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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2014
War makes
Kuwaiti kid
ask ‘Tell
Me Why?’
www.kuwaittimes.net
MUHARRAM 25, 1436 AH
As fears rise
in Myanmar,
Rohingya
exodus grows
Ronaldo aims
to outshine
Messi on return
to Manchester
Artist Wedad
Al-Mutawa
living her
passion
ends, envoys to return
40 PAGES
NO: 16346
150 FILS
3Gulf14
39
20
dispute over Qatar
MPs hail Amir’s success in resolving spat
Min 11º
Max 29º
High Tide
08:23 & 21:14
Low Tide
02:46 & 14:40
By B Izzak and Agencies
News
i n
b r i e f
Saudis to open stock
market to foreigners
RIYADH: Foreign institutional investors are expected to begin
direct trading of Saudi Arabian stocks before April next year,
the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported yesterday, quoting
unnamed sources. In August, the Capital Market Authority
proposed rules for opening the market to direct investment
sometime in the first half of 2015, including a 10 percent cap
on combined foreign ownership of the market’s value. At present, foreigners are limited to investing indirectly through
swaps and exchange-traded funds. Under the draft rules, foreign institutions would have to qualify for permission to
invest. For example, they would usually need to have at least
$5 billion of assets under management, and investment experience of five years. The final rules are expected to be
announced before the end of this year, the Asharq Al-Awsat
reported yesterday.
Islamist group rejects
UAE terror designation
DUBAI: A group of Islamist scholars led by an influential
Qatar-based cleric expressed “astonishment” yesterday
that their organisation had being designated a terrorist
group by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The
International Union of Muslim Scholars urged the UAE
to remove it from a list of 85 banned groups that the
country, one of several Gulf Arab states that view political Islam as a security threat, had named on Saturday.
The inclusion of the group was “not based on any analysis or investigation, whether legal, logical or rational”,
the scholars said in a statement, which was co-signed
by the union’s chairman, Egyptian-born Youssef AlQaradawi. “The Union expresses its complete and
extreme astonishment of its inclusion by the UAE
among the terrorists groups and rejects this description
completely,” said the group, which says it seeks to promote scholarship and awareness of Islam.
London attacker
jailed for 18 years
LONDON: A British judge yesterday handed out a life sentence with a minimum of 18 years in prison for a thief who
brutally attacked three sisters from the United Arab Emirates
in a London hotel room with a claw
hammer. Drug addict Philip Spence, 33,
attacked the tourists as they slept with
their children at the four-star
Cumberland Hotel on April 6, in an incident that raised concern about the safety of visitors from the Gulf. Afterwards
he made off with iPads, gold jewellery
and mobile phones, before dumping
the claw hammer near the crime scene.
The Emirati sisters - Ohoud, Khulood
Philip Spence and Fatima Al-Najja - were sharing
adjoining rooms in the hotel and had left their doors open to
allow a fourth sister to return later. Spence crept in and was
seen by Khulood shortly before 1:30am, rifling through handbags. His subsequent sustained and ferocious attack left all
three women unconscious. He hit Ohoud, 34, so hard that her
skull split open. She now has only five percent brain function,
has lost one eye and cannot speak. Khulood, 37, and Fatima,
31, still require medical treatment for their injuries.
Vienna’s Saudi school
accused of anti-Semitism
VIENNA: Vienna’s school board is investigating the city’s
Saudi Arabian school for reportedly teaching antiSemitism in a history class. The probe is linked to a
report by an Austrian news magazine. The magazine
said a history book used by the school contains antiJewish material. It quoted the book as allegedly describing Freemasons as “a Jewish, secret, subversive organization focused on guaranteeing control of the world by
Jews”. School board official Matias Meissner said yesterday the board is looking into the allegations. A woman
answering the phone at the school refused to comment. The school could lose its status as a recognized
educational institution if the allegations are proven.
RIYADH: HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah (center) takes part in a meeting with Saudi
King Abdullah (right), Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani (left) and other Gulf leaders late
Sunday in the Saudi capital. — KUNA (See Page 2)
Western jihadists in
IS beheading video
PAGE
Screaming fans dub
Modi a ‘rock star’
PAGE
India urges higher pay for Gulf workers
NEW DELHI/DUBAI/RIYADH: India is pressing rich countries in the Gulf to raise the wages of millions of Indians
working there, in a drive that could secure it billions of
dollars in fresh income but risks pricing some of its citizens out of the market. Over 5 million Indian nationals
are believed to be employed in the oil exporting states of
the Gulf, the single largest group in a migrant worker
population of more than 20 million. Migrants do many of
the dirty and dangerous jobs in the region, from construction to the oil industry, transport and services. They
account for nearly half of the roughly 50 million population of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.
