JAMADA ALAWWAL 27, 1442 AH MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2021

16 Pages Max 20º Min 06º 150 Fils Established 1961

ISSUE NO: 18331 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net

French envoy hails Kuwait’s Trump backer seen in horned fur Omanis revive memory of Leeds stunned by Crawley; 3 role in Gulf reconciliation 6 hat charged in Capitol violence 13 village engulfed by desert 15 Chelsea, Man City advance

MoE scraps first semester exams at public schools

Assembly committee votes to limit public sector jobs to Kuwaitis

By B Izzak new prime minister capable of taking deci- sions and fighting corruption. It was report- Kuwait identifies 13 more martyrs KUWAIT: The education ministry ed last week that the Cabinet, formed just announced yesterday that there will be no three weeks ago, submitted its resignation KUWAIT: Kuwait identified 13 more paper or online exams for the first semes- to HH the Amir after three opposition law- of its martyrs through DNA tests con- ter of the current scholastic year (2020- makers filed to grill HH the Prime Minister ducted by the ministry of interior’s 2021) at public and private Arabic schools. Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah. forensics department, the head of the Acting undersecretary Faisal Al-Maqseed The resignation has not been POWs and missing persons committee said in a statement after a meeting with announced but the government boycotted at the ministry of foreign affairs Rabea ministry officials that studies will continue Wednesday’s Assembly session and minis- Al-Adsani said yesterday. online at all levels and in all schools. ters have been boycotting Assembly panel The martyrs are Bader Hussein Maqseed indicated there are several meetings. Muwaizri said the new prime Murad Al-Kandari, Suleiman Kadhim proposals regarding the method of assess- minister must be capable of carrying out Qatie Ali Taher, Tariq Mohammad ing students’ levels. In July last year, the much needed reforms and resolving crises Ahmad Abdullah Al-Yaqout, Cabinet ended the 2019-2020 academic cerned panel that should study and give that have hounded the country for Abdulrahman Abdulaziz Abdullah Al- year and announced all students were the final approval before sending them to decades, like the housing problem. He Showaimani, Abdulmahdi Abdulhameed deemed to have passed. The current aca- the house for passage. Enezi said the bills claimed only five percent of the Kuwaiti Mohammad Maarafi Behbehani, Essa demic year began in October. state that no foreigner will be appointed in people are monopolizing the wealth of the Mohammad Zaman Mohammad, Kamil Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s public sector jobs unless no Kuwaiti citizen country, “and this situation should not be in November, Adsani said. He hailed Abdulrahman Mohammad Nasser Al- legal and legislative committee yesterday applies for the said job. The aim of the bills allowed to continue”. the sacrifice and courage of Kuwait’s Fayez, Mohammad Saad Masoud Al- approved draft laws calling to ban the is to nationalize all jobs in the public sector. Muwaizri insisted that the government martyrs to defend their land during Ahmad, Mohammad Saleh Mohammad appointment of expats in public jobs The Assembly has passed a number of has so far failed to cooperate with MPs to Suleiman Al-Muhaini, Mosfer Shabib the Iraqi invasion in 1990. He thanked the Iraqi authorities, the unless there are no Kuwaitis to fill the laws in the past, all calling to speed up the issue a much-delayed general pardon to Mohammad Al-Dousari, Mahdi Habeeb vacancies. Currently, around 100,000 replacement of expats in public sector allow a group of Kuwaiti opposition for- Ali Zaid Al-Boloushi, Mustafa Hussein International Committee of the Red expats are employed in public sector jobs jobs. Enezi also said the committee cleared mer MPs and activists, who have been liv- Ahmad Mohammad Al-Qattan and Cross and the UN mission for facili- in government ministries and state bodies, a draft law calling to establish a special ing in exile for over two years to escape Yousif Zaid Zamel Saud Al-Zamel. tating the process, adding that it along with over 300,000 Kuwaitis. agency for alternative energy, saying prison terms, to return. The constitutional The remains of the martyrs wasn’t easy to identify the bodies Head of the committee MP Khaled Al- Kuwait is far behind in this field. court meanwhile set Jan 20 to start hearing arrived in Kuwait from Iraq along since they had been interred for a with the remains that were identified very long time. — KUNA Enezi told reporters the committee cleared Also, leading opposition MP Shuaib Al- a number of challenges to the general the bills and referred them to the con- Muwaizri yesterday called for appointing a election results. Black boxes A year after first of crashed death, coronavirus plane found source still a puzzle JAKARTA: Body parts, twisted wreckage and clothing were plucked from waters off the WUHAN, China: It is the world’s most pressing Indonesian capital yesterday after a passenger jet scientific puzzle, but experts warn there may with 62 people aboard crashed shortly after take- never be conclusive answers over the source of off a day earlier. Authorities have yet to say why the the coronavirus, after an investigative effort Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 went into a steep marked from the start by disarray, Chinese dive about four minutes after it left Soekarno-Hatta secrecy and international rancor. Jan 11 marks international airport on Saturday afternoon. the anniversary of China confirming its first But yesterday, they said that they had pinpointed death from COVID-19, a 61-year-old man who the location of its black boxes - cockpit voice and was a regular at the now-notorious Wuhan wet flight data recorders - that could be key to explain- market. ing why the plane slammed into the Java Sea off the Nearly two million deaths later, the pandemic sprawling city’s coast. The search and rescue is out of control across much of the world, leav- agency said it had collected body bags filled with ing tens of millions ill, a pulverized global econ- human remains, as well as debris from the wreck- omy and recriminations flying between nations. age, in waters about 23 m deep. Indonesian navy divers hold wreckage from Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182 during a search and rescue Yet China, which has broadly controlled the Passengers Ihsan Adhlan Hakim and his new operation at sea near Lancang island yesterday. — AFP pandemic on its soil, is still frustrating independ- bride Putri were headed to Pontianak, the city on ent attempts to trace the virus’ origins and the Indonesia’s section of Borneo island which had been central question of how it jumped from animals flight SJ182’s destination, about 90 minutes away. 58 were also on the doomed flight. “They took a Distraught relatives waited nervously for news at to humans. “He called me to say that the flight was delayed selfie and sent it to their kids before taking off,” the Pontianak airport. “I have four family members on There is little dispute that the virus which due to bad weather,” Hakim’s brother Arwin said couple’s nephew, Hendra, told AFP. DNA from rela- the flight - my wife and three children,” said a sob- brought the world to its knees sparked its first from Pontianak, where a wedding celebration had tives will be compared with discovered remains for bing Yaman Zai. “(My wife) sent me a picture of the known outbreak in late 2019 at a wet market in been planned for the newlyweds. “That was the last identification. All 62 passengers and crew aboard baby... How could my heart not be torn into the central Chinese city of Wuhan where wildlife time I had contact with him.” the half-full flight were Indonesian. The count pieces?” was sold as food, and the pathogen is believed Beben Sofian, 59, and her husband Dan Razanah, included 10 children. Continued on Page 2 to have originated in an undetermined bat species. But the trail ends there, clouded by a mishmash of subsequent clues that suggest its opening, AFP correspondents reported. require travellers to present a negative coronavirus origins may predate Wuhan as well as conspira- Elated Qataris “Coming from Qatar is like coming to our sec- test, undergo another test at the frontier and quar- cy theories - amplified by US President Donald ond country, where there’s no difference between antine in a government-approved hotel for one Trump - that it leaked from a Wuhan lab. them and us in their traditions,” said Mohammed Al- week. Establishing the source is vital for extinguish- stream into Marri, a Qatari who had travelled into Saudi Arabia. Just one hour from the Salwa border crossing lies ing future outbreaks early, leading virologists Since the re-opening of the border, 167 Qatari cars Al-Ahsa, a desert oasis where Qatari shoppers once say, providing clues that can guide policy deci- Saudi Arabia had entered Saudi Arabia, while 35 Qatari vehicles kept the local economy humming, crossing over to sions on whether to cull animal populations, had crossed back into Qatar, said Ali Lablabi, gen- buy affordable supplies including dates and milk. quarantine affected persons, or limit wildlife eral manager of Salwa’s customs department. “This The deep-pocketed residents of gas-rich Qatar - hunting and other human-animal interactions. “If SAUDI ARABIA: Qataris celebrated crossing their happiness - no one can describe it,” said Ghaith Al- one of the world’s wealthiest countries per capita - we can identify why they (viruses) keep emerg- border with Saudi Arabia yesterday, calling the Marri, a Qatari. “There are people who started cry- also pumped millions of riyals into Saudi hotels, ing, we can reduce those underlying drivers,” kingdom “our second country”, as Doha readied its ing” when the border re-opened, he said. date plantations and other real estate. said Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth strict coronavirus measures for Saudis to enter fol- Qatar Airways and Saudi Airlines announced But the money dried up when the embargo shut Alliance, a global NGO focused on infectious lowing a Gulf diplomatic thaw. Drivers arrived at the Saturday on Twitter that they would begin resuming the Qataris out, unleashing economic pain and disease prevention. Salwa border crossing in Saudi Arabia, 500 km east flights between their countries from today. Qatar dividing extended families on both sides, an unin- Continued on Page 2 of the capital Riyadh, from the Qatari land crossing has announced strict coronavirus control measures tended consequence of a policy meant to hurt at Abu Samrah for the second day following its re- for those arriving from Saudi Arabia. Doha will Doha’s government. — AFP 2 Established 1961 Monday, January 11, 2021 Local Kuwait Amir receives newly-appointed members of the Constitutional Court Sheikh Nawaf meets Crown Prince, senior state officials

