KUWAIT: Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah denied yesterday an Israeli press report claiming Kuwait and Israel are coordinating on intelligence. In a response to a question by a lawmaker, the minister said Kuwait has not changed its position towards Israel. He said that Kuwait's policy on Israel is based on a common Arab stand, and accordingly, a low-level Kuwaiti delegation remained at the UN General Assembly when Israeli prime minister spoke.

Separately, the public prosecution yesterday ordered opposition female activist Sara Al-Derees detained for 21 days pending further investigation after interrogating her on accusations of insulting HH the Amir. Derees gave herself up on Sunday after she learnt that the public prosecution planned to question her over comments she wrote on Twitter deemed offensive to the Amir. The activist's lawyer Khaled Al-Hajeri said he will challenge the public prosecutor's decision to detain his client, saying that the 21-day detention does not apply to her.

A challenge must be heard by a judge on urgent basis. The judge can order her release on bail pending trial. Hajeri said that Derees began an open-ended hunger strike in protest against her detention, which he described as against the law. Before giving herself up, she insisted on her Twitter account that she did not insult HH the Amir in the tweets she was being questioned for. She said she was criticizing her critics, and did not mean the Amir. Derees has previously been handed a jail term for insulting the Amir on Twitter, but she was pardoned by the Amir.

Meanwhile, no decision has been taken yet on the emergency session of the National Assembly to debate the hike in petrol prices by the government since the start of September. Acting speaker Abdullah Al-Tameemi said 33 MPs have signed the motion to hold the session and not 32 as he said on Sunday. He however did not say when the session will be held.

By B Izzak