Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan know dangers of Isis but tribal ties and fears of boosting Syria's Assad are prompting caution No one is falling over themselves to respond to Barack Obama's quest for a new "coalition of the willing" to attack the jihadis of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria least of all, it seems, the Arab governments that are most immediately threatened by its brutal, border-demolishing...
Raised by resistance fighters during the invasion of Kuwait, Fatima Al Qadiri now makes ice-cold electronica in the US. But she is still haunted by bombs and blazing oil wells "I believe in djinns," says Fatima Al Qadiri. "I believe in evil spirits that haunt the earth. I don't smell or see them, but I feel them especially in Kuwait : it's one of the most haunted places on earth. Even...
Kuwaiti imam Suleiman Abu Ghaith faces life in prison after being found guilty on three terrorism charges in New York court Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, the voice of fiery al-Qaida propaganda videotapes after the September 11 attacks, was convicted Wednesday of conspiring to kill Americans for his role as the terror group's spokesman. The verdict came after about five hours of deliberation in the...
Two beatable teams in Oman and Kuwait, but heavyweights South Korea will be thinking they can go all the way So the football gods can be merciful. After giving Australia a nightmare draw for June, Januarys home-served fare looks much more inviting: two beatable teams and one heavyweight to provide some hype and headlines. ...
Kuwait is liberated' and Iraq's army defeated. 'Tonight, the Kuwaiti flag flies above the capital of a free and sovereign nation.' He said the de facto ceasefire was contingent on Iraqi agreement not to attack coalition forces or to continue Scud missile assaults. If Iraq failed to comply, then the war would resume. The President said all PoWs had to be released along with any Kuwaitis taken by Iraqi...
A Kuwait League match between Al Nasr and Al Arabi on Thursday turns violent following a controversial penalty decision. Referee Saad Al Fadhi gets into a fight with unhappy Al Nasr players, and after throwing punches shows two red cards. Al Nasr gets handed a third red card after one of its players kicks the ball directly at Al Fadhi following the restart. The match finishes 4-1 to Al Arabi...
Kuwait Times reports that woman had been driving just over the border in Saudi Arabia when she was stopped by police A Kuwaiti woman was arrested in Saudi Arabia for trying to drive her father to hospital, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Sunday, a week after Saudi women protested against a ban on female drivers. Kuwaiti women are free to drive in their country and enjoy far more rights than those in...
UAE man sentenced for tweeting about political trial, while Kuwaiti jailed for insulting prophet Muhammad A United Arab Emirates court has jailed a man for two years over tweeting about a political trial, and Kuwait handed a five-year prison term to a Kuwaiti Twitter user for insulting the prophet Muhammad, activists and a lawyer said today. The cases, and similar previous prosecutions, highlight the...
UN 'worst case' of more than a million Syrian refugees displaced to neighbouring nations could be reached in weeks, says charity Syria's humanitarian crisis is spinning out of control as refugee numbers spike and funding to help ease the suffering has yet to materialise, Oxfam has said. Oxfam's Syria crisis response manager, Francis Lacasse, warned that the "worst-case scenario" for the UN,...
Kuwaiti Suleiman Abu Ghaith pleads not guilty of conspiring to kill Americans and gave 22-page post-arrest statement Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, appeared before a US federal court in New York on Friday and pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to kill Americans. ...
Small gestures could make a big difference, with adversaries having many shared interests in the region - analysis ...
s deepening humanitarian crisis. Ban Ki-moon, the UN's secretary-general, is to chair Wednesday's one-day event in Kuwait City with the goal of helping more than 9m Syrians who have now been displaced by the war. The UN's overall target is $6.5bn (£4bn) – the largest emergency appeal in the organisation's history. "The Kuwait conference comes at a critical moment," said Gareth Price Jones of Oxfam....
s emir has promised $500m (about £300m) for UN humanitarian efforts in Syria, devastated by almost three years of civil war. Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al Sabah made the pledge at an international donor conference on Wednesday intended to help the world body reach a $6.5bn aid target for the crisis in 2014. "The flames of the humantarian crisis in Syria are still going on … destroying all signs of life,"...
s get-together of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Kuwait, with predictable expressions of dismay about what it called the ongoing "genocide" in Syria and — more interestingly — a guarded welcome for the "new orientation" of Iran's leadership and the recent Geneva agreement on its nuclear programme. Initial reactions to Geneva were cautious. Saudi Arabia took noticeably longer than the five other GCC...
s opposition, including several former lawmakers, of charges related to the 2011 storming of the parliament in the oil-rich nation. Kuwait, a longtime US ally and Opec member state, stands out among the Gulf Arab states for its robust political culture. Although the western-backed emir controls all key government posts and policies, Kuwait's parliament has the most powers of any elected body among...
Gulf monarchies unite in a new federation following the departure of the British from the region The four-year search for a political arrangement unifying the Persian Gulf sheikhdoms could have had a worse outcome. The hope, after the Labour Government announced its decision in 1968 to withdraw the British presence from the area by the end of 1971, was a union containing Bahrain, Qatar, and the seven...
Mongabay: Scientists scouring satellite imagery discover that traditional weirs are trapping more fish than official figures suggest ...
s comments on Twitter. It confirmed the conviction and sentence of Hamad al-Naqi, who was found guilty in June of insulting the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, of provoking sectarian tensions, of insulting the Prophet Mohammed and the prophet's wife and companions, mocking Islam, and misusing his mobile phone to disseminate the objectionable comments. Al-Naqi denied all the charges, contending...
• Referee doles out rough justice after red card row • Match called off when player kicks ball at match official With the Kuwait League match between al-Nasr and al-Arabi deep into extra time, and the home side al-Nasr 1-0 up and nearing victory, the referee Saad al-Fadhi had the temerity to award a stonewall penalty to the visitors. What happened next would lead to the official doling out a less...
immoral' The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) will next month consider a proposal from Kuwait to introduce medical checks to prevent transgender people from entering the six-member Arab countries as migrant workers. The Saudi-based Arab News reported this week that authorities in Kuwait's ministry of health have proposed "genetic tests" aimed at detecting transsexuals who wish to enter and work in Bahrain,...