Category: News

Heaviest 10 (for nations with more than 100,000 people):
1. United States
2. Kuwait
3. Croatia
4. Qatar
5. Egypt
6. United Arab Emirates
7. Trinidad and Tobago
8. Argentina
9. Greece
10. Bahrain

[Source]

This was in the paper around 10 days back but I just read about it on “Traveler’s Random Mental Wanderings & Contemplations”

A man was taken to the Psychiatric Hospital after coastguards plucked him out of the sea where he had been, reportedly, looking for mermaid. Coastguards reported to the scene, near the Messilah Beach, following reports of a man walking into the sea with his clothes on in what passersby thought was a suicide attempt. After the man was located and rescued, he told officers that he was simply looking for a mermaid he believes to be in the area. After failing to convince the adamant man out of his plans, the officers offered to help him go to another beach and search for mermaids there. Their ploy worked and they instead escorted the man to the mental facility.

Pretty strange and funny. Anyway check out “Traveler’s Random Mental Wanderings & Contemplations”, I just started reading it awhile ago and so far I find the guy really entertaining to read. [Link]

The source suspects the peddlers to be cultivating marijuana inside Kuwait, “as it’s not worth the risk to smuggle it in. It is not worth it unless you are smuggling the goods in very huge quantities, running into hundreds of thousands of KD.”

Describing the hemps that are grown indoors by his friends, the source said the plants are grown in earthen pots under artificial lighting; due ventilation is provided for fresh air.”

“It doesn’t take up much space and can be grown in a closet, or on a corner in the bedroom.” One of his friends grows it in the bathroom because the plant gives off a peculiar smell, which is easy to detect.”

I guess when the oil runs out this could be Plan B? [Link]

Mariam Erzouqi grips her German-made air rifle with carefully-manicured hands, steadies her footing, eyes the target and slowly pulls the trigger until a soft crack echoes through Kuwait’s cavernous shooting range.

The 24-year-old, who is set to become the second Kuwaiti woman to compete at an Olympic Games, has an affinity for her rifle and will take dead aim at a medal in the 10 and 50 metres air rifle in London.

You can read the full article on Mariam Erouqi’s Olympic dream [Here]

Picture from Kuwait Times

The number of Indians living in in Kuwait has quadrupled in the past decade to an estimated 650,000 – making them the country’s largest foreign population. For a long time seen as blue collar workers – now a new generation of Indian businessmen are changing the perception of their community by being partners in some of Kuwait’s top firms. Howard Johnson has been to Kuwait to explore the secret of the Indian community’s success. [YouTube]

Note to self: I need to try Amman Bhelpuri.

A group of Kuwaiti MPs is heading to Switzerland in a bid to persuade the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow the Gulf state to compete in the London 2012 Olympics.

Kuwait, banned from Olympic events and funding since 2010 amid allegations of political interference, has proposed a raft of measures aimed at reinstating its athletes’ in the international sporting event, state news agency KUNA reported. [Source]

Ouch! I didn’t know we were banned from the olympics. That must suck for the Kuwaiti shooters who qualified.

Kuwait will have exhausted all its oil savings by 2017 if it keeps on spending money at the current rate, the International Monetary Fund said in a report published on Tuesday.

The IMF, which held a regular consultation with the OPEC member state in the last two weeks of April, said Kuwait would not be able to save oil receipts into its future generations fund.

Not sure what all that means or how it will affect us directly but according to my Magic 8 Ball, the outlook doesn’t seem good. [Link]

Members from the Kuwait Quarter Mile Motorsports Club were crowned winners in multiple classes including the Pro Mode Bike class won by Meshal Al-Sabr, and followed by fellow club members Mohammad BuRashid, Misfer Al-Misfer and Mohammad Al-Awad respectively.

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti racers Mohammad Al-Baddah, Yaqoub Al-Ali and Ahmad bin Belal won the first, second and fourth places respectively in the Superstreet Bike class. In sports cars classes Tariq Al-Qudairi was crowned champion of the Index 4.8 class, while Imad Al-Jassem came in fourth place in the Pro Mode class. The Superstreet V8 class was dominated by Kuwaiti racers in the meantime, as the top four places went respectively to Mohammad Dashty, Mohammad Al-Sulaiman, Faraj Al-Ajmi and the Q80 team led by Abdullah Al-Shatti [Source]

What sucks is the fact that these guys can only compete abroad since their only drag race strip here in Kuwait was closed down years ago.