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets Minister of Justice Dr His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets Minister of Justice Dr Nawaf Al-Yassin, President of the Constitutional Court Justice Mohammad Jassem bin Naji and the newly- Nawaf Al-Yassin, President of the Constitutional Court Justice Mohammad Jassem bin Naji and the newly- appointed members of the Constitutional Court. — Amiri Diwan and KUNA photos appointed members of the Constitutional Court

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al- Adel Ali Al-Bahoh and Waleed Ibrahim Al-Mejel who Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah and Interior Minister health, and for Oman and its people further progress Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received, at Seif Palace took oath before His Highness the Amir on the occa- Sheikh Thamer Ali Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah. His and prosperity under his leadership. His Highness the yesterday, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh sion of their appointments as members of the Highness Sheikh Mishal also received minister Yassin, Crown Prince and His Highness the Prime Minister Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. His Highness the Constitutional Court. The meeting was attended by judge Naji and the newly-appointed members of the sent similar cables. Amir also received National Assembly speaker Amiri Diwan Minister Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, Constitutional Court. Furthermore, His Highness the Separately, His Highness the Amir expressed con- Marzouq Al-Ghanem, His Highness the Prime Minister Amiri Diwan President Sheikh Mubarak Faisal Al- Prime Minister also received the Justice Minister and dolences to Indonesian President Joko Widodo over Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Deputy Sabah, Deputy Amiri Diwan Minister Sheikh the Constitutional Court’s new members. the victims of the ill-fated Indonesian airplane which Premier and Defense Minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah, Director of His In other news, His Highness the Amir congratulat- plunged into the Java Sea, killing all passengers. His Al-Ali Al-Sabah, and Deputy Premier and Minister of Highness the Amir’s Office and Amiri Diwan ed, in a cable yesterday, Sultan Haitham bin Tareq of Highness the Amir prayed to Allah Almighty to State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh. His Highness Undersecretary Ahmad Al-Fahad and head of Amiri Oman on the anniversary of his ascension to the bestow blessings upon the deceased, and solace to the Amir also received Minister of Justice Dr Nawaf Diwan Protocols Sheikh Khaled Abdullah Al-Sabah. throne. His Highness the Amir commended the “frater- their families. His Highness the Crown Prince and His Al-Yassin and President of the Constitutional Court Meanwhile, His Highness the Crown Prince nal and historic” relations between Kuwait and Oman, Highness the Prime Minister also extended condo- Justice Mohammad Jassem bin Naji. They were received Speaker Ghanem, Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al- and the development achievements in the Sultunate. lences to President Widodo over the victims of the accompanied by Justices Fuad Khaled Al-Zuwayyed, Ali, Saleh, Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser His Highness the Amir wished Sultan Haitham good ill-fated plane. — KUNA Black boxes of crashed... Continued from Page 1 at Finland’s Tampere University. “The Zain reopens Farwaniya branch with fresh look last seconds saw the aircraft rapidly Data from FlightRadar24 indicated descend from 10,000 feet to the sea that the airliner reached an altitude of in a matter of 20 seconds, which nearly 11,000 feet (3,350 m) before implies a catastrophic event or some- dropping suddenly to 250 feet. It then thing deliberate.” lost contact with air traffic control. But he added that the crash can The transport minister said Saturday “only be fully explained once the that the jet appeared to deviate from black boxes and wreckage can be its intended course just before it dis- properly analyzed”. Sriwijaya Air, appeared from radar. which operates flights to destinations “The aircraft’s final moments are... in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, has very concerning as the speed that (it) said little so far about the 26-year-old was flying at that altitude was much plane, which was previously flown by lower than expected,” said Stephen US-based Continental Airlines and Wright, professor of aircraft systems United Airlines. — AFP A year after first death... Continued from Page 1 latory or investigative lapses to avoid domestic embarrassment or global KUWAIT: Zain, the leading digital service provider in Kuwait, branches located all around the country. This includes full sanitization China won early kudos for reporting “blowback”, said Daniel Lucey, a announced the reopening of its main branch in Farwaniya with a new of all branches, furniture, and devices/equipment, as well as thermal the virus and releasing its gene Georgetown University epidemiologist and fresh look. The reopened branch leaps in its design beyond the tra- cameras to detect body temperatures from a safe distance. See- sequence in a timely manner, compared who closely tracks global outbreaks. ditional branch concept by offering the latest tech products and smart through dividers separate customers and staff in a safe manner during with its cover-up of the 2002-03 SARS The Wuhan market might not even devices from the world’s biggest brands, as well as providing a wide transactions, while enabling sound to pass efficiently in order to outbreak. But there has also been secre- be the issue, Lucey adds. He notes that range of digital services to serve Zain customers, who make up the achieve the best customer experience possible. cy and shifting stories. Wuhan authori- the virus was already spreading rapidly biggest family of subscribers in Kuwait. Zain has also supplied all branches and self-service machines with ties initially tried to cover up the out- in Wuhan by Dec 2019, indicating that it Zain celebrated the occasion with its customers by giving away awareness stickers and banners to remind customers of health guide- break and later spent precious weeks was in circulation much earlier. That’s valuable gifts and smart devices to the first 100 customers who visited lines and social distancing goals while waiting. Some seats were denying human-to-human transmission. because it may take months or even the new reopened branch to complete any transaction. The company’s marked unavailable inside every branch to guarantee a safe space Early on, Chinese officials declared years for a virus to develop the neces- plan to reopen the branch in a fresh look came after the great success between customers while seated. flatly that the outbreak began at the sary mutations to become highly conta- witnessed by a group of other branches - including Mishref Zain has trained branch staff on all health guidelines and precau- Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. But gious among humans. The market-origin Cooperative Society, Kuwait International Airport, and Al-Hamra tions, including wearing face masks at all times, not allowing anyone to Chinese data in Jan 2020 showed that theory is “just not plausible whatsoev- Shopping Center’s branches - that were all recently reopened in a simi- enter the branch in case they do not follow the needed precautionary several of the first cases had no known er”, Lucey said. “It occurred naturally lar fashion and considered the first of their kind by a telecom operator measures or show an unaverage body temperature reading. Branches links to the now-shuttered market, sug- and it had to have been many months in Kuwait. are also periodically sanitized as per the highest health standards gesting a source elsewhere. China’s sto- earlier, perhaps a year, perhaps more Zain’s reopened branch in Farwaniya, opposite Ali Fahad Al- before opening, and K-NET pay machines, pens used for signatures, ry morphed again last March when top than a year.” Dewailah Street, features the latest special and exclusive offers for pre- and other equipment are sanitized after each transaction. Any impor- Chinese disease control official Gao Fu Augmenting the doubt, in December paid and postpaid customers, while also offering the best customer tant/official papers will be stored in a safe place and not kept exposed. said the market was not the source, but China said the number of coronavirus care and digital services. The branch also offers tech enthusiasts with a Zain has reopened a number of other branches with the same above a “victim”, a place where the pathogen cases circulating in Wuhan may have wide range of the latest electronics and original accessories from the concept to ensure offering the best customer experience in a bigger was merely amplified. been 10 times higher early in the epi- world’s biggest tech brands, including laptops, video game consoles, number of locations. Reopened branches include Mishref Cooperative But China has since failed to publicly demic than revealed by official figures at drones, headphones and speakers, cases and covers, and much more. Society, Kuwait International Airport, Al-Hamra Shopping Center, Saad connect any dots, releasing scant infor- the time. The trail has now gone cold, The new branch also offers customers a chance to try Zain’s super- Al-Abdullah Cooperative Society, Al-Salam Cooperative Society, mation on animal and environmental with the drip of subsequent clues only fast 5G network and learn about the huge capabilities behind this revo- Mubarak Al-Abdullah Cooperative Society, Al-Jabriya, Aswaq Al- samples taken at the market that could adding to the confusion, including find- lutionary technology. Additionally, the branch features a dedicated sec- Qurain, and Hawalli. aid investigators, experts say. And it has ings that the virus may have existed in tion for Zain LIFE’s innovative home security solutions, including smart Zain always aspires to new levels of excellence in all services it kept foreign experts at arm’s length, Europe and Brazil before Wuhan’s out- cameras, motion sensors, smart smoke detectors, and more. offers to its customers. Through the reopening of these branches, Zain with a planned mission by World Health break, unconfirmed suggestions which Zain affirmed its utmost adherence in implementing strict health affirms its continuous efforts in meeting its customers’ needs and aspi- Organization virus sleuths now in limbo China has seized upon to deflect blame. precautionary measures within the reopened branch to protect the rations, and delivers its promise to offering the best services and latest after China denied them entry. On Daszak remains hopeful the source health and safety of both customers and staff. This includes health technologies. The company constantly looks at ways to improve the Saturday, a top Chinese health official can be found, especially after US measures such as sanitization and body temperature check-ups, as well retail experience for its customers, including providing them with the said the country was now “ready” for President Donald Trump’s re-election as social distancing protocols and more. latest solutions to better serve their needs through the biggest network the 10-strong team and opened the loss. He blames Trump for killing coop- Zain implements many strict precautionary measures within all its of branches in Kuwait. door to a visit to Wuhan. Yet “the spe- eration with China by politicizing the cific time is being determined”, National virus - typified by his “China virus” Health Commission vice minister Zeng label - and his administration’s promo- Yixin told reporters. tion of the conspiracy theory that China What the scientists will be allowed to created it in a lab, which scientists see or may expect to find a year on is reject. “I’m confident we will eventually also in doubt. Experts say authorities find out the bat species it came from may have destroyed or scrubbed away and the likely pathway,” Daszak said. crucial evidence in a panicked initial Others are less certain. Diana Bell, a response. “Every outbreak goes the wildlife disease expert at the University same way. It’s chaotic and dysfunction- of East Anglia who has studied the SARS al,” said Daszak. “They didn’t do a great virus, Ebola and other pathogens, said job on the animal investigation early focusing on a particular origin species is on,” he added. “In some ways, they were misguided. She says the overarching quite open, in others they were less than threat has already been exposed: A open.” global wildlife trade that fosters a “com- The reasons for China’s secrecy are bustible mix” of trafficked species, a unclear, but the ruling Communist Party known breeding ground for disease out- has a history of suppressing politically breaks. “(The species) actually doesn’t damaging information. Whistleblowers matter. We don’t need to know the and citizen reporters who shared details source, we just need to stop that sod- of the terrifying early weeks of the virus ding mixing of animals in markets,” she on the Internet have since been muzzled said. “We need to stop the wildlife trade or jailed. Beijing may want to hide regu- for human consumption.” — AFP Established 1961 3 Local Monday, January 11, 2021 Kuwait played ‘key mediator’ role in GCC reconciliation: French envoy

