A Kuwaiti court granted bail on Thursday to Obaid al-Wasmi, an academic critical of the government, as the prime minister withdrew charges against three other critics, lawyers said.

"Today, I submitted a plea to the court to free my client, and Judge Adel al-Huwaidi accepted the request and ordered his release on $3,500 bail," Al-Humaidi al-Subaie told Agence France Presse.

A Kuwaiti youth group called Sunday for a mass rally outside parliament on Tuesday to protest the government's "undemocratic practices" and to press for its ouster.

The group, Fifth Fence, said it is using Twitter to urge people to gather in large numbers for the protest.

Three Kuwaiti opposition MPs on Monday filed to question the interior minister in parliament over the death of a man in a police station allegedly as a result of severe torture.

The request, filed by Waleed al-Tabtabai, Shuaib al-Muwaizri and Salem al-Namlan, contends that Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Khaled al-Sabah was politically responsible for the man's death.

Kuwait's prime minister on Wednesday narrowly survived a parliament vote seen as a serious bid by the opposition to oust him, speaker Jassem al-Kharafi said.

Twenty-five MPs in the 50-seat assembly voted in support of Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, while 22 were against him and one abstained.

Donors and investors have pledged 3.55 billion dollars for the development of resource-rich but neglected east Sudan, officials said on Thursday at the end of a two-day conference in Kuwait City.

"Total pledges made by participants in the east Sudan donors and investors forum came at 3.55 billion dollars," said Mustafa Osman Ismail, an advisor to the Sudanese president and head of the organizing committee.