SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 2017 THULQADA 15, 1438 AH www.kuwaittimes.net New technique Gandhi brand Despite Trump Syria national used to repair no longer claim, Hezbollah basketball damaged sells in operation boosts team hoops vertebra5 Indian10 politics Lebanon11 role against14 odds Kuwaiti media delegation visits Min 34º traumatized, triumphant Mosul Max 47º High Tide 00:29 & 10:59 Low Tide Group briefed on destruction, reconstruction of historic city 05:23 & 18:44 32 PAGES NO: 17299 150 FILS Zain records income of KD 82m for H1 2017 Zain Group Chairman Mohannad Zain Vice-Chairman & Group CEO Al- Kharafi Bader Al-Kharafi KUWAIT: Zain Group, the leading mobile would have grown by 8 percent and 21 per- telecommunications pioneer with operations cent respectively for H1, 2017. in eight markets across the Middle East and Commenting on the results, the Chairman Africa, announced its consolidated financial of the Board of Directors of Zain Group, results for the six months to 30 June, 2017. Mohannad Al-Kharafi said: “The company’s The company ended the period serving 45.2 performance in the first half has been satis- million customers. factory given the various operational and For the first six months of 2017, Zain forex challenges we face across our footprint. Group generated consolidated revenues of It is our focus on innovation, customer serv- KD 508 million ($1.67 billion) down 8 percent ice, and the driving of efficiencies that allows year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in KD terms. The Group’s MOSUL: A Kuwaiti media delegation representing chief editors of a number of Kuwait newspapers and Kuwait Journalists Association (KJA) us to consistently deliver strong operational consolidated EBITDA for the period reached is seen near the destroyed leaning minaret of the historic Great Mosque of Al-Nuri during a visit to this Iraqi city after its recent liberation results and maintain our leadership position KD 212 million ($695 million), down 17 per- from the grip of the so-called Islamic State group. The Kuwaiti delegation includes Editor-in-Chief of Kuwait Times Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan, cent Y-o-Y in KD terms, reflecting an EBITDA in the majority of our markets. The Board is working closely with management to contin- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) Deputy Director General for Editorial Affairs and Editor-in-Chief SaadAl-Ali, Editor-in-Chief of Al-Anbaa Yousef margin of 41.7 percent. Consolidated net Al-Marzouq, KJA Trustee Adnan Al-Rashed and KUNA reporter in Kurdistan Mukhlis Khishnaw. — KUNA (See Page 2) income remained stable at KD 82 million ually evaluate new business and value-creat- ing opportunities.” ($270 million). Earnings per share for the half- IRBIL: A Kuwaiti media delegation, representing Editor-in-Chief of Kuwait Times Abd Al- life to their city as soon as possible, stressing at year stood at 21 fils ($0.07). Bader Nasser Al-Kharafi, Zain Vice- For the first six months of 2017, foreign Chairman and Group CEO commented: “The chief editors of a number of Kuwait newspapers Rahman Al-Alyan voiced regret over the the same time the need to help them, “material- currency translation impact, predominantly first six-months of 2017 produced some and Kuwait Journalists Association (KJA), visited destruction in the city, hoping that life would ly and psychologically”. due to the 61 percent currency devaluation in defining positive developments such as the the Iraqi city of Mosul after its recent liberation return to the historic city after years of displace- “No words can describe what was seen in Sudan from 6.4 (SDG/USD) in H1 2016 to 16.5 progress being achieved through the turn- from the grip of the so-called Islamic State (IS). ment. The effects of war and destruction are vis- Mosul, except for ‘tragedy’ on all levels,” said cost the company $305 million in revenue, around program in Saudi Arabia and robust The delegation is among the first Gulf and Arab ible on most of Mosul’s houses riddled with bul- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) Deputy Director $131 million in EBITDA and $58 million in net growth in our data monetization, Enterprise media groups to visit the city after its liberation, let holes, he said, adding the situation is tragic, General for Editorial Affairs and Editor-in-Chief income. Excluding this currency translation (B2B), and smart city initiatives in several key and was briefed with the destruction in Mosul, especially in the Old City. He added that the res- Saad Al-Ali. impact, Y-o-Y revenues and net income markets.” (See Page 17) especially the Old City and archaeological sites. idents of Mosul are currently working to restore Continued on Page 2 Venezuela base attacked; PAGE Women ‘collateral’ in PAGE attorney general sacked Pakistan jirga justice Israel seeks to silence Jazeera JERUSALEM: Israel said yesterday it caster of “inciting violence which has planned to close the offices of Al-Jazeera provoked losses among the best of our Minnesota mosque in the state, after