French Defense Minister Florence Parly to visit Kuwait next week

By Ben Garcia important commitment by France to Kuwait’s secu- the COVID vaccine.” rity, a commitment that has continued. On January On defense and security, Legendre said this area KUWAIT: Ambassador of France to Kuwait Anne- 16, 1991, President Francois Mitterrand announced is critical to Paris’ relationship with Kuwait. “That is Claire Legendre lauded Kuwait for the critical role that France was ready to enter military operations why French Defense Minister Florence Parly will it played as a key regional mediator in bringing against Iraqi soldiers who had invaded Kuwait,” visit Kuwait next week to reiterate our commitment about reconciliation amongst GCC states. Speaking Legendre said. to Kuwait’s defense and security and regional sta- to the local media at her residence in Jabriya yes- “Fourteen thousand French soldiers were bility. This means we are ready to cooperate and terday, Legendre said Paris welcomes this result involved in the liberation (of Kuwait) 30 years ago boost Kuwait’s capabilities in terms of defense and very warmly. “We hope it will bring further positive and 10 were killed, so this is something that will be security by training cadets. Many of them are results for regional stability. Kuwait has been play- commemorated as well in France,” she added. trained at the best military academy in France. We ing a critical role in these negotiations and we Ambassador Legendre indicated that she expected want to enhance training programs not just for top would not be where we are today without Kuwait’s more high-level visits to Kuwait this year, noting military officers, but also special forces, specifically mediation role,” she said. that a strategic dialogue was upgraded in for fighter jet pilots and coastguard and border Asked whether Kuwait could play a bigger role November from the administrative to the ministerial patrols,” she said. in other important regional issues, Legendre said level, which shows “how much we want to deepen “We are also supporting the capabilities of Kuwait, through its GCC reconciliation efforts, had our dialogue and political relations”. Kuwait in terms of military equipment. At the end of proven itself as a key regional mediator, upholding a 2020, we delivered two military helicopters to the long tradition of Kuwait being able to speak to all Health cooperation Kuwait Air Force and National Guard and 28 more powers in the region and finding ways towards dia- Legendre said both countries were seeking more are coming. This is the time for critical partnership, KUWAIT: Ambassador of France to Kuwait Anne- logue and reconciliation. cooperation within the health sector in light of the even during the pandemic. In 2020, we also deliv- Claire Legendre speaks to the local media yesterday. Speaking to local reporters for the first time after coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as well as part- ered 300 armored vehicles to the defense ministry — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat presenting her credentials to HH the Amir on Dec nership in a variety of fields including defense, and National Guard. Our defense forces conduct 22, 2020, Legendre expressed readiness to work where France is very eager on protecting its inter- military exercises with the Kuwaiti armed forces age more Kuwaiti students to study in educational with Kuwait in all areas. “I am glad to meet the ests, in addition to the interests and security of its every two years,” Legendre mentioned. institutions in France, along with students who want members of the press for the first time. We are allies such as Kuwait. to learn French,” she said. looking forward to working side by side with the The ambassador said France and Kuwait have a Education and culture In the business and economic sectors, Legendre authorities here in 2021. Our relationship with roadmap for health cooperation and acknowl- On education and cultural cooperation, said Kuwait and France enjoy a mutually beneficial Kuwait is a deeply-grounded historic partnership. edged there is room for improvement. “We signed Legendre said this area is also very important to economic relationship. “In 2019, bilateral trade We not only enjoy a very strong political relation- an agreement for training more health profession- France, with cooperation in this field starting in between the two nations amounted to €800 million, ship, but also in security, economy, culture and als; we have an agreement we signed in 2012 to 1966. “I am glad to say that Kuwait is the very first with French exports totaling €526 million. Military beyond,” she said. train more doctors, but we want to go further and country in the region that signed education and cul- aircraft and commercial aircraft delivered to Kuwait “2021 will be a very important year for all of us. include leading medical educational institutions to tural cooperation with France. We want to strength- boosted the French side. Trade remains high even in We start with renewed ambitions, especially for develop their training capacity in Kuwait, espe- en our cooperation in education. We have many this time of pandemic and because of the strong French-Kuwait relations, because we are going to cially in the field of oncology and management of agreements with educational institutions here. We partnership between Airbus and Kuwait Airways. We celebrate two important celebrations and anniver- hospitals,” Legendre said. “We share the same want to create more programs to benefit both have a strong presence in cosmetics, textiles, saries. Thirty years ago, France was part of the lib- DNA when it comes to multilateral actions on countries’ peoples. We partnered with Kuwait machinery, pharmaceutical and agricultural products. eration of Kuwait, so we are celebrating this very health. We both agree that all must have access to Institute for Scientific Research; we want to encour- We are glad Kuwait loves French brands,” she said.

