Habib Toumi

Exquisite Italian garden

Italy’s grand art of gardening, where love of nature smoothly blends with art and passionately hugs with architecture, as admired in the numerous villas and giardini of the romantic Peninsula, will be represented for the first time at the Bahrain International Garden on February 25-28 in Manama.

Bahraini woman baker

Bahrain plans to deport around 20,000 illegal foreigners in the first six months of the year, the labour minister said on Wednesday.

The figure is about half of the total number of illegal expatriates, estimated at 41,000, Majeed Al Alawi at a meeting of an ad hoc ministerial committee tasked with addressing the phenomenon of “free visa” foreigners.

“Tackling illegal workers in Bahrain is a national duty to protect the country’s national economy and security. There are many negative repercussions from the presence of massive numbers of illegal foreigners on all aspects and we therefore need to eradicate this dangerous phenomenon through joint action with all ministries,” Al Alawi said.  

Bahrain last month launched several campaigns to chase vendors off streets and detain those without proper residence or work permits prior to the deportation. continue reading…

The Russian ambassador (second left) with colleagues from Iran, Jordan and Czech Republic - Al Anba

Russia will supply Kuwait with several types of weapons under a bilateral agreement, Kuwaiti media said on Wednesday.

Quoting Alexander Kinshchak, Russia’s ambassador to Kuwait, Al Anba said that the two countries have agreed on all the details and that Kuwaiti experts will be trained on the use of the new weapons.

A Kuwaiti military delegation is expected to fly to Russia for matters related to the training, the paper said.

Kinshchak who was talking at a reception he hosted to mark the Army Day, however, refused to give details about the weapons.

“We are now in the implementation stage and we will scrupulously apply all the conditions stipulated in the agreement,” he said.

Kinshchak said that Kuwait- Russia military cooperation was robust and included technical reinforcement in all military areas, but ruled out joint exercises in the present time.

“We do not have military units in Kuwait in order to engage in military manoeuvres.  However, such cooperation could take place in the future,” said Kinshchak who has been in his post in Kuwait since April 2008. “The fact that we can cooperate indicates that we have good relations.” continue reading…

Al Khabbaz holds a bottle similar to the one allegedly used by the suspect to start the fire - Al Watan

The lawyers of the Kuwaiti woman who allegedly set a tent ablaze killing 57 women and children have called for her immediate release for lack of evidence as the court set March 31 for the verdict.

Nasra Al Enezi has been charged with starting in August a wedding fire tent in Jahra in the suburbs of Kuwait City in an act of revenge against her husband for taking a new wife. Nasra initially confessed to the crime, but later said that she was at home when the fire broke out and that her earlier confessions were made under coercion by investigators.

“There are many shortcomings in the incomplete investigation,” Zaid Al Khabbaz, one of the lawyers, told the court. “For instance, where is the taxi driver? Also, the maid, the only witness, said that she did not see the accused pour oil on the tent,” he said.

The police have been unable to locate the taxi driver who allegedly took Nasra to the site of the wedding, amid speculations that he was afraid of getting implicated in the crime. The only witness was an Asian maid working for the groom’s neighbour who said that she saw the accused carry a bottle with her.

According to preliminary investigations, she had filled the bottle with petrol from a station. continue reading…

Shaikh Ahmad, Dr Al Shatti and Dr Al Nashmi - Al Watan

Leading religious scholars in Kuwait have rejected a fatwa (religious edict) seeking to put to death opponents of strict segregation of men and women, saying that it was a call for sedition and chaos within the Islamic nation.

Saudi religious figure Shaikh Abdul Rahman Al Barrak on Tuesday said that the mixing of genders at the workplace or in educational institutions was religiously prohibited on the grounds that it allowed seeing what must not be seen and engaging in forbidden conversations. Those who refuse to abide by strict segregation between men and women should be put to death, he said.

However, Kuwaiti scholars said that such an edict could come only from “a senile person or someone who wants to sow sedition in the nation by allowing the killing of innocent people.”

“Officials need to step in promptly and make the authors of such edicts face legal measures to ensure that no innocent people are killed or abused by those who want to implement the fatwas,” Dr Ajeel Al Nashmi, the head of the GCC Religious Scholars League, said.   continue reading…