Prime Minister sons”, referring to two Druze policemen Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Arab who were killed in a July 14 attack near satellite news broadcaster of incitement. the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in east firebombed, FBI Netanyahu had said on July 27 that he Jerusalem. Netanyahu tweeted his con- wanted Al-Jazeera expelled amid ten- gratulations to Kara “who on my instruc- seeking suspects sions over a sensitive Jerusalem holy site. tions took concrete steps to end Al- “Al-Jazeera has become the main tool of Jazeera’s incitement” in Israel. An official BLOOMINGTON, Minnesota: FBI investigators are Daesh (the Islamic State group), Hamas, at Al-Jazeera in Doha said the channel JERUSALEM: Palestinian Fahamiya Shamasneh, 75, stands outside her family seeking suspects after an explosive device tore house in the annexed east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on Aug 1, Hezbollah and Iran,” Communications “deplores this action from a state that is through part of a suburban Minneapolis mosque as Minister Ayoob Kara, a member of the called the only democratic state in the 2017, despite a looming deadline for evacuating the home she has lived in for people were preparing for morning prayers, damaging more than 50 years. — AFP Druze community from Netanyahu’s Middle East and considers what it has a room but not causing any injuries, authorities and Likud party, told a news conference. done is dangerous”. witnesses said. The blast happened at around 5 a.m. He accused the Qatar-based broad- Continued on Page 11 Palestinians face Jerusalem Saturday at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, according to Bloomington Police Chief eviction after half century Jeff Potts. Windows of the imam’s office were shat- tered, either by the blast or by an object thrown through them, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. JERUSALEM: Fahamiya Shamasneh, a 75- is not easy - it is a lifetime. I was a young One worshipper saw a pickup truck speeding away year-old Palestinian woman, refuses to girl when I came to this house,” said shortly after the explosion, said Mohamed Omar, the pack her things despite a looming dead- Fahamiya. “The police are threatening us. center’s executive director. He said the mosque, which line for evacuating the home she has We don’t know what to do,” she said, primarily serves people from the area’s large Somali lived in for more than 50 years. Israel’s adding they had not found anywhere community, occasionally receives threatening calls supreme court has ruled the family have else to go. Under a decades-old Israeli and emails. “We came to this country for the same rea- until Wednesday to vacate the house in law, if Jews can prove their families lived son everyone else came here: freedom to worship,” annexed east Jerusalem. The family’s in east Jerusalem homes before the 1948 Yasir Abdalrahman, a worshipper at the mosque, told supporters have no doubt the house will war that led to the creation of Israel, they the newspaper. “And that freedom is under threat. be handed over to Jewish Israelis, as part can demand that Israel’s general custodi- Every other American should be insulted by this.” of a wider plan to boost Jewish settle- an office release the property and return Asad Zaman, director of the Muslim American ments in the predominantly Palestinian their “ownership rights”. Society of Minnesota, described the attack as a fire- neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. During the war, thousands of Jews bombing. Investigators will try to determine whether It will be the first eviction in the fled Jerusalem as Jordanian-led Arab the incident was a hate crime and who may have been neighborhood since 2009, according to forces seized the city, while hundreds of behind it, according to Richard Thornton, special Israeli anti-occupation group Peace Now, thousands of Palestinians fled from land agent in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis Division. and has become part of a fight over the that was later to become Israel. No such Thornton said during an afternoon news conference disputed status of Jerusalem. Israel sees law exists for Palestinians who lost their that the explosion was caused by an “improvised the city as its undivided capital, while the land. Israel occupied east Jerusalem in explosive device” and that investigators have recov- Palestinians want the eastern sector as the Six-Day War of 1967 and later ered components of the device to figure out how it their future capital. Fahamiya, her sick annexed it in a move never recognized was put together. husband Ayoub, 84, their son and his by the international community. Around But he didn’t take questions and declined to pro- family have until Aug 9 to voluntarily 200,000 Israeli Jews now live in east vide details about the device, citing the ongoing leave the cramped,50-sq-m basement of Jerusalem in settlement homes consid- JERUSALEM: An employee of the Qatar-based news network and TV channel Al- investigation, which is being led by the FBI.