Kuwait reports pended for 15 years by a decision made by the Civil Work permit fees Service Commission chief on Aug 13, 2005. Fares sent a letter to Commerce and Industry Minister and State Embassy calls to 414 new COVID for GCC citizens, Minister for Economic Affairs Faisal Al-Medlej saying this move is in agreement with the government’s plan halt travel to UK cases, one death to Kuwaitize public jobs, the importance of enabling bedoons increased national cadres to occupy such jobs, and based on article 26 of the Kuwait constitution that states: unless necessary KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health announced “Public office is a national service entrusted to those yesterday logging 414 new coronavirus cases regis- KUWAIT: who hold it. Public officials, in the exercise of their KUWAIT: tered in the previous 24 hours, raising the caseload to The Public Authority for Manpower Kuwait Embassy in the United duties, shall aim at the public interest. Aliens may not 154,314. Ministry spokesperson Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad issued its new fee list based on a decision by Minister Kingdom called on citizens Saturday wishing to hold public offices except in the cases specified by reported a single new death, putting the death toll at of Commerce and Industry and State Minister for travel to Britain not to travel at the present time, law.” Fares said experienced and competent citizens 943. The ministry had earlier announced that 279 Economic Affairs Faisal Al-Medlej. The decision except for most urgent matters, due to the large are available to occupy legal jobs. patients have recovered within the same period, rais- effectively increases work permit fees for GCC citi- increase in COVID-19 infection rates, as well as zens and bedoons working in Kuwait, Al-Qabas the comprehensive closure measures currently ing total recoveries to 149,007. The number of Expat teachers patients in intensive care units reached 46 as of yes- Arabic daily reported. applied in the UK. In a press release, the The fees for several services are as follows: Separately, Al-Qabas quoted an educational report terday, with the count of confirmed cases that contin- embassy called on citizens who urgently will which revealed that the education ministry is not in ue to receive medical care standing at 4,364. The num- 1. Issuing a signature authorization for an employ- travel to the UK “to undergo a PCR test and need of 372 teachers who are stranded abroad after ber of swab tests conducted over the same period was er’s file - KD 5. obtain a certificate proving that they are not their residency permits expired, and represent 54 at 7,781, with the tally of such examinations standing 2. Issuing a work permit for GCC citizens - KD 10 infected with the virus, provided that it was percent of the total number of stranded such teachers at 1,327,427. —KUNA per year. issued 72 hours before the date of departure to 3. Renewal of a work permit for GCC citizens - KD which stands at 693 teachers. The report that was Britain.” According to new procedures, the new 10 per year. prepared by the public education sector based on measures by British authorities will begin at the In my view 4. Issuing a work permit for illegal residents data received from education zones and administra- start of next week, as well as filling out a form (bedoons) - KD 10 per year. tive affairs showed there are 321 teachers of both to determine the whereabouts of the traveler 5. Renewal of a work permit for illegal residents - genders needed by the ministry who cannot be let go during their stay in Britain. The embassy also Failure of an American KD 10 per year. in 12 specialties, and their residency permits should urged Kuwaiti citizens who are currently in 6. Issuing an employee status certificate - KD 1 be renewed. The report included a list of the names Britain for treatment or other binding matters to democratic system? 7. Issuing a career progress report of an employee and specialties of teachers who cannot be let go, exercise extreme caution and not go out unless - KD 1. including 234 male and 87 female teachers - 19 of it is important, and to adhere to the guidelines Kuwaiti lawyers biology, 35 of physical education, 19 of music, 4 of of the British health authorities in order to pre- By Abdulaziz Al-Anjeri Meanwhile, the same newspaper reported yester- geology, 16 of art and craft, 91 of mathematics, 28 of serve their safety and contact the embassy in day that Municipality Minister Rana Al-Fares is seek- science, 17 of philosophy, 6 of physics, 24 of chem- case they need any help or inquiry on the emer- ing to resume appointing Kuwaitis in the legal depart- istry, 53 of English and 7 of French, in addition to gency phone number 02075903400. —KUNA ment with the rank of (lawyer B), which had been sus- technical supervisors in music and English.

