Kuwait’s emir has dissolved the parliament and taken over some of its duties, state media reported, weeks after the Gulf country held elections.

Emir Sheikh Mishal al-Ahmad al-Sabah and the royal-appointed cabinet will assume some powers of the 50-member National Assembly, he said on Friday, in an address broadcast on state television.

He also suspended some unspecified articles of the constitution for “a period of no more than four years”, without elaborating.

“The unhealthy atmosphere experienced by Kuwait in previous years has encouraged the spread of corruption to reach most state facilities, and unfortunately it reached the security and economic institutions,” the 83-year-old ruler said, adding that “it has even affected the justice system”.

“We have faced difficulties and obstacles that cannot be tolerated,” he said.

The elections in April were the first to be held under Sheikh Mishal,  who came to power last December after the death of his half-brother and predecessor, Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.

Repeated disputes between the National Assembly and the cabinet have triggered dissolutions of parliament, curtailing investment and reforms aimed at reducing the country’s reliance on oil revenue.

Parliament was to meet for the first time on Monday, but several politicians had refused to participate in the government.

The emir said that the failure to form a government was the result of “the dictates and conditions of some” legislators.  “Kuwait has been through some hard times lately … which leaves no room for hesitation or delay in making the difficult decision to save the country and secure its highest interests,” Sheikh Mishal said.

(Aljazeera)

At least 50 people have died in Afghanistan in flooding following heavy rain in the northern province of Baghlan, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior said, adding that the death toll may rise.

Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qaniee told the Reuters news agency that there had been flooding in more than five districts in Baghlan after heavy rains, and that some families were stuck and in need of urgent help.

He added that two heavy storms had been predicted for Friday night.  “The Ministry of Interior has sent teams and helicopters to the area, but due to a shortage of night vision lights in helicopters, the operation may not be successful,” he said.

The toll was confirmed by local official Hedayatullah Hamdard, the head of the provincial natural disaster management department, who also told AFP that the death toll could rise.  Hamdard explained that heavy seasonal rains caused the flooding, and residents were unprepared for the sudden rush of water.

Since mid-April, flash flooding and other floods have left about 100 people dead in 10 of Afghanistan’s provinces, with no region entirely spared, according to authorities.

Farmland has been swamped in a country where 80 percent of the more than 40 million people depend on agriculture to survive.

Afghanistan – which had a relatively dry winter, making it more difficult for the soil to absorb rainfall – is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

The nation, ravaged by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the worst prepared to face the consequences of global warming.

Afghanistan, which is responsible for only 0.06 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, ranks sixth on the list of countries most at risk from climate change, experts have said.

(Aljazeera)