KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait's parliament, reacting to a suicide bombing last week that killed 26 people, adopted a law on Wednesday requiring mandatory DNA testing on all the country's citizens and foreign residents. The legislation, requested by the government to help security agencies make quicker arrests in criminal cases, calls on the interior ministry to establish a database on all 1.3 million citizens and 2.9 million foreign residents. Under the law, people who refuse to give samples for the test face one year in jail and a fine of up to $33,000. Those who provide fake samples can be jailed for seven years. Parliament also approved a $400 million emergency funding for spending required by the interior ministry. "We have approved the DNA testing law and approved the additional funding. We are prepared to approve anything needed to boost security measures in the country," independent MP Jamal al-Omar said.

Russia slams Finland

MOSCOW: Moscow on Wednesday slammed Finland for refusing entry to the speaker of Russia's parliament in the latest high-profile spat between the Kremlin and the European Union over the blacklisting of officials due to the Ukraine crisis. The Finnish foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it had barred six Russian officials, including the speaker of parliament's Duma lower house Sergei Naryshkin, from attending an upcoming Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe meeting in Helsinki. It is the first time Naryshkin — one of the most prominent of some 150 Russians and Ukrainians placed on an EU blacklist over their role in the Ukraine crisis — has been barred from entering the EU. "Without question we consider this outrageous," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies, arguing Naryshkin was heading an official delegation to a conference of an international organisation. Russia's foreign ministry said it had lodged an official complaint with the Finnish ambassador to Moscow after summoning him Wednesday.

Six killed in Burundi

BUJUMBURA: Six people, including a policeman, were killed in gun battles on Wednesday in the latest violence in Burundi, as it awaits results from elections boycotted by the opposition and condemned internationally. Clashes broke out in the capital's Cibitoke district, an opposition area that has been one of the heartlands of protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's defiant bid for a third term. More than 70 people have been killed in two months of protests and a failed coup attempt sparked by the president's bid, with almost 144,000 refugees fleeing into neighbouring nations. Five of those killed on Wednesday were members of an armed group who were "neutralised", police said, adding that they had seized weapons, including a rifle and a rocket-propelled grenade. The Cibitoke suburb was sealed off on Wednesday by security forces, an AFP photographer said, and it was not possible to independently confirm police reports.

Two cases of Ebola

MONROVIA: Liberia said on Wednesday a teenager who died of Ebola fever had spread the virus to at least two more people, confirming the first outbreak of the tropical disease for months. Health official Cestus Tarpeh told AFP the infected pair had been in physical contact with the 17-year-old Ebola victim before his death in a village near the country's international airport, around an hour's drive southeast of Monrovia. He added that a herbalist who had treated the boy had evaded the authorities and was on the run.