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Yesterday Kuwait won 3-0 against the Azkals at the Mohammed Al-Hamad (Qadisya) Stadium. This was the first leg of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers between Kuwait and Philippines.

The second leg of Kuwait’s Al-Azraq vs. Azkals match will shift to the Philippines home turf on Thursday, July 28th. The winner of this match will join the top five AFC teams in the third round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers.

Kim Kardashian will be in Dubai from October 13th-15th for the launch of Millions of Milkshakes outlet at The Dubai Mall and to give her fans a taste of her signature shakes.

This is the first time she will be visiting Dubai and this could mean that the rumor on [248am] about her coming to Kuwait to launch her perfume just might be true. Good news for the die-hard fans and wannabes. Honestly, I lost count of how many Kim Kardashian wannabes I’ve come across all over Kuwait. My personal banker is one of them.

A rare species of bird has been spotted in Kuwait. Some of the specialists argue that it is a red collared dove, while others contradict the observation saying that such a species of dove is not known. Now they have decided to form a special committee to name the bird.

[Link]

Backstage Metal released a Tribute album to Ronnie James Dio called “To Heaven Through Hell” which was put together by musicians from around the world, and three musicians from Kuwait are a part of it too. Check out the album credits [Here]. I know them all personally and they did a great job!

• Adel Al-Qattan ex-guitarist for [Benevolent]
• Bader Nana, vocalist and guitarist for [Terminus]
• Sajid “Sarj” Masood, vocalist for [Nocturna]
  

The album is available for a free download with a donation to the Ronnie James Dio “Stand Up And Shout” Cancer Fund. You don’t need to make a donation to download, it’s optional for those who want to.

Just found out that JorZine, an Arabian Metal Webzine has an article about this Tribute album [Here].

[Download Album] | [Donate]

Discovery Channel is featuring a documentary on the Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City project called ‘Sea City – Building the Impossible’ on July 22nd.

Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City is a massive project in Khairan by the La’ala Al-Kuwait Real Estate Co. which is one of the major subsidiaries of Khalid Yousuf Al-Marzouq & Sons Group of Companies. They have two small video clips about the project on their [YouTube Channel].

Update:
The documentary is divided into two episodes. Click on the thumbnail below to see the timings for both the episodes and their re-runs.

The Cancer Aware Nation “CAN” has launched a photography competition to raise awareness for cancer prevention through healthy food choices as the theme of the competition. The participants will have to focus on the quality and quantity of healthy food vs. unhealthy food as well as the healthy and unhealthy methods of cooking in their photographs.

Click [Here] for more information and the terms of the competition.

Prizes:
1st place: KD 1,000
2nd place: KD 200 and gift vouchers
3rd, 4th and 5th place: KD 50 and gift vouchers
6th to 10th place: Gift vouchers
* Certificate of Appreciation will be awarded to all participants.

I wasn’t really surprised to read this news that Kuwait’s traffic police issued 6,899 tickets during a surprise checking over the weekend. They also arrested 14 drivers and impounded 265 vehicles for serious offences.

The condition of Kuwait’s traffic and driving scene is getting from bad to worse. It’s good to see that the traffic police is getting strict about it. I mean how hard is it to drive normal and safe for youself and others? I guess most of the traffic and incidents happen from the eve teasing and showing off which really is a thing of the past now and people should grow up and get responsible already.

J.K. Rowling just revealed that Pottermore is a free website that builds an online experience around the reading of Harry Potter books where fans will be able to follow Harry to Hogwarts, get sorted into one of the school’s rival houses and become student wizards themselves.

The website has been developed in partnership with Sony and it’s a mix of social networking forum and an online game where fans will be able to access deleted material from the original books and read Rowling’s extra background details on the characters and places.

The site goes live in October but fans can register today for a challenge on July 31st and one million people who successfully beat the challenge will get invited to join Pottermore early.

Check out the sneak peak into Pottermore and Rowling’s YouTube announcement [Here].

So the suspense is finally over. H&M annouced today that they will be collaborating with Versace for Autum/Winter 2011. The collection will be designed by Donatella Versace from their classic archives featuring a lot of leather, print and colour in exclusive materials at fantastic H&M prices for women, men and selected pieces for the home. It will be available from 17th November.

Donatella had said that she would never do a diffusion line for H&M back in 2008 for the reason that she “worked very hard to put the Versace line in the luxury section and to put the line in H&M would confuse the brand”. I guess the huge success of the collaboration with Jimmy Choo and Lanvin changed her mind. Thanks to the ladies in Kuwait and all over the world who wiped the rails clean within 5 minutes of the launch, I guess we will be seeing more luxury designers opting for a budget line.

[Link]

According to Forbes, DineEquity Inc. has signed the franchise agreement with Alshaya to open 40 new IHOP stores in the Middle East over the next 12 months in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Egypt. This will be their first major expansion outside the US.

For those who don’t know, IHOP stands for International House of Pancakes and it’s a popular American restaurant chain that’s famous for its pancakes and breakfast foods. Can’t wait!

[Link]