SHAABAN 15, 1439 AH TUESDAY, MAY 1, 2018 Max 34º 32 Pages Min 23º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 17520 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Most Filipinos in Kuwait Twin blasts in Kabul kill Cairo women take to the ‘Batman’ to the rescue 3 snub Duterte, prefer to stay 6 26, including 9 journalists 31 American football field 13 for IPL cricket stars Govt eyeing cooperation with ‘friendly’ states to hire maids Kuwait seeks to calm crisis with Manila • Duterte slammed for asking Filipinos to leave KUWAIT: During its weekly Cabinet meeting, Nasser Al-Subaih told reporters in Kuwait City. more than 65 percent of the more than 260,000 the government yesterday said it was opposed “We have taken a serious stance ... but we do Filipinos in Kuwait, according to Philippine gov- Assembly to debate to any move “aimed at undermining its sover- not believe in escalation and want to remain in ernment data. The earnings overseas workers eignty and its laws”, amid a crisis with the direct communication to resolve the problem,” send home is vital to sustaining low-income three grillings today Philippines over the treatment of domestic Subaih added. families and a crucial economic driver. workers in the state. The government added Kuwait has also detained four Filipinos hired Meanwhile, a Philippine labor group and a By B Izzak hours of tomorrow, which might lead to however that it will set up a special commission by the Philippine embassy and issued arrest senator accused Duterte yesterday of gambling the cancellation of the regular session. chaired by the minister of social affairs and warrants against three diplomatic personnel. with the livelihoods of tens of thousands of KUWAIT: The National Assembly is MPs Omar Al-Tabtabaei and labor to follow up “on cooperation with friendly Subaih said those suspected of participating in Filipinos in Kuwait after he asked them to come scheduled to discuss three grillings Abdulwahab Al-Babtain had filed to states” on the employment of housemaids in the operation to help workers escape were not home. Duterte at the weekend appealed to the today in a marathon session that is grill Oil Minister Bakheet Al-Rasheedi Kuwait. accredited diplomats and that they were now “sense of patriotism” of overseas Filipino likely to end tomorrow morning, on charges of mismanagement and fail- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in holed up in the Philippine Embassy. The foreign workers, known as OFWs, and asked them to Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al- ure to control the oil sector’s top exec- February prohibited workers heading to ministry was “awaiting cooperation” for their return home, where he said they would get Ghanem said yesterday. He said the utives, whom they accused of corrup- Kuwait following the murder of a Filipina maid handover to carry out an investigation. financial aid and job opportunities in other grillings will all be debated one after tion. The two lawmakers vowed to whose body was found stuffed in her employ- Kuwait and the Philippines had earlier been countries. He added they could find employ- the other, starting with the grilling expose the minister and top oil execu- er’s freezer. The resulting row deepened last negotiating a labor deal that could have resulted ment as English teachers in China, citing against the oil minister, followed by the tives over charges of squandering pub- week after Kuwaiti authorities ordered Manila’s in the lifting of the ban on Filipinos working in improved ties with Beijing. one against the prime minister and lic funds and delays in mega projects, envoy to leave the country over videos of Kuwait. But after the fresh escalation in ten- Critics said Duterte had no way of guaran- finally the grilling against the minister causing losses to public funds. Philippine embassy staff helping workers in sions, Duterte said on Sunday that the tempo- teeing that and should not ask those whose of social affairs and labor. Ghanem said MP Hamdan Al-Azemi had surpris- Kuwait flee allegedly abusive employers. rary ban on Filipinos going to work in Kuwait income was vital to their families back home to that the session will continue until the ingly filed to grill HH the Prime Earlier yesterday, a senior Kuwaiti official was now permanent. Around 262,000 Filipinos quit their jobs. Senator Risa Hontiveros called last grilling is finished and expected it Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak sought to calm the crisis. “This is largely a mis- work in Kuwait, nearly 60 percent of them Duterte’s request “extremely reckless, short- to last until late today or the early Continued on Page 11 understanding and exaggeration of some minor domestic workers, according to the Philippines’ sighted and uncaring”. or one-off cases,” Deputy Foreign Minister foreign ministry. Domestic helpers account for Continued on Page 11 Bibi says Iran lied on nukes; News in brief strike on