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Kuwait hanged seven prisoners in a mass execution on Wednesday, including a royal family member and a woman convicted of killing 58 women and children when she set fire to a wedding tent — the first death sentences carried out in several years in the oil-rich emirate. Those executed included a Bangladeshi, a Filipina, an Ethiopian, two Kuwaitis and two Egyptians, according to a statement carried on the state-run KUNA news agency. KUNA said that all had been convicted of murder except the Bangladeshi man, who was convicted of rape, kidnapping and theft. Kuwait's ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al...

LONDON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush's special envoy for Iraqi debt, James Baker, is simultaneously working for a commercial concern that is trying to recover money from Iraq, a British newspaper said. The Guardian said that Baker, a former US secretary of state, has a reported 180-million-dollar (150-million-euro) stake in the merchant bank and defence contractor the Carlyle Group. This consortium, it said, is secretly proposing to collect 27 billion dollars on behalf of Kuwait, one of Iraq's biggest creditors, by using high-level political influence. According to the Guardian, the Carlyle Group claims that Baker will not benefit...

A Kuwaiti online activist will spend 10 years in jail, an appeals court has ruled, for posting messages on Twitter that "insulted the emir" and "spreading false news" that endangered the country. The court on Thursday confirmed the jail term against Waleed Fares handed down by a lower court in May, AFP reported. Fares was arrested in September 2015 for comments under the name “Gibrit Seyassi” about Kuwait’s emir and ruler, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al Sabah, "offending the judiciary" and "accusing the attorney general and public prosecution of being biased". Fares said at his trial he had been beaten and...

At 2.00 A.M. on 2 August 1990, Iraqi Republican Guard soldiers, special forces, regular army troops, and air force units invaded Kuwait. Despite calls for Kuwaitis to rise up and “make the aggressors taste the chalice of death”, the invading forces swiftly overran the country’s defences. Within days, Saddam Hussein announced that the Emir of Kuwait had been deposed and Kuwait was now Iraq’s nineteenth province. Hussein’s motives went back to the Iraq-Iran war of 1980–88 in which he invaded Iran. Kuwait lent him US$ 14 billion to help finance the conflict, and Hussein became unhappy when Kuwait refused to...

Boeing Co. moved closer to extending the life of its combat-jet production lines with the State Department’s approval of sales to Kuwait and Qatar worth up to $31.2 billion combined. With that barrier cleared Thursday, the long-delayed deals now go before Congress for final approval. Lawmakers have already been informally briefed, allowing the Pentagon and Boeing to press ahead with completing terms for the government-to-government transaction. Qatar wants to buy as many as 72 Boeing F-15 fighters that together with weapons and support could be worth $21.1 billion, the Pentagon said. However, Qatar could still split any buy between Boeing...

Mon Oct 24, 2016 | 11:25am EDT Kuwait still looking to issue $9.9 bln international bonds, official says Oct 24 Kuwait is still considering the issuance of international bonds worth around 3 billion dinars ($9.90 billion), a finance ministry official told Al Arabiya TV on Monday. Like other Gulf Arab states, Kuwait is turning to debt capital markets to raise money as oil prices remain at less than half their levels two years ago. Qatar in May sold $9 billion of Eurobonds, while Saudi Arabia completed a record-breaking $17.5 billion debut offering last week. However, sources told Reuters earlier this...

A collision between a truck driven by an Egyptian and a vehicle carrying three US soldiers in Kuwait was a “terrorist attack,” not an accident as first thought, the embassy confirmed Sunday. “US Embassy in Kuwait confirms that what at first appeared to be a routine traffic accident involving three deployed US military personnel... was in fact an attempted terrorist attack,” the mission said in a statement posted on its website. The statement said the attack took place on Thursday and that the US soldiers escaped unhurt. The soldiers also rescued the Egyptian driver when his truck caught fire, it...

WHEN THE IRAQI REGIME collapsed in April 2003, few observers saw reason to mourn the loss of Saddam's brutal dictatorship. While a great deal of information about the former Iraqi regime's assorted atrocities has been uncovered since the invasion, newly-released documents go even further in demonstrating its manifest depravity. One such document is CMPC-2003-012666, a letter from Qusay Hussein that directs as follows: Transfer all Kuwaiti POW's / a total of 448 captured Kuwaitis who are located at the Al-Nida Al-Agher Prison and the Intelligence / General Center and Kazema Prison in Al-Kazema, to make them human shields at all...

The United States is poised to sell $7 billion worth of Boeing Co fighter jets to Qatar and Kuwait after years of delays, and it may start notifying U.S. lawmakers as early as next week, four U.S.- and Gulf-based sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The sales had stalled amid concerns raised by Israel, Washington's closest Middle East ally, that equipment sent to equipment sent to Gulf Arab states would be used against it. U.S. officials have criticized Qatar for alleged ties to armed Islamist groups. Boeing said it was encouraged by continued progress and hoped to see movement...

