Kuwait’s crown prince dissolves parliament, calls elections

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Kuwait’s crown prince has dissolved Parliament and called for snap elections, a move to ease government gridlock that has bred popular opposition and paralyzed the tiny country for months. The 81-year-old Sheikh Meshal Al Ahmed Al Jaber said in a televised national address on Wednesday that while the ruling family respected Kuwait’s constitution that grants the country’s rowdy parliament more power than elsewhere in the autocratic region of Persian Gulf sheikhdoms, popular dissatisfaction over the deepening dysfunction compelled the emir to intervene. A date for the elections was not immediately announced.