SUBSCRIPTION TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015 THULQADA 10, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Visa violators China stock One Direction Jamaican arrested in plunge hits set ‘to go Fraser-Pryce raid at illegal world stocks, separate ways’ seals world worksite3 US21 dollar next39 year 100m17 treble Oil falls below $40 on Min 30º Max 48º China and oversupply High Tide 06:20 & 21:00 Kuwaiti experts warn prices could plunge to $20 Low Tide 00:05 & 13:55 40 PAGES NO: 16620 150 FILS LONDON/KUWAIT: Oil prices hit 6-1/2-year lows yester- Rare mass ‘terror’ day after Chinese stock markets suffered their biggest one-day fall since the global financial crisis, intensifying trial opens in UAE worries over the outlook for global oil demand. Inaction by the Chinese government following an 11 percent ABU DHABI: A rare mass trial of 41 radical Islamists rout in local stock markets last week encouraged a free- accused of seeking to overthrow the government fall in global equities and other commodities yeterday. and links with “terrorists” opened yesterday in the “Today’s falls are not about oil market fundamentals. It’s United Arab Emirates, official media reported. WAM all about China,” Carsten Fritsch, senior oil analyst at news agency said the hearing at the state security Commerzbank in Frankfurt, told Reuters Global Oil court in Abu Dhabi was devoted to procedural Forum. “The fear is of a hard landing and that things get measures, including the appointment of lawyers. out of the control of the Chinese authorities.” The judge then adjourned the trial to Sept 28. Brent oil was trading down $1.20, or 2.6 percent, at Earlier this month, the prosecutor general accused $44.26 a barrel, after hitting an intraday low of $44.00, the defendants, who include both Emiratis and for- its weakest since March 2009. US light crude was down eigners, of plotting attacks aimed at trying to “seize $1.15, or 2.8 percent, to $39.30 a barrel after hitting a power and establish a caliphate”. He also accused low of $39.00. Steep losses last week capped the con- them of creating a group “with a terrorist, takfiri tract’s longest weekly losing streak since 1986. US crude (extremist) ideology”. Takfiris regard Muslims who is now almost 17 percent below its opening price at the do not follow their extreme interpretation of Islam start of the month and Brent is down more than 10 per- as apostates who can be killed. cent. Multi-year lows in oil prices have so far failed to The Islamic State group, which has set up a trigger any action from the world’s biggest producers to “caliphate” on territory it has captured in Syria and rein in output. Iraq, follows the takfiri ideology, as does Al-Qaeda. The plunge has been attributed to a variety of tech- It was not immediately clear if the 41 suspects were nical, economic and political reasons, arousing fears on accused of links to either group. However, the pros- the side of producers and exporters, especially coun- ecutor has said they were in touch with “foreign tries where oil is the chief earner of national income, if terrorist organizations... to help them achieve their not the only one. More falls are expected amid the eco- goal”. The defendants could face the death penalty LONDON: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah is received by Kuwaiti Ambassador to the nomic instability worldwide, the tumbling financial if found guilty. UK Khaled Abdulaziz Al-Duwaisan during a visit to the Kuwait embassy in London yesterday. — KUNA markets, the low growth rates and the rising prices of Continued on Page 13 (More pics on Page 2) goods. Continued on Page 13 News France honors train ‘heroes’ for courage in brief PARIS: President Francois Hollande yes- to commit an attack. He had enough terday bestowed France’s highest honor weapons and ammunition to carry out a Bomb kills 3 Egyptian on a group of Americans and a Briton who real carnage, and that’s what he would policemen, wounds 33 overpowered a Moroccan gunman on a have done if you hadn’t tackled him at a CAIRO: A bomb struck a bus carrying Egyptian police- crowded train, saying the whole world risk to your own lives. “You have shown us men yesterday, killing three and wounding 33, officials “admires their courage and cool compo- that, faced with terror, we have the power said, in the latest attack against security forces who are sure”. Anti-terror investigators were ques- to resist. You have given a message of being targeted by jihadists. The attack occurred in the tioning the alleged attacker, 25-year-old courage, solidarity and hope.” Nile Delta province of Baheira, 260 km north of Cairo, Ayoub El Khazzani, who boarded the A French passenger who also tackled while the policemen were travelling on a civilian bus to high-speed train