SUBSCRIPTION MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2016 MUHARRAM 16, 1438 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Ghanem hails Trump pledges Modi brands Icardi misses Assembly for strong US ties Pak ‘terrorism penalty as maintaining with India if mothership’ at Cagliari political3 stability elected10 president BRICS10 meet stun19 Inter Stage set for snap elections Min 18º after Assembly dissolved Max 37º High Tide 12:44 Amir cites ‘security challenges’ in dissolution decree Low Tide 06:33 & 18:53 40 PAGES NO: 17022 150 FILS By B Izzak Minimum salary KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah yesterday issued a decree dissolving the National for visit visas Assembly, setting the stage for fresh elections within two months, citing the escalation of regional conflicts raised to KD 200 and the need to go back to the people to choose new representatives. The surprising decision was issued KUWAIT: The interior ministry has increased the mini- hours after Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem said mum wage required for a foreigner to issue visit visas he informed the political leadership that the country for relatives, only a few days after the state approved was passing through a delicate phase that needed a new a decision to raise the salary required for expatriate government and going back to the ballot boxes. workers to sponsor their wives and children, in a The decree to dissolve the Assembly, which has only move said to help curb an increase in the country’s several months left of its four-year term, was issued fol- expat population. lowing an emergency meeting of the Cabinet, which An expat must now have a minimum salary of KD recommended to the Amir to dissolve the Assembly. The 200 to apply for a visit visa for his wife or children, decree said that due to the serious security challenges said Maj Gen Talal Maarafi, director general of the from regional conflicts, it was necessary to go back to interior ministry’s residency affairs department. The the people to allow them to elect their representatives previous minimum wage was KD 150. Meanwhile, to contribute to confronting those challenges. the minimum salary must be KD 300 for an expat The dissolution was based on article 107 of the con- applying for a visa for a sibling or any other relative, stitution, which stipulates that new elections must be except for parents, whose age must not exceed 50 held within two months. No date was however set for years, Maarafi explained. the fresh polls. A new decree will be issued within the The interior ministry last year set the duration of a next few days to set the date. Parliamentary sources visit visa issued for a wife or child to three months, expected the new election to be held at a closer date, while visit visas for relatives were restricted to one around the middle of November, rather than towards month. Last Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister and the end of the two-month period. The dissolution, the Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khaled Al- seventh since 2006, also came after lawmakers last Sabah issued a decision amending the foreign week filed three requests to grill the finance and the jus- KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (left) receives a decree to dissolve the National Continued on Page 13 tice ministers over a hike in petrol prices and alleged Assembly from HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah yesterday. — Amiri Diwan Continued on Page 13 Rebels seize emblematic IS stronghold BEIRUT: Syrian rebels dealt a major symbolic tle between Christian forces and Muslims. outskirts - the lesser Dabiq battle - will end in blow to the Islamic State group yesterday by The Observatory, a Britain-based monitor- the greater Dabiq epic,” the group said in a capturing the town of Dabiq where the mili- ing group, said rebel forces “captured Dabiq pamphlet published online Thursday. tants had promised an apocalyptic battle. The after IS members withdrew from the area”. The IS, which seized control of large parts of Turkish-backed opposition forces seized con- Fastaqim Union, an Ankara-backed rebel fac- Syria and Iraq in mid-2014 and declared an trol of Dabiq and several nearby towns, in the tion involved in the battle, said Dabiq had fall- Islamic “caliphate”, has been dealt a series of latest in a series of territorial losses suffered en “after fierce clashes”. Fastaqim said rebels military defeats this year and is bracing for an by IS in Syria and Iraq. The defeat for IS came then went on to seize several nearby towns, assault on its key Iraqi stronghold Mosul. as US Secretary of State John Kerry was to including Sawran, Ihtimaylat, and Salihiyah. Turkey launched an unprecedented operation meet European allies in London as part of a Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency