KUWAIT (Reuters) -- Kuwait's emir, Sheik Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, has died, state television reported on Sunday.

The announcement was made in a statement from the royal court carried by the television station in the tiny oil-rich Gulf state, a key U.S. ally.
The emir was the 13th ruler of a 245-year-old dynasty which has ruled Kuwait since the Anaiza tribe, to which the al-Sabahs belonged, migrated from the Arabian hinterland.
The Kuwaiti government announced a 40-day period of mourning and said government offices would be closed for three days beginning Sunday.
Sheik Jaber, who survived an assassination attempt in the 1980s, had been ailing since suffering a brain hemorrhage five years ago. According to the Associated Press, Crown Prince Sheik Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah, a distant cousin chosen by the emir as his heir apparent in 1978, will take over as ruler.
Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq in 2003 and U.S. calls for change in the Middle East, Kuwait's ruling family had come under intense pressure from both Islamists and pro-Western liberals to loosen its grip on the government and share power.
Kuwait, a founder OPEC member, enjoys one of the world's highest standards of living, despite its reliance on oil exports, unpredictable oil income and huge losses from the 1990-1991 Iraq occupation.
The Gulf state sits on one tenth of the world's crude oil reserves, or 95 billion barrels.
Used as the main launchpad for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Kuwait hosts up to 30,000 U.S. troops and some 13,000 U.S. citizens live in the country.
Kuwait has cracked down on Islamists opposing the U.S. military presence there. Diplomats say radical Islam is taking hold among Kuwaiti youth.
In December, a Kuwaiti court sentenced to death six suspected militants linked to al Qaeda for bloody attacks in the country.
The six were among 37 Islamists on trial as members of the "Peninsula Lions" group believed to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/14/kuwait.emir.reut/index.html

Was he a good guy?

hahaa, well read this and you can figure out wether he was or wether he wasnt..
Me? I must say he was.. just look at the people here, everyone likes him..

Also, a bunch of countries sent representatives for the funeral and to meet the family, greet them etc..

Like Britain sent Prince Charles.
Dick Cheney came..Some letters from Jaques Chirac and some French fellas.. The French minister of defence is a she? yeah anyways a woman showed up. A bunch of Russians.. Japan sent waves and waves of people.. China as well. Spain and Italy. Sweden.. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.. and many more really...

Well if he was a good guy then I'm glad Italy sent some representatives.

yeah, thank those countries indeed