publishedmedium:kuwait times

Parliament, public against welfare cuts - Freedoms make austerity campaign tricky for govt - Kuwait Times | Kuwait Times
▻http://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/parliament-public-welfare-cuts

Billions of dollars are at stake; finance ministry undersecretary Khalifa Hamada told the al-Qabas newspaper at the end of last year that “rationalizing” subsidies would save the government KD 2.6 billion ($8.7 billion) over three years. Savings would be greater if the bloated public payroll could be reformed. The finance ministry projected in January that the government would run a budget deficit of KD 12.2 billion in the fiscal year starting on April 1, 2016, after state contributions to the sovereign wealth fund.

Between 7,000 and 13,000 of around 18,000 Kuwaiti nationals in the oil sector took part in the strike in late April, union members estimated. Union membership is not compulsory and foreign workers are not permitted to strike. Workers were protesting a proposed overhaul of the public sector payroll system that would set uniform standards for salaries, bonuses and benefits. The Oil and Petrochemical Industries Workers Confederation fears the government will use the reform to freeze salaries of higher-paid employees.

Ultimately, the union called off the strike “in honor of His Highness the Amir”, and the government insisted it made no concessions – an apparent victory for authorities. But the union has been talking to the government since the strike ended, so concessions could still be made. Kuwait’s oil output fell as low as 1.1 million barrels per day during the strike from the usual output of around 3 million bpd, tarnishing the country’s image as a reliable exporter.

“The workers have achieved their main objective of getting their message across,” said Faisal Abu Sulaib, another political science professor at Kuwait University. Saif al-Qahtani, chairman of the oil workers’ union, said he could not speak for other unions but that some of them also opposed wage system reform. Some other union members and analysts said a string of strikes in Kuwait remained unlikely. An official at the headquarters of the Kuwait Trade Union Federation, which represents 15 unions in the energy and government sectors, said it had not been informed of any other planned walkouts.

Nevertheless, in the wake of the oil strike, the government may move even more gradually and cautiously with reforms. While most of the current parliament has been relatively supportive of the idea of reform, legislative elections are due next year, and the government will not want the issue of austerity to cause the election of a more antagonistic parliament.

‘Abdaly’ suspects deny all charges, allege torture - Kuwait Times | Kuwait Times
▻http://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/abdaly-suspects-deny-all-charges-allege-torture

Abdaly’ suspects deny all charges, allege torture

KUWAIT: In a separate case also presided by Judge Mohammad Al-Duaij, all 23 Kuwaiti suspects of the so-called “Abdaly cell” categorically denied the charges and insisted that they were tortured severely to extract confessions from them. The public prosecution charged 24 of the 26 suspects of having links to Iran and its Shiite Lebanese militia ally Hezbollah and of plotting attacks against Kuwait.

Twenty-three suspects, all Kuwaiti citizens, appeared in court in grey prison uniforms. Three others, including one Iranian, are at large. Judge Duaij allowed all the suspects to express their grievances and tell their stories in a hearing that lasted two-and-a-half-hours and witnessed intense arguments by defense lawyers. But as the hearing was about to conclude, the main suspect Hassan Abdulhadi Hassan sprang a major surprise.

After initially denying all the charges, Hassan sought permission to speak and told the court that the arms discovered at his residence were from the 1990-91 Iraqi invasion period and were given to him by a sheikh Hassan said that he was a resistance member under the sheikh during the Iraqi invasion and that after the liberation, the sheikh asked him to store the arms and ammunition. He said he stored them at his father’s residence in Rumaithiya until 2008, when he moved them to his own residence in Abdullah Al-Mubarak, where the weapons were discovered by authorities. Hassan however did not mention the arms found in a farm in Abdaly near the borders with Iraq.

The interior ministry said last month it seized large amounts of arms and weapons including 144 kilograms of explosives. The suspects said they were beaten mercilessly by security forces and repeatedly given electric shocks and forced to sign confessions to all the charges. Some of them said security members threatened to kill them if they do not confess while some said interrogators threatened to arrest their mothers, wives or daughters.

The judge gave the suspects ample time to speak after lawyers complained that they were not interrogated fairly either at the state security or by the prosecutors. Lawyers demanded that the court should set a neutral medical commission from Kuwait University to examine claims of torture, although a majority of them said they had no traces of torture on their bodies.

The lawyers also demanded that their clients be freed pending trial. The court rejected both requests and set Sept 29 for the next hearing after promising suspects to listen to their stories. The prosecutor charged that the suspects had received explosives and weapons training so they could “achieve illegal goals”. Iran has officially denied any links to the suspects.

