Category: News

Does anyone know why the towers were lit up pink last night?

Update: Turns out its in celebration for the UN naming the Amir a “Humanitarian Leader”. More information on that [Here]

Thanks Ziad!

Since it’s a slow news day, here is a video and photo from a house thats under construction in Mishref that caught fire awhile ago.

[YouTube]

Thanks Wahab

Looks like ATM skimming has made its way to Kuwait:

More than 400 people have reportedly had their accounts hacked in an automatic teller machine scam in Kuwait City.

…

They said security footage showed a small scanning device had been attached to the ATM, which enabled the hackers to scan the card information and personal identification number (PIN) of the victims.

The information was then sent to the Dominican Republic, where is believed a fellow scammer used the details to create fake cards and withdraw money from ATMs in the Caribbean country. [Source]

What is ATM skimming and how to protect yourself? Check out the video below.

[YouTube]

Kuwait Punjabi Clash Video by PunjabLatestNews

A huge fight took place between a group of Indian and Egyptian workers ending with 2 of the Egyptian workers dead and 25 Indians arrested by the police. I found the video above which shows a bit of the fight but haven’t been able to find another video nor find out the reason behind they fought in the first place. [Link]

Work On ‘Metro’ Rail Project Starts In 2017
Ministry of Communications has finalized the layout of the 61 stations of the Metro Project which will be distributed along three railroads to cover all areas and governorates of Kuwait, reports Al-Shahed daily quoting informed sources.

They explained that the ‘Metro Project’ which is worth about $20 billion, is being implemented based on a contract of partnership between the public and private sectors, adding that the work will start in the year 2017.

They revealed that the first railroad covering 23.7 kilometers will start from Salwa area and end the station of Kuwait University, passing through 19 stations. The second railroad covering 21 kilometers will start from Hawally area and end at Kuwait City, passing through 27 stations. The third railroad covering 24 kilometers will start from the airport and end at Abdullah Al-Mubarak area, passing through 15 stations. [Source]

Based on the information above and the metro map below, it looks like the first line that will be built is line #1. If you can’t see the stops clearly, here is a link to the larger photo [Link]

Kuwait along with Armenia, Belarus, Venezuela, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Mongolia, Russia and Serbia is participating in the 2014 Tank Biathlon in Russia. The championship is being held in four stages:

The first one – an individual race – will be held from August 4 through 6. August 4 will see the first crews competing in three races with four tanks in each. The first race will include tank crews from Angola, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Serbia. The Russian national team will be performing in the second race along with teams from China, Kuwait and Armenia. The first day of the championship will end with a race among the crews from India, Belarus, Venezuela and Kyrgyzstan. The individual race envisages a seven-kilometer three-round itinerary.

The second stage – the sprint – will be held on August 8-9. The sprint distance, as is traditional in biathlon, will be the shortest one: three kilometers. It will be this stage that will set the sequence and temporary start-time gap in the pursuit race.

The third stage – the pursuit race – will be held on August 11-12. This type of biathlon race will be based on the results of the sprint (individual start) race.

The final stage will see the first four teams resulting from all three stages identifying the winner during a relay race. Three crews from each national team will make three four-kilometer rounds on one tank (with crew replacement). [Source]

[YouTube]

I didn’t know such a competition existed and Kuwait seems like the odd one out amongst the 12 countries. Video from the first day of the championship is already online, you can see Kuwait come in at the 2:14:44 mark.

Thanks Abdul

According to the 2014 Global Rights Index by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman are the best countries to work in the Gulf and are on a par with working conditions in the US. The index was created based on 97 indicators such as whether employees were exposed to systematic physical violence, threats and intimidation, had the right to strike and were guaranteed protection under the law.

Kuwait came in category 4 which is similar to countries like the US but also similar to countries like Yemen and Iraq so factors like country stability and the social scene were obviously not included in the study. The 97 indicators are strictly related to workers rights and civil liberties. Check out the full study [Here]

Thanks Zainab
via Gulf Daily News

For those of you who’ve been following the blog for a long time, you will know the story of the old photographer. Sadly, I just found out he passed away recently at the age of 84. May he rest in peace.

Kuwait will tender the much-delayed USD multi-billion metro rail project in its next five-year development plan, according to the Gulf emirate’s minister of state for development and planning.

Hind Al Sabeeh said other major projects to be included in the 2014-2018 plan involve Mubarak port, the media city the privatisation of schools, university and cooperatives.

“The next development plan includes the tendering of large projects in Kuwait such as the Metro and rail projects,” she told the Saudi satellite TV new channel Al Arabiya on Sunday night. Her comments were published by Kuwaiti newspapers. [Source]

A couple of years ago the expected operational date was 2020 but I’m guessing that date will now be pushed back since they really haven’t started on anything yet. The above is a rendering of how a metro station would look like while the metro map below shows where all the metro stops will be located.

