Which body of water did allied troops cross during the Normandy invasion?

What country is 33 degrees south of the equator?

== == Kuwait is 33 degreessouth of the equator. === === === === === === Strategically located on the western side of the head of the Persian Gulf, the 17,820 sq km State of Kuwait borders Iraq to the north and west and Saudi Arabia to the south. With some 499km of coastline, its territory mainly consists of dry, flat or slightly undulating desert. This gives it no arable land, woodland or permanent crops, with only some 8% of its territory permanent pasture. The climate is one of very hot summers and short, cool winters, with temperatures reaching an average high of around 38 C in August and 13 C in January. Rainfall is scarce, averaging only around 26 rainy days per year. However, sudden cloudbursts during the winter and spring months can bring heavy downpours. The state's population of just over 2m is largely concentrated in the urban areas, such as the capital, Kuwait City. Around half of the population are also of overseas origin, mainly from other Arab states, the Indian subcontinent or the Far East, with a large number of European and North American citizens also in residence, connected in the main with the hydrocarbon industry and - since the 1991 Gulf War- with the conflict in neighbouring Iraq. The population is growing at around 3% per annum, with average life expectancy around 76-77 years. Modern Kuwait traces its ancestry to the 18th century, when members of the Utub clan from what is now Saudi Arabia settled in the area. Other clans and tribes also moved into the territory over the following centuries, most being of nomadic origin, yet they adapted themselves to a life revolving around the sea. This produced traditional occupations such as fishing, pearl diving and boat building along with trade to neighbouring states and beyond. The territory also provided room for many Bedouin, who eked out a living from the deserts, raising camels, sheep and goats. In 1756, the Sabah dynasty was established with a sheikh as the leader. The sheikhdom long recognised Ottoman suzerainty, though was in many ways remarkably independent of Ottoman rule. There was never a garrison, and by the mid-19th century it was no longer paying taxes to the sultan in Istanbul nor providing troops. This distant relationship then became even more removed in 1899, when Kuwait entered into an agreement with the United Kingdom in which British imperial forces were to provide the kingdom with protection. In 1913, a subsequent Anglo-Ottoman convention established Kuwait as an autonomous sub-province of the Ottoman Empire. However, this convention was never ratified before World War I broke out the following year. With the defeat of the Ottomans, and the subsequent collapse of their empire, the convention was forgotten - except by Iraq, which later used it to justify its claim that Kuwait came under its jurisdiction, as the inheritor of Ottoman power in the region. When the war began in 1914, Britain recognised Kuwait's independence from the Ottomans, though for many years after the war was over debate continued over delimiting the frontiers with Iraq. Kuwait also suffered attacks from the Wahabis from Arabia throughout this period, until a peace treaty was arrived at in 1921. The following year, a neutral zone was established between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, effectively settling both states' frontiers. Disputes over the border with Iraq continued, however. Kuwait gained its formal independence on June 19, 1961, with the removal of British protection. At this point too, the sheikh changed his title to that of emir. By this stage, Kuwait was quite a different country from the fishing and pearl diving economy it had started out as. Central in this transformation was the discovery of oil in 1938, with extraction starting in 1946 under the auspices of the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), a joint venture of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later BP) and Gulf Oil. Half of the revenues from extraction went to the sheikh, who used these to develop the country's economic and social infrastructure. In 1961, Kuwait joined the Arab League and in 1963, a constitution was proclaimed giving the emir executive power. A national assembly was also elected and Iraq formally gave up its claims on Kuwait. Three years later, the Kuwaiti-Saudi neutral zone was divided, with each country administering its own half. Thus things stood until 1976, when the emir dissolved the national assembly - it was not to reopen until 1981. The revolution in Iran and the following Iran-Iraq war also had consequences in Kuwait, with Iran bombing Kuwait in retaliation for alleged Kuwaiti support for Iraq. Islamist radical sympathisers with the Iranian revolution were also a source of concern for the Kuwaiti authorities. After an assassination attempt on the emir in 1985, blamed on Shia radicals, some 27,000 Shia Muslims were expelled from the country. The national assembly was also closed again in 1986. This, however, led to public protests and fresh elections for the assembly in 1990. These were boycotted by opposition parties, who were holding out for a better constitutional deal. However, these internal disputes then came to a sudden halt in August 1990, when Iraq invaded. The country then experienced a short period of occupation that lasted until January 1991, when a US-led coalition liberated the country and drove out the Iraqis. Kuwait and the US subsequently signed a 10-year security pact. The Iraqi military set on fire many of the country's oil wells during its retreat, with