Kuwait Times

Published Date: December 30, 2007

KUWAIT: A citizen in his sixties and a Bangladeshi working for him died at the same time in the citizen's ranch in Wafra, which raised suspicion about the causes of death. The authorities immediately recalled the Mubarak Al-Abdullah district deaths of inhaling toxic gases. However, informed sources at the criminal evidence department denied any suspicions and declared that both people died of natural causes, which was still peculiar enough as two people at the same place died simultaneously.

Amendment on hajj vacation

KUWAIT: A senior official has proposed granting the month-long pilgrimage vacation to civil servants according to each employee's circumstances and needs. Defense Undersecretary Sheikh Sabah Al-Nasser Al-Sabah said in remarks to KUNA that he has recently proposed to the Civil Services Commission changing the regulations according to which employees should take the vacation uninterrupted for 30 days. "A pilgrim, with rapid transport means nowadays, practically does not need 30 days for performing the servic
es," Sheikh Sabah Al-Nasser said.

Mousa to visit Kuwait next week

KUWAIT: Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa will be visiting Kuwait next week in order to discuss a number of Arab and regional issues in addition to the details, date and location of holding the forthcoming Arab Economic Summit suggested by Egypt and Kuwait during the last Arab Summit.

Saudi welcomes Gitmo detainees

RIYADH: Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz welcomed Saturday the return of 10 citizens from the Guantanamo Bay prison. Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Prince Naif affirmed that efforts by the country's leadership worked in bringing back the detainees, lauding cooperation with the US on the issue. He hoped that the rest of the Saudis in Gitmo would be back, adding that former detainees would go through the regular interior procedures.
On his part, Saudi Interior Spokesman Major General Mansour Al-Turki said that the families of the prisoners were notified of their return, facilitating procedures for the families to meet their loved ones. Saudi Arabia has assigned a special team to follow up on the detainees at the bay prison which has been a place for several Arabs and foreign fighters who were caught during the war on Afghanistan in 2001.

Compensation payments

KUWAIT: Director General of Public Authority for Estimation and Compensation Dr. Adel Asem said Kuwait will receive a new type of payment for compensation related to environmental, governmental and oil sector claims. Asem said the UN committee in Geneva told Kuwait about this payment and he added that the remaining payments for Kuwait are for the above mentioned sectors only.

More bedoons in citizenship list

KUWAIT: The list of nominees to get Kuwaiti citizenship was temporarily halted as the citizenship committee had not met since the list's contents were severely criticized. Informed sources noted that more bedoon names had been added to the list. The sources added that the list was temporarily frozen to be personally rechecked by First Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak and the Minister of Interior Sheikh Jaber Al-Khaled. The sources highlighted that many of the names on the lis
t were excluded and replaced by bedoons in accordance to the 2,000 law. The sources also underscored that the excluded names included three Iraqis aged 14, 18 and 20, an Iranian repair man, Gulf citizens living in their own respective countries and others who did not actually meet the conditions of attaining Kuwaiti citizenship.

Area responsible for gases

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Fire Service Directorate (KFSD) recently concluded cleaning up the house of the Kuwaiti family where four people died (two children and two housemaids) due to inhaling toxic gases resulting from spraying the house's basement with pesticides. However to everybody's surprise, the house owner denied that the pesticides were behind the death of his two children. "One of the residents in our area smelled a strange gas a week before the disaster," said the citizen while his father stressed th
at the area's terrain included toxic materials buried there which produced suffocating 'odors' and gases like those detected in Dhahar earlier. On his part, KFSD deputy director for fighting and human resources development Brigadier Yousif Al-Ansari stressed that the house had been completely cleaned. He also denied that the area contained any polluters and that the gas leak source was controlled and other adjacent houses were checked in the process as well.

Jazeera receives new Airbus A320

KUWAIT: A spokesperson for the Kuwait-based Jazeera Airways stated that the airline has delivered a new Airbus A320, bringing its fleet size to six A320 aircrafts. "The aircraft is the sixth of an order the company made to the European aircraft manufacturer, Airbus for a total of forty A320s," the spokesperson went on to add. Upon delivery of the forty aircrafts in 2014, Jazeera Airways will be the leading Airbus A320 operator in the Middle East. The airline recently doubled its capital to $73.2 million th
rough a rights issue to existing shareholders. The airline was established in 2005 and flies to 25 destinations. This year, Jazeera Airways made Dubai International Airport its second focal point.