Habib Toumi

Ali Al Deqbasi

A Kuwaiti lawmaker filed a request on Tuesday to grill Information and Oil Minister Shaikh Ahmad Abdullah Al Sabah over a controversial TV show deemed offensive to Bedouin tribes.

MP Ali Al Deqbasi, a member of the opposition Popular Action Bloc, charged the minister of failing to apply the 2006 law on the financial auditing of establishments and companies licenced to publish and broadcast.

However, the more significant charge against the minister is his “leniency in applying the provisions of the law towards seditious channels that are unauthorized or that break the law,” Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported.

The minister was dragged into a controversy after Al Soor (The Wall) a private television channel aired in December a talk show that claimed that tribesmen were not true citizens of Kuwait and that many of them broke the law by holding dual citizenship. Only the people who lived inside the walls of Kuwait City were the genuine inhabitants of the emirate, the programme alleged. continue reading…

Shaikh Mohammad Al Sabah

Kuwait will seek to help defuse the diplomatic tension between Libya and Switzerland, the Kuwaiti foreign minister has said.

Shaikh Mohammad Al Sabah who started on Monday a European tour of Portugal, Britain, Luxemburg and Belgium, will also visit Libya for discussions that include the Arab summit to be hosted by Tripoli next month as well as the diplomatic row between Tripoli and Geneva.

“The visit to Libya is highly significant because it comes amid preparations for the annual summit,” Shaikh Mohammad said. “But, there is also the standoff between Switzerland and Libya and its effect on the Libyan-European relations. I will take up this issue during my stops in Europe and will brief the Libyan foreign minister on the outcome of the meetings with European officials,” Shaikh Mohammad was quoted as telling Kuwaiti media prior to his departure. continue reading…

Kuwait's MPs in a verbal match over the women's football team - Al Watan

Islamist Kuwaiti lawmakers have condemned the participation of their women’s football team in the Asian championship as a “breakdown in social values” and demanded an investigation.

“The minister of labour and social affairs should take action against those who allowed the participation,” MP Mohammad Al Hayef said. “The matches are part of the chaos to dilute the values and identity of Kuwait,” the MP said.

In its first participation in an international tournament, the Kuwaiti women’s squad was routed 17-0 by a stronger Palestinian side. The Third West Asian Women Soccer Tournament in the United Arab Emirates started on Saturday and will last until Sunday. The Kuwaiti team was assembled by Shaikha Naemah Ahmad Al Sabah, the chairwoman of Kuwaiti Women Soccer Committee. continue reading…