RABI ALTHANI 16, 1439 AH WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2018 Max 22º 32 Pages Min 10º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 17421 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Amir holds talks with S Korea offers talks with Algeria cancer survivors Oman, UAE qualify 2 visiting Bahraini PM 9 North ahead of Olympics 23 shunned as ‘half-women’ 16 for Gulf Cup final Ghanem visits jailed MPs as panel fails to meet again Muwaizri urges speaker to withdraw Assembly storming case By B Izzak the Assembly building in Nov 2011 dur- ing a protest. Kuwait enters UN KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Meanwhile, opposition MP Shuaib Al- Marzouq Al-Ghanem yesterday visited Muwaizri lashed out at Ghanem and MPs Waleed Al-Tabtabaei and Jamaan urged him to withdraw the case against Security Council Al-Harbash and a number of activists the activists. He said that many such cas- UNITED NATIONS: Kuwait, Equatorial Guinea, jailed in connection with storming the es had been withdrawn by public entities Ivory Coast, Peru, Poland and the Netherlands formally Assembly building in 2011. The speaker and the cases ended, and the speaker joined the ranks of the non-permanent members of the described the visit as “successful and should do the same. Muwaizri also United Nations Security Council yesterday “to make a smooth”, denying reports and rumors threatened to grill Minister of Social difference”, the body’s president said. “Peace and about the visit. He said that he met the Affairs and Labor Hind Al-Sabeeh. security are difficult to achieve,” Kazakh envoy Kairat two lawmakers and a number of activists. In a related development, the Earlier reports had claimed that a number Assembly’s legal and legislative affairs Umarov, who took the rotating presidency in January, Marzouq Al-Ghanem Waleed Al-Tabtabaei Jamaan Al-Harbash told council members at a special ceremony. “You are of activists had refused to meet Ghanem. committee failed to meet yesterday for going to have a real chance to make a difference.” One In a related matter, four activists the second time in a row to discuss a let- after the other, ambassadors representing the council’s jailed in the same case formed what ter by the two jailed lawmakers to allow experts to present their viewpoints in arrest of the two lawmakers, who enjoy six new member countries - five men and a woman, they called the Democratic Party from them to attend Assembly sessions. But a writing to include it in the report. Subaei parliamentary immunity. MP Osama Al- Polish envoy Joanna Wronecka - placed their flag their jail ward with the aim to create “a subcommittee assigned by the Assembly said the main legal panel failed to meet Shaheen held the government responsi- among those of the body’s nine other members. new political class to safeguard the to review the letter held a meeting and because some of its members have trav- ble for foiling the legal committee’s The UN Security Council has 15 members, including constitution and work to develop it”. heard the constitutional views of two elled, but added they assured him they meeting “because its pro-government five with permanent seats who have the power to veto The appeals court last month sen- lawyers on the matter, head of the com- will attend the panel meeting next MPs abstained”, adding that this is a sign resolutions - Britain, China, France, Russia and the tenced about 67 opposition MPs and mittee MP Al-Humaidi Al-Subaei said. Monday, when the report will be ready of the government’s unwillingness to United States. Three women and 12 men are among the activists to harsh jail terms for storming He said that the panel asked the two for voting. The letter challenges the cooperate with the Assembly. 15 ambassadors who will soon be seated at the U- shaped table in the center of the Security Council’s chamber. In addition to Wronecka and US envoy Nikki Haley, Karen Pierce will take her seat later this month Pak summons US as Britain’s new ambassador. The six countries that left the UN Security Council on Dec 31 are Egypt, Italy, envoy, hits back Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay. — AFP at Trump tweet News in brief ISLAMABAD: Pakistan angrily dismissed threats by US President Donald Trump to cut off aid as “com- 650 arrested during holidays pletely incomprehensible” yesterday, in the latest diplo- matic row to rock the shaky alliance between Washington and Islamabad over militancy. The “recent KUWAIT: Authorities arrested around 650 criminals statements... by the American leadership were com- and handled 53 cases related to drugs and alcohol pletely incomprehensible as they contradicted facts during the New Year holiday, the interior ministry manifestly,” read a statement issued by the prime minis- said yesterday. Security forces detained 118 offend- ter’s office after a meeting of the National Security ers, 