National & Liberation Days WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2015 JAMADA ALAWWAL 6, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net MoI: Parts How Iranian Gayle smashes Suarez brace of Gulf military double ton as puts Barca in Road to chiefs operate Windies pound charge as Messi be closed5 in13 Iraq Zimbabwe18 misses20 penalty Sisi widens scope of Min 08º Max 23º High Tide security crackdown 04:29 & 15:07 Low Tide Egyptian president issues new anti-terrorism law 10:23 & 23:19 40 PAGES NO: 16444 150 FILS CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has signed off on an anti-terrorism law that gives authorities more FIFA calls for sweeping powers to ban groups on charges ranging from harming national unity to disrupting public order. The winter World move, announced in the official gazette yesterday, is likely to increase concern among rights groups over the govern- ment clawing back freedoms gained after the 2011 upris- Cup in Qatar ing that ended a three-decade autocracy under Hosni Mubarak. Switch angers Europe Authorities have cracked down hard on the Islamist, sec- ular and liberal opposition DOHA: A FIFA task force’s call yesterday for the alike since then army chief 2022 World Cup in Qatar to be shortened and held Sisi toppled elected in November-December met immediate condem- Islamist president nation from Europe’s major football powers. Mohamed Morsi in 2013 Football’s ruling body said the tournament had to after mass protests against be moved from the traditional summer months his rule. According to the because of the scorching temperatures in Qatar. The group made a provisional recommendation for gazette, the law enables the 2022 tournament to start on Nov 26 and end authorities to act against on Dec 23 in a move that risks the wrath of any individual or group European football leagues and international broad- deemed a threat to casters. national security, includ- England’s Premier League chief Peter ing people who disrupt Scudamore said he was “very disappointed” by the public transportation, an apparent reference to decision. Spanish, German and French officials also Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi expressed opposition. A final decision will be made protests. Loose definitions by the FIFA executive committee at a meeting in involving threats to Zurich, Switzerland, on March 19-20. Fierce lobby- national unity may give the police, widely accused of abus- ing is expected up till then. A November-December es, a green light to crush dissent, human rights groups say. tournament was “the most viable period” for the The Interior Ministry says it investigates all allegations of World Cup, according to a FIFA statement released wrongdoing and is committed to Egypt’s democratic transi- after the task force ended its meeting in Doha. tion. Under the mechanism of the law, public prosecutors FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke said the ask a criminal court to list suspects as terrorists and start a working group touched on “all the options”, includ- KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (left) and HH the Crown Prince Sheikh trial. Any group designated as terrorist would be dissolved, ing holding the World Cup in Jan and Feb 2023. “It Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah attend the opening of the botanical garden at Bayan Palace yesterday. the law stipulates. It also allows for the freezing of assets is clear there are pros and cons for all but there is The garden project covers an area of 170,000 sq m and consists of a 3,200 sq m greenhouse hosting various belonging to the group, its members and financiers. one solution coming out from this discussion, exotic plants. — KUNA (See Page 2) Continued on Page 13 which is November-December 2022,” said Valcke, acknowledging that the proposal would not please everyone. Obama hails Qatar as ‘strong partner’ Continued on Page 13 WASHINGTON: US President Barack lize the country with Bashar Al-Assad in Obama praised Qatar as a “strong part- power. “There are areas where we dis- News ner” in the fight against Islamic State agree with the Qataris” said White militants yesterday despite what he House spokesman Josh Earnest, adding in brief called the “extraordinary challenge” of there were more areas where interests stabilizing Syria, as he hosted Emir “overlap”. Weapons found after Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Speaking after the meeting, the Emir the Oval Office. “Qatar is a strong part- also praised the strong bilateral relation- blast at citizen’s house ner in our coalition to degrade and ulti- ship, and urged efforts to advance the mately defeat ISIL,” said Obama, using Middle East peace process. “We have to By Hanan Al-Saadoun another name for the jihadist group. find a solution for Palestine. And I’m hap- “We are both committed to making sure py to