the last of these taking until 1992 to be put out. Fresh national assembly elections were held in October that year, while in 1993, Iraq was obliged to recognise a new frontier that marginally increased Kuwaiti territory. During the rest of the 1990s, Kuwait made several moves towards increased political liberalisation, particularly regarding women, with an edict from the emir in 1999 giving them equal political rights to men narrowly defeated in the national assembly. Voting rights for women were however finally granted in 2005. In 2003, the country was once again the focus of military action, this time as the springboard for the US-led invasion of Iraq. Major Political Players Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah: Emir since 1977, when he succeeded his cousin, Sheikh Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah. Sheikh Sa'd al-Abdallah al-Salim al-Sabah: Deputy emir and crown prince. Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah: Prime minister and foreign minister. Sheikh Jabir Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah: Deputy prime minister and defence minister. Kuwait is ruled by a hereditary monarch, the emir, who has ultimate executive power. There is also a Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister and approved by the emir, who also appoints the prime minister. The legislative branch consists of the unicameral National Assembly or Majlis al-Umma, which has 50 seats and its members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. Until May 2005, suffrage was limited to adult males who had been naturalised for 30 years or more, or who had resided in Kuwait since before 1920, and their male descendants at age 21, restricting the voting population to around 10% of the total. However, the Majlis finally voted in May 2005 to give Kuwaiti women equal voting rights with Kuwaiti men and allow them to run in local and national elections. There are no political parties allowed, although certain interest groups exist, such as the Bedouins, traders, Sunni and Shia activists, and secular leftists and nationalists. Kuwait's main industry is hydrocarbons, with proven crude oil reserves of about 94bn barrels - around10% of current proven world reserves. This gives petroleum a giant 90% slice of the country's export revenues, 75% of its government's income and around half of the country's GDP. In the 1970s, the government began investing in the country's refining capacity, as well as gaining control over the country's hydrocarbon reserves - away from multinational corporations. In 1974, the state took over 60% of KOC, and by 1979, all the four main oil companies operating in Kuwait were under state control. Out of this, in 1980, the government created the Kuwaiti Petroleum Corporation (KPC). The KPC went from strength to strength, establishing itself as one of the world's largest oil market players. It set up Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) to manage its affairs outside the state in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) took responsibility for oil refining and gas liquefaction projects as well as distribution of petroleum products to the local market. The KNPC began running the Mina al-Ahmadi, Mina Abdulla and Shuaiba refineries and the LPG plant in Mina al-Ahmadi. In April 1999, Kuwait's OPEC quota was fixed at 1.836m barrels-per-day (bpd). This is somewhat less than the current production capacity of around 2.5m bpd. The government is also planning to boost production capacity and increase the country's refining of oil products. One major area of expansion is being realised by the Kuwait Project, which aims to double the extraction capacity of oil fields in North Kuwait. This is set to boost oil production capacity to 3m bpd by 2005. However, while overflowing with one natural resource, Kuwait has an equally dramatic surfeit of any others. The climate and terrain limits agriculture to a tiny percentage of GDP, with almost all food except fish imported. At the same time, some 75% of the kingdom's potable water must either be distilled or brought in from outside. The country also has no metallic minerals and few suitable non-metallic minerals for primary industrial use. The predominance of oil, coupled with the paucity of other resources, has also led to an economy in which industry and manufacturing have played little role historically. Kuwait does however, have more of a trading tradition, with this long the destination for investment, rather than factories and plants. The country's main trading partners in recent years have been Japan, the US, Singapore and the Netherlands for exports, and the US, Japan, the UK and Germany for imports. Banking too has long enjoyed strong positioning in the state. The government has long been aware of the weakness of local manufacturing and has - thanks to its position in the oil industry and the oil industry's position in the economy - exercised a strong degree of state control over efforts to diversify. This has taken the form of investment in special industrial zones and investment banking facilities to aid local businesses. The government has also invested heavily in the economic and social infrastructure, providing schools, universities, roads and telecommunications links. Kuwait has long been a relatively free and open economy, notwithstanding the amount of state involvement resulting from state ownership of the oil industry, which means around 95% of Kuwait's labour force are state employees. The country is a relatively wealthy one - with GDP at purchasing power parity estimated at $48bn for 2004. Inflation for 2004 was around 2.3%, unemployment in 2004 around 