Habib Toumi

Samih Sawiris - Dailynewsegypt

An Egyptian billionaire has denied reports he was involved in talks to buy the Independent newspapers.

MediaGuardian.co.uk on Tuesday said that Samih Sawiris, the chairman and chief executive of Orascom Development Holding and one of three sons of Onsi Sawiris, founder of the Orascom group of companies in the 1950s, has been negotiating with London Evening Standard owner Alexander Lebedev over joining his proposed bid for the Independent and Independent on Sunday.

However, Sawiris told British media on Wednesday that he was not aware of his alleged involvement with the Independent titles. continue reading…

Kuwait Towers

Kuwait’s social affairs and labour ministry is moving towards dropping the three-year residence rule and the sponsor’s consent before allowing expatriates to transfer their visas.

“The ministry seeks by adopting such a move to ease the situation of expatriates in Kuwait and allow them to switch sponsors without obstacles or impediments,” Al Shahed daily reported on Wednesday.

The decision is part of the gradual move to scrap the kafala, the sponsorship system that ties the legal and professional status of a foreigner in the country to a local sponsor.

“The scrapping of the sponsorship system will be gradual because it is difficult to abolish it at once and the self-sponsorship system is not applicable to all foreigners,” the unnamed sources quoted by the newspaper said.

However, the sources did not mention a date for the application of the new rules. continue reading…

Kuwait’s immigration has asked its services not to allow maids into the country unless their sponsors had the approval of a manpower office.
“No domestic helper should be allowed to enter Kuwait without proper documents from a local manpower agency proving that they have endorsed him or her,” Al Shahed daily reported on Wednesday.
Kuwaitis and residents in the past could send the visa and the plane ticket to the recruited helper without resorting to a manpower office.
The new measures, according to unnamed sources, aims to ensure that the maids had a police clearance from their home countries.
However, several nationals and expatriates have complained that the new procedures are forcing them to pay “astronomical” sums to manpower offices, the paper said.
Around 700,000 women, mainly from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines, are employed in Kuwait as full-time live-in domestic workers. continue reading…

Shaikh Jaber and Merabishvili

Kuwait is moving towards allowing Georgian nationals to enter the country without a visa and staying up to 90 days, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) said.
The decision was announced during the visit of Georgian Interior Minister Ivan Merabishvili to Kuwait City where he reviewed with his Kuwaiti counterpart, Shaikh Jaber Al Khaled Al Jaber Al Sabah, on ways to bolster cooperation to combat terrorism and organized crime.
In a post-meeting statement, Shaikh Jaber said that the two countries would sign a memorandum of understanding to broaden joint action, stressing that terrorism had no religion and required common efforts.
Merabishvili said his country looked forward to the formation of a joint security cooperation commission. continue reading…