1
From the Arabic press WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 KUWAIT: For the fourth year in a row, Ahli United Bank has received the prestigious annual Award from Commerzbank for out- standing performance in straight-through- processing (STP) of payments. This award rec- ognizes the high level of operational efficien- cy at Ahli United Bank. Ms Jehad Al-Humaidhi, Ahli United Bank’s GM Information Technology and Operations, said: “We are delighted to be awarded by Commerzbank for the fourth year running. The award is based on Ahli United Bank’s state-of- the-art in-house payments architecture and reflects the Bank’s consistently with high SWIFT standards, which facilitate automated process- ing throughout the payment process. Ms Al-Humaidhi added : “With our experi- enced personnel and our strong IT infrastruc- ture and delivery channels, we are set to contin- ue providing a high quality service to all our individual and institutional customers. Commerzbank is a leading international com- mercial bank with branches and offices in more than 50 countries. Ahli United Bank receives prestigious award from Commerzbank Al-Anbaa H uman trafficking and terrorism are interrelated and ought to be deemed as a terrorist crime. However, this is only part of the problem because the refugee crisis has gone beyond all historic figures. If only one could vision himself on a boat lost in the Mediterranean or slowly dying along with his kids inside a sheep truck traversing Europe, we might get close to understanding. Why do not GCC countries work harder on ending the sufferings of Arab and Muslim refugees and why do not they work on receiving region- al refugees because things have gone as far as endan- gering everybody’s mere existence. To explain how and without getting into general assumptions, let us read UNICEF’s most recent report and the frightening numbers it contains. The report shows that we currently have 13.7 million kids who have left school because of war in five Arab countries and are homeless either in their own countries or living in refugee camps. This figure includes 2.7 million kids from Syria, 3 million from Iraq, 2 million from Libya, 3.1 mil- lion from Sudan and 2.9 million from Yemen, in addition to those in war-stricken Somalia and other similar coun- tries. These figures represent 40 percent of the total number of children in those countries and are expected to rise to 50 percent within a few months, unless some- thing is done. The historically unprecedented terrible human condi- tion refugees have been experiencing call for immediate action to stop wars, achieving political understanding, finding safe havens for refugees and setting special edu- cational programs for those kids as soon as possible to help them return to their home countries. But if current situations go on any further, there is a possibility that those kids will get recruited by various terrorist groups easily, which has already started. Just imagine how seri- ous security would become if even a small number of those kids get hired by terrorists. It will surely mean a more complicated, insecure and more terrible future. The current refugee tragedies onboard death boats and suffocation trucks are unprecedentedly scandalous and their continuation has negative humane impacts, as well as marking the beginning of an unimaginable future of waste and destruction! —Translated by Kuwait Times Inevitable crisis unless... Al-Jarida By Dr Ghanim Al-Najjar U nfortunately, there is much resemblance between the 1975 and the 2015 Lebanon. It is as if four long decades have failed to make anybody read history and learn lessons. The 15-year-long Lebanese civil war did not start in April 1975 as every- one argues. In fact, the first spark leading to this war could have been quickly controlled, and by attracting GCC ‘petrodollars’, it could have been turned into one of the richest countries in the world. However, following the Ain Rommanah incident, many security breaches took place everywhere in what was known as ‘the Lebanese incidents’ and major politicians forgot that the mightiest fires only start with one spark unless put off! At that time, PM Rashid Al-Solh refused deploying the army to maintain security with the excuse that it was full of sectarianism and dominated by politics (in fact, very few world armies are not), though it would have been more logical to ‘put out the fire first then question the fireman’s identity’. When that option failed, President Suleiman Frangieh formed a military cabinet including all sects in 1975 led by Nouroddin Al-Refa’e from Beirut to maintain security and disarm all militias. However, Mufti Hassan Khalid, PM Rashid Karami and Kamal Jumblatt met at the mufti’s house and rejected the new cabinet, which resigned only two days after its formation. On accepting its resignation, Frangieh said: You came from the army which only lis- tens to reason and can care about your country. Then things grad- ually developed into a civil war that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands including the three leaders Khalid, Karami and Jumblatt. The presence of young chewing gum vendors by vari- ous crossroads and traffic lights helped burn Lebanon at that time. Those young people could be easily bought because they had nothing to lose but the box of gum they were trying to sell. It was even said then that ‘the beautiful, green, multicultural Lebanon was burnt by chewing gum vendors’! Nowadays, there are many infiltrators amongst protestors throughout Lebanon who want to destroy the state, undermine its prestige and assault army and security personnel without telling anyone how such acts would solve the