued on Page 13 Continued on Page 13 News Turkey election deals blow to Erdogan in brief S Korea to track phones AKP loses majority • Kurdish party to enter parliament to prevent MERS spread ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip cial seat projection, the AKP will have 259 SEOUL: South Korean authorities will track the cell- Erdogan’s hopes of assuming greater pow- seats in the 550-seat parliament, the CHP phones of hundreds of people under quarantine to pre- ers suffered a serious blow yesterday 131, the MHP 82 and the HDP 78. vent the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome when the ruling party failed to win an out- The results also wreck Erdogan’s dream (MERS) and reported a fifth death in the outbreak, with right majority in a parliamentary election. of agreeing a new constitution to switch the number of infections rising to 64. The government, The Islamic-rooted Justice and Turkey from a parliamentary to a presiden- criticized over its lack of transparency in handling the Development Party (AKP) won the most tial system that he had made a fundamen- outbreak, bowed to public pressure yesterday and iden- votes in yesterday’s election but has lost its tal point of the campaign. Such a change tified 24 health facilities where infections took place or parliamentary majority and will need to would have required a two-thirds majority MERS patients visited. It reported 14 confirmed new form a coalition, according to official in the parliament. Erdogan - premier from cases of MERS, adding to the largest number outside of results based on 98 percent of votes 2003-2014 before becoming president - the Middle East. Over 2,300 people in South Korea were counted. The AKP secured 41 percent of wanted to be enshrined as Turkey’s most under quarantine as of yesterday, some in healthcare the vote, followed by the Republican powerful figure and strengthen the office facilities but most at home, including an entire village of People’s Party (CHP) on 25 percent, the of the presidency which was largely cere- about 105 people in the southwest after a resident who Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on 16.5 monial until his arrival. visited a hospital where the country’s first patient with and the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic “We expect a minority government and MERS was treated turned out to be infected. Party (HDP) fourth on 12.5 percent. an early election,” a senior AKP official told Turnout was 86 percent. Reuters on condition of anonymity. The The results mean that the HDP has easi- lira currency weakened sharply against the Calif student accepted to ly passed Turkey’s 10 percent threshold for dollar in thin out-of-hours dealing as every Ivy League school winning seats in the parliament, which investors, fearing further political uncer- FULLERTON, California: It would have been a was one of the main points of suspense in tainty, positioned themselves for the start success story if Fullerton High School senior the poll. The prospect of it clearing the of trade today. The atmosphere outside Fernando Rojas, the son of Mexican immigrants DIYARBAKIR, Turkey: A supporter of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party threshold to enter parliament for the first the AKP’s headquarters in Ankara was whose schooling stopped in the eighth grade, was (HDP) waves a Kurdish flag and holds a flare as she celebrates in the streets after time triggered celebrations in the mostly muted. accepted to college. But the 17-year-old achieved the initial results of the legislative election yesterday. — AFP Kurdish southeast. According to the offi- Continued on Page 13 a surprising clean sweep - he was accepted to every elite Ivy League school. The first call came from Yale University in February. Within weeks, calls, emails and letters followed from Dartmouth Manhunt for killers who Russia, Qatar may College, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Columbia lose World Cups University, Harvard University and Princeton escaped from NY prison University. Rojas also was accepted by Stanford GENEVA: Russia and Qatar could lose the right to NEW YORK: Police backed by K-9 units and helicopters University and two nearby schools, the University host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups if evidence is staged a manhunt yesterday for two convicted murderers found of corruption in the bidding process, a FIFA of California, Irvine, and California State University, who escaped from New York state’s biggest maximum Fullerton. A national speech and debate champi- official was quoted as saying yesterday. The com- security prison by cutting through cell walls with power ments by the head of FIFA’s auditing and compli- on, Rojas reasoned that if he applied to the eight tools and escaping along tunnels. Richard Matt, 48, and ance committee came as bribery claims mounted Ivy League schools, he might get into one. After David Sweat, 34, pulled off the unprecedented breakout against disgraced former FIFA vice president Jack visiting several campuses, he settled on Yale, from the all-male Clinton Correctional Facility in the small Warner, the man at the heart of the scandal engulf- which costs $64,000 a year with room and board. town of Dannemora sometime between Friday night and ing football’s world body. “If evidence exists that He is responsible for $6,000; Yale scholarships and early Saturday. Police said the discovery was made during Qatar and Russia received the (World Cup) awards federal grant money cover the rest. a predawn bed check and warned the duo should not be only thanks to bribes, then the awards could be approached. The inmates reportedly left a taunting note annulled,” Domenico Scala told the Swiss newspa- behind on a yellow Post-it saying: “Have A Nice Day.” per Sonntagszeitung. He said however that “this evi- The pair, who lived in adjoining cells, used power tools dence has not been provided” so far. to drill through walls and pipes and left sweatshirts and Richard Matt David Sweat His comments are the first by a senior FIFA offi- other clothing in their beds as decoys to make it appear viduals, one was incarcerated for killing a sheriff, so these cial to even open up the possibility of either Russia they were still in their cells, officials said.