CR IP TI ON BS SU 40 PAGES NO: 16327 150 FILS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014 MUHARRAM 6, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Pro-government MPs want return of longer detention Maayouf questions education minister on bedoon kids By B Izzak KUWAIT: Five MPs yesterday proposed the reinstatement of longer detention periods that existed before 2012 to enable investigators and prosecutors to do their job in the best way to prosecute criminals. The five lawmakers, Abdullah AlMaayouf, Nabeel Al-Fadhl, Khalil Abul, Abdullah Al-Tameemi and Adel Al-Khorafi, submitted a draft law calling for abolishing a law passed by the 2012 opposition-dominated National Assembly to reduce detention periods. That law cut detention at police stations from four days to just 48 hours and detention by the public prosecution from 21 days to just 10 days, which can be extended only by a judge. But the five lawmakers said that investigators were not being able to do their job properly because of the short time available to them and proposed the return of the longer detention. The return of the old periods requires National RIYADH: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud on Tuesday. The meeting was held in a brotherly atmosphere reflecting the historic relations between the leadership and people of Kuwait with Saudi Arabia. — KUNA (See Page 2) $22.5bn Riyadh metro a ‘race against time’ RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s sprawling and congested capital is in a race against time to complete its $22.5 billion metro system within four years, a senior official said yesterday. Abdullah Allohaidan told AFP in an interview that the rail and bus development - whose construction is changing the face of Riyadh - is the largest such project under way in the Middle East “and I think in the whole world”. Construction began a year ago but has accelerated in the last few weeks, with road closures, digging equipment and hard-hatted workers taking over the city’s business core, to the frustration of drivers facing detours and lane-closures. “I think the biggest challenge we are facing is the duration of the project,” said Allohaidan, assistant to the metro director. Plans call for construction to be completed by the end of 2018. “Usually the duration for those projects is much longer,” he said in front of colour-coded maps showing the metro’s six lines that will cover 176 km, supported by a bus network of 1,150 km. But with the population of Riyadh projected to reach 8.2 million by 2030, up from the current 5.7 million, “definitely we need a transportation system”, he said. “Ninety percent of the people here are using cars.” Saudi Arabia is the top oil exporter in the OPEC cartel and its economy has been one of the best performing in the Group of 20 leading nations, according to the International Monetary Fund. Three foreign consortiums are building the metro, with France’s Alstom, Canada’s Bombardier and Germany’s Siemens among the major participants. The city’s existing public transportation system includes beaten-up minibuses carrying immigrant workers. The buses, which cough their way past office towers in the business district, would look more at home in Africa. Continued on Page 13 Scott becomes Africa’s first white president in decades Zambia’s ‘King Cobra’ Sata dies LUSAKA: Zambia’s President Michael Sata - nicknamed “King Cobra” for his sharp rhetoric - has died, officials said yesterday, making his vice-president Africa’s first white head of state in decades. Sata, 77, died Tuesday while undergoing treatment in London’s private King Edward VII hospital for an unspecified illness, the Zambian government said. Officials had long denied Sata was sick, even prosecuting journalists who questioned his long “working vacations” to Israel and elsewhere. Some Zambians responded to the news by asking why he died in an upscale foreign hospital and expressed anger over government secrecy, including claims he was going to London for a check-up. Michael Sata “They were cheating,” said Mundia Akapelwa, a young mother visiting Lusaka’s Soweto market. “They knew well that he was going to seek medical attention. You can hide sickness but you can’t hide death. Now the whole world knows that the man has Guy Scott died in hospital.” In the hours following Sata’s demise it was unclear who would lead the country, or his Patriotic Front party, which has been accused of creeping authoritarianism. Continued on Page 13 Max 31º Min 22º High Tide 02:29 & 17:07 Low Tide 10:12 & 22:14 Assembly panels to approve their proposal in addition to passing it through the Assembly and its acceptance by the government. All the five lawmakers who made the proposal are pro-government. The opposition had placed cutting detention periods at the top of its priorities and accomplished it at the start of the 2012 Assembly, which was elected in February and was scrapped by the constitutional court in June. Meanwhile, activists said that opposition activist Ayyad AlHarbi, who serving a two-year sentence, has begun a hunger strike in protest against ill-treatment by prison authorities. Activists claimed that Harbi was tortured and assaulted by some officers and his hands and legs were placed in cuffs as a punishment. Harbi’s lawyer Mohammad Al-Humaidi said on Twitter that he had learned of the harassment of his client and that he was preparing to take legal action. Continued on Page 13