in Brussels bound for the gunman but chose to remain anony- work. “Three policemen were killed, including one who Paris on Friday armed with a Kalashnikov mous, and Eric Tanty, an off-duty train succumbed to his wounds in hospital,” health ministry assault rifle, a Luger automatic pistol, driver who happened to be on board and spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar told AFP, updating ammunition and a box-cutter. helped restrain Khazzani, were to be hon- an earlier toll. “Thirty-three policemen were also Witnesses said he opened fire, injuring ored too. Mark Moogalian, a 51-year-old wounded. One of them remains in a critical condition.” a man before being wrestled to the floor Franco-American professor who was shot Jihadists have killed scores of policemen and soldiers and subdued by three young Americans - and is now recovering in hospital, and since an Islamist insurgency swelled in the wake of the off-duty servicemen Alek Skarlatos and Michel Bruet, a train conductor who 2013 overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi, the coun- Spencer Stone and their student friend warned authorities, were also to be try’s first democratically elected president who took Anthony Sadler - and a Briton, 62-year-old awarded medals. Speaking as he left the PARIS: French President Francois Hollande (center) poses with (from left) British office following the ouster of longtime ruler Hosni business consultant Chris Norman. Elysee, his medal pinned to his suit, businessman Chris Norman, American student Anthony Sadler and off-duty US Mubarak. With his security forces battling to contain the Presenting them with the Legion Norman said it was “a little bit difficult to servicemen Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos during a reception in their honor insurgency, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi last week rati- d’Honneur at the Elysee presidential believe that it’s actually happened”. at the Elysee Palace yesterday, after Hollande awarded them with France’s top fied an anti-terrorism law boosting police and judicial palace, Hollande said: “A terrorist decided Continued on Page 13 Legion d’Honneur medal. — AFP powers. It also imposes hefty fines for “false” media reports on militant attacks. IS blows up famed Saudi cop wounded in drive-by shooting RIYADH: A Saudi policeman was wounded when temple in Palmyra unidentified gunmen opened fire on a patrol in the Red Sea city of Jeddah before escaping in their BEIRUT: The Islamic State group has and the group reportedly destroyed a vehicle, state media said yesterday. The shooting blown up a famed temple in Syria’s well-known statue of a lion outside the occurred on Sunday night, and the wounded ancient Palmyra, in an act the UN con- city’s museum. “Daesh placed a large patrol commander was in stable condition, the demned as a war crime and an “immense quantity of explosives in the temple of official SPA news agency reported, citing a police loss” for humanity. The destruction of the Baal Shamin today and then blew it up,” statement. Investigations were underway to track Baal Shamin temple, considered the sec- Abdulkarim said on Sunday. “The cella down the assailants, it added. Attacks on security ond-most significant in ancient Palmyra, (inner area of the temple) was destroyed forces in Saudi Arabia have multiplied in recent raised concerns for the rest of the and the columns around collapsed,” he months with most of them blamed on or claimed UNESCO World Heritage sites. It comes said. by the Islamic State jihadist group. But incidents only days after IS beheaded the 82-year- The Syrian Observatory for Human similar to Sunday’s could also be linked to criminal old retired chief archaeologist of Rights, a Britain-based group that moni- activity, including trade in illicit drugs. Palmyra, sparking widespread condem- tors the country’s civil war, confirmed the nation. destruction of the temple. But the “This destruction is a new war crime Observatory said Baal Shamin had been Bahrain arrests former and an immense loss for the Syrian peo- destroyed a month ago - a discrepancy MP after trip to Iran ple and for humanity,” said Irina Bokova, which could not be immediately MANAMA: Bahrain detained a former lawmaker after he the head of the UN cultural watchdog explained as information on Syria’s civil visited Iran on charges of financing terrorism and being UNESCO, calling for the perpetrators to war is often unclear. IS captured Palmyra involved in a bombing that killed two police officers, be held accountable. “Daesh (IS) is killing on May 21, sparking international con- accusations the Gulf nation’s largest opposition group people and destroying sites, but cannot cern about the fate of the heritage site dismissed yesterday as “absolute nonsense”.