SUBSCRIPTION WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2014 RABI ALTHANI 19, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Ghanem Nine killed Europe at Messi, Alves conveys Amir’s in bloodiest origin of US give Barca message to day of execution edge over Rouhani4 Kiev10 clashes dilemma14 10-man20 City Court orders return Max 22º Min 09º of Tabtabaei’s passport High Tide 02:03 & 14:38 Low Tide Oppn stages sit-in after KU scraps seminar 08:37 & 20:59 40 PAGES NO: 16082 150 FILS By B Izzak be followed by government moves to pass more regional agreements that KUWAIT: The civil court ordered the restrict freedoms in Kuwait. Saadoun was Interior Ministry yesterday to immediate- scheduled to attend the seminar organ- ly return the passport of former opposi- ized by the KU Teachers Society, along tion MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei which had with former MP Mohammad Al-Dallal, been seized apparently to prevent the constitutional expert Dr Mohammed Al- Islamist activist from travelling to Syria. Feeli and other politicians. Liberal MP The court ordered that the ruling must Rakan Al-Nisf said in a statement that the be implemented immediately, said his seminar’s cancelation “violates citizens’ lawyer Adel Abdulhadi, who added that freedoms and rights”. it was not allowed under the Kuwaiti In another development, head of the constitution for the authorities to seize a National Assembly’s women committee passport without legal justification. MP Saleh Ashour said the panel decided Tabtabaei had travelled to Syria many yesterday to invite women societies and times in a show of support for the Syrian activists to review the main obstacles revolution fighting to oust President facing Kuwaiti women. The meeting will Bashar Al-Assad. Over a month ago, he be held on March 2. Ashour said that the wrote on Twitter that his passport had committee will discuss with the activists been seized to prevent him from leaving and organizations the top issues con- the country. cerning Kuwaiti women to start debating Meanwhile, students and opposition them in the committee. figures staged a sit-in at Kuwait University The lawmaker said the panel dis- yesterday after it canceled a seminar that cussed yesterday the main obstacles pre- was scheduled to discuss the Gulf securi- venting achieving true equality between ty pact a day earlier. “[The KU’s decision] is Kuwaiti men and women. The meeting ultimate stupidity,” former parliament also discussed the rights of Kuwaiti speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun told women married to foreigners, especially KUWAIT: (From left) Opposition former MPs Abdulmohsen Jamal, Musallam Al-Barrak and Khaled Al-Tahous attend a sit-in at Kuwait reporters at the KU campus on Monday. their rights to government housing and University to protest the cancellation of a seminar. — Photo by Fouad Al-Shaikh He warned that passing the Gulf pact will Continued on Page 13 Kuwait help sought to Ethiopian mend Saudi-Iranian ties maid ban BEIRUT: Lebanese parliament speaker Sheikh Sabah was foreign minister for Nabih Berri urged Kuwait to keep trying four decades before becoming Amir and to build bridges between Iran and Saudi is often described as one of the top confirmed Arabia to encourage a rapprochement diplomats in the Gulf region. He was between two regional heavyweights dubbed the “dean of Arab diplomacy” for By A Saleh & Nawara Fattahova backing opposite sides in Syria’s civil war. helping restore relations with Arab states Wedged between three big regional that supported Saddam Hussein’s Iraq KUWAIT: Kuwait has stopped recruiting domestic powers - Shiite Iran, Sunni Saudi Arabia during the 1990-91 Gulf War when helpers from Ethiopia starting from this week until and Shiite-led Iraq at the northern end of Kuwait was occupied by Iraqi forces. further notice, Col Adel Al-Hashash, the General the Gulf, Kuwait has tried to maintain Iran has been a stout ally of Assad in Director of the Interior Ministry’s Security Media good relations with all three in recent his battle with a Sunni Muslim-led armed and Public Relations Department, confirmed to years. This makes Kuwait a potential go- uprising bent on ending 44 years of his Kuwait Times yesterday. It is unknown how this between in the intractable conflict family’s rule. The Islamic Republic has will immediately impact Kuwait’s Ethiopian com- between Syrian President Bashar Al- provided military support and billions of munity which was estimated at 74,000 - the Assad - whose strongest regional ally is dollars in economic aid to Assad, whose majority of them domestic workers - as per the lat- est official figures from 2012. The Ethiopian Iran - and Saudi-backed Sunni rebels try- Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiism KUWAIT: Bedoons demonstrate in Taima in Jahra yesterday where they blocked ing to overthrow him. which is dominant in Iran. Saudi Arabia, embassy could not immediately be reached for comment yesterday. roads with burning tyres and stoned security forces. Riot police used teargas to Berri spoke during a visit to Kuwait for its part, has provided funding and disperse the demonstrators. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat two days after Lebanon formed a new support to various rebel groups, includ- A decision to stop issuing article 20 visas for government in a possible step towards ing the Western-backed Syrian National Ethiopian domestic helpers, including maids, driv- curbing the sectarian violence that has Coalition and more radical Islamist fac- ers, gardeners, etc was issued by the General spilled over into Lebanon from neigh- tions. Department of Immigration in the Interior Experiment may lead Ministry sometime before the beginning of this bouring Syria. “I requested that all the Berri is the highest ranking Shiite in week. A copy of the decision signed by the Gulf (Arab) countries and in particular Lebanese officialdom and an ally of Iran department’s general director Brig Gen Adnan Al- (HH the) Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad and Assad. His Amal movement is part of to cure for paralysis Kandari was circulated to immigration depart- play a mediating role between the a Lebanese alliance including Hezbollah, ments in Kuwait’s six governorates earlier this PARIS: Scientists working on a paralysis form tasks at the other monkey’s com- Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom a powerful Shiite militant movement that week. As per the decision, the ban includes both cure said yesterday they had demon- mand, was designed to simulate full of Saudi Arabia,” Berri told the Kuwaiti has sent fighters to aid Assad. “My larger male and female workers. strated how a monkey can use only its paralysis - the brain completely discon- newspaper Al-Rai in the remarks pub- goal on the topic of Iranian-Saudi rap- Last November, a local daily reported news that thoughts, transferred by electrodes, to nected from the muscle it seeks to con- lished yesterday. “The Amir has worked prochement ... is for the benefit of Ethiopian authorities banned local domestic manipulate a sleeping fellow primate’s trol. “We demonstrate that a subject can and will work in this context, and he will Lebanon and of Syria,” said Berri. He workers to travel to Kuwait for work. “The ban is arm to do its bidding. The lab experi- control a paralyzed limb purely with its try as much as possible to bring together blamed the breakdown of peace talks in enforced until recruitment procedures as well as ment, in which a fully sedated Rhesus thoughts,” co-author Maryam Shanechi the points of view,” Berri said, referring to Geneva last week on Iran’s exclusion Continued on Page 13 monkey’s hand moved a joystick to per- Continued on Page 13 Kuwait’s leader. Continued on Page 13 Iraq blasts kill 49 BAGHDAD/HILLA: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki defended his government’s counterterrorism strategy and vowed to defeat Al-Qaeda as bombs exploded in Baghdad and another Iraqi city yesterday, killing at least 49 people. Maliki said the battle against militancy in Iraq was part of a larger struggle emanating from the civil war in Syria that poses a threat to the wider Middle East and the entire world, and appealed for internation- al support. “Iraq has defeated Al-Qaeda before, and we have a holistic strategy to defeat Al-Qaeda again,” Maliki wrote in an editorial published yesterday on the web- site of US international affairs journal Foreign Policy. “Because Al-Qaeda believes in blowing people up, not in winning people over, it can be beaten, must be beat- en, and will be beaten.” Maliki said Iraq had begun discussions with US offi- The Australian navy’s HMAS Melbourne’s boarding party intercepts a dhow that was suspected of being cials to resume training for its counterterrorism forces. used for illegal purposes off Oman yesterday. — AFP Last year was Iraq’s bloodiest since sectarian violence began to abate in 2008. Sunni Islamist insurgents have been regaining ground in the country over the past Big cannabis bust off Oman year and in recent weeks overran several towns. Critics say Maliki’s own policies are at least partly to blame for SYDNEY: Australian and Pakistani extremist groups. HMAS Melbourne cannabis resin hidden in a secret reviving an insurgency that climaxed in 2006-07. Many navy ships have seized almost two and Pakistan’s PNS Alamgir joined compartment in its fishing hold. in Iraq’s once-dominant Sunni minority feel they have tonnes of cannabis resin in a drug forces to intercept and board a Estimating the haul to have a street been sidelined in the Shiite-led political order that took bust off Oman that officers dhow east of Oman’s Masriah Island, value of US$102 million, Melbourne shape following the US-led invasion in 2003.