2.2%. The State of Kuwait is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC). == == Kuwait is 33 degreessouth of the equator. === === === === === === Strategically located on the western side of the head of the Persian Gulf, the 17,820 sq km State of Kuwait borders Iraq to the north and west and Saudi Arabia to the south. With some 499km of coastline, its territory mainly consists of dry, flat or slightly undulating desert. This gives it no arable land, woodland or permanent crops, with only some 8% of its territory permanent pasture. The climate is one of very hot summers and short, cool winters, with temperatures reaching an average high of around 38 C in August and 13 C in January. Rainfall is scarce, averaging only around 26 rainy days per year. However, sudden cloudbursts during the winter and spring months can bring heavy downpours. The state's population of just over 2m is largely concentrated in the urban areas, such as the capital, Kuwait City. Around half of the population are also of overseas origin, mainly from other Arab states, the Indian subcontinent or the Far East, with a large number of European and North American citizens also in residence, connected in the main with the hydrocarbon industry and - since the 1991 Gulf War- with the conflict in neighbouring Iraq. The population is growing at around 3% per annum, with average life expectancy around 76-77 years. Modern Kuwait traces its ancestry to the 18th century, when members of the Utub clan from what is now Saudi Arabia settled in the area. Other clans and tribes also moved into the territory over the following centuries, most being of nomadic origin, yet they adapted themselves to a life revolving around the sea. This produced traditional occupations such as fishing, pearl diving and boat building along with trade to neighbouring states and beyond. The territory also provided room for many Bedouin, who eked out a living from the deserts, raising camels, sheep and goats. In 1756, the Sabah dynasty was established with a sheikh as the leader. The sheikhdom long recognised Ottoman suzerainty, though was in many ways remarkably independent of Ottoman rule. There was never a garrison, and by the mid-19th century it was no longer paying taxes to the sultan in Istanbul nor providing troops. This distant relationship then became even more removed in 1899, when Kuwait entered into an agreement with the United Kingdom in which British imperial forces were to provide the kingdom with protection. In 1913, a subsequent Anglo-Ottoman convention established Kuwait as an autonomous sub-province of the Ottoman Empire. However, this convention was never ratified before World War I broke out the following year. With the defeat of the Ottomans, and the subsequent collapse of their empire, the convention was forgotten - except by Iraq, which later used it to justify its claim that Kuwait came under its jurisdiction, as the inheritor of Ottoman power in the region. When the war began in 1914, Britain recognised Kuwait's independence from the Ottomans, though for many years after the war was over debate continued over delimiting the frontiers with Iraq. Kuwait also suffered attacks from the Wahabis from Arabia throughout this period, until a peace treaty was arrived at in 1921. The following year, a neutral zone was established between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, effectively settling both states' frontiers. Disputes over the border with Iraq continued, however. Kuwait gained its formal independence on June 19, 1961, with the removal of British protection. At this point too, the sheikh changed his title to that of emir. By this stage, Kuwait was quite a different country from the fishing and pearl diving economy it had started out as. Central in this transformation was the discovery of oil in 1938, with extraction starting in 1946 under the auspices of the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), a joint venture of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later BP) and Gulf Oil. Half of the revenues from extraction went to the sheikh, who used these to develop the country's economic and social infrastructure. In 1961, Kuwait joined the Arab League and in 1963, a constitution was proclaimed giving the emir executive power. A national assembly was also elected and Iraq formally gave up its claims on Kuwait. Three years later, the Kuwaiti-Saudi neutral zone was divided, with each country administering its own half. Thus things stood until 1976, when the emir dissolved the national assembly - it was not to reopen until 1981. The revolution in Iran and the following Iran-Iraq war also had consequences in Kuwait, with Iran bombing Kuwait in retaliation for alleged Kuwaiti support for Iraq. Islamist radical sympathisers with the Iranian revolution were also a source of concern for the Kuwaiti authorities. After an assassination attempt on the emir in 1985, blamed on Shia radicals, some 27,000 Shia Muslims were expelled from the country. The national assembly was also closed again in 1986. This, however, led to public protests and fresh elections for the assembly in 1990. These were boycotted by opposition parties, who were holding out for a better constitutional deal. However, these internal disputes then came to a sudden halt in August 1990, when Iraq invaded. The country then experienced a short period of occupation that lasted until January 1991, when a US-led coalition liberated the country and drove out the Iraqis. Kuwait and the US subsequently signed a 10-year security pact. The Iraqi military set on fire many of the country's oil wells during its retreat, with the last of these taking until 1992 to be