90 of whom were illegal residents, while 378 car- Council. Trump’s comments “struck with great insensi- ried no form of identification and 54 others were tivity” and “negated the decades of sacrifices made by arrested in absentia, said a statement by the ministry. the Pakistani nation”, it added. It added that police received 2,501 calls during the The statement was the first formal comment from holiday period and registered 1,363 traffic violations, Pakistan since Trump lashed out on Monday, making while assistance was provided to 1,075 cases. The Islamabad his inaugural Twitter target of 2018. “The statement stressed security forces will not hesitate to United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 use the full force of law against all offenders. billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking of LAHORE: Pakistani activists with the Jamaat-ud-Dawa group shout anti-US slogans at a our leaders as fools,” Trump said. “They give safe haven protest yesterday. — AFP Expats remitted $15bn to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” KUWAIT: The GCC Central Statistics Center’s Pakistan, which says it has lost more than 62,000 from Pakistan’s old foe, India, and neighboring Rex Tillerson as “robust and forward-looking”. annual report showed expatriates in Kuwait remit- lives and $123 billion since 2003 in its war on extrem- Afghanistan, but longtime ally China defended Pakistan. Observers said that without further information the ted $15 billion (around KD 5 billion) in 2016, while ism, disputed the $33 billion figure in the statement. Trump first hinted at cutting aid to Pakistan in an tweet could just be more hot air between the allies, total expat remittances from GCC states amounted “(T)he huge sacrifices made by Pakistan... could not be August speech charting his Afghan policy, and adminis- whose often fractious relationship has taken a nosedive to $111 billion in the same year. The report added trivialized so heartlessly by pushing all of it behind a tration officials including Vice President Mike Pence under Trump. “Trump is in the habit of issuing hardline that Saudi Arabia topped the list, where expats monetary value - and that too an imagined one,” it said. have also intimated cuts in recent months. But the statements which only spoil the atmosphere and violate transferred $39 billion, followed by those in the Foreign minister Khawaja Asif also mocked the figure Pakistani statement said recent interaction with US offi- diplomatic niceties,” analyst Hasan Askari told AFP, UAE, who remitted $32 billion. on Twitter, suggesting Trump hire a US audit firm to cials had been “useful”, citing visits in recent months by adding that Pakistan should seek more information. check it “on our expense”. Trump’s words drew praise Pentagon chief James Mattis and Secretary of State Continued on Page 11 Khamenei blames 2017 safest year Iran’s ‘enemies’ for post-war for stoking unrest civil aviation TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader blamed the WASHINGTON: Last year was the safest year for civil country’s “enemies” yesterday for days of unrest aviation since plane crash statistics were first compiled in that have seen 21 people killed and hundreds 1946, two industry studies have found. US President Donald arrested in the biggest test for the Islamic regime Trump hailed the results yesterday, and credited his “very in years. In a speech carried on state television, strict” stance on commercial aviation for the positive data in Ayatollah Ali Khamenei broke his silence on the the United States. A total of 10 crashes of civil passenger protests for the first time since they erupted last and cargo planes claimed 44 lives, said the Aviation Safety This file photo taken from an airplane on July 4, Thursday. “The enemies have united and are using Network in a statement published Monday. “The year 2017 2017 shows an early morning aerial view of all their means, money, weapons, policies and turned out to be the safest year ever for commercial avia- Washington, DC. — AFP security services to create problems for the Islamic tion,” ASN said. regime,” the supreme leader said. “The enemy is Five of the fatal accidents involved cargo flights and five issue its own annual report soon. Accidents involving mili- always looking for an opportunity and any crevice passenger flights. The previous year, ASN recorded 16 acci- tary planes, including military transport aircraft, were not to infiltrate and strike the Iranian nation.” TEHRAN: Iran’s Supreme Leader dents and 303 lives lost. No major airline crashed a plane, taken into account in the study. Even reformists, who backed the last major Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a state- the To70 agency said in its annual report, also published ASN President Harro Ranter said the low number of protest movement in 2009, condemned the unrest ment yesterday.