Habib Toumi

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…

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…

Yuli Edelstein

Israel’s Public diplomacy minister Yuli Edelstein on Monday said that the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al Mabhouh should not be considered as murder.

In a blatant “smiling PR drive”, the minister told the Henry Jackson Society think tank at the House of Commons in London that it would be wrong to become “overly emotional” about Al Mabhouh’s death.

“Even if it will turn out that the worst secret service of the worst country in the world had managed to get to that guy, I will still not call it murder,” he said, according to a report in Ireland On Line. “Let’s not get overly emotional about his death and let’s not start mourning his death.”

Edelstein insisted that he did not know who carried out the assassination in Dubai last month.