put out. Fresh national assembly elections were held in October that year, while in 1993, Iraq was obliged to recognise a new frontier that marginally increased Kuwaiti territory. During the rest of the 1990s, Kuwait made several moves towards increased political liberalisation, particularly regarding women, with an edict from the emir in 1999 giving them equal political rights to men narrowly defeated in the national assembly. Voting rights for women were however finally granted in 2005. In 2003, the country was once again the focus of military action, this time as the springboard for the US-led invasion of Iraq. Major Political Players Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah: Emir since 1977, when he succeeded his cousin, Sheikh Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah. Sheikh Sa'd al-Abdallah al-Salim al-Sabah: Deputy emir and crown prince. Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah: Prime minister and foreign minister. Sheikh Jabir Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah: Deputy prime minister and defence minister. Kuwait is ruled by a hereditary monarch, the emir, who has ultimate executive power. There is also a Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister and approved by the emir, who also appoints the prime minister. The legislative branch consists of the unicameral National Assembly or Majlis al-Umma, which has 50 seats and its members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. Until May 2005, suffrage was limited to adult males who had been naturalised for 30 years or more, or who had resided in Kuwait since before 1920, and their male descendants at age 21, restricting the voting population to around 10% of the total. However, the Majlis finally voted in May 2005 to give Kuwaiti women equal voting rights with Kuwaiti men and allow them to run in local and national elections. There are no political parties allowed, although certain interest groups exist, such as the Bedouins, traders, Sunni and Shia activists, and secular leftists and nationalists. Kuwait's main industry is hydrocarbons, with proven crude oil reserves of about 94bn barrels - around10% of current proven world reserves. This gives petroleum a giant 90% slice of the country's export revenues, 75% of its government's income and around half of the country's GDP. In the 1970s, the government began investing in the country's refining capacity, as well as gaining control over the country's hydrocarbon reserves - away from multinational corporations. In 1974, the state took over 60% of KOC, and by 1979, all the four main oil companies operating in Kuwait were under state control. Out of this, in 1980, the government created the Kuwaiti Petroleum Corporation (KPC). The KPC went from strength to strength, establishing itself as one of the world's largest oil market players. It set up Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) to manage its affairs outside the state in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) took responsibility for oil refining and gas liquefaction projects as well as distribution of petroleum products to the local market. The KNPC began running the Mina al-Ahmadi, Mina Abdulla and Shuaiba refineries and the LPG plant in Mina al-Ahmadi. In April 1999, Kuwait's OPEC quota was fixed at 1.836m barrels-per-day (bpd). This is somewhat less than the current production capacity of around 2.5m bpd. The government is also planning to boost production capacity and increase the country's refining of oil products. One major area of expansion is being realised by the Kuwait Project, which aims to double the extraction capacity of oil fields in North Kuwait. This is set to boost oil production capacity to 3m bpd by 2005. However, while overflowing with one natural resource, Kuwait has an equally dramatic surfeit of any others. The climate and terrain limits agriculture to a tiny percentage of GDP, with almost all food except fish imported. At the same time, some 75% of the kingdom's potable water must either be distilled or brought in from outside. The country also has no metallic minerals and few suitable non-metallic minerals for primary industrial use. The predominance of oil, coupled with the paucity of other resources, has also led to an economy in which industry and manufacturing have played little role historically. Kuwait does however, have more of a trading tradition, with this long the destination for investment, rather than factories and plants. The country's main trading partners in recent years have been Japan, the US, Singapore and the Netherlands for exports, and the US, Japan, the UK and Germany for imports. Banking too has long enjoyed strong positioning in the state. The government has long been aware of the weakness of local manufacturing and has - thanks to its position in the oil industry and the oil industry's position in the economy - exercised a strong degree of state control over efforts to diversify. This has taken the form of investment in special industrial zones and investment banking facilities to aid local businesses. The government has also invested heavily in the economic and social infrastructure, providing schools, universities, roads and telecommunications links. Kuwait has long been a relatively free and open economy, notwithstanding the amount of state involvement resulting from state ownership of the oil industry, which means around 95% of Kuwait's labour force are state employees. The country is a relatively wealthy one - with GDP at purchasing power parity estimated at $48bn for 2004. Inflation for 2004 was around 2.3%, unemployment in 2004 around 2.2%. The State of Kuwait