An information was provided to the Ministry of Interior about two Nepali expats 24 yr old and  27 yr old running a liquor factory in a house in Sulaibiya area. A 54 year old servicemen who works for the Kuwait Drug Control department has been behind this liquor factory operation.

In a raid carried out by the Ministry of Interior, 26 sheep which are likely to be stolen, a pistol, 4 clips, 100 bullets addition to 48 barrels filled with locally manufactured liquor, 8 imported liquor bottles, cartons, bags, material used to produce alcohol and tools suspected for using to perform witchcraft was also found. All accused have been refereed for further investigation./AT

With no end in sight to the perennial traffic woes on Kuwait streets, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) is said to be studying a new mechanism to limit and streamline the granting of driving licenses to expatriates.

A senior-level meeting of officials from the traffic-department chaired by the Undersecretary of MoI, Lieutenant-General Sheikh Faisal Al-Nawaf, discussed various steps to control and reduce traffic congestion on the roads, especially the main arterial roads during peak rush hours.

The meeting reportedly looked at various proposals to remove bottlenecks in traffic flows and traffic density by introducing a new and advanced mechanism to grant driving licenses to expatriates.

The Undersecretary affirmed that Kuwait aims to develop the latest and best traffic system and with this goal in mind several observations and suggestions were made at the meeting to ameliorate the country’s traffic problem.

He also conveyed the greetings of the Minister of Interior Sheikh Thamer Al-Ali, and praised the efforts exerted by the traffic men to ensure the safety of road users, and the smooth flow of traffic on the roads./KT

The Muslim Turkish minority in Greece expects the country’s compliance with European court rulings, sources said Friday.

On the occasion of Dec. 10 Human Rights Day, the Xanthi Turkish Union (ITB), one of the oldest associations of the country’s 150,000 strong Muslim-Turkish minority, hosted a webinar on Greece’s violations of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rulings regarding minority rights.

ITB head Ozan Ahmetoglu said the union was founded in 1927 and carried out its activities legally until 1983.

“But that year, the Greek state filed for a court to close the ITB and two other minority associations that had the word ‘Turkish’ in their name,” he said. “This was a reflection of Greece’s denial of the ethnic identity of the minority and their claim that there is no Turkish minority in the Western Thrace.”

After exhausting domestic remedies in 2005, ITB took the case to the ECHR, and in 2008 the court ruled in favor of the union, Ahmetoglu said, noting that the ruling determined that Greece violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

Greece, however, refuses to comply with the ECHR ruling, he said.

-Long struggle for rights

The Greek court’s ruling on Wednesday denying an application by the Xanthi Turkish Union to reregister came in response to an ECHR ruling from more than a decade ago that Greece has never carried out.

Under the 2008 ECHR ruling, the right of Turks in Western Thrace to use the word "Turkish" in names of associations was guaranteed, but Athens has failed to carry out the ruling, effectively banning the Turkish group identity.

Greece’s Western Thrace region is home to a Muslim Turkish community of 150,000.

In 1983, the nameplate of the Xanthi Turkish Union (Iskece Turk Birligi) was removed, and the group was completely banned in 1986, on the pretext that “Turkish” was in its name.

To apply the ECHR decision, in 2017 the Greek parliament passed a law enabling banned associations to apply for re-registration, but the legislation included major exceptions that complicated applications.

Turkey has long decried Greek violations of the rights of its Muslims and the Turkish minority, from closing mosques and shutting schools to not letting Muslim Turks elect their religious leaders.

The measures violate the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne as well as ECHR verdicts, making Greece a state that flouts the law, say Turkish officials./aa

 US Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on 15 individuals and 10 entities for their alleged roles in human rights abuse and repression in four countries.

Those countries are China, Bangladesh, Myanmar and North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The sanctions come on International Human Rights Day.

The Treasury Department also said it is imposing investment restrictions on a company in connection with the surveillance technology sector of the Chinese economy, saying the human rights abuse was enabled by "the malign use" of technology.

The Chinese company called SenseTime has developed facial recognition programs that can determine a target’s ethnicity, with a particular focus on identifying ethnic Uyghurs, it said in a statement.

"Technology is a key tool used to advance the exercise of freedom of expression and the protection of other human rights globally. However, authoritarian states misuse technology to facilitate human rights abuse and repression, target members of racial and ethnic minority groups, manipulate information, and spread disinformation," said the statement./aa

Reading the title of this column, you may not immediately be able to discern the link between these three. So let's dive right in and take a closer look at the issue of nuclear energy.

WHAT WAS ELON MUSK'S TWEET?

Last Thursday, Elon Musk tweeted about nuclear energy. It reads as follows: "Unless susceptible to extreme natural disasters, nuclear power plants should not be shut down." So what lies behind this tweet by Elon Musk?

WHY IS NUCLEAR ENERGY IMPORTANT?

In fact, the Covid-19 pandemic has also served as a litmus test, showing us the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of numerous sectors. 

