Militants kill three Saudi border Guards

Militants killed two Saudi border guards and their commanding officer on the frontier with Iraq early on Monday, the interior ministry said, in a suicide and gun attack one analyst called Islamic State's first assault on the kingdom.

The boundary, defended by earth barriers and fences and monitored by cameras and radar, has been attacked in the past by mortar bombs fired from a distance, but there have been no ground assaults in recent years.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault, which hit a remote desert area next to Iraq's Anbarprovince where both the Islamic State militant group and Shi'ite Muslim militias close to Riyadh's foe Iran operate.

The use of a suicide bomber pointed to Islamic State, said Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi security analyst with close ties to Saudi Arabia's interior ministry.link

So, a naked man walks into a restaurant in Kuwait......

Customers eating at a restaurant in Kuwait got a shock when a man walked in completely naked, forcing them to use garbage bags to cover him up.

Scores of people were enjoying their meal at the restaurant when the18-year-old walked in nude and started to make strange moves, indicating he was mentally ill.

“The customers jumped and surrounded him while others used garbage bags to cover him…restaurant workers called the police who came and took the man away,” the Arabic language daily ‘Al Watan’ said.

Hala February 2015

KUWAIT: Hala February 2015 is a great opportunity to stimulate the country’s economy through offering huge discounts and promotions in the retail businesses and small industries, the organizers said yesterday. The annual festival kicks off this Thursday, January 8, and will continue through February 8, the festival’s higher organizing committee announced.

Qais Al-Ghanim, and economic expert, said that such stimulus encourages internal and external tourism and places the country as a tourist destination. He also added that all sectors of the society could take advantage of the month-long discounts and promotions at many shops that wouldn’t make a dent in their pockets.

Similarly, financial analyst Fahad Al-Sager said that Hala February is a step in the right direction to turn the country into its desired goal of being a regional financial hub. He emphasized the importance of the government’s support, especially the Ministry of Interior, to facilitate the entry of visitors into the country. He added that the Ministry of Information also needs to have full coverage of the festival’s activities to attract more people.

Premier event
Meanwhile, Kuwait prepares today for the launch of the 21st Qurain Cultural Festival. Standing the test of time, the Qurain Cultural Festival proved itself as the premier cultural event in Kuwait. Organized annually by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL) since 1994, the Qurain festival always created a cultural and social “buzz” that attracted individuals from all walks of life.

For a usual period of three weeks, the festival puts on musical, theatrical, and cultural events conducted by Kuwaiti, Arab, and international talents which in return proves year after year that the Qurain festival was the main event for cultural enthusiasts from around the globe.

The other incarnations of the Qurain festival took it up a notch by hosting and honoring many local, regional, and international intellectual and artists as well as many nations, dedicating seminars and lectures to showcase their cultural inputs and traditions. The naming of the Qurain festival traces back to historical causes as Qurain is originally one of old names of Kuwait in the late 18th century. – KUNA

NCCAL has a lot of programs, too bad they don't put their IG and website in ENGLISH for the non Arabic reading expats who might want TO CHECK OUT their programs! I've commented many times on their IG account about putting the info in ENGLISH but they obviously don't care about non-Arabs.

Senior citizens abandoned in Kuwait Hospitals

KUWAIT: A high-ranking health ministry official blew the whistle on a very tragic issue, declaring that Kuwaiti public hospitals were full of hundreds of senior citizens who had finished receiving medical care and needed to go back home where family bonds would help cure them and relieve their pain. “Unfortunately, those senior citizens’ relatives have been refusing to take them home,” he revealed.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said that the scores of patients aged 60 to 90 had already received the medical treatment they needed and had to be discharged. “Nonetheless, those patients’ ungrateful children or relatives who had not been so visiting them left them in hospital for months,” added the official, noting that many of the patients’ children and relatives had been notified of the need to discharge the patients.

“Some of them promised to take them home, while others got angry for being told so and blamed the hospitals for what they described as ‘interfering in personal affairs’ and immediately started criticizing the medical body for not ‘shouldering its responsibilities towards citizens’,” explained the official.

Moreover, the official explained that most of the senior citizens suffered from chronic diseases that could be dealt with at home, but instead were receiving such care by nurses in private rooms that are badly needed for more critical cases. “We cannot force a citizen out of a private hospital room, but where will they go as long as their relatives refuse taking them?” the official exclaimed.

In addition, the official stressed that these patients’ relatives had been repeatedly reminded that senior citizens get enough social security pensions, including KD 559 to all women over fifty, granting widows their late husbands’ pensions, men’s pension, senior citizens’ care, house call doctors and medical care at home. He added that despite being threatened that such incentives might be stopped if their cases were reported, many of the relatives have not responded and still kept their ageing relatives in hospitals. – Al-Rai

I have to say this is extremely sad and disappointing to say the least. I worked in a nursing home before in the states for a couple weeks. I had an old lady who was 100 years old ask me to take her home and it made me cry. I quit working there because I couldn't handle the misery of the patients. I wonder where these patients are in Kuwait, I would love to visit them and keep them company. That could be a new community project for the younger generations, if the family won't visit then the youth could do it for them.

It's awful and sad to leave the older generation alone which will make them deteriorate and pass away sooner than being in a healthy environment, shame on you people!