t is certainly not the America the world knows; it was an unimaginable day. There Iare two ways to interpret what has hap- pened in DC. One is to see it as the failure of a democratic system. But it’s more accurate to see it as the extreme manifestation of a system that allows people to have a voice. The incom- ing administration needs to mend the divisions in American society. But it is important to also remember that in other political systems, the protests would not have been allowed to have a voice; the protestors would’ve been killed, jailed or beaten down. President Biden will need to rebuild a divid- ed nation during a period of continued chaos, death and suffering resulting from the persist- ence of the novel coronavirus. However, history has proven that America can overcome tragedies, no matter how big they are, and pro- vide a level of solutions and implementation mechanisms that seek equality and justice for all. It is a true democratic country in which the decisions are made by the decision-makers who are the American people themselves. Therefore, what happened cannot be measured and ana- lyzed by comparisons or contrasts with other countries and different systems of government. America’s rule and its democracy allows actions sometimes severe, misguided or appalling, but will always have a reaction that upholds the rule of law no matter what. And that’s why people trust the so-called American system. Mistakes will happen, but along with them corrective measures too. The new Biden administration has nominated a “Justice Team” experienced and well respect- ed for the Justice Department management headed by Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland, who said “I would not have accepted this nomination, if I had not been assured that the department would return to its original purpose of providing equal justice under the law.” All criminals will be treated equally under the law. 4 Established 1961 Local Monday, January 11, 2021 CAPT plays key role in public procurement Established 1961 The First Daily in The Arabian Gulf THE LEADING INDEPENDENT KUWAIT: The Central Agency for Public Tenders of its headquarters, in accordance with the proce- DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF (CAPT) implements government public procure- dures specifying the nature of services provided. ESTABLISHED 1961 ment programs for the supply of goods and prod- The authorized signatory should be approved in ucts, delivery of services and execution of con- accordance with the procedures established by Founder and Publisher struction work on behalf of relevant government government agencies,” Duaij outlined. YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN entities. Osama Al-Duaij, Acting Secretary General “All submitted documents should be approved at CAPT, spoke to Kuwait Times about the and certified by the Embassy of Kuwait in the Editor-in-Chief agency’s work. country of the company’s headquarters or certi- ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN “CAPT’s role in servicing relevant government fied by the justice ministry of Kuwait and min- EDITORIAL : 24833199-24833358-24833432 entities and bidders includes registration, classifi- istry of foreign affairs of Kuwait after being ADVERTISING : 24835616/7 cation and qualification of general contractors, legally translated. All required documents should FAX : 24835620/1 suppliers, service providers and consultants,” be uploaded as colored copies in Arabic and CIRCULATION : 24833199 Extn. 163 Duaij said. “Regulating public procurement proce- English in PDF format. All the submitted docu- ACCOUNTS : 24833199 Extn. 125 dures, control of public procurement processes, ments must be valid,” Duaij said, detailing the COMMERCIAL : 24835618 enforcing public tender rules and procedures of registration procedure. P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait. bidding and awarding are also within its ambit, “Non-compliant applications submitted with Email: [email protected] along with control and audit of variation orders, incomplete documents will not be reviewed. Website: www.kuwaittimes.net extensions and renewals of existing contracts, After submitting all required documents, the managing complaints and taking proper action payment link for the registration fees will be sent KUWAIT: Acting Secretary General at CAPT Osama Al-Duaij. through the CAPT board of directors and the com- by email. The consulting service provider regis- plaints committee.” tration certificate will be sent by email after the 2.9 Prices News in brief According to Duaij, governance, transparency application has been approved by the board of and providing equal opportunities are the main directors,” he added. 2.10 Templates 2.11 Bases for evaluation and criteria Japanese envoy congratulates FM principles upon which the Central Agency for Public Tenders performs its work, provides its Applicants should meet the following services and carries out its duties. requirements to place a successful bid Main Reasons for Rejection of bids KUWAIT: Japan’s Ambassador to Kuwait Masato Takaoka “The procedural work of CAPT General Pre-qualification documents includes: 1.0 Bid formula: congratulated Kuwait’s Foreign Minister for his recent Secretariat includes procedural review and audit of 1.0 Instructions for applicants. 1.1 Bid formula not submitted. honoring by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al- prequalification and tender documents, procedural 2.0 Documents and forms: 1.2 The amount mentioned in numbers differs Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. “It gives me pleasure to con- review and audit of prequalification results and 2.1 Applicant’s data from what is mentioned in letters. gratulate Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al- awards reports, tendering and announcements, 2.2 Applicant’s activities 1.3 Submitting a signed unsealed bid formula. Sabah on receiving the Order of Kuwait of the First Class 1.4 Submitting a bid formula without stamp or as an appreciation for his invaluable role to achieve the awarding process, procedural review and audit of 2.3 Nature of goods, products, work and services variation orders and extension and renewal of 2.4 Registration status at CAPT signature. Gulf reconciliation,” the ambassador said in a statement 1.5 Submitting a sealed bid formula without released by the Japanese Embassy yesterday. existing contracts’ requests and documents,” he 2.5 Classification status at CAPT told Kuwait Times. Preparing the agenda of the 3.0 Administrative, financial and technical data. signing or vice versa. board of directors, organizing board of directors’ 4.0 Requirements: 1.6 Making an amendment to the amount, meetings, issuing meeting minutes and following up 4.1 Previous work whether in letters or numbers without signing. Embassy in Jakarta advises travel halt the execution of the board of directors’ decisions 4.2 Experiences 2.0 Bid bond: are also done by CAPT. 4.3 Equipment 2.1 Submitting an un-certified check from the KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuwaiti embassy in Jakarta yes- “The technical activities of CAPT General 4.4 Financial capabilities bank. terday called on citizens to consider delaying travel to Secretariat include registration of general contrac- 5.0 Pre-qualification criteria: 2.2 Submitting a modified bid bond without Indonesia at this time because the airport is closed to for- tors, service providers, consultants and suppliers, 5.1 Primary criteria points. attaching the original. eign arrivals. The embassy indicated in a statement that the classification of general contractors and consulting 5.2 Secondary criteria points. 2.3 Providing bid bond addressed to the entity. Indonesian authorities announced additional strict meas- service providers, technical review and audit of 5.3 Measurability. 2.4 Submission of bid bond for a period of less ures starting from today as a result of the increasing cases prequalification and tender documents, technical 5.4 Passing rates. than 90 days. of Coronavirus (COVID-19) during the past weeks in all review and audit of pre-qualification results and 5.5 Passing rates justification. 2.5 Submitting the bid bond amount less than Indonesian cities including its capital, Jakarta. The tender awards reports, review and technical audit what is required in the offering announcement. embassy called on citizens already in Indonesia who needs of the documents of variation orders and extension Tender documents and terms 3.0 Envelopes: assistance to contact the following numbers: +62 815 1515 and renewal of existing contracts,” Duaij explained. of reference includes 3.1 Submitting marked envelopes 1511, +62 812 81813758 and +62 815 1325 2597. “CAPT General Secretariat’s supportive servic- 1.0 Criteria for bid evaluation: 3.2 Mentioning the company name on the sub- es include administrative and financial affairs, com- 1.1 Objectivity. mitted envelope. plaints and legal studies, legal cases and investiga- 1.2 Inclusion of primary and secondary evalua- Embassy in Spain warns citizens tions, development and training, statistics and tion points. Bid evaluation includes research, development and support of information 1.3 Measurable and quantifiable evaluation criteria. 1.0 Verification: 1.1 Arithmetic errors not exceeding 5% MADRID: Kuwait’s embassy in Madrid yesterday called systems and operation and maintenance of infor- 1.4 Registration status at CAPT. mation systems,” he added. 1.5 Classification status at CAPT. 1.2 Arithmetic errors exceeding 5% upon citizens in various Spanish cities to be careful during 1.3 Abnormally low prices. the Philomena snowstorm that hit the country. In a state- Foreign general contractors and consulting firms 2.0 Tender documents: 1.4 Exaggerated prices in plus or minus. ment, the embassy called on citizens to adhere to the have to follow the registration requirements and 2.1 Instructions for bides guidelines by the Spanish authorities, as the storm disrupt- procedures at CAPT. “Required documents include 2.2 CAPT-issued standard contract 2.0 Eligibility: ed public transportation and vehicles movement. The an application for registration to be submitted 2.3 General conditions 2.1 Classification. Spanish authorities announced a state of maximum emer- electronically including the company name, 2.4 Special conditions 2.2 Pre-qualification. gency to be declared until Wednesday evening. The address, telephone number, fax number, official 2.5 Technical specifications and terms of reference 2.3 Limited tenders. embassy called on citizens to contact the diplomatic mis- email address and the authorized signatory’s name 2.6 Work program 3.0 Bid Guarantee: sion in case of emergency on the following numbers: (+3) and job title. The license of the company should be 2.7 Schedule 3.1 Submitting of bid bond. 465-111-1116 and (+3) 491-386-9666. certified by the Embassy of Kuwait in the country 2.8 Quantities 3.2 Validity of bid bond. 45 years of relationship between Vietnam and Kuwait: Let’s move forward together

By Ambassador-Designate of omy is slowing down, the Vietnam to Kuwait Ngo Toan Thang investment commitments and trade exchanges between the ot long after the unification of the North and two sides are still being made South of Vietnam, on January 10, 1976, Vietnam and increased, thus keep the Nand Kuwait established diplomatic relations, cre- momentum of development ating an important milestone in the history of Vietnam’s of both Vietnam and Kuwait. foreign relations in the world. As the first country in the This is thanks to the flexibili- Gulf to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam, ty and long-term commit- Kuwait has made a great contribution to the relationship ment of investment funds between Vietnam and the Gulf countries in particular and from Kuwait, including the with other countries in the Middle East in general. Kuwait Fund for Arab Throughout the historical relationship between the Economic Development two countries, Vietnam and Kuwait has witnessed many (KFAED) and the Kuwait Ambassador memorable milestones. Immediately after the establish- Investment Authority, to sup- Designate of Vietnam ment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, port Vietnam undertakes a Ngo Toan Thang in February 1976, special envoy of the Vietnamese number of important infra- Government, Nguyen Co Thach, then Deputy Foreign structure projects as well as disaster recovery. Minister, paid an official visit to Kuwait, and he was well Economic and trade cooperation also brings received with hospitality and respect. In June 1993, opportunities for cultural exchanges and mutual Vietnam’s Trade Representative Office in Kuwait was understandings between the two countries in other established, which is the first commercial representative fields. In February 2016, on the 40th anniversary of office of Vietnam in the Gulf region. Ten years later, the relations between the two countries, Kuwait official- cooperation between the two countries was strength- ly recognized Vietnam’s market economy, contribut- ened, Vietnam officially opened the embassy in Kuwait ing to enhancing political trust between the two (2003). And it should be noted that many exchange vis- sides. In the field of education and training, Vietnam its of leaders at all levels between the two states has has launched Arabic language courses to provide been made so far testified the friendship relationship qualified staff in many fields, in accordance with the between Vietnam and Kuwait. requirements of not only Kuwait but also many Since then, the efforts of leaders and people of the countries in the Middle East. Vietnam appreciates two countries have been demonstrated in many activi- the annual Arabic scholarships granted by the ties that have contributed to boost the relationship Kuwaiti government. between Vietnam and Kuwait. The outstanding With achievements of the past 45 years, we can progress in the Vietnam - Kuwait relations is the proudly affirm that the two countries Vietnam and achievement in trading and economic sector, reflected Kuwait have developed together and moved forward by the obvious figure of $3.6 billion in two-way trade with the belief of a good future so as to continually turnover achieved in 2019. Moreover, a number of promote the friendly relationship between the two mechanisms of cooperation and agreements in other countries, thus helping the Vietnamese and Kuwaiti fields such as sports, culture, arts, etc have been signed. people to understand each other better and the long- To achieve such great achievements, many factors standing traditional and friendly cooperation between are needed and one of them is the trust - a natural but the two countries to be further enhanced. sustainable substance that helps promote the develop- In 2021, there will be many activities and events ment of Vietnam - Kuwait relations and overcomes taking place to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the every challenges facing the two countries. establishment of diplomatic relations between the Since the official visit to Kuwait by the Former two countries. These activities are expected to help President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Le Duc Vietnam and Kuwait tourism sector recover after a Anh in May 1995, the two sides have benefited from long period of serious impacts caused by the each other’s strengths to create effective, sustainable COVID-19 epidemic. Then, new opportunities for and effective cooperation that brings along many mutual cooperation in other fields will blossom again, interests. Economic cooperation - a prominent highlight ensuring the stable development of a good relation- in Vietnam - Kuwait relations over the years has been ship between Vietnam and Kuwait in particular and continuously strengthened. Vietnam - a southeast Asian between Vietnam and the Gulf countries in general. country with an extremely abundant young labor work- The 45-year long journey of the relationship force has contributed to the production of many valu- between Vietnam and Kuwait originated from the able products for export to Kuwait and the Gulf region belief of a future of peace, friendship, cooperation such as ceramic, electronic and agricultural products. and development. That belief will also be a solid Meanwhile, Kuwait has taken advantage of its strengths base for Vietnam and Kuwait to move forward, in the crude oil field to contribute to the construction of helping to build the bridge of friendship and soli- Nghi Son oil refinery with a total investment of $9 billion darity between the Gulf countries and the Southeast in Vietnam (tripartite project including Kuwait, Japan Asian countries in the interest of peace, stability and Vietnam). In recent years, although the world econ- and prosperity around the world. International MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2021 Trump backer seen in horned fur hat charged Pope, Queen Elizabeth join vaccine drive as German deaths top 40,000 Page 7 in Capitol violence Page 6

