Foreigners in oil-rich Kuwait must be university graduates and draw a salary of not less than $1 370 a month in order to obtain a driver's licence, the interior ministry said on Thursday. The new rules, which are effective immediately, are designed to reduce the number of vehicles on roads in the Gulf state which have recently seen serious bottlenecks and accidents.
Kuwait's Appeals Court on Monday overturned a landmark verdict by a lower court granting a Kuwaiti who underwent sex-change surgery the right to register as a female, a lawyer said. The lower court, in the first verdict of its kind in conservative Kuwait, agreed in April to a request by Ahmad, a Kuwaiti male.
Oil Minister Ali Jarrah al-Sabah said on Tuesday that Kuwait was opposed to holding an emergency meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to halt the slide in world oil prices. "We do not support the holding of an emergency OPEC meeting now.
Iraq has vast hydrocarbon potential that could rival major producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, but United States government analysts are predicting that Iraqi oil production development will remain thwarted for years to come. Its enormous reserves of an estimated 115-billion barrels of proven crude are the world's third largest after those of the Saudi Kingdom and Canada.
Oil heavyweight Saudi Arabia set the tone on Sunday on the eve of an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) meeting on prices and production, saying there is no need to change present output at least for the first quarter of 2006. Opec is currently pumping about 30-million barrels a day of crude, a third of world demand.
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) members Algeria and Kuwait said on Friday they support maintaining the extra two million barrels per day allocated by the cartel in September to counter hurricane disruption to North American output. The cartel will hold an extraordinary meeting in January.
A new airline will soon take to the skies in Kuwait but only the leanest of the Gulf's growing number of carriers will survive the cut-throat competition in the region's oil-rich market, analysts said on Wednesday. Most of the nine airlines owned by the six Gulf Arab states, which this year are forecast to boast $300-billion in windfall oil revenues, depend on government support and tax breaks.
Opec president Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah reaffirmed in Kuwait City on Sunday the cartel is producing 30,4-million barrels per day (bpd), one million bpd over market needs, in a bid to curb soaring oil prices. He added there was one million bpd of over production in the market.
United States President George Bush arrived in Kuwait on Friday to rally the support of Arab allies against what he calls the Iranian "threat" after making a bold prediction for Middle East peace. Bush flew in aboard Air Force One after his first presidential trip to the Holy Land, where he said he believed a peace treaty would be signed within a year.
The Kuwaiti Parliament broke up in chaos on Monday when reformist MPs walked out in protest at attempts to block a redrawing of constituencies intended to counter alleged vote-buying. The reformers left the session when voting began on a motion tabled by conservative and tribal MPs that sought to refer a government-backed Bill to the Constitutional Court.
Three Kuwaitis and an Indian convicted of murder and a Pakistani found guilty of drug trafficking were hanged in Kuwait on Tuesday, the largest number of executions in a single day in 16 years. The five men were hanged inside the interior ministry building in Kuwait City before dozens of spectators were allowed to view their hooded corpses.
The first woman ever to contest elections in the conservative Persian Gulf state of Kuwait has launched her campaign by breaking a 44-year-old taboo in bringing male and female voters together. Hundreds of men and women attended the landmark event late on Tuesday which was held according to Kuwaiti tradition.
Kuwait's Parliament on Tuesday voted ailing Emir Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah out of office after barely a week in power, ending one of the gravest political crises in the oil-rich state's history. Sheikh Saad's powers were transferred to the government on an interim basis after the unanimous vote.