By B Izzak

Situation ‘catastrophic’ in Yemen’s Aden - Saudi-led airstrikes hit Yemen’s south amid ground fighting - Kuwait Times |

ADEN: The Red Cross warned yesterday of a “catastrophic” situation in Yemen’s main southern city Aden, as loyalist forces battled rebels in the streets backed by shelling by Saudi-led warships. The Iran-backed Houthi Shiite rebels and their allies made a new push on a port in the central Mualla district of the city but were forced back by militia loyal to fugitive President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, witnesses said.
Naval forces of the Saudi-led coalition, which has carried out nearly two weeks of air strikes in support of Hadi’s beleaguered government, shelled rebel positions across the city, they added.

Spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen, Marie Claire Feghali, said that the humanitarian situation in all of Yemen is “very difficult...(with) naval, air and ground routes cut off.” She described the situation in Aden as “catastrophic to say the least.” “The war in Aden is on every street, in every corner... Many are unable to escape,” she said. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the situation was “worsening by the day,” with wounded people unable to get to hospital because of the fighting. The MSF medical team in Aden had “not received large numbers of casualties over the past few days, not because there are no wounded people, but due to the difficulties faced in trying to reach a hospital,” MSF Yemen representative Marie-Elisabeth Ingres said. MSF has a team of 140 local staff and eight expatriates at a hospital in Aden. “Our priority is to find a way to send a supporting medical team,” Ingres told AFP, adding that a team is waiting in Djibouti “for a greenlight from the coalition.”

At least 10 people were killed in fighting in Aden overnight, medical and security sources said. That was on top of at least 53 people killed over the previous 24 hours. Nationwide, more than 540 people have been killed and 1,700 wounded in fighting in Yemen since March 19, the World Health Organization said yesterday.
The UN’s children agency UNICEF said at least 74 children had been confirmed killed since the coalition air strikes began on March 26, adding that it believed the real figure to be much higher. More than 100,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, the agency added. During the night, Saudi-led warplanes carried out fresh strikes on the rebel-held Al-Anad air base north of Aden, pro-Hadi General Muthanna Jawas said.❞

Kuwait’s rank in ‘Doing Business’ has dropped by 7 points in 2015 - Kuwait Times | Kuwait Times
▻http://news.kuwaittimes.net/kuwaits-rank-in-doing-business-has-dropped-by-7-points-in-2015

Kuwait’s DTF score has improved marginally during the last five years. Among the GCC peers, Kuwait is the lowest ranked in both Doing Business and Starting a Business. The country has the highest number of procedures (12), compared to Oman (5) and UAE (6), and the longest time duration to complete the procedures (31), compared to Oman (7) and UAE (8). In terms of costs required, Kuwait (1.9 percent) fares reasonably well compared to UAE (6.3 percent) and Qatar (5.2 percent), and is worse off in the paid-in-minimum-capital parameter compared to UAE and Saudi Arabia, which require no minimum paid-in capital requirement.

Comparing the ease of starting a business DTF, we see that Kuwait is the farthest among the GCC peers from the requisite benchmark. Using the rank simulator tool provided by the World Bank, it can be seen that Kuwait’s Ease of Starting a Business ranking drops to 84 (compared to 150), if the number of procedures is halved and if the time taken to complete all the procedures is similar to that of Oman’s. It further drops to 51 (placed higher than UAE), if the minimum paid-in-capital requirement from a regulatory perspective becomes 0 percent.

Kuwait set to allow expats to moonlight - ArabianBusiness.com
▻http://m.arabianbusiness.com/kuwait-set-allow-expats-moonlight-574436.html

Expats working in Kuwait’s private sector will soon be allowed to take up additional part-time work in a move designed to boost the labour force without increasing the population, the Manpower Public Authority has announced.

The practice, known as moonlighting, also would allow low-paid workers to earn additional income.

Scores of foreign workers already have informal second jobs, according to Kuwait Times, and the new rule will make it legal.

Expatriates working in the public sector already can seek additional part-time jobs in the private sector or nongovernmental organisations.

The decision is among several expected to be implemented in January under the country’s overhaul of labour laws.

Private companies have been suspended from directly recruiting foreign labour for several years, with exceptions, while a new Manpower Public Authority was created, moving the labour department from the Ministry of Social Affairs to a separate body.

The country has been attempting to rebalance it demography, with foreigners making up two-thirds of the country’s population of 4 million, and reduce pressure on ailing services and a housing shortage.

However, efforts to encourage citizens into the private sector have had minimal success.

Last year, the former social affairs minister declared Kuwait would cut the number of foreigners in the country by 1 million 2023.

