Kuwaiti couple kidnapped in east Lebanon

A Kuwaiti couple was kidnapped Saturday morning in the Bekaa, east Lebanon. The state-run National News Agency said unidentified armed individuals in a green Mercedes-Benz stopped Issam al-Houty, 52, and his wife as they drove toward the village of Hawsh al-Ghanam. Kuwait's ambassador to Lebanon, Abdul-Aal al-Qana'ei, spoke to the Kuwait News Agency, saying that the armed men proceeded to kidnap both Houty and his wife, Fawziyya Arafat. The Lebanese Meqdad family denied any link to Houty's abduction. "We have nothing to do with the kidnapping," family spokesman Maher Meqdad told The Daily Star, pointing out the clan's recently announced decision to suspend kidnappings in order to give diplomacy a chance. The Meqdads have kidnapped more than 20 Syrian nationals and a Turkish citizen in an effort to swap them for their own kidnapped relative in Syria, Hassan Meqdad. The spokesman said Saturday at 1pm that, within one hour, the clan would release all but four of the Syrian hostages in its custody. (daily star)