SAN DIEGO: Counter-protesters spray pepper spray as they clash with people during a “Patriot March” demonstration in support of President Trump on Saturday in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego, California. —AFP Fans trash Twitter’s Trump ban on Twitter Trump speaks of creating his own platform

NEW YORK: Friends, family and advisors to Donald Twitter, the social network that for years has been Trump’s platforms popular among Trump’s fiercest supporters, failed to tackle violent content on its platform. Trump have been bitterly complaining that Twitter’s ban of preferred means of communicating with the public-and like Parler and Gab, have drawn growing numbers of Given the riot at the Capitol this week, there was a the president after his supporters stormed the US Capitol sometimes even with other world leaders. But on Friday, users. Gab saw “record traffic” on Friday night and “serious risk that this type of content will further amounts to an assault on free speech by radical leftists. amid widespread fury after he encouraged the supporters Saturday, according to its creator Andrew Torba, and incite violence,” Amazon said in a letter to Parler first Ironically, given the enormous influence of the platform, who forced their way into the US Capitol in a bloody and had to add computer servers to handle it. reported by Buzzfeed. Once the preferred platform of they have aired their grievances first of all on ... Twitter-a chaotic melee, Twitter banned him permanently. It was He reported 12 million visits in 12 hours, adding, the far-right fringe, Parler-launched in 2018 — now choice underscoring the platform’s huge readership and taking the rare measure, it said, “due to the risk of further “Exploding growth right now.” Launched in 2016, Gab draws more traditional conservative voices, like those the relative paucity of alternatives. incitement of violence.” Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat positions itself as a platform promoting “freedom of of Fox News star and close Trump ally Sean Hannity, “Free speech is dead & controlled by leftist overlords,” and Twitch joined in suspending the president’s accounts. expression” but has become known above all for its as well as the Republican governor of South Dakota, tweeted Donald Trump Jr, the president’s older son. Asked Reddit, a news and discussion website that is normally far-right-even neo-Nazi-user base. In 2018, when an Kristi Noem. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, “Who will fairly permissive, on Friday closed a forum popular with assault on a Pittsburgh synagogue claimed 11 lives, Another Parler regular, influential political com- be silenced next?” Trump fans, saying it was inciting hate. The question now investigators discovered earlier anti-Semitic posts by mentator Mark Levin, said Friday he had “suspend- And Mike Pompeo-posting not as secretary of state is where Trump and his supporters will turn next. Donald the shooter on Gab. ed” his own Twitter account “in protest against but on his personal account-tweeted: “Sadly, this isn’t a Trump Jr., himself fearing exclusion from Twitter, has asked Several companies have banned Gab, including Twitter’s fascism.” Levin also mentioned his account new tactic of the Left. They’ve worked to silence opposing his followers to send him their email contacts-hardly the PayPal, Visa and the Apple and Google app stores. on Rumble, a site which, like YouTube, broadcasts voices for years.” most reactive form of communications-so he can keep Parler faced more severe consequences: after it, too, videos but promises its users they will “never be For influential Republican senator Ted Cruz, the deci- them abreast of news. was banned first by Google and Apple in their app censored for political or scientific content.” Yet, all sions by Twitter and some other social media were stores, Amazon confirmed it was suspending the these alternative platforms are so closely identified “absurd & profoundly dangerous.” “Why,” he went on, A new platform? social network from its cloud computing services, with the right-even the extreme right-that, especially “should a handful of Silicon Valley billionaires have a In a quickly deleted tweet, the president himself on effectively pushing it offline. All three tech giants said as tech companies move against them, they seem monopoly on political speech?” Friday spoke of creating his own platform “in the near Parler, which briefly became the top free app in the unlikely ever to draw followings like Trump’s 88 mil- Every one of the above messages was posted on future,” without providing any detail. Conservative Apple store Saturday before it was removed, had lion Twitter followers. —AFP