Check out some pictures from 1985 of guys drag racing here in Kuwait [Link]

Lady walking nude in Sharq?
When an unidentified person informed the Operations Department of the Ministry of Interior that a woman was walking nude on a street in Sharq, a police patrol was dispatched to arrest, reports Al-Rai daily.

When police arrived at the spot, they saw the woman, she was carrying a handbag but she was not nude. She was wearing skintight light brown leather pants. [Source]

Thanks Tuan

The wife of a former British ambassador to Kuwait suffered third-degree burns after having boiling water thrown on her in a restaurant by a suspected Islamist activist, The (London) Times reported Wednesday.

Dianne Wilton, whose husband Christopher Wilton served as British ambassador in Kuwait between 2002 and 2005, was dining with a member of the Gulf state’s royal family and other friends when a woman entered the restaurant and grabbed a pot of scalding water.

The woman proceeded to hurl the pot at Wilton’s table.

The boiling water hit Wilton on the neck, shoulder and back — causing her to be hospitalized for treatment. She was released from a Kuwaiti hospital Tuesday night and will fly back to the UK for more treatment Thursday, the Times reported.

“She was extremely shaken up,” said her husband, the former ambassador.

“She’s all right but traumatized that this could happen at all. The assumption is [the attacker] singled out a table where Arab men were dining with obviously Western women.”

The attacker managed to run from the restaurant without being apprehended. [Source]

Haven’t read about this anywhere else yet so not sure how accurate the story is. But out of curiosity what kind of restaurant has “a pot of scalding water” lying around?

Thanks Najib

I downloaded the Kuwait Times iPhone App last night and so far I think it’s pretty cool. Visually the app doesn’t look that great or appealing but I am finding it pretty practical to use. My favorite feature in the app is the ability to easily move over to the next article once you’re done reading it without having to go back to the main list. Sounds like a trivial thing but I’ve seen news apps that don’t have this feature for some odd reasons.

The app is free and you can download it from the App Store by either searching for Kuwait Times or by clicking [Here]

Persons who barbecue at unallowed public locations will be fined KD 1,000, the Director-General of Kuwait Municipality warned yesterday. Ahmad Al-Sebeeh, in a statement to KUNA, indicated that the authority, after realizing that some citizens and residents do not abide by public cleanliness laws because of soft penalties, decided to increase the fine for such a violation from KD 100 to KD 1,000.

There are specific locations for barbecuing in 144 public parks, he said, stressing that grilling is restricted to these places. Municipal teams will monitor such violations, he re-stressed, urging the nationals and expatriates to abstain from inflicting damage on public properties, such as the seaside green spots, with such random barbecuing, dumping of ashes on plants and littering. Beautification of the public spots costs the State millions of dinars for entertainment and well-being of the people, thus these properties must not be target of such harmful acts and conducts. [Source]

How come the fine for BBQing is KD1,000 but running a red light is just KD300?

According to the Environmental Performance Index done by Yale University, Kuwait was one of the weakest performers and came in 126 out of 132 countries. What’s confusing is that Lebanon came in 94th place but the pollution there is so bad that we recently had an incident where one river turned red while another turned white!

So other than the recent tire issue, the desert pollution and the Mishrif sewage problem, what else is really so bad that we rank this low? I’m not surprised we rank low just surprised it’s at the very bottom of the list. [Link]

Thanks Erik

Diplomatic protection officers came across the Arabic man as they patrolled outside Mr Blair’s £4.3 million townhouse in Connaught Square, Belgravia, central London in the early hours.

When they asked the man, who appeared to be drunk, to stop urinating he allegedly refused to cooperate and a scuffle broke out.

Officers eventually discharged the 50,000 volt taser in order to place the suspect, who spoke little English, under arrest.

However the man collapsed and had to be taken to hospital, where it emerged he was a Kuwaiti government official, Ayedh Alrashidi.

Such a strange incident. [Link]

Thanks Uzair

There’s a very disturbing picture on Page 8 of today’s issue of Arab Times. I’ve taken a screenshot from their online edition and pix-elated the disturbing part which is the victim of the car accident lying dead next to the car.

I thought publishing the photo was really inappropriate but the more I thought about the subject the more confused about it I became. Should newspapers publish graphic images? Inappropriate or not, I think they should be allowed to publish whatever they please.

Update: Photo removed by request from the family of the victim