Kuwait has been ranked 6th in the world with the cheapest petrol prices, costing $1.57 (Dh5.77) per gallon of petrol, local media reported.

The ten countries with the most affordable petrol prices include five Arab countries – Libya, Iran, and Syria and Algeria and Kuwait.

Venezuela ranked first in the world with the cheapest petrol prices costing $0.11 per gallon, $5.95 cheaper than the global average, followed by Libya, with the cost per gallon being only $0.15. Iran has the third-cheapest fuel price per gallon ($0.23), considerably less than Syria ($1.08-the fourth cheapest) and Algeria fifth cheapest with $1.20.

The top 3 countries with the most expensive gas prices include Hong Kong in the first place, followed by the Netherlands and Norway. The price of a gallon petrol is $13.10 – double the global average and $1.15 more than the second most expensive place.

In the Netherlands petrol costs $11.75 per gallon and Norway $11.36.

The cost per gallon of fuel is less than a dollar in only three countries: Venezuela, Libya, and Iran. Only four countries have prices of over $11 per gallon of gas: Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Norway, and Monaco./ Gulf News 

The final version of the controversial list called the National Register of Citizens is the result of a six-year effort to ostensibly catalog all the legal residents of the northeastern state of Assam, but the list has been mired in controversy. The last time a draft was released, in 2018, 4.1 million people were left off, putting them at risk of being made stateless. Many of them were poor, illiterate and/or members of the Muslim minority.

Observers are worried that the final list will result in families being split up, incarcerated, and even being chased out to Bangladesh — a country many have never set foot in. And rights groups are worried that the list could set off a chain of events similar to the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar in 2017, when roughly 750,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority were persecuted, stripped of their Burmese citizenship and forced to flee to Bangladesh.

Others fear that this is the start of a disturbing trend. Modi’s Home Minister Amit Shah has promised to expel “infiltrators” from the rest of India, using Assam as a testing ground.

“We will implement National Register of Citizens in the entire country,” Shah said when the BJP returned to power for another five years in May. “We will remove every single infiltrator.”

Security was tightened Friday in Assam ahead of the release of list. Those left off the National Register of Citizens (NRC), due to be published Saturday, face losing their citizenship, being put indefinitely into camps or deported - to the alarm of UN rights experts and activists.

Authorities in Assam have brought in 17,000 additional security personnel with gatherings banned in some areas and "cyber units" scanning the social media.

Assam, an isolated state of 33 million, has long seen large influxes from elsewhere including during British colonial rule and around the 1971 war of independence in neighboring Bangladesh.

Pressure for a lasting solution has been growing for decades from those who see themselves as genuine Assamese. Sporadic violence has included the massacre of around 2,000 people in 1983.

Critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also runs Assam, say the NRC process reflects its aim to serve only its co-religionists.

In January India´s lower house passed legislation that stands to grant citizenship to people who moved to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan as recently as six years ago -- but not if they are Muslim.

Home Minister Amit Shah, Modi´s right-hand-man, has called for ejection of "termites" and said before the BJP´s thumping re-election victory in May that it would "run a countrywide campaign to send back the infiltrators"./ The News 

The final version of the controversial list called the National Register of Citizens is the result of a six-year effort to ostensibly catalog all the legal residents of the northeastern state of Assam, but the list has been mired in controversy. The last time a draft was released, in 2018, 4.1 million people were left off, putting them at risk of being made stateless. Many of them were poor, illiterate and/or members of the Muslim minority.

Observers are worried that the final list will result in families being split up, incarcerated, and even being chased out to Bangladesh — a country many have never set foot in. And rights groups are worried that the list could set off a chain of events similar to the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar in 2017, when roughly 750,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority were persecuted, stripped of their Burmese citizenship and forced to flee to Bangladesh.

Others fear that this is the start of a disturbing trend. Modi’s Home Minister Amit Shah has promised to expel “infiltrators” from the rest of India, using Assam as a testing ground.

“We will implement National Register of Citizens in the entire country,” Shah said when the BJP returned to power for another five years in May. “We will remove every single infiltrator.”

Security was tightened Friday in Assam ahead of the release of list. Those left off the National Register of Citizens (NRC), due to be published Saturday, face losing their citizenship, being put indefinitely into camps or deported - to the alarm of UN rights experts and activists.

Authorities in Assam have brought in 17,000 additional security personnel with gatherings banned in some areas and "cyber units" scanning the social media.

Assam, an isolated state of 33 million, has long seen large influxes from elsewhere including during British colonial rule and around the 1971 war of independence in neighboring Bangladesh.

Pressure for a lasting solution has been growing for decades from those who see themselves as genuine Assamese. Sporadic violence has included the massacre of around 2,000 people in 1983.

Critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also runs Assam, say the NRC process reflects its aim to serve only its co-religionists.

In January India´s lower house passed legislation that stands to grant citizenship to people who moved to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan as recently as six years ago -- but not if they are Muslim.

Home Minister Amit Shah, Modi´s right-hand-man, has called for ejection of "termites" and said before the BJP´s thumping re-election victory in May that it would "run a countrywide campaign to send back the infiltrators"./ The News 

It has sustained life for millennia, but now seeks death. Poignantly, the news comes from Mahatma Gandhi’s hometown, Porbandar. A leader from the local Muslim fishing community has approached the Gujarat High Court seeking permission to undergo euthanasia for himself and 600 members of his people. 

Allarakha Ismailbhai Thimmar from the Gosabara wetlands in Porbandar filed the petition on Thursday, lamenting the fishing community’s deteriorating economic situation. The application, filed on behalf of the Gosabara Muslim Fishermen’s Society, alleged “the government does not provide facilities to people belonging to a particular community.” 

Faced with “political persecution,” the petitioners are seeking to end their life, pending several submissions from the local level to the Governor.  The petitioner’s counsel, Dharmesh Gurjar, says the mooring of boats has been banned at Gosabara port since 2016. “Thimmar and his community are being denied their rights despite having licences.” 

Thimmar alleges that authorities have been “harassing” their families on the basis of religion and claims all facilities are regularly given to Hindu fishermen. The petition said the community has always been “loyal to the nation” and never engaged in “anti-national activities” like smuggling. Instead, they have often “given information to security agencies” on such activities “sponsored by Pakistan and others.”/ New Indian Express  

Kuwait issued on Thursday a strong “condemnation and denunciation” of [Israel’s] decision to allow extremists to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of government forces. Kuwait’s foreign ministry, in a statement, described the act as part of a continuing trend of “serious violations” committed by the “Israeli occupational authority,” which “constitute a flagrant violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions, stoke a spirit of violence and tension and threaten international peace and security.”

It went on to call on the United Nations Security Council to “assume its responsibilities to curb these violations and compel the occupying power to stop its attacks on the brotherly Palestinian people, their land and their holy sites.” /KUNA

Business magnate Elon Musk secured $7.1 billion funding from a number of investors to buy social media firm Twitter, according to a filing released on Thursday. 

The investors include tech firm Oracle's co-founder Larry Ellison, whose trust has made an equity commitment of $1 billion, according to the filing made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud also made an equity commitment for almost 35 million shares worth approximately $1.9 billion amid a share price of $54.20.

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency marketplace by trading volume, has also made a commitment of $500 million, the filing showed.

Musk's initial $21 billion financing commitment was also revised to $27.25 billion, it added.

Twitter announced on April 25 that it has accepted Musk's offer to be purchased for $44 billion. In the following three days, Musk sold around $8.5 billion worth of his electric carmaker Tesla's shares, according to earlier filings./aa