Category: News

Back in 2015, Kuwait passed a law making DNA tests mandatory for all residents. Anybody who refused testing would end up facing a prison sentence along with a hefty fine. I obviously found this an invasion of privacy and made that clear in a number of posts on the blog, but some people were actually for this and were defending the decision. Thankfully, it doesn’t matter anymore, Kuwait’s Constitutional Court overturned the law ruling it unconstitutional.

This means the government will not be collecting DNA samples of every resident in Kuwait as well as tourists. Thank you to the lawyers who fought this law in the courts. If you want to read a bit more about this, Ars Technica has an article about it [Here]

A few days ago, Heathrow released its latest “Fly Quiet and Clean” report which shows which airlines are using the quietest and cleanest aircrafts at their airport. The report also shows which airlines are using the noisiest and dirtiest (pollution wise) aircrafts and Kuwait Airways topped that list.

At first I thought it was because Kuwait Airways was flying their old planes to London but I just checked the route while writing up this post and they’re actually flying their new 777 planes. Since this report is for Q2 of this year which runs from April to June, I figured Kuwait Airways might have been running their older 747 planes back then. So I asked a friend of mine who’s a flight attendant with Kuwait Airways and flies the Kuwait London route and I was right. Kuwait Airways has only been using their new 777 plane on that route for just the past two months. This means Kuwait Airways should end up much higher on the list in the next report because of their quieter and less polluting new planes.

Anyway you can see the full rankings over [Here]

No surprise here but Kuwait is still one of the worst countries for expats according to the latest Expat Insider survey by Internations. Kuwait came in 64th place out of a total of 65 countries surveyed. On the bright side, at least we’re not in last place like we were last year.

Kuwait has improved by one place, coming 64th out of 65 countries in 2017. In fact, it’s improved by at least one place in all indices, with particular progress in the Working Abroad Index: job security has improved by 15 places, putting Kuwait in the middle of the ranking (32nd). Quality of life still remains a struggle, however, and Kuwait comes last for leisure options and personal happiness.

Surprisingly, Bahrain was voted as the best place in the world for expats. Check out the full result of the survey and rankings [Here]

Thanks Bashar

Yesterday, a Jazeera Airways flight coming in from Riyadh collided with a military balloon similar to the one pictured below (actually might be the very same one). A friend sent me the video above which shows the balloon falling through the air and the damage done to the Jazeera plane. According to Jazeera, the plane continued to operate normally and land safely with all the passengers disembarking normally.

The Directorate General for Civil Aviation is currently investigating the incident to identify the on-ground and in-air circumstances that led to this incident.

Legendary Kuwaiti actor Abdulhussain Abdulredha has passed away in London days after reportedly falling into a coma and years of health struggles.

The Kuwaiti comedian is perhaps best known among generations of Gulf fans for his part in the 1981 Bye Bye London play that poked fun at Arabs’ obsession with the British capital.

Abdulredha is one of the founders of the art movement in Kuwait, which he founded with a group of artists that included Khalid Al-Nafisi, Ali Mufidi, Saad Al-Faraj, Ibrahim Sallal, and Ghanem Saleh, amongst others.

On the stage, Abdulredha was often credited for his role in influencing what many considered the golden age of Kuwaiti theatre during the 1970s and 1980s. Among his most prominent roles was playing Saddam Hussein in the Saif Al Arab play.

His last and final role came in ‘Selfie 3’ which appeared on MBC during Ramadan this year. [Source]

Super sad news.

For those of you wondering what that huge plume of smoke in Kuwait City was, according to Al Rai newspaper it was a bunch of tire garages that caught fire. The fire is under control now and no injuries were reported. For more pictures click [Here]

Thanks KamaZX

Forbes released a list of Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Businesswomen and 10 Kuwaiti women made it on the list. UAE had the most amount of women on the list with a total of 16 while the top position went to the Saudi Arabian Lubna S. Olayan. Below are all of the Kuwaiti women who made the list along with their rankings and their job titles:

8 – Shaikha Al Bahar (Deputy Group CEO – NBK)
10- Henadi Al Saleh (Chair – Agility)
15- Eaman Al Roudhan (CEO – Zain)
34 – Hosnia Hashem (Deputy CEO – KPIC)
38 – Suad Hamad Al Saleh Al Homaizy (Board Member – Bank Audi)
46 – Sara Akbar (CEO – Kuwait Energy)
48 – Ghada Y. Al-Amer (Vice President – KUFPEC)
59 – May Al Mudhaf (CEO – National Bank of Abu Dhabi)
73 – Ghosson Al Khaled (Deputy CEO – ACICO)
98 – Nawal Mulla-Hussain (COO – Global Investment House)

To check out the full list and for more details, click [Here]

via BlogBaladi

Interpol released a list of the 24 most wanted Britons in the world and a reader recognized one of them as the child sex offender who previously taught in Kuwait. Paul Meekin whom I posted about back in 2014 was teaching Social Studies at one of the local American schools before he quit and left Kuwait. He was later suspected of using forged documents to teach here and it looks like he still hasn’t been caught.

