KUWAIT: Kuwaiti
Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Housing Affairs Dr Janan
Bushehri announced yesterday that the Cabinet has agreed to reduce the symbolic
value of Al-Mutlaa city's residential lots from KD 5,000 to KD 3,000 (from
$17,000 to $10,00). The move comes upon the directives of His Highness the
Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. In a press statement
after the weekly cabinet meeting, Bushehri said that at the behest of His
Highness Prime Minister and his support for the housing issue and a
presentation tabled at the meeting, the Cabinet decided to approve this issue.

She added that
the Public Authority for Housing Welfare submitted to the Cabinet a study on
the symbolic value of Al-Mutlaa city's residential lots, noting that the number
of beneficiaries of this reduction exceeds 28,000 Kuwaiti families. The
Minister of Housing stressed keenness of Public Authority for Housing Welfare
to support the citizens and ease their financial burdens, especially in the
modern housing units and border cities, thanking His Highness the Prime
Minister for his continuous support to the housing issue and citizens.

Certificate check

Meanwhile, the
Cabinet commended the efforts of an ad hoc committee entrusted with checking
the university documents of Kuwaiti citizens and residents alike. This came
during the cabinet's discussion of the committee's report on the recently
raised issue of forged university documents at a customary weekly meeting held
at Bayan Palace and presided over by Acting Prime Minister and Foreign Minister
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

The cabinet also
listened to a briefing from Minister of Education and Higher Education Hamed
Al-Azmi, who doubles as the head of the committee, Deputy Premier and Minister
of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh said in a statement following the
meeting. Having checked a total 6,050 certificates, the panel has sent a number
of forged documents to the Public Prosecution as a prelude to legal action
against those involved in the case, Saleh said.

Al-Qabas daily
had reported yesterday that an Egyptian man, who had masterminded the forgeries
of degrees in Kuwait and then fled to Egypt, Turkey and UAE in an attempt to
escape arrest, is finally in Kuwaiti custody. After his name was sent to
Interpol, security sources said UAE security authorities arrested the suspect,
notified Kuwait and handed him over. During initial interrogations, the suspect
admitted that another Egyptian working at a university outside Cairo had been
providing him with blank degrees from various Egyptian universities and that he
later filled in holders' data as required. The suspect also stressed that he
has full information about those he had sold the fake degrees to, noting that
they are mainly Kuwaitis.

Ministers
congratulated

Also locally, the
Cabinet congratulated the newly appointed ministers, wishing them the best of
luck in serving their respective country's national interests, he added.
Internationally, the Cabinet offered heartfelt condolences to UAE President
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the victims of a recent helicopter crash.

The Kuwaiti
ministers also deplored a recent attack on the Libyan Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, which left a number of people dead or injured. They further voiced
vehement condemnation of a tourist bus blast in Egypt's Giza Governorate. In
this regard, the cabinet resounded Kuwait's unwavering position based on decrying
violence and terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, reiterating that it
stands side by side with Libya and Egypt. - KUNA