learn, to hear from you Mr KUWAIT: A cache of weapons was found in the home of a that ISIL is defeated, to making sure that President, that you’re committed,” he said. citizen in Fahd Al-Ahmad after an explosion at noon yester- in Iraq there is an opportunity for all Libya and Yemen were also discussed. day, the criminal investigation department said late yester- people to live together in peace,” “The bottom line is that Washington and day. It said guns, forged currency, laptops and night-vision Obama said. Doha share an exceptionally strong goggles were seized. Earlier, a security source said that the Qatar is host to a large US military strategic partnership,” said Lori Plotkin citizen was taken to Adan Hospital in critical condition after he sustained burns on his face due to the explosion. base, but the two countries are some- Boghardt of the Washington Institute for Unconfirmed and conflicting reports were swirling times uneasy allies. The White House Near East Policy. “Washington and Doha throughout the day on social media on the cause of the played down allegations that Qatar has certainly have a number of important dif- blast and type of weapons found. itself has abetted hardline Islamic ferences, but we’ve seen over and over groups and is a source of terror financ- again that the strategic partnership ing. Obama said the two leaders are between the two allies ultimately trumps Gunman kills 8 at WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama meets Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim “deeply concerned” about Syria. He said in importance almost all of those differ- Czech restaurant bin Hamad Al-Thani yesterday in the Oval Office of the White House. — AP they don’t believe it’s possible to stabi- ences.” — Agencies PRAGUE: An apparently unstable armed man burst into a restaurant in an eastern Czech town yesterday, killing eight people before committing suicide, offi- cials said. The interior minister ruled out terrorism as a Faberge unveils motive for the rampage at the “Friendship” restaurant in the town of Uhersky Brod, which saw panicked din- first Imperial ers flee through a back door as two dozen shots rang out. “According to the available information, this was egg in 99 years not a terrorist attack, but one carried out by an imbal- anced individual,” Interior Minister Milan Chovanec DOHA: Once the jewel-encrusted playthings of the said on Twitter. Mayor Patrik Kuncar said the assailant, Russian royal family, the first Faberge Imperial egg pro- who turned the gun on himself after the shooting duced in almost a century was set to be unveiled in spree, was carrying two weapons and fired off 25 Qatar yesterday, its makers said. Ninety nine years since shots. Private television station Prima said the gun- Faberge made its last Imperial egg, for Tsar Nicholas II, man, identified as a resident of the town in his 60s, the famous jewel maker will show off had called its crime hotline to announce his plans. its newest creation at an exhibition of watches and jewellery in Doha. The “Faberge Pearl Egg” features IS jihadists kidnap 139 fine white pearls, and more Syrian Christians than 3,300 diamonds as well as BEIRUT: The Islamic State group has seized at least 90 other precious gemstones, accord- Assyrian Christians in Syria, in the jihadists’ first mass ing to the jeweller. Several Gulf kidnapping of Christians in the war-torn country, a nations have a long history of pearl monitor said yesterday. The abductions appeared to be diving, and Qatar is building an artificial in retaliation for a major Kurdish offensive aimed at island off its coast named after the recapturing nearby villages, and which has killed 132 precious treasure. jihadists in four days, said the Syrian Observatory for The egg is the first of its kind Human Rights. The Britain-based monitor said IS kid- commissioned since World War I. napped the Assyrians on Monday after seizing two vil- Faberge’s last Imperial creation - the Steel Military Egg - lages, Tal Shamiram and Tal Hermuz, in Hassakeh was commissioned in 1916 by the Tsar just months province from the control of the Kurdish People’s before he was removed from power by the Russian Protection Units (YPG). After IS attacked the two vil- Revolution and forced to abdicate in Feb 1917. Nicholas lages as well as the nearby town of Tal Tamr, which II had arranged the egg as a present for his wife, remains under Kurdish control, the jihadists set fire to a Alexandra. The tradition of giving decorative eggs was KUWAIT: The banking complex is decorated with lights in the colors of the national flag ahead of the cele- church there and then installed fighters in the remains started by his father, Tsar Alexander III, who surprised brations marking Kuwait’s 54th National Day (Feb 25) and the 24th Liberation Day (Feb 26) in Kuwait City of the building, an activist network reported.