is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC). == == Kuwait is 33 degreessouth of the equator. === === === === === === Strategically located on the western side of the head of the Persian Gulf, the 17,820 sq km State of Kuwait borders Iraq to the north and west and Saudi Arabia to the south. With some 499km of coastline, its territory mainly consists of dry, flat or slightly undulating desert. This gives it no arable land, woodland or permanent crops, with only some 8% of its territory permanent pasture. The climate is one of very hot summers and short, cool winters, with temperatures reaching an average high of around 38 C in August and 13 C in January. Rainfall is scarce, averaging only around 26 rainy days per year. However, sudden cloudbursts during the winter and spring months can bring heavy downpours. The state's population of just over 2m is largely concentrated in the urban areas, such as the capital, Kuwait City. Around half of the population are also of overseas origin, mainly from other Arab states, the Indian subcontinent or the Far East, with a large number of European and North American citizens also in residence, connected in the main with the hydrocarbon industry and - since the 1991 Gulf War- with the conflict in neighbouring Iraq. The population is growing at around 3% per annum, with average life expectancy around 76-77 years. Modern Kuwait traces its ancestry to the 18th century, when members of the Utub clan from what is now Saudi Arabia settled in the area. Other clans and tribes also moved into the territory over the following centuries, most being of nomadic origin, yet they adapted themselves to a life revolving around the sea. This produced traditional occupations such as fishing, pearl diving and boat building along with trade to neighbouring states and beyond. The territory also provided room for many Bedouin, who eked out a living from the deserts, raising camels, sheep and goats. In 1756, the Sabah dynasty was established with a sheikh as the leader. The sheikhdom long recognised Ottoman suzerainty, though was in many ways remarkably independent of Ottoman rule. There was never a garrison, and by the mid-19th century it was no longer paying taxes to the sultan in Istanbul nor providing troops. This distant relationship then became even more removed in 1899, when Kuwait entered into an agreement with the United Kingdom in which British imperial forces were to provide the kingdom with protection. In 1913, a subsequent Anglo-Ottoman convention established Kuwait as an autonomous sub-province of the Ottoman Empire. However, this convention was never ratified before World War I broke out the following year. With the defeat of the Ottomans, and the subsequent collapse of their empire, the convention was forgotten - except by Iraq, which later used it to justify its claim that Kuwait came under its jurisdiction, as the inheritor of Ottoman power in the region. When the war began in 1914, Britain recognised Kuwait's independence from the Ottomans, though for many years after the war was over debate continued over delimiting the frontiers with Iraq. Kuwait also suffered attacks from the Wahabis from Arabia throughout this period, until a peace treaty was arrived at in 1921. The following year, a neutral zone was established between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, effectively settling both states' frontiers. Disputes over the border with Iraq continued, however. Kuwait gained its formal independence on June 19, 1961, with the removal of British protection. At this point too, the sheikh changed his title to that of emir. By this stage, Kuwait was quite a different country from the fishing and pearl diving economy it had started out as. Central in this transformation was the discovery of oil in 1938, with extraction starting in 1946 under the auspices of the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), a joint venture of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later BP) and Gulf Oil. Half of the revenues from extraction went to the sheikh, who used these to develop the country's economic and social infrastructure. In 1961, Kuwait joined the Arab League and in 1963, a constitution was proclaimed giving the emir executive power. A national assembly was also elected and Iraq formally gave up its claims on Kuwait. Three years later, the Kuwaiti-Saudi neutral zone was divided, with each country administering its own half. Thus things stood until 1976, when the emir dissolved the national assembly - it was not to reopen until 1981. The revolution in Iran and the following Iran-Iraq war also had consequences in Kuwait, with Iran bombing Kuwait in retaliation for alleged Kuwaiti support for Iraq. Islamist radical sympathisers with the Iranian revolution were also a source of concern for the Kuwaiti authorities. After an assassination attempt on the emir in 1985, blamed on Shia radicals, some 27,000 Shia Muslims were expelled from the country. The national assembly was also closed again in 1986. This, however, led to public protests and fresh elections for the assembly in 1990. These were boycotted by opposition parties, who were holding out for a better constitutional deal. However, these internal disputes then came to a sudden halt in August 1990, when Iraq invaded. The country then experienced a short period of occupation that lasted until January 1991, when a US-led coalition liberated the country and drove out the Iraqis. Kuwait and the US subsequently signed a 10-year security pact. The Iraqi military set on fire many of the country's oil wells during its retreat, with the last of these taking until 1992 to be put out. Fresh national assembly elections were held in October that year, while in 1993, Iraq was obliged to recognise a new frontier that marginally increased Kuwaiti territory. During the rest of the 1990s, Kuwait made several moves towards increased political liberalisation, particularly regarding women, with an edict from the emir in 1999 giving them equal political rights to men narrowly defeated in the national assembly. Voting rights for women were however finally granted in 2005. In 2003, the country was once again the focus of military action, this time as the springboard for the US-led invasion of Iraq. Major Political Players Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah: Emir since 1977, when he succeeded his cousin, Sheikh Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah. Sheikh Sa'd al-Abdallah al-Salim al-Sabah: Deputy emir and crown prince. Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah: Prime minister and foreign minister. Sheikh Jabir Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah: Deputy prime minister and defence minister. Kuwait is ruled by a hereditary monarch, the emir, who has ultimate executive power. There is also a Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister and approved by the emir, who also appoints the prime minister. The legislative branch consists of the unicameral National Assembly or Majlis al-Umma, which has 50 seats and its members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. Until May 2005, suffrage was limited to adult males who had been naturalised for 30 years or more, or who had resided in Kuwait since before 1920, and their male descendants at age 21, restricting the voting population to around 10% of the total. However, the Majlis finally voted in May 2005 to give Kuwaiti women equal voting rights with Kuwaiti men and allow them to run in local and national elections. There are no political parties allowed, although certain interest groups exist, such as the Bedouins, traders, Sunni and Shia activists, and secular leftists and nationalists. Kuwait's main industry is hydrocarbons, with proven crude oil reserves of about 94bn barrels - around10% of current proven world reserves. This gives petroleum a giant 90% slice of the country's export revenues, 75% of its government's income and around half of the country's GDP. In the 1970s, the government began investing in the country's refining capacity, as well as gaining control over the country's hydrocarbon reserves - away from multinational corporations. In 1974, the state took over 60% of KOC, and by 1979, all the four main oil companies operating in Kuwait were under state control. Out of this, in 1980, the government created the Kuwaiti Petroleum Corporation (KPC). The KPC went from strength to strength, establishing itself as one of the world's largest oil market players. It set up Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) to manage its affairs outside the state in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) took responsibility for oil refining and gas liquefaction projects as well as distribution of petroleum products to the local market. The KNPC began running the Mina al-Ahmadi, Mina Abdulla and Shuaiba refineries and the LPG plant in Mina al-Ahmadi. In April 1999, Kuwait's OPEC quota was fixed at 1.836m barrels-per-day (bpd). This is somewhat less than the current production capacity of around 2.5m bpd. The government is also planning to boost production capacity and increase the country's refining of oil products. One major area of expansion is being realised by the Kuwait Project, which aims to double the extraction capacity of oil fields in North Kuwait. This is set to boost oil production capacity to 3m bpd by 2005. However, while overflowing with one natural resource, Kuwait has an equally dramatic surfeit of any others. The climate and terrain limits agriculture to a tiny percentage of GDP, with almost all food except fish imported. At the same time, some 75% of the kingdom's potable water must either be distilled or brought in from outside. The country also has no metallic minerals and few suitable non-metallic minerals for primary industrial use. The predominance of oil, coupled with the paucity of other resources, has also led to an economy in which industry and manufacturing have played little role historically. Kuwait does however, have more of a trading tradition, with this long the destination for investment, rather than factories and plants. The country's main trading partners in recent years have been Japan, the US, Singapore and the Netherlands for exports, and the US, Japan, the UK and Germany for imports. Banking too has long enjoyed strong positioning in the state. The government has long been aware of the weakness of local manufacturing and has - thanks to its position in the oil industry and the oil industry's position in the economy - exercised a strong degree of state control over efforts to diversify. This has taken the form of investment in special industrial zones and investment banking facilities to aid local businesses. The government has also invested heavily in the economic and social infrastructure, providing schools, universities, roads and telecommunications links. Kuwait has long been a relatively free and open economy, notwithstanding the amount of state involvement resulting from state ownership of the oil industry, which means around 95% of Kuwait's labour force are state employees. The country is a relatively wealthy one - with GDP at purchasing power parity estimated at $48bn for 2004. Inflation for 2004 was around 2.3%, unemployment in 2004 around 2.2%. The State of Kuwait is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC). == == Kuwait