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His death comes after was rushed to a hospital for an unspecified illness in late November. Kuwait's ruling emir, the 86-year-old Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah, has died after a three-year, low-key reign focused on trying to resolve the tiny, oil-rich nation's internal political disputes. Kuwait state television broke into programming with Quranic verses just before a sombre official made the announcement. “With great sadness and sorrow, we - the Kuwaiti people, the Arab and Islamic nations, and the friendly peoples of the world - mourn the late His Highness the emir, Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al...

BEIRUT -- It was an open-and-shut case. Kuwaiti cops showed up at the dealer's house and seized more than 22 pounds of cocaine and 165 pounds of hashish. The suspect was accused of drug trafficking and, a few months later, sentenced to death. But the convicted drug dealer, Talal Nasser al Sabah, was no ordinary Kuwaiti -- he was a member of the Persian Gulf kingdom's ruling family. Now everyone is watching to see whether the authorities will follow through on the ruling by the independent-minded judiciary or grant Talal the immunity considered a right by royal families throughout the...

CAIRO, Egypt - Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father — except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there's the black leather biker jacket. The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West. Omar — one of bin Laden's 19 children — raised a tabloid storm last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father—except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there's the black leather biker jacket. The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West. Omar—one of bin Laden's 19 children—raised a tabloid storm last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took the name...

Urgent... The cabinet submits its resignation to HH the prime minister.

At least two died, 20 wounded in an attack against a newspaper in Baghdad BAGHDAD - At least two people died and 20 others were wounded Sunday morning at the time of the explosion of a booby-trapped car on the parking space of governmental daily newspaper Al-Sabah, in the north of Baghdad, one learned from sedentary source. The explosion, which occurred towards 08h45 local (04h45 GMT), was particularly important, destroying a score of cars and causing the collapse of a part of the seat of the newspaper which is in the Waziriyah district. According to the source, the assessment...

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait's emir dissolved parliament on Sunday a week after lawmakers and the government clashed over an election reform law ahead of 2007 polls. The official Kuwait News Agency said a decree by Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah ordered the dissolution of the house a few days after reformist MPs submitted an unprecedented request to grill Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah over the disputed draft law aimed at curbing voting irregularities.

Kuwait's National Assembly (parliament) on Tuesday voted unanimously for relieving the Amir Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah from leadership for health reasons, and declared the vacancy of the position in line with article No. 3 of the law for the succession of leadership in the country. According to Kuna, National Assembly Speaker Jasem Al-Kharafi said that "the Assembly established without any doubt based on the medical report" that Sheikh Saad was incapable of performing his duties for health reasons. He explained that all 65 MPs and Cabinet members present at the session approved the vacating of the position of Amir...

Ailing Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah officially asked to take the oath of office on Sunday, parliament speaker Jassem al-Khorafi said Saturday. "I have received a letter from his Highness the Emir asking for convening parliament to take the oath ... on Sunday," Khorafi told reporters as The announcement came as the cabinet met to discuss constitutional procedures to ask parliament to consider removing Sheikh Saad, who is said to be too ill to read out the two-line oath.

Kuwait's ruling al-Sabah family has overwhelmingly backed Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah to become emir to replace the emirate's new ailing ruler, a top family source told AFP Friday. "The overwhelming majority of the family came this morning to the house of Sheikh Sabah and expressed complete trust in him to become new emir in light of the health condition of the current emir," the source said on condition of anonymity. "Sheikh Sabah accepted their request" during the meeting attended by nearly all senior members of the ruling family, said the source. Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, 75, who...

Kuwait rulers in succession wrangle after death of emir KUWAIT CITY (AFP) — The Kuwaiti ruling family remained at odds Thursday over succession issues following the emir's death, leaving the oil-rich Gulf state in a political impasse. Top members of the Al-Sabah family held lengthy meetings Tuesday and Wednesday on issues such as the appointment of a new crown prince and a prime minister, but failed to reach decisions, sources close to the family told AFP. They also discussed further arrangements to strike a balance between various wings of the family, especially the Al Salem and Al Jaber lines which...

The emir of oil-rich Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, has died aged 77, a court statement has said. Sheikh Jaber, who had led the country since December 1977, suffered ill health and was seldom seen in public after suffering a minor stroke in 2001. The statement announcing his death was read on Kuwaiti state television. Concerns have grown in recent years for the Gulf state's future leadership, with the country's crown prince also in his 70s and said to be in poor health. A 40-day period of mourning has been declared and government offices will be closed for three days.

Per CNN...

Today President Bush met with Kuwait's Prime Minister Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah in the Oval Office of the White House. The Prime Minister is visiting on official business. The President also held a breif presser in the Rose Garden to announce the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner and with the announcement millions of Liberals will spend many a sleepless nights. Later on President Bush went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit the wounded Troops and their families.

Hi all. I am writing a letter to the editors at Al-Sabah to request a bit of a clarification on the story they released yesterday and again today on the supposed nuclear missile find. I am not accustomed to dealing with ME folks and would like the help of FReepers to word this properly so I might get results. I'm trying to butter them up a bit in the letter, but I'm not real sure what might be either lost in translation or just look plain dumb. I'm also concerned about the wording of the questions being difficult to translate....

Baghdad, Iraq, Jul. 21 (UPI) -- A U.S. military official Wednesday denied a report of Iraqi missiles carrying nuclear warheads being found in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad. The daily al-Sabah newspaper Wednesday had quoted sources as saying three missiles armed with nuclear warheads were discovered in a trench near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. A U.S. military spokesman in Tikrit told United Press International that the report was untrue. "Nothing's been found. The report is not factual," said Master Sgt. Robert Cowens, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division, based...

BAGHDAD, July 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday. The official daily al-Sabah quoted the sources as saying the missiles were discovered in trenches near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "The three missiles were discovered by chance when the Iraqi security forces captured former Baath party official Khoder al-Douri who revealed during interrogation the location of the missiles saying they carried nuclear heads," the sources said. They pointed out that the missiles were actually discovered in...

Baghdad, As-Sabah , July 21, Page 1 The official sources at the ministry of interior and the national security advisor department have refrained commenting on the news of seizing three missiles of nuclear heads in the course of arresting Khudir al- Dori the former leader at the dissolved Baath party.Notably, Iraqi political sources on anonymity affirmed that the detaining of al- Dori by the Iraqi security departments resulted in the seize of three nuclear heads missiles .The sources indicated that Khudir al- Dori occupied top party and security posts during ex-regime. Al-Dori death announced after the collapse of the regime...

<p>A U.S. military spokesman in Tikrit told United Press International that the report was untrue. "Nothing's been found. The report is not factual," said Master Sgt. Robert Cowens, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division...</p> <p>A spokesman with Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office told UPI that the report concerning the alleged missiles and warheads emerged "while gathering information for Saddam Hussein's tribunal" during the interrogation of a captured former official of Saddam's regime.</p>

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) The head of a U.S.-funded Iraqi newspaper quit and said Monday he was taking almost his entire staff with him because of American interference in the publication. On a front-page editorial of the Al-Sabah newspaper, editor-in-chief Ismail Zayer said he and his staff were "celebrating the end of a nightmare we have suffered from for months ... We want independence. They (the Americans) refuse."