Hit the wires nearly an hour ago, Kuwait’s Emir has died.

For the first time since Kuwait gained independence from Britain in 1961, the emir in 2003 split the posts of crown prince and prime minister which had been held by the ailing crown prince Sheikh Saad al-Abdullah al-Sabah since 1978, naming Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, his half-brother, as premier.

Under the Kuwaiti constitution, crown prince Sheikh Saad, who has been ill since undergoing colon surgery in 1997, will automatically become emir of the Gulf Arab state, an
OPEC member which pumps around 2.6 million barrels of oil a day.