ditions that could last until Thursday, the agency Spain races to clear added. “Our aim is to make the most of every minute before Monday when the drop in tempera- snow before cold ture happens,” to clear the roads, Madrid’s mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida said late Saturday. “From then, until the end of the week, it’s going snap freezes roads to be very difficult to get about,” he told Sexta tele- vision. The capital Madrid and the surrounding MADRID: After the worst snowstorm in decades, region was one of the areas worst hit by the snow, Spanish officials were racing yesterday to clear the with levels of snowfall not seen since 1971. WASHINGTON, DC: In this file photo US President Donald The army also had to clear the snow from Trump and US Vice President Mike Pence (left) speak during roads of snow before a cold snap transforms them Madrid airport, one of the region’s worst hit by the election night in the East Room of the White House in into icy death traps. Storm Filomena killed three Washington, DC, early on November 4, 2020. —AFP people during its passage through Spain and kept snowstorm, which had forced the cancellation of emergency services workers and army snow flights from late Friday. They are not due to be MADRID: A man clears the snow outside the Atocha train ploughs busy through Saturday freeing 2,500 driv- reopened until Sunday afternoon at the earliest. station in Madrid yesterday. Snowstorms in Spain left three Mike Pence to attend ers trapped in their vehicles. They also had to clear access to the city’s hospitals, people dead and caused chaos across much of the country, The storm also brought heavy rains before mov- still struggling to cope with the country’s coron- trapping motorists and shutting down the capital’s air and ing through eastern Spain into southern France. avirus crisis. rail links. —AFP Biden inauguration Spain’s weather forecasters AEMET predicted The storm, through Friday and Saturday, left heavy frost overnight Sunday to Monday in large much of the country under dozens of centimeters of were still impossible yesterday morning said the WASHINGBTON, DC: Mike Pence will attend the upcoming parts of Spain. In mountainous areas temperatures snow, an amount rarely experienced in Spain, block- government, with rail travel to and from Madrid also inauguration of Joe Biden, multiple media reports said would drop below -10 Celsius (14 Fahrenheit), con- ing many major roads. More than 700 major routes cancelled, at least until Sunday afternoon. —AFP Saturday, the vice president becoming the latest longtime loyalist to abandon an increasingly isolated President Donald estimated to be valued at some $2.5 million. Trump. Relations between Trump and Pence-previously one Algerian ex-PM admits Old gripes reborn as of the mercurial president’s staunchest defenders-have nose- Ouyahia said he had previously kept quiet about the dived since Wednesday, when the vice president formally selling gold bars matter so as “not to undermine the relations announced Biden’s victory in November’s election. between Algeria and certain friendly countries”. IS accusations tie A mob of far-right demonstrators stormed the US Capitol He also admitted to not having declared the sums the same day in a failed bid to stop Congress from certifying on black market to tax inspectors. The trial of Ouyahia and Sellal in Iraqis to camps Biden’s win, in a riot blamed on Trump that left five dead. December 2019 was the first in a series of high- profile corruption cases launched after Bouteflika Multiple media reports on Saturday cited senior administra- ALGIERS: Former Algerian premier Ahmed HASANSHAM CAMP, Iraq: Languishing in a tent in tion officials as saying that Pence-who was forced to take Ouyahia, on trial for corruption, admitted Saturday resigned earlier that year. It was also the first time since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962 northern Iraq, Nour yearns to return home but can’t shelter from the intruders during the riot-had decided to to receiving gold bars from Gulf donors then selling because she is accused of supporting jihadists-an attend Biden’s inauguration on January 20. them on the black market, the official APS news that former prime ministers had been put on trial. Ouyahia was prime minister four times between allegation she insists has been designed to obscure The president-elect earlier in the week said Pence would agency reported. Ouyahia and fellow ex-prime min- a land dispute. The 22-year-old’s family is one of be welcome at his formal swearing-in, due to take place in a 1995 and 2019, and had been sentenced to 15 years ister Abdelmalek Sellal are accused of covertly hundreds rights groups fear will remain stuck indef- scaled-down format due to the coronavirus. “I think it’s behind bars. Sellal, who served from 2012 to 2017 financing the 2019 re-election bid of then-president initely in limbo due to long-standing wrangles being important that as much as we can stick to what have been the Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who resigned shortly after- and managed four of Bouteflika’s election campaigns, historical precedents of how an administration changes should was sentenced to 12 years in jail. The pair were sen- repackaged by neighbors or authorities into accu- wards amid mass anti-government protests. sations they belong to the Islamic State group. be maintained,” Biden told reporters. “We’d be honored to Their retrial opened Saturday after the supreme tenced to further jail time in separate cases last year. have him there, and to move forward in the transition.” Bouteflika, who was Algeria’s longest-serving presi- Exacerbating their situation, authorities have court in November annulled their earlier convictions since autumn sped up long-stated plans to close In his final tweet before being removed from Twitter on following an appeal, APS said. Both had served dent, was forced to resign in April 2019 after losing Friday, Trump said he would not attend the inauguration. The the backing of the army amid enormous street displacement camps across Iraq where 200,000 under former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. people still live. Nour’s brother left their hometown outgoing president has been accused of provoking Several former ministers and other well-known protests against his decision to seek a fifth term. Wednesday’s violence, and now faces an unprecedented sec- near the northern city of Mosul and joined the figures are also on trial over the same affair, APS Authorities then launched a string of investiga- ond impeachment, expected to begin today. House Speaker jihadists in 2014, the year IS seized a third of Iraqi said. Ouyahia was questioned Saturday over the tions against high-ranking former officials and busi- Nancy Pelosi warned that Democrats would launch the ness figures, several of whom have been convicted. territory in a lightening offensive. process unless Trump resigned or Pence invoked the 25th source of assets in his bank accounts, totalling over But even before her brother’s departure stoked $5 million. He said some had come from black mar- But the state has also cracked down on opposition Amendment, in which the cabinet removes the president from figures, and many see the trials as score-settling unwelcome attention, the family had already been office. While Pence has not spoken publicly on the subject, the ket sales “of gold bars, which he received as a gift, locked for years in a dispute with an influential local in his capacity as prime minister, from leaders of between rival officials rather than a genuine effort at New York Times reported Thursday he was against invoking reform. —AFP sheikh. “He resented us because we owned land that the mechanism, never used before in US history. —AFP Gulf countries,” APS added. The 60 gold bars were he claimed belonged to him,” said Nour. —AFP 6 Established 1961 International Monday, January 11, 2021 Trump backer seen in horned fur hat charged in Capitol violence Chansley charged with ‘knowingly entering a restricted building’

WASHINGTON: Authorities announced new on Thursday to confirm his presence on Capitol Hill, arrests and charges Saturday over the violent telling law enforcement agents he came as part of a incursion into the US Capitol, including a tattoo- group from Arizona “at the request of the President chested man in a horned headdress whose image that all ‘patriots’ come to DC on January 6, 2021.” was beamed around the world. That man, Jacob He had been spotted many times at pro-Trump Anthony Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, and events in Phoenix in recent months, wearing his two others-one of them a newly elected state offi- distinctive headpiece. The two other men were cial from West Virginia-were charged in federal Derrick Evans, 35, a recently elected member of the court in connection with the violence, according to West Virginia House of Delegates, and Adam the US attorney’s office for the District of Johnson, 36, of Florida. Columbia. Several of the intruders made their identification Chansley was charged with “knowingly entering simple. Evans was seen in video that he streamed or remaining in any restricted building or grounds live on his Facebook page, according to the US without lawful authority, and with violent entry and attorney’s office, shouting as he crossed the thresh- disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.” old into the Capitol, “We’re in, we’re in! Derrick The statement alleged that Chansley was “the Evans is in the Capitol!” man seen in media coverage who entered the After calls from colleagues that he step down, Capitol building dressed in horns, a bearskin head- Evans on Saturday submitted a letter of resignation dress, red, white and blue face paint, shirtless, and to the state’s governor. “I take full responsibility for tan pants,” while carrying a long spear with an my actions, and deeply regret any hurt, pain or American flag tied to it. Chansley’s seeming resem- embarrassment I may have caused my family, blance to singer Jay Kay sparked a worldwide buzz friends, constituents and fellow West Virginians,” on social media, prompting the Jamiroquai front- Evans said in a statement reported by local media. man to issue a statement making clear that he was “I hope (my resignation) helps to begin the heal- nowhere near Washington when the pro-Trump ing process, so we can all move forward and come WASHINGTON, DC: In this file photo taken on January 06, 2021, supporters of US President Donald Trump, including mob stormed the Capitol. Chansley describes him- together as ‘One Nation, Under God.’” Johnson was Jake Angeli alias Jacob Anthony Chansley (center), a QAnon supporter, enter the Capitol in Washington, DC. —AFP self as a “digital soldier” of the far-right QAnon seen in widely circulated photos showing him smil- conspiracy theory that claims Trump is waging a ing and waving as he carries the lectern of House secret war against a global liberal cult of Satan- Speaker Nancy Pelosi through the Capitol Rotunda. username “Adam Johnson,” showing the suspect Department said Friday that 15 others had been worshipping pedophiles. Police identified him in part through a photo- posing in a Capitol hallway. The lectern was found charged over the incursion, including one man A police statement said Chansley called the FBI graph posted to a social media account with the one day later, abandoned in a corridor. The Justice accused of possessing bombs. — AFP