problems of corruption, garbage, unemployment and lack of electricity, nor how they would boost development and attract more tourists and investors. It seems that toppling regimes has become a goal in itself instead of solving problems. It will definitely be followed by more political and sectarian polarization and much blood will be shed after the army and security troops have been neutralized, which is typically what happened in 1975. Oh, how Arabs, including the Lebanese, have memories weaker than fish and birds have! Nobody recalls what happened four decades ago! A few days ago, I wandered around Lebanese protestors in Al- Shohada and Riyadh Al-Solh squares and saw many bullies and new chewing gum vendors who held no gum boxes this time. Finally, the real purpose of what is currently going on in Lebanon is to break the independence and Taef agreements, create a new quotas system and economically destroy martyr Rafiq Al-Hariri’s dream of building the Solidaire project to develop Lebanon. —Translated by Kuwait Times Beirut and new gum vendors Al-Anbaa By Sami Al-Nisf Counter Terrorism Crime R e p o r t Weapons, ammo found in desert KUWAIT: Four boxes of AK-47 ammunition and ‘Istiqlal’ machine guns were found by Jahra police in Rahaya desert. Explosives and state security departments were informed about the weapons and investigations are underway. Domestic abuse A citizen accused her ex-husband of beating and insulting her following a dispute in their joint house in Saad Al-Abdallah. The woman gave police a medical report and police are investigating. Prison fire A prisoner was charged with damage to property as he started a fire at his cell at the central prison. Policemen noticed the smoke coming out of the cell so they rushed to it and put it out. The prisoner’s offense was added to his other charges. Insult A police captain filed a case of telephone misuse against a lieutenant who he works with and claimed that he insulted him. Jahra detectives are investigating the case. Swindler arrested An Egyptian man was arrested by Khaitan detectives for swindling three citizens and issuing bad checks worth KD 15,000, before disappearing. Detectives were able to locate the Egyptian and he was taken to concerned authorities. Stabbed Five citizens beat and stabbed a Pakistani man and then robbed him. The Pakistani was on his way home when he was stopped by five persons who stabbed him and escaped after robbing him. An attempted murder was registered and Hawally detec- tives were able to find and arrest the men. —Al-Rai Fake Maids Ahmadi police are looking for two Asian women who took KD 400 from a citizen in exchange for hiring two domestic helpers. The citizen told Reqqa police that he was swindled by the women who made him believe they can provide him with two maids from their country. The women brought him copies of the ‘maids’ passports and got them visas. He then paid KD 400 to the two who disappeared, but the ‘maids’ did not arrive. Ahmadi detectives are investigating. Kuwait lacks professional hotel apartments: report KUWAIT: General Manager of Leaders Group Company for Consultancy and Development (the representative of UNWTO in Kuwait), Nabila Al-Anjeri stressed that the Kuwaiti mar- ket lacks luxurious hotel apartments run by international professional hotel companies. “Hotel apartments are so limited in Kuwait and do not meet the demand, especially with the high season of tourism from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries into Kuwait, especially Saudis, during Eids and holidays,” she said, noting that due to kinship to Kuwaiti families and sharing the same conservative traditions, Saudi families prefer apartments where they can get more privacy. In this regard, the Leaders Group’s monthly report for September 2015 explained that Kuwait annually receives 3 million GCC tourists as per exits traffic records, and that 1.95 million of them had entered Kuwait this year up till August. “This number is annually growing by 10 percent, and Saudis make up more than 80 percent of the visitors,” added Anjeri, pointing out that the total number of hotel apartments was only 3,000. The report also shows that only KD 1 billion was currently invested in the local hotel sector, adding that the majority of that amount was invested in five and four-star hotels that usual- ly have low occupancy rates with a maximum of 50 percent at best. “Hotel apartments occu- pancy rates were 46 percent in June and 34 percent in July with higher demand of up to 90 or 95 percent occupancy during winter”, Anjeri remarked. The report also stressed that per night cost of staying at hotel apart- ments ranged between KD 25-60, which is cheap compared to the cost of KD 85-110 per night at five- star hotels, KD 50-70 at four-star hotels and KD 30-40 at three-star hotels. “This made some major com- panies invest in furnished apart- ments and they managed to expand within a short period,” added the report. Furthermore, the report underscored that the hotels’ sector did not get any official sup- port as the case worldwide in general, and in GCC states in specific. “Relevant authorities do not deal with hotels as a regulated industry, as there are many buildings which get licensed and built as ordinary ones then get turned into hotels without matching internationally acknowledged hotel specifications and stan- dards,” the report concluded. Nabila Al-Anjeri
![Panacea Biotec Receives Prestigious Intellectual Property & Science Award "Top 50 Indian Innovators 2015" [Company Update]](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/577c83751a28abe054b5067f/panacea-biotec-receives-prestigious-intellectual-property-science-award-top.jpg)