Syria kills Iranians Qatar to hike minimum wage TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister ments and plans to develop atomic DOHA: Qatar could increase the minimum wage for Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that weapons. He said Israel had obtained migrant workers by the end of 2018, unions predicted Iran had lied about never having pursued tens of thousands of files “a few weeks yesterday, as the 2022 World Cup host seeks to push nuclear weapons and had continued to ago in a great intelligence achievement”. through labor reforms. It would be the first change to preserve and expand its nuclear “Tonight we’re going to reveal new and the monthly wage since its introduction by the gas- weapons knowledge even after signing a conclusive proof of the secret nuclear rich Gulf state last November. “By the end of the year 2015 deal with global powers. “Iran’s weapons program that Iran has been we expect a new minimum wage to be set, that’s good leaders repeatedly deny ever pursuing hiding for years from the international news,” said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the nuclear weapons,” said Netanyahu dur- community in its secret atomic archive,” International Trade Union Confederation. Burrow did ing a prime-time televised address car- Netanyahu said. “We’re going to show not name a figure but said the new wage would be ried by Israeli networks. “Tonight I’m you Iran’s secret nuclear files.” calculated by assessing a “basket of goods”. The min- imum wage was set at 750 riyals a month ($206) on here to tell you one thing: Iran lied.” While the lion’s share of the briefing its introduction. — AFP The Israeli leader spoke in English focused on what he said was past and showed pictures and videos pur- nuclear work and alleged obfuscation TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on Iran’s porting to be of historic secret Iranian about it by Iran, Netanyahu asserted that nuclear program at the defense ministry yesterday. — AFP nuclear facilities, as well as Iranian docu- Continued on Page 11 Saudi court tries Mossad spies RIYADH: Two Arab Israelis went on trial in Saudi Arabia yesterday for allegedly plotting an attack one problem, May risked creating another by changing during the hajj pilgrimage, according to the charge May picks Javid the balance of views in her top team on plans to leave sheet and local media reports. The charge sheet the European Union. Rudd opposed Brexit but Javid, a said the two suspects had travelled to the kingdom, as home minister lukewarm “remainer”, has said that after the referen- which is home to Islam’s holiest sites, on passports dum, “in some ways, we are all Brexiteers now”. of an Arab country. The two men were charged with The scandal has weighed on May, who, after winning spying for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad after Rudd quits support for tough responses on Russia and Syria, has and of planning “a terrorist act for the hajj season”, lost a close ally and must now try to overcome rifts in which this year falls in August, while one of them LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May her Conservative Party over Brexit, especially on future was also accused of contacts with the Islamic State appointed a former banker of South Asian origin as customs arrangements with the European Union. Javid, group. The Saudi dailies Okaz and Al-Riyadh said interior minister yesterday, trying to draw a line under the first lawmaker from Britain’s Black, Asian and the trial opened in the capital’s special anti-terror- an immigration scandal threatening her authority as she Minority Ethnic community to become interior minister, ism court, without specifying when the men had negotiates Brexit. Sajid Javid, the son of immigrants tried before his appointment to address public anger been arrested. — AFP from Pakistan, replaces Amber Rudd, who quit as Home over the scandal by saying his own family could have Secretary after acknowledging she had “inadvertently been caught up in it. misled” parliament by denying the government had tar- “We are going to have a strategy in place ... about ‘Avengers’ opens with $630m gets for the number of illegal migrants Britain deports. making sure that we have an immigration policy that is British ministers have struggled for two weeks to fair, it treats people with respect and with decency, and LOS ANGELES: “Avengers: Infinity War” took in explain why some descendants of the so-called that will be one of my most urgent tasks,” Javid told $630 million in its first weekend, the highest global LONDON: Britain’s newly appointed Home Secretary “Windrush generation”, invited to Britain from its for- Sky News yesterday. A spokesman for May said Javid, opening of all time, industry estimates showed on Sajid Javid poses for a photograph after exiting the mer colonies to plug labor shortfalls between 1948 and who had been minister for housing, communities Sunday.