So India’s campaign for much higher pay could have
an impact on economies around the region, especially if
it leads to a general increase in wages for workers from
other big labour-supplying countries such as Pakistan
and Bangladesh. Over the past seven months, Indian
diplomats in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates have sharply increased the
minimum salaries that they recommend for Indian workers at private and public firms in those states. “We want
the Indian workforce to be paid higher salaries. Inflation,
the value of the Indian currency and a rise in the cost of
living in the Gulf were the factors that led to the decision,”
Kuwait to let banks
trade in derivatives
DUBAI: Kuwait’s dinar rose sharply against the US dollar
in the forwards market yesterday in response to news
that the Kuwaiti Central Bank would allow local banks to
deal in derivatives with foreign banks. Al Rai newspaper
in Kuwait quoted an unnamed source as saying the central bank had “informed treasury managers at banks that
it no longer objects to Kuwaiti banks dealing in derivatives with foreign banks, as long as they deal in products
approved by Central Bank regulations”. A trader at a
Kuwait-based bank, contacted by Reuters, confirmed the
report, saying the central bank had communicated its
new policy at a meeting with banks on Sunday.
A senior trader at another Kuwaiti bank said his institution had not yet received any formal communication
from the Central Bank, but was making preparations for
such trade. Contacted by Reuters, the Central Bank made
no immediate comment. One-year dollar/dinar forwards
dropped to 130 points, their lowest level since
November last year, from 265 points on Friday.
Continued on Page 13
Doctor with Ebola
dies at US hospital
WASHINGTON: A surgeon who was infected with Ebola while
working in his native Sierra Leone died yesterday, becoming
the second patient in the United States to succumb to the
hemorrhagic virus. Martin Salia, 44, a
legal US resident, was infected with
Ebola while treating patients in his
home country. The virus has killed
thousands in West Africa since the
start of the year. Salia was flown to
Nebraska for treatment on Saturday,
but doctors said he was unresponsive
by the time he arrived, struggling to
Martin Salia
breathe and his organs were failing.
“Dr Salia was suffering from advanced symptoms of Ebola
when he arrived at the hospital Saturday, which included kidney and respiratory failure,” the Nebraska Medical Center said
in a statement. (See Page 29)
DUBAI/KUWAIT: A spat over Qatar’s alleged support for
the Muslim Brotherhood that alienated other members
of the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council appears to
have been resolved because of major regional challenges. Possible concessions by Doha may also have
paved the way to overcoming the unprecedented dispute. After a surprise mini-summit late Sunday in
Riyadh, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, United Arab
Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain agreed to return their
ambassadors to Doha, eight months after withdrawing
them in protest at gas-rich Qatar’s “interference” in their
affairs.
Sunday’s reconciliation, which means the annual
GCC summit will now go ahead as planned in Doha next
month, comes amid security fears over the rise of radical jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq. Bahrain, Kuwait,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have all joined a US-led
coalition against Islamist insurgents in Syria. Oman is
the only GCC member not to have done so. “What is
important now is that the worst crisis to hit the GCC in
its 33 years of existence is over,” Emirati political science
professor Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said.
Qatar was accused of destabilising the region by supporting the Muslim Brotherhood - branded a “terrorist”
organisation by Saudi Arabia and the UAE - and other
Islamist groups, notably in Syria and Libya. Yesterday,
Qatar’s foreign ministry hailed the outcome of the summit, including the decision to return the envoys to their
posts.
Continued on Page 13
RIYADH: Kuwait’s Talal Al-Enezi (center) fights for the ball with UAE’s Amer Abdulrahman during their Gulf Cup
Group B football match at the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium yesterday. The match ended in a 2-2 draw. — AFP
Y S Kataria, a spokesman for the Ministry of Overseas
Indian Affairs (MOIA) in New Delhi, told Reuters.
The success of India’s strategy is not yet clear, however.
Officials in at least some GCC nations have expressed displeasure, and the strategy could backfire if those countries end up hiring more workers from elsewhere in the
world. “Of course it will encourage companies to look at
Bangladesh and Pakistan as more viable options to get
migrant workers,” said Mohammed Jindran, managing
director of UAE-based recruitment agency Overseas
Labour Supply.
Continued on Page 13
Rights group:
Tackle Qatar
labor abuses
DOHA: It took less than a year for Murali
Velayudhan’s dream to shatter. The Indian construction worker came to Qatar in October last year, hoping to be one of thousands of migrant workers to
benefit from a $200 billion building boom related to
the country’s hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup
and other projects. Landing in Doha, Velayudhan
was aware that Qatar, like other Gulf Arab states,
stood accused of encouraging modern slavery with
its treatment of migrant workers prompting international outrage. But he was determined to save money for his family.
But six months later the 42-year-old was heading
back to India with no money and a debt that will
take him a lifetime to repay. “It’s a dream that
became a nightmare,” he told the Thomson Reuters
Foundation, as he departed from Doha International
Airport with other co-workers who said they were
abandoned by their employers without visas or
salary. Despite global pressure on Qatar to address
reports of exploitative working conditions, 29,400
people, or 1.4 percent of Qatar’s population, are estimated to be working as slaves, in forced labor or
domestic servitude, a report said yesterday.
Only Mauritania, Uzbekistan and Haiti had a higher prevalence of slaves per head of population,
according to the second annual Global Slavery Index
by Walk Free Foundation, an Australian-based
human rights group. In the inaugural index last year,
Qatar ranked 96th out of 160 countries surveyed for
prevalence of modern slavery by percentage of the
population. This year it was listed as the fourth worst
country in a larger survey of 167 nations.
“Qatar’s changed ranking reflects the fact that
this year for the first time, we have survey data from
returned Ethiopian and Nepali migrant workers,” said
Fiona David, executive director of global research at
Walk Free Foundation.
Continued on Page 13