KUWAIT: US President Barack Obama's envoy to the global coalition fighting Islamic State, Rtd Marine Gen John Allen is due to arrive in Kuwait on a one-week visit as part of a GCC tour. A US State Department report said that during his tour, Allen would meet with regional allies to coordinate efforts on fighting IS. The report added that Allen would also hold talks with political and security officials in five GCC capitals including Kuwait, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Manama.

Judicial powers

Minister of Commerce and Industry Yousef Al-Ali issued a decision granting 48 out of 220 employees working at the precious metals department judicial powers. Notably, Ali had granted 180 employees three-month judicial powers last month and withdrawn the powers from some employees, including 10 who still had them despite having retired a long time ago.

Gas station bids

Pan Arab Consulting Engineers have given the lowest bid to provide the architectural design of 26 new gas stations due to be built by KNPC, with an estimated total cost of KD 1 million. According to the contract due to be signed within a month, the project will be executed in six months.

Scholarships

CSC announced that public employees' scholarships for the academic year 2016-2017 would be restricted to medicine and allied health sciences students, postgraduate students studying at the Arabian Gulf University in Bahrain and higher institutes of music and theatrical arts teaching assistants dispatched abroad. CSC Chairman Abdul Aziz Al-Zaben announced that the education ministry has been given time till Dec 31 to notify it of the total number of employees to be dispatched on scholarships.

KAC employees

The syndicate of employees working at KAC and its subsidiary companies warned of what it described as "violations committed by the national carrier's senior management". "The administration is governed by passions, favoritism and personal considerations, which might lead to destroying the Blue Bird," said syndicate member pilot Foad Abbas, adding that the administration had paid up to KD 30,000 as travel allowance to one senior employee over a period of 150 days. "This is corruption," he charged, pointing out that the administration's plan to operate the newly-bought and leased planes would ultimately lead to considerable commercial operational losses.

MoH revenues

Revenues the health ministry obtained from selling some used items jumped to KD 200,000, while those made from selling tenders' conditions and specifications exceeded KD 220,000. In this regard, MoH said that used items and tender conditions and specification sales were always done through a special committee in coordination with the finance ministry.

US official Citizen acquitted

The criminal court acquitted a citizen accused of fake bidding at the Kuwait stock exchange.

FIFA presidency

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Mubarak Al-Khrainej urged the international sports community to support and back the Arab candidate running for the FIFA presidency, Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein of Jordan.

By A Saleh