You can view a higher resolution version of the map [Here]

Finally below is a video presentation of the planned metro project.

Kuwait Rapid Transit & Rail Road Systems ENG from Designa Comunicacion on Vimeo.

Failed Kuwaiti carrier Wataniya Airways is reportedly planning a comeback as soon as the first quarter of 2015. The airline has begun efforts to re-launch by attempting to raise KD24m ($85m) and lease an initial two planes, according to Kuwait Times.

The company has asked the Ministry of Commerce to publish the minutes of an extraordinary assembly meeting held this week and will then contact the Capital Markets Authority so it can prepare for a new initial public offering (IPO). The airline needs a minimum of KD11m in capital to re-launch operations, a company source was quoted as saying. [Source]

Looks like Wataniya Airways is finally coming back to life. I wonder if they’ll fly out from Sheikh Saad Terminal along with FlyDubai or if they’ll be joining the rest of the airlines at the main terminal?

The construction of the new airport terminal that was designed by the architectural firm Foster + Partners has been placed on indefinite hold after most of the contracting companies quit bidding due to the conditions they were required to agree to.

Construction was originally set to start back in 2012 and it was a project everyone in Kuwait was looking forward to seeing completed so this is pretty disappointing news.

Kuwait has the second highest number of millionaire families among the GCC countries and fifth highest internationally with 9 percent, which means 99,000 families are millionaires. [Source]

That’s insane.

via Expat and the City

According to a new study that was published in the the Lancet medical journal, the world is getting fatter. Since the study first started back in 1980 the largest increase in the rate of obesity were in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Honduras, and Bahrain for women, and in New Zealand, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the USA for men. I downloaded the PDF of the study and I’ve put together a top 10 list of the highest obesity rates in the world:

Obese Girls < 20 Years
1- Kiribati 36%
2- Federated States of Micronesia 32.4%
3- Samoa 29.6%
4- Kuwait 23.3%
5- Libya 22.1%
6- The Bahamas 20.2%
7- Uruguay 18.1%
8- Soloman Islands 18.0%
9- Qatar 15.5%
10- Syria 15.4%

Obese Boys < 20 Years
1- Samoa 23.7%
2- Kiribati 22.9%
3- Qatar 18.8%
4- Kuwait 16.7%
5- The Bahamas 15.9%
5- Lebanon 15.9%
7- Libya 14.5%
8- Federated States of Micronesia 14.5%
9- Syria 13.9%
10- Israel 13.9%

Obese Women ≥ 20 Years
1- Samoa 69.1%
2- Tonga 67.2%
3- Kuwait 58.6%
4- Federated States of Micronesia 57.9%
5- Libya 57.2%
6- Kiribati 55.5%
7- Qatar 54.7%
9- Marshall Islands 49.1%
10- Egypt 48.4%

Obese Men ≥ 20 Years
1- Tonga 52.4%
2- Samoa 45.9%
3- Qatar 44.0%
4- Kuwait 43.4%
5- Kiribati 39.3%
6- Marshall Islands 31.9%
7- USA 31.7%
9- Federated States of Micronesia 31.3%
10- The Bahamas 30.9%

Sadly Kuwait made it into the top 5 of every list. Although no countries had significant decreases in obesity, I would be interested to see if Kuwait’s obesity rate has at least slowed down over the past few years. Everyone is generally more health conscious today than they were a few years ago (me included) and there are a lot more gyms and healthy food options available now as well. You can download the full study from [Here] (signup required)

There’s an article on KUNA’s website on Kuwait’s nine islands and about how they’re very important to Kuwait culturally. Near the end of the article this following paragraph caught my attention:

The committee aims at declaring the islands as reserve areas, where entry procedures would be arranged in coordination with bodies concerned in the country such as Kuwait Environment Protection Society (KEPS), Kuwait University (KU), Cabinet’s security decisions’ follow-up committee, Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAFR), Ministry of Transpirations, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), and Kuwait Volunteer Work Center, added Al-Enezi.

If the Kuwaiti islands all get declared as natural reserves then no one will be able to go there without permission and basically killing Kubbar as a weekend getaway hotspot. Not sure what happens to Failaka, they might just restrict access to certain parts of the island. Check out the full article on KUNA’s website [Here]

On a side note has the quality of the English on the KUNA website gone down recently or has it always been this bad? The last two articles I’ve read there have just been terribly written as if they were translated with Google first before being edited.

Photo by Mike Cockcroft

According to an index compiled by Bloomberg, Kuwait is amongst the most expensive markets for hotel rooms coming in third place behind Geneva and Dubai. The reason behind the high prices is mostly likely because land is so expensive in Kuwait and the fact that there are a limited number of hotels. Still, it would feel pretty odd to pay so much more for a hotel here than one in London, New York or Miami. Check out the article [Here]