One of these sectors and in my opinion the most important one is undoubtedly is energy. 

Because energy, which is the common and indispensable input of all other sectors, is the output of this particular industry. 

Meanwhile, labels such as "zero carbon policy" and "combating climate change" pose serious challenges to this industry.

The strategy of moving away from fossil fuel, which results in high carbon emissions, within the scope of combating climate change, increases the importance of alternative resources. 

When it comes to alternatives, renewable resources immediately spring to mind. As such, the number and capacities of wind, solar and geothermal power plants are increasing with every passing day. 

However, since the power generation of these plants experiences fluctuations to a certain extent, it does not seem quite yet possible to solely rely on them at the moment. 

When we consider the issue from this perspective, nuclear power plants then occupy a crucially unique position.

With nuclear power plants that boast a very long life span, it is possible to obtain relatively more energy continuously and in a cleaner way. 

Of course, let's stress the safety concerns when it comes to nuclear power as we’ve witnessed the disaster that ensued following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011 and the release of radioactive material in Fukushima.

CONNECTING ENERGY SUPPLY SECURITY AND ECONOMIC SECURITY?

One of the indispensable pillars for an economy to be sustainable is to guarantee the energy supply security of that economy at the highest level. 

Thus, the required energy must continuously be supplied from different sources at affordable costs. This requirement also necessitates the diversification of resources used in energy production. 

Nuclear power plants have an important role to play in this diversification. Because with nuclear power plants, reliable, clean and powerful energy supply is provided continuously and efficiently. 

Therefore, nuclear power plants, whose vulnerability to natural disasters is minimized, also contribute to the establishment of economic security.

AKKUYU IS A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Construction is underway on Akkuyu, Turkey's first nuclear power plant. If everything goes as planned, we will start receiving energy from the power plant in 2023. 

This is a strategic project as much as it is important for Turkey. However, when we look at Turkey's energy projections, when we consider the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement and the "zero carbon" targets, one needs to stress that additional nuclear power plant projects should be developed as soon as possible./YS

“Israeli” forces have rounded up 402 Palestinians in November, according to Palestinian rights groups on Saturday.

Sixty-six minors and three women were among those detained by “Israeli” forces last month, said a joint statement by the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner Society, the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center.

The occupied city of Jerusalem came first with 160 detentions, including 54 children, the statement said.

The NGOs also documented the issuance of 123 administrative detention orders, including 39 new ones in November.

The policy of administrative detention allows “Israeli” authorities to detain Palestinians for up to six months without charge or trial.

In total, the report estimates that 4,550 Palestinians are still held in “Israeli” prisons so far, including 32 women, 170 minors, and 500 people held under [Israel’s] administrative detention policy./aa

The death toll from tornadoes that hit the southeastern US state of Kentucky overnight will "probably end up closer to 70-100 lost lives," the governor said Saturday.

Describing the area as "devastated," Andy Beshear told a press briefing that multiple counties were affected by strong winds while Mayfield was one of the hardest-hit cities.

He also said that storms collapsed the roof of a candle factory, resulting in mass casualties.

Earlier, the governor said at least 50 people were believed to have died due to the tornadoes.

They particularly hit Graves County of Kentucky late Friday.

Meanwhile, Beshear declared a state of emergency after the tornadoes and submitted a request to President Joe Biden's administration for an immediate federal emergency declaration.

According to the governor, 181 national guardsmen have been deployed to the affected zones for search, extractions and debris clearance./aa

Disinformation including on social media now beyond mere a national security issue to being a global security threat, the Turkish president warned on Saturday.

Lies, manufactured news, and disinformation spread rapidly through the use of social media, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a video message sent to the first day of the Stratcom Summit 2021 in Istanbul, Turkey’s commercial capital.

“Millions of people's lives are darkened due to such news spreading from channels lacking any effective control mechanism,” he told the summit.

Erdogan said though when it first emerged, social media was hailed as a symbol of freedom, now it has “turned into one of the main sources of threats to today's democracy.”

“In this regard, it is important to inform the public and to fight disinformation and propaganda within the framework of truth,” he said. "We are trying to protect our people, especially the vulnerable sectors of our society, against lies and disinformation, without compromising our citizens' right to receive accurate and impartial information.”

“No one, no company can be above the law,” he stressed.

“We will definitely not allow the truth to be devalued by disinformation operations, and the truth to be covered by lies,” he vowed.

Noting that he believes the Stratcom International Strategic Communication Summit will fill an important need in the field, Erdogan thanked all the participants who are contributing to the two-day event.

Turkey this weekend is hosting Stratcom 2021, an international gathering to address compelling policies, issues, challenges, and trends of the strategic communication ecosystem​​.

The two-day summit brought together 112 speakers from over 30 countries and a distinguished audience of over 3,000.

Topics being discussed at the summit include strategic communication, public diplomacy, digital diplomacy, the metaverse, nation branding, disinformation, new media, open intelligence, new communication technologies and trends, strategic marketing, and political communication./aa