You can check out all 24 wanted criminals by clicking [Here]

Thanks UCF

An explosion ripped through one of the restaurants at the Mishref Coop earlier tonight. Eight people were injured, four of whom are in intensive care. According to reports the explosion was a result of a gas leak at one of the restaurants at the coop. I got a few videos taken at the scene through whatsapp awhile ago and I’ve combined them into one video which you can watch below.

Thanks Ghadeer!

The Assima mall and tower which is currently under construction in Kuwait City (across from KIPCO Tower) caught fire earlier today. The fire started in the afternoon and by the time I passed by in the evening, the whole site was engulfed in flames. Solo Pizza, Sola Taco’s and A’s Chicken were forced to close down since their shops are located right behind the construction site.

So if you were wondering what all that smoke coming from the city was, now you know.

Update: Below are some epic photos taken earlier tonight by a reader. Thanks Ricardo!

Update2: According to KUNA, the fire started around 3:30PM and it took 180 firemen to put it out. [Link]

Update3: Now that the fire is out the damage to the site looks to be pretty extensive. According to a reader, the shoring around the site is completely burned and the “shores” are collapsing. Before you start digging to create a hole for construction, you first have to stabilize the sides so they won’t collapse. That process is called shoring. The shoring is composed of steel beams with wooden planks between them [Like this] that hold up the sand walls. The wooden planks are now mostly burnt and the sand walls are collapsing into the site as you can see in the picture above. Thanks Dragos!

Online food takeaway firm Delivery Hero, which sources have said is considering a flotation imminently, has agreed to buy Middle East food delivery platform Carriage, the latest in a series of technology deals in the region. Chief Executive Niklas Ostberg said in a statement on Monday that Kuwait-based Carriage, which operates in the Gulf Council countries, would strengthen Delivery Hero’s foothold in a region with “significant growth potential”.

…

Delivery Hero first entered the Middle East in 2015 when it bought regional market leader Talabat from Rocket Internet. Ostberg said Carriage would be a “perfect addition” to Delivery Hero’s current offering under the Talabat brand.

[Source]

Oh wow, I did not see that coming.

Customs officers at the Al-Ebdelli border entry point found a homing pigeon used as a drug mule to smuggle 178 amphetamine pills which were wrapped and tied round its body.

The officers spotted the bird which was coming from Iraq and pursued it till they caught it perching on a building rooftop, with a belt around its body that was stuffed with the pills. [Source]

If I saw a bird flying across the border I wouldn’t have thought anything of it.

The alarm has been sounded again in Kuwait after figures for 2017 show that around 60 per cent of Kuwaiti marriages have ended in divorce.

Figures released by the Ministry of Justice indicate there were 2,001 marriages in January and February, down from 2,425 in the same period last year. The figures also show there were 1,193 cases of divorce in the first two months of 2017, up from 1,180 last year. [Source]

That would put Kuwait with Luxembourg in 6th place on the World’s Most Divorced Nations list:

1- Belgium (71%)
2- Portugal (68%)
3- Hungary (67%)
4- Czech Republic (66%)
5- Spain (61%)
6- Kuwait and Luxembourg (60%)
7- Estonia (58%)
8- Cuba (56%)
9- France (55%)
10- Lithuania (53%)

A world-renowned tennis academy, run by the coach of Serena Williams, will open its first overseas coaching facility in Kuwait.

Tamdeen Group, the Kuwaiti property developer, has signed up the France-based Mouratoglou Tennis Academy for its upcoming Sheikh Jaber Al Abdullah Al Jaber Al Sabah International Tennis Complex. [Source]

The tennis complex is part of the new 360 Mall expansion and will have a combined stadium seating for over 7,600 people across two main arenas, each with the capacity to hold 4,000 and 1,600 people respectively, eight indoor courts with over 500 seats and eight outdoor courts with 1,500 seats. It was already expected to become one of the world’s best tennis facilities without this academy, now it seems like a sure thing.

Thanks bionicnomad

By now most of you have probably watched the video of the maid falling from the seventh floor apartment while her employer snapchatted the whole incident instead of trying to help her. If you haven’t watched the video then good, don’t watch it, you don’t need trauma in your life. The good news is that according to Kuwait Times, the woman who filmed the incident is now being held and will be prosecuted:

Police have detained a woman for filming her Ethiopian maid falling from the seventh floor in an apparent suicide attempt without trying to rescue her, media and a rights group said yesterday. The Kuwaiti woman filmed her maid land on a metal awning and survive, then posted the incident on social media. The criminal investigation police referred the employer to the prosecution over failing to help the victim. The Kuwait Society for Human Rights yesterday called on the authorities to investigate the case and refer it to court.

…

According to attorney Nouf Al-Ruwaih, videoing the incident itself is not a crime, but he said the employer could be charged with negligence and failure to offer help. Investigations are currently ongoing to determine whether the case is a suicide attempt, an accident that happened while the maid was working, or a case of attempted homicide and libel. “The law says that any person who fails to help someone else who poses a grave danger to himself or his possessions will be punished with a maximum three months in jail and/or fine,” Ruwaih said. [Source]

Sadly, the maximum sentence is just three months in jail and I doubt she’ll get that.