Parliament is presently debating a proposal to limit expatriate visas to 10 years and cap the proportion of the total population that comes from one country to 15 percent.

Kuwaiti union official accuses ministry of ’human trafficking’ - ArabianBusiness.com
▻http://m.arabianbusiness.com/kuwaiti-union-official-accuses-ministry-of-human-trafficking--567

A top official representing expatriates in Kuwait has quit his position in protest over what he says is the government’s involvement in the exploitation of expat labourers.

Abdul Rahman Al Ghanim, the head of Kuwait Labor Union’s expat division, said more than 500 foreign labourers had complained of not receiving their salaries for months but government organisations were doing little to respond, Kuwait Times reported.

He claimed the Ministry of Health had employed numerous expats who did not have the required work residency visas, “which [is] human trafficking”.

The government department in charge of expatriates, the Manpower Authority, also had convinced some labourers to forfeit their overdue salaries in return for allowing them to transfer their visas to other sponsors – a promise that was not fulfilled once the labourers had signed papers to forfeit their money, Al Ghanim said.

He claimed he had unsuccessfully raised the issues with the relevant authorities on numerous occasions.

There are an estimated almost 2 million expatriates living in Kuwait, equal to about two-thirds of the population.

Last week, a survey of 14,000 expats in 160 countries by InterNations found Kuwait was the worst state to be an expat. The survey measured quality of life, ease of settling in, working abroad, family life, personal finance, and overall satisfaction living abroad.

’Deport after revoking citizenship’ - MP Abdulsamad warns of deficit due to oil price slide - Kuwait Times | Kuwait Times
▻http://news.kuwaittimes.net/deport-revoking-citizenship-mp-abdulsamad-warns-deficit-due-oil-pr

KUWAIT: MP Nabil Al-Fadhl yesterday called on the government to deport people after stripping them of their citizenship especially for reasons of threatening national security or having obtained their nationality on false information. The lawmaker submitted a proposal to amend the Nationality Law of 1959 to make it mandatory on authorities to deport such people, saying that they should not be allowed to stay in the country after committing such crimes.

In his amendment, Fadhl proposed adding a new item to Article 13 of Nationality Law to make deporting people after revoking their citizenship an obligation rather than a choice. Article 13 deals with revoking citizenship of naturalized citizens for obtaining the citizenship on the basis of false information or cheating and for threatening national security and national economy by spreading harmful information and news.

The Council of Ministers invoked this article to withdraw the citizenship of a number of opposition figures including former MP Abdullah Al-Barghash and owner of the Al-Youm television and Alam Al-Youm newspaper Ahmad Jabr Al-Shemmari and others. Fadhl however did not say how will the state deport people who are stateless and to which destination because people in a foreign country can be deported to their home countries or to a third country of their choice and which accepts to take them.

Mutair chief stabbed by son in mosque - Kuwait Times | Kuwait Times
▻http://news.kuwaittimes.net/mutair-chief-stabbed-son-mosque

KUWAIT: Well-informed security sources said that former MP and head of the Mutair tribe Faisal Bandar Watban Al- Duweesh was yesterday rushed to Farwaniya Hospital for urgent surgery after he was stabbed thrice by his son.

The sources added that the incident took place inside the Al-Duweesh Mosque in Sabah Al-Nasser after Maghreb prayers, and that the son’s motives were still unknown.

Later, Minister of Amiri Diwan Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al- Ahmad Al-Sabah and his deputy Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah visited Duweesh at the hospital and conveyed the best wishes of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah for a speedy recovery.

Kuwaiti fighter hailed at hometown as martyr - ‘Victory after heroic actions’ - Kuwait Times | Kuwait Times
▻http://news.kuwaittimes.net/kuwaiti-fighter-hailed-hometown-martyr-victory-heroic-actions

Oil strike looms as talks break down - MP calls for scrapping Zour North contract - Kuwait Times | Kuwait Times

▻http://news.kuwaittimes.net/oil-strike-looms-talks-break-mp-calls-scrapping-zour-north-contrac

Law penalizing criticism of Amir upheld by court - Kuwait Times | Kuwait Times
▻http://news.kuwaittimes.net/law-penalizing-criticism-amir-upheld-court

KUWAIT: The constitutional court said yesterday that an article in the penal code which jails people who publicly criticize the Amir for up to five years is “in line with the constitution” and is necessary to protect the person of the head of the state. The court, whose rulings are final, rejected a number of challenges filed against article 25 of the penal code which considers criticizing the Amir in public, undermining his status and authorities or offending him as a “crime”.