is 33 degreessouth of the equator. === === === === === === Strategically located on the western side of the head of the Persian Gulf, the 17,820 sq km State of Kuwait borders Iraq to the north and west and Saudi Arabia to the south. With some 499km of coastline, its territory mainly consists of dry, flat or slightly undulating desert. This gives it no arable land, woodland or permanent crops, with only some 8% of its territory permanent pasture. The climate is one of very hot summers and short, cool winters, with temperatures reaching an average high of around 38 C in August and 13 C in January. Rainfall is scarce, averaging only around 26 rainy days per year. However, sudden cloudbursts during the winter and spring months can bring heavy downpours. The state's population of just over 2m is largely concentrated in the urban areas, such as the capital, Kuwait City. Around half of the population are also of overseas origin, mainly from other Arab states, the Indian subcontinent or the Far East, with a large number of European and North American citizens also in residence, connected in the main with the hydrocarbon industry and - since the 1991 Gulf War- with the conflict in neighbouring Iraq. The population is growing at around 3% per annum, with average life expectancy around 76-77 years. Modern Kuwait traces its ancestry to the 18th century, when members of the Utub clan from what is now Saudi Arabia settled in the area. Other clans and tribes also moved into the territory over the following centuries, most being of nomadic origin, yet they adapted themselves to a life revolving around the sea. This produced traditional occupations such as fishing, pearl diving and boat building along with trade to neighbouring states and beyond. The territory also provided room for many Bedouin, who eked out a living from the deserts, raising camels, sheep and goats. In 1756, the Sabah dynasty was established with a sheikh as the leader. The sheikhdom long recognised Ottoman suzerainty, though was in many ways remarkably independent of Ottoman rule. There was never a garrison, and by the mid-19th century it was no longer paying taxes to the sultan in Istanbul nor providing troops. This distant relationship then became even more removed in 1899, when Kuwait entered into an agreement with the United Kingdom in which British imperial forces were to provide the kingdom with protection. In 1913, a subsequent Anglo-Ottoman convention established Kuwait as an autonomous sub-province of the Ottoman Empire. However, this convention was never ratified before World War I broke out the following year. With the defeat of the Ottomans, and the subsequent collapse of their empire, the convention was forgotten - except by Iraq, which later used it to justify its claim that Kuwait came under its jurisdiction, as the inheritor of Ottoman power in the region. When the war began in 1914, Britain recognised Kuwait's independence from the Ottomans, though for many years after the war was over debate continued over delimiting the frontiers with Iraq. Kuwait also suffered attacks from the Wahabis from Arabia throughout this period, until a peace treaty was arrived at in 1921. The following year, a neutral zone was established between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, effectively settling both states' frontiers. Disputes over the border with Iraq continued, however. Kuwait gained its formal independence on June 19, 1961, with the removal of British protection. At this point too, the sheikh changed his title to that of emir. By this stage, Kuwait was quite a different country from the fishing and pearl diving economy it had started out as. Central in this transformation was the discovery of oil in 1938, with extraction starting in 1946 under the auspices of the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), a joint venture of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (later BP) and Gulf Oil. Half of the revenues from extraction went to the sheikh, who used these to develop the country's economic and social infrastructure. In 1961, Kuwait joined the Arab League and in 1963, a constitution was proclaimed giving the emir executive power. A national assembly was also elected and Iraq formally gave up its claims on Kuwait. Three years later, the Kuwaiti-Saudi neutral zone was divided, with each country administering its own half. Thus things stood until 1976, when the emir dissolved the national assembly - it was not to reopen until 1981. The revolution in Iran and the following Iran-Iraq war also had consequences in Kuwait, with Iran bombing Kuwait in retaliation for alleged Kuwaiti support for Iraq. Islamist radical sympathisers with the Iranian revolution were also a source of concern for the Kuwaiti authorities. After an assassination attempt on the emir in 1985, blamed on Shia radicals, some 27,000 Shia Muslims were expelled from the country. The national assembly was also closed again in 1986. This, however, led to public protests and fresh elections for the assembly in 1990. These were boycotted by opposition parties, who were holding out for a better constitutional deal. However, these internal disputes then came to a sudden halt in August 1990, when Iraq invaded. The country then experienced a short period of occupation that lasted until January 1991, when a US-led coalition liberated the country and drove out the Iraqis. Kuwait and the US subsequently signed a 10-year security pact. The Iraqi military set on fire many of the country's oil wells during its retreat, with the last of these taking until 1992 to be put out. Fresh national assembly elections were held in October that year, while in 1993, Iraq was obliged to recognise a new frontier that marginally increased Kuwaiti territory. During the rest of the 1990s, Kuwait made several moves towards increased political liberalisation, particularly regarding women, with an edict from the emir in 1999 giving them equal political rights to men narrowly defeated in the national assembly. Voting rights for women were however finally granted in 2005. In 2003, the country was once again the focus of military action, this time as the springboard for the US-led invasion of Iraq. Major Political Players Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah: Emir since 1977, when he succeeded his cousin, Sheikh Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah. Sheikh Sa'd al-Abdallah al-Salim al-Sabah: Deputy emir and crown prince. Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah: Prime minister and foreign minister. Sheikh Jabir Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah: Deputy prime minister and defence minister. Kuwait is ruled by a hereditary monarch, the emir, who has ultimate executive power. There is also a Council of Ministers appointed by the prime minister and approved by the emir, who also appoints the prime minister. The legislative branch consists of the unicameral National Assembly or Majlis al-Umma, which has 50 seats and its members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. Until May 2005, suffrage was limited to adult males who had been naturalised for 30 years or more, or who had resided in Kuwait since before 1920, and their male descendants at age 21, restricting the voting population to around 10% of the total. However, the Majlis finally voted in May 2005 to give Kuwaiti women equal voting rights with Kuwaiti men and allow them to run in local and national elections. There are no political parties allowed, although certain interest groups exist, such as the Bedouins, traders, Sunni and Shia activists, and secular leftists and nationalists. Kuwait's main industry is hydrocarbons, with proven crude oil reserves of about 94bn barrels - around10% of current proven world reserves. This gives petroleum a giant 90% slice of the country's export revenues, 75% of its government's income and around half of the country's GDP. In the 1970s, the government began investing in the country's refining capacity, as well as gaining control over the country's hydrocarbon reserves - away from multinational corporations. In 1974, the state took over 60% of KOC, and by 1979, all the four main oil companies operating in Kuwait were under state control. Out of this, in 1980, the government created the Kuwaiti Petroleum Corporation (KPC). The KPC went from strength to strength, establishing itself as one of the world's largest oil market players. It set up Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) to manage its affairs outside the state in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) took responsibility for oil refining and gas liquefaction projects as well as distribution of petroleum products to the local market. The KNPC began running the Mina al-Ahmadi, Mina Abdulla and Shuaiba refineries and the LPG plant in Mina al-Ahmadi. In April 1999, Kuwait's OPEC quota was fixed at 1.836m barrels-per-day (bpd). This is somewhat less than the current production capacity of around 2.5m bpd. The government is also planning to boost production capacity and increase the country's refining of oil products. One major area of expansion is being realised by the Kuwait Project, which aims to double the extraction capacity of oil fields in North Kuwait. This is set to boost oil production capacity to 3m bpd by 2005. However, while overflowing with one natural resource, Kuwait has an equally dramatic surfeit of any others. The climate and terrain limits agriculture to a tiny percentage of GDP, with almost all food except fish imported. At the same time, some 75% of the kingdom's potable water must either be distilled or brought in from outside. The country also has no metallic minerals and few suitable non-metallic minerals for primary industrial use. The predominance of oil, coupled with the paucity of other resources, has also led to an economy in which industry and manufacturing have played little role historically. Kuwait does however, have more of a trading tradition, with this long the destination for investment, rather than factories and plants. The country's main trading partners in recent years have been Japan, the US, Singapore and the Netherlands for exports, and the US, Japan, the UK and Germany for imports. Banking too has long enjoyed strong positioning in the state. The government has long been aware of the weakness of local manufacturing and has - thanks to its position in the oil industry and the oil industry's position in the economy - exercised a strong degree of state control over efforts to diversify. This has taken the form of investment in special industrial zones and investment banking facilities to aid local businesses. The government has also invested heavily in the economic and social infrastructure, providing schools, universities, roads and telecommunications links. Kuwait has long been a relatively free and open economy, notwithstanding the amount of state involvement resulting from state ownership of the oil industry, which means around 95% of Kuwait's labour force are state employees. The country is a relatively wealthy one - with GDP at purchasing power parity estimated at $48bn for 2004. Inflation for 2004 was around 2.3%, unemployment in 2004 around 2.2%. The State of Kuwait is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).

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