Kuwait Airways is scrapping flights between New York's JFK airport and London Heathrow after U.S. authorities threatened legal action over its refusal to sell tickets to Israelis.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) in September sent a letter to the airline warning it to end what it said amounted to discrimination.

Kuwait's appeals court Sunday upheld the death penalty for the main organizer of the bombing of a Shiite mosque claimed by the Islamic State group that killed 26 people.

The court however reduced the death sentence handed out to the alleged leader of IS in Kuwait, Fahad Farraj Muhareb, to 15 years in prison.

Kuwait's supreme court on Monday upheld a ruling supporting a government decision to close leading Arabic-language newspaper Al-Watan, which had been critical of the government, the court said.

Kuwait's ministries of commerce and information in January revoked the paper's commercial and media licenses, saying it had violated minimum capital requirements.

A lower court in Kuwait on Monday sentenced five men to 10 years in jail each for raising funds for the Islamic State jihadist group.

Three of those convicted were Kuwaiti citizens, according to the court ruling.

Kuwaiti authorities will deport without trial 17 Egyptians and six Syrians after they were involved in a mass brawl over a commercial dispute, an information ministry official said Tuesday.

The official denied media reports that the men were being deported after allegedly beating up a Kuwaiti citizen. The reports had also put the number of Egyptians at 18.

Oil prices are likely to rise early next year amid signs of a decline in production of high-cost crude and improved economic growth, Kuwait's Oil Minister Ali al-Omair said Monday.

"There are signs that much of the high-cost oil has started to exit the market and this will help improve prices," Omair told reporters on the sidelines of the Kuwait Oil and Gas Conference.

A Kuwaiti minister tendered his resignation on Tuesday after a court sentenced him to jail for wrongly approving a contract that inflicted heavy losses on the state, the government said.

A statement issued by the cabinet following its weekly meeting said that Ahmad al-Jassar, the minister for electricity, water and public works, had submitted his resignation to the prime minister.

Kuwait's lower court Tuesday bailed four suspected members of a 26-member cell accused of plotting attacks on the Gulf state in collaboration with Iran and the Shiite group Hezbollah.

A judicial source said that in a new hearing held behind closed doors judge Mohammad al-Duaij ordered the four to pay bail of $1,650 each.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has praised Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey for taking in millions of refugees from the war in Syria, which is now in its fifth year.

“Lebanon is hosting Syrian refugees equal in number to 25 per cent of its population,” Ban told a news conference on Wednesday less than 10 days before world leaders gather at the U.N. Headquarters in New York for general debate of the 70th session of the General Assembly.

More than 20 Kuwaitis denied in court Tuesday that they were linked to Iran and Lebanon's Hizbullah, alleging that confessions were extracted under extreme physical torture.

All 23 men in court told judge Mohammad al-Duaij they were systematically tortured by beatings and electric shocks, with interrogators threatening to kill them if they did not sign "prepared confessions."