Category: News

Fatma Ghadban recently represented Kuwait in Miss Arab World which was held in Cairo. She lost to Miss Bahrain. This is not a joke. More pictures and details after the jump. [Link]

Thanks Asooma

I heard about this on the news yesterday and I just watched it on YouTube. Really freaky…

French long jumper Salim Sdiri was speared by a javelin in a freak accident at the Rome Golden League meeting on Friday. Sdiri was hit by the javelin which had been launched by Finland’s Tero Pitkamaki at the other side of the arena at the Olympic Stadium. [News]

Yesterday Tiesto was supposed to be playing in Bahrain but it seems the organizers were liars and Tiesto never ended up showing up. When people started booing the organizers (B&D Entertainment), security started throwing people out and that resulted in a riot. Abadi, a blogger in Bahrain has a full right up writeup of what happened and like the thousands of people who paid to watch Tiesto, he is really pissed. [Link]

update: Here are videos showing what happened Thanks k:

The foray in DJ Tiesto’s concert in Bahrain (Part 1)
The foray in DJ Tiesto’s concert in Bahrain (Part 2)
The foray in DJ Tiesto’s concert in Bahrain (Part 3)
The foray in DJ Tiesto’s concert in Bahrain (Part 4)

update2: Here is a link to a news article [Link]

update3: Another news article with a lot more details on what happened and why. [Link]

This news is a few days old now but I just found this video which shows the actual crash. For those of you who haven’t heard about this, Hayfa Wehbe was shooting a new music video which involved a scene where she was driving a convertible and a plane flies over her. While shooting the scene, the pilot misjudged his distance and the wing of the plane hit Hayfa’s head and the car’s windscreen. Looking at the video of the crash I would say she is one extremely lucky person. [YouTube]

Here is another video where she is interviewed at the hospital. [YouTube]

A commenter posted a link to a Kuwait Times article entitled “What not to do in Kuwait”. K.thekuwaiti replied back to the commenter telling him the article was retarded because every piece of advice ends with a warning that you would be raped if you don’t do this.

I decided to check out the article myself and its true what K.thekuwaiti said. The article is giving the worst impression on Kuwait and a lot of things are really taken to the extreme. Here are some examples from the article:

Avoid starting friendly conversations with taxi drivers. This would give him the impression that you want him to have sex with you and of course, he would ask you if you are married and if your husband is with you. Never admit to be single and alone or even to confess that you are a runaway maid or employee. Many of them would not hesitate to rape you and leave you empty handed and get you pregnant.

So tip #1, don’t talk to taxi drivers or they will rape you.

Avoid accepting gifts or laughing over sexual jokes with your boss unless it is really okay with you and this is what you want .If you came from an environment where you are very open with the opposite gender, then you might think that such jokes are okay but here, it is not. This would give men a hint that you are ready to have sex with him and you could find yourself a rape victim. Besides, accepting someone’s gifts means approval.

So tip #2, don’t be friendly with your boss or he will rape you.

Avoid trying to look sexy by showing the sexiest parts of your body. You may think that you have a sexy body and want the world to see that because it is okay for you, but do not do that here. Lots of men here would think of you as a prostitute and may try to reach or touch you by any means. You may not mean it but this would be hard to convince them because they came from a different culture. The culture here associates clothes with manners. The more you cover yourself, the more respected you will be.

Tip #3, if you are hot people will think you are a prostitute and you will get raped.

Avoid fighting with a Kuwaiti. He simply wouldn’t hesitate to use any wasta to make you the wrong person of the dispute and make you take the blame. You might end up begging to him just to let you go!!!!

Tip #4, don’t fight with a Kuwaiti or he will rape you.

You can check out the full article on the Kuwait Times website but in case they decide to remove it you can grab a copy from [here]. The writer of the article is Muna Al-Fuzai. [Link]

Sweden was leading the game 3-0. Denmark then caught up in the second half and tied 3-3 but a Danish player ended up punching a Swedish player and got a red card. If that wasn’t entertaining enough a Danish fan then ran out onto the stadium and punched the referee. The game was finally canceled with only a few minutes remaining. Here are the highlights:

[YouTube]

It seems it was officially announced today that starting September we switch from Thursday Friday being our weekend to Friday Saturday. Holidays will now fall on Sunday instead of Saturdays also.

From todays issue of the Kuwait Times:

Since I canceled my Showtime subscription I no longer watch TV, not even the free satellite channels. I don’t have a reason to since I download all my TV shows and movies. But, there are times when I do wish I have satellite TV, for example there are currently important events taking place in Lebanon from the bombings in the residential areas to the battles in the north and because I don’t have satellite TV I can’t watch what was happening…

Until now! I was playing around with CNN Pipeline when I noticed one of their feeds was a direct broadcast of LBC, the Lebanese TV station. I clicked on the link and it turns out because of the events taking place in Lebanon, CNN have given viewers an option to view a Lebanese TV station for latest up to date news. So I decided to sign up to CNN Pipeline for only $2.95 a month and I am currently watching a live feed of the latest bombing in Lebanon. Pretty nifty.

A friend told me about this earlier (Rand) and I wasn’t interested but as it turns out there is an actual video of the robbery which suddenly made it a lot more interesting. Turns out 2 cars drove into Wafi Mall and the occupents got out, robbed a jewellery store and then escaped in the 2 vehicles.

You can watch the video [here]

Thanks LE!

Emily Sharpe, a reader of the blog sent in a link to the following video which was shot by her during the swearing in of new Kuwaiti Minister of Education, Nouriya Al-Subeeh during the Parliamentary session. The session was disrupted by Islamist MPs who objected to the fact that she refused to wear the hijab (headscarf), which she does not normally wear.

[YouTube]

Here is a site with links to all the local newspapers in Kuwait (Arabic and English) and also some magazines. [Link]

The Daily Star is not listed there probably because their site just recently came online.

This is cool news, Investment Dar and Adeem Investment Co have agreed to purchase a stake in Aston Martin. Yabeela! [Link]

The Forbes list is out and its interesting to see Kuwait and Lebanon both on the list although to be honest I was expecting more Kuwaitis on the list:

Rank 52
Nasser Al-Kharafi & family (Kuwait)
Worth 11.5 billion Dollars

Rank 407
Najib Mikati (Lebanon)
Worth 2.3 billion Dollars

Rank 407
Taha Mikati (Lebanon)
Worth 2.3 billion Dollars

Rank 618
Bassam Alghanim (Kuwait)
Worth 1.6 billion Dollars

Rank 618
Kutayba Alghanim (Kuwait)
Worth 1.6 billion Dollars

Rank 618
Fahd Hariri (Lebanon)
Worth 1.6 billion Dollars

Rank 717
Mohamed Al-Bahar (Kuwait)
Worth 1.4 billion Dollars

Rank 891
Nazek Hariri (Lebanon)
Worth 1 billion Dollars

For the full list of billionaires click [Here]

Thanks cajie

This is really ironic. One of the actors from the show Prison Break is actually going to go to prison for real! [Link]