also inside Syria on August 24, helping Syrian new diplomatic push to end Syria’s conflict, said the rebels captured Dabiq and Sawran rebels to rid its frontier of IS jihadists and which has left more than 300,000 people and were working to dismantle explosives laid Syrian Kurdish militia. dead since 2011. by retreating IS fighters. It said nine rebels President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, were killed and 28 wounded during clashes Saturday said Turkey would push further Turkish state media and a rebel faction said on Saturday. south to create a 5,000-sq-km safe zone in opposition fighters backed by Turkish war- Dabiq has become a byword among IS Syria. The border area has become deeply planes and artillery seized control of Dabiq. supporters for a struggle against the West, unstable, and on Sunday three Turkish police The town, in Syria’s northern province of with Washington and its allies bombing mili- officers were killed when suspected IS suicide Aleppo, is of little strategic value. But Dabiq tants portrayed as modern-day Crusaders. But bombers blew themselves up during a raid on holds crucial ideological importance for IS earlier this week, IS downplayed the impor- their sleeper cell in the southeastern city of DABIQ, Syria: Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces, one carrying a Turkish flag, and its followers because of a prophecy that tance of the rebel advance on the town. Gaziantep. patrol in this symbolically significant town yesterday. — AP states it will be the site of an end-of-times bat- “These hit-and-run battles in Dabiq and its Continued on Page 13 Hijabi cadet settles in at US college NORTHFIELD, Vermont: Despite being official members of the Corps of Cadets the first woman allowed to wear a and the rook restrictions end. Muslim headscarf beneath her military But the uniform for the 18-year-old At Guantanamo, uniform at the nation’s oldest private mil- student from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is itary college, Sana Hamze says she does- a little different. Unlike other female wheels of justice n’t feel like a pioneer. Her focus is on members of the corps, Hamze wears her learning details of life as a “rook” at Muslim hijab, or head covering, beneath. barely turning Vermont’s Norwich University, in the As part of her effort to fulfill her life- WASHINGTON: War crimes trials at Guantanamo school’s Corps of Cadets and not running long dream of continuing her family’s Bay for suspects accused of attacks against the afoul of the many rules and customs new legacy of military and public service United States have ground to a near halt a decade students are required to master. As do all while staying true to her devout religious after the military courts’ creation, with lawyers aspiring members of the corps, she’s beliefs, she asked for a uniform accom- warning that some detainees could spend many learned to walk at the side of the path- modation to wear the hijab when she more years waiting to be tried. Despite President ways, make square corners when turn- was applying to colleges earlier this year. Barack Obama’s early vows to close the facility in ing, line up before eating and sleep Norwich, one of the nation’s six senior eastern Cuba amid charges that suspects had been when she is told. Like her freshman class- military colleges, agreed to make the tortured, the United States continues to spend mates, she yearns for the time when her accommodation. some $91 million a year on military trials at the class is “recognized” and they become Continued on Page 13 base, which has 61 remaining inmates. An artist’s impression depicts the separation of the ExoMars 2016 entry, descent “The military commissions in their current state are and landing demonstrator module (center) from the Trace Gas Orbiter (left) and a farce,” Marine Brigadier General John Baker, the chief heading for Mars. — AP defense counsel, said last month at a Washington legal conference, of the tribunals that prosecute detainees. “The Guantanamo Bay military commis- European lander starts sions have been characterized by delay, government misconduct and incompetence, and more delay.” James Connell, a defense lawyer for Ammar Al- descent to Mars surface Baluchi, one of five suspects on trial for their alleged PARIS: A European lander started a three- neighbouring planet’s hostile surface, this roles in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said that trial was day, million-kilometre descent to Mars time working with Russia. not likely until maybe 2020, almost two decades after yesterday, quitting its mothership to test As planned, the 600-kg, paddling pool- airline hijackers killed nearly 3,000 people. Because technology for a daring mission to scout sized lander separated from an the court and much of the evidence lies outside the the Red Planet for signs of life.