The 24-year-old Muslim man who carried out the July 16 terrorist attack in Chattanooga was radicalized for at least a year before he opened fire on two military sites and killed five U.S. service members, an FBI agent told the Times Free Press today. The FBI believes people who knew Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez knew he was becoming radicalized before the attack, but failed to report Abdulazeez to authorities, Special Agent Ed Reinhold said. Abdulazeez was radicalized online before he took a July 2014 trip to the Middle East to visit family and discussed committing jihad before he carried out the...

Weak leadership, poor judgment, a lack of “warfighting toughness” and a litany of errors led to the embarrassing capture and detention by Iran of 10 U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf in January, according to a Navy investigation released Thursday. Six officers and three enlisted sailors have been disciplined or face disciplinary action. The trouble began even before the sailors left port in Kuwait aboard two 50-foot boats on a short-notice, 300-mile journey to Bahrain. They were delayed, unprepared, poorly supervised and ill-suited for the mission, the report said. …

St. Francis once said: “If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” This is the case every time. When someone is cruel to animals, they are cruel to human beings. In fact, Christianity is the best for the care of animals. Dozens of American-trained dogs were killed by a Kuwaiti-based company last week, according to multiple reports, though there are conflicting explanations for the deaths. While several news agencies reported the story, they fail to also report that...

Dozens of American-trained dogs were killed by a Kuwaiti-based company last week, according to multiple reports, though there are conflicting explanations for the deaths. An Instagram post by the Kuwait Animal Rescue Unit showed the dogs’ bodies piled on top of each other in a narrow hallway and called the action by Eastern Securities of Kuwait a “horrifying animal abuse/massacre.” “Due to their contract being revoked, they slaughtered 24 of their US K9 dogs whom were trained by USK9 dog training facility which is located in Louisiana, USA,” the post reads. “This security company is an American company which worked...

The U.S. could see the cost of new Boeing Co (BA.N) F/A-18E/F Super Hornets rise unless the government approves foreign sales of the jets soon, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said on Sunday. Mabus, in Germany for a NATO exercise in the Baltic Sea, told Reuters he was frustrated by delays in approving the sale of the Boeing jets to a close U.S. ally, warning that this could affect the cost of jets the U.S. Navy still wants to buy. U.S. Navy and other defense officials have said they support the sale of 28 Boeing F/A-18E/F jets to Kuwait for...

Green cards, or Lawful Permanent Residency, puts immigrants on the path to citizenship and allows for lifetime residency, federal benefits, and work authorization. Included in the totals are refugees, who are required to apply for a green card after one year of residency in the U.S. Unlike other types of immigrants, refugees are immediately eligible for welfare benefits including Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), food stamps, and Medicaid Green Card Totals, FY09-FY14: Pakistan (102K), Iraq (102K), Bangladesh (90K), Iran (85K), Egypt (56K), Somalia (37K), Uzbekistan (30K), Turkey (26K), Morocco (25K), Jordan (25K), Albania (24K), Afghanistan (21K), Lebanon (20K), Yemen...

Earlier this week, Hillary Clinton harshly criticized three countries for directly funding terrorists who are actively seeking to attack the United States and Western Europe. The governments of this trio of nations have contributed between $16 million and $40 million to the Clinton Foundation. Clinton sharply denounced the three countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar — in a speech in Cleveland on Monday. It was her first public speech after Saturday night’s terrorist massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. (RELATED: Hillary Clinton Urges National Unity, Gun Control, Better Spying In Post-Orlando Speech)

N. Korea summons workers from Kuwait after mass strike: report North Korea has summoned dozens of workers from Kuwait for staging a mass strike in protest of their working conditions, a U.S.-based media outlet said Wednesday. According to Radio Free Asia, dozens of North Korean construction workers in Kuwait went on strike in December after their North Korean employer offered to pay them with checks cashable in the North instead of wages. "As people began to disobey orders and desert their workplaces, North Korean authorities belatedly took steps to tackle the issue," RFA said. "On May 17, they quickly summoned...

A Kuwaiti girl who was in kindergarten gifted her teacher a luxury car after she graduated from her class. “This car is for my favourite teacher Nadia,” the pupil, Noor Al Faris, wrote on the Mercedes. The teacher was Noor’s favourite and wanted to express her gratitude towards her. According to local newspapers, Noor's father gifted the car in recognition for her role and positive impact she had on his daughter after her mother's death.

The much anticipated OPEC meeting in Vienna on June 2 ended pretty much as expected: the group once again failed to put any production targets in place. Without a ceiling on output, all OPEC members will continue to produce as they see fit, leaving the oil market to sort itself out. The result was largely anticipated, given the lack of agreement at several prior meetings. However, the meeting in Vienna was not without some news. OPEC members managed to agree on several small bore issues, which could be viewed as a modest success, especially after the apparent hostility on display...

The latest issue of Al Qaeda’s online magazine Inspire released Saturday calls on would-be jihadis to undermine the American economy by targeting business leaders and entrepreneurs, according to analysts who monitor web chatter from the jihadist organization. AND the magazine also features a section on bomb-making and encouraging radical Islamic terrorists to emulate the Palestinian stabbings of Israelis by walking up to Americans and stabbing them to death.