News in brief tification of the election. Hawley: Young US It was a show of solidarity with-and perhaps an inspiration for-men and women who went on to storm Belgium virus death toll 20,000 senator accused the building in their violent efforts to overturn the election result and keep in Donald Trump power. The BRUSSEL: The number of fatalities in Belgium gesture could haunt his political career. Barely an from the new coronavirus crossed 20,000 yes- of stoking riots hour after the first pump, the US Capitol was overrun terday, health officials said, with more than half in a deadly riot that laid siege to the seat of American the dead from retirement care homes. The WASHINGTON: Josh Hawley is a young Republican democracy. “Violence is not how you achieve country, with a population of 11.5 million, has senator with eyes on high office, but his objection to change,” a clearly shaken Hawley said later that night recorded 662,694 cases and 20,038 deaths the election results and his support for Trump loyal- on the Senate floor, after police expelled the intruders since the pandemic broke out, the Sciensano ists who went on to ransack the US Capitol leave him and secured the building. But the damage had already public health institute said. Belgium counts all accused of having blood on his hands. been done, and for Hawley the dominos fell quickly. deaths of people who have had a positive The confident 41-year-old conservative who is Fellow Republican senators denounced him. He US Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, speaks Covid-19 test among virus fatalities, giving it Missouri’s junior senator has made no effort to hide lost a book deal. Donors are reportedly irate. to the press during a break in the Senate impeachment one of the world’s highest death rates with his presidential ambitions. Now his political future And the Republican Party is cleaving in two over trial of US President Donald Trump, at the US Capitol in 1,725 per 100,000 people, according to an AFP hangs in the balance as he faces mounting criticism Trump’s baseless conspiracy theories that Biden’s Washington, DC. — AFP tally. During the first wave of the pandemic after becoming the first senator to publicly support Democrats somehow stole the election. Belgium also included people who died and efforts to block the electoral votes in swing states condemnation of the violence” and called on him to may have had the virus but did not necessarily that supported Joe Biden for president. On ‘A dangerous threat’ resign. “Hawley’s presidential aspirations have been have a test. UK helps raise $1 billion in global Wednesday morning, Hawley raised a clenched fist Hawley faced stinging rebukes from his state’s flushed down the toilet because of his role in insti- vaccine donations. — AFP at nearby Trump supporters as he walked into the two main newspapers, including the St. Louis Post gating Wednesday’s assault on democracy,” the Capitol where lawmakers would begin the final cer- Dispatch which slammed his “tardy, cover-his-ass paper wrote. —AFP UK raises $1bn in donations Bishkek, where cold winters usher in a LONDRES: Britain said yesterday it has Kyrgyzstan thick blanket of smog courtesy of pol- helped raise $1 billion (818 million euros) from luting heating systems and ageing global donors towards the drive to help “vulner- populist tipped transport, many voters said they able countries” access coronavirus vaccines, by intended to back Japarov-who was match-funding contributions. The UK said, in for easy win convicted for hostage-taking-at the addition, it has committed £548 million to the ballot box. COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), “He has promised to raise salaries, BISHKEK: after matching with £1 every $4 pledged by Kyrgyzstan went to presi- pensions,” said Vera Pavlova, 69, who other donors. Canada, Japan and Germany are dential polls yesterday in its first elec- admitted that she knew little about among the countries to make contributions that tions since a political crisis embroiled other candidates. “I haven’t seen their it matched, helping the AMC raise more than the ex-Soviet country and saw a pop- posters anywhere. Only Japarov’s.” $1.7 billion in total so far. The fund will allow for ulist freed from jail who is now tipped In addition to picking a new presi- the distribution of one billion COVID-19 vac- to top the ballot. Sadyr Japarov’s jour- dent Kyrgyz are choosing between cine doses to 92 developing countries this year, ney from prison to presidential fron- parliamentary and presidential forms according to Britain’s Foreign Office. Cuba to trunner is an example of the dramatic of government, with Japarov backing test COVID vaccine candidate in Iran.—AFP changes in political fortunes in the greater powers for the post he is Central Asian country that is both seeking. more unpredictable and pluralistic BISHKEK: An elderly woman votes during Kyrgyzstan’s presidential election and a Cuba to test COVID vaccine in Iran than its authoritarian neighbors. Crime, corruption referendum on government system in the village of Gornaya-Mayevka outside But critics of combative Japarov, Japarov, who was sprung from jail Bishkek yesterday.— AFP 52, who became acting leader during HAVANA: Cuba will test its most advanced by supporters during the crisis before the October unrest, fear his victory COVID vaccine candidate, in Iran, the research a court overturned his conviction, has a unifying tone in his last campaign tered by the coronavirus pandemic, could tip Kyrgyzstan towards the center that developed it announced on styled himself as an uncompromising appearance on Friday in Bishkek. “Let Kyrgyzstan’s next leader is likely to be strongman rule dominant in the ex- Saturday. State-run Finlay Vaccine Institute opponent of organized crime and sys- us come together... treat each other even more dependent on goodwill Soviet region. (IFV) and the Pasteur Institute of Iran signed an temic corruption. He has poured scorn with understanding and respect. We from allies Russia-a destination for Voters began trickling into polling agreement in Havana that will see a Phase 3 on critics, some of whom have specu- are one country, one people,” he told hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz stations in frosty conditions at 8:00 clinical trial in Iran, to “move forward faster in lated that criminal networks are a crowd of several thousand people. migrants-and neighboring economic am (0200 GMT). In the capital immunization against COVID-19 in both coun- behind his rise to power. But he struck With a threadbare economy bat- giant China. — AFP tries,” the IFV announced on Twitter. The news came on the heels of Iran’s supreme leader on percent said they would “probably” get vaccinated, Friday banning the import of American and In vaccine-skeptic while one in 10 (11 percent) would “probably not” British-produced vaccines against COVID-19, or “definitely not”. Another 14 percent did not saying they were “completely untrustworthy.” answer, the research in October and November Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a tweet, accom- France, some showed. panied by the hashtag #CoronaVaccine: “It’s “We’re a long way from having mass commit- not unlikely they would want to contaminate medics also hesitate ment and acceptance,” Verger told AFP, saying the other nations.” Nine arrested as Danish virus- results confirmed those of a previous study in 2014. curb protests turn violent.—AFP PARIS: As the French government seeks to ramp “If the level of hesitation among doctors does not up its lagging COVID-19 vaccination campaign, it go down, it will be a brake on the vaccination cam- Danish virus-curb protests violent faces a tricky challenge: convincing all doctors to paign under way,” he added. back the jabs, even though some share the same This is a concern for the French government as it hesitations as the general population. Despite tries to accelerate after a slow start-but it has impli- COPENHAGEN: Nine people were arrested France’s record of pioneering vaccine work, surveys cations for all countries with significant public in Denmark on Saturday after demonstrations show it has become one of the most skeptical coun- opposition to the new COVID-19 vaccines. against the country’s coronavirus restrictions tries in the world after the emergence of a powerful By implying the pandemic was a manufactured A nurse injects a dose of Pfizer/BioNTech Comirnaty turned violent in two cities including capital “anti-vax” movement that has pushed conspiracy emergency to benefit pharmaceutical companies, COVID-19 vaccine to a colleague in the vaccination Copenhagen, police and local media said. theories. Perronne has become a a top-selling author and a center of the Haut-Leveque hospital in Pessac, near Between 200 and 250 people had gathered in At the end of 2020, only 40 percent of French leading light in anti-vax circles, along with oncolo- Bordeaux. —AFP Copenhagen and dozens in the city of Aalborg people planned to get inoculated against the coron- gist Henri Joyeux from the southern city of in Denmark’s north, according to media reports avirus, while a new poll on Friday showed that the Montpellier. Antoine Bristielle, a researcher who ‘Is it safe?’ citing police accounts. Organized by a group figure had risen to 56 percent-still far below the recently authored a report on vaccine skepticism Verger and Bristielle say they believe doctors calling itself “Men in Black”, the demonstrations average of other developed countries. Pierre for the Jean-Jaures Foundation, a think-tank, said will grow more confident if the government contin- targeted restrictions imposed to curb the Verger, a researcher who studies attitudes to vacci- doctors are trusted to combat these views in a way ues to be transparent with studies and data, a view spread of the coronavirus. Protesters shouted: nation among French GPs, published his latest data that politicians and national scientific institutions endorsed by Paris-based infectious diseases spe- “Freedom for Denmark, we have had enough,” on Friday that revealed a smaller but significant lev- are not. cialist Solen Kerneis. She said she felt “emotional” according to media reports. In TV broadcasts el of hesitation among GPs. “In France, people place a lot of confidence in and delighted this week after administering her first and video posted to social media, police in riot Around half (47 percent) of 1,200 doctors sur- their GPs to get information about vaccines,” he jab to a nurse colleague at the Bichat public hospi- gear could be seen clashing with protesters in veyed declared that they would “certainly” get a told AFP. “If your GP says ‘go and get vaccinat- tal in Paris. But she understands why some col- Copenhagen, who lit fireworks and threw bot- COVID-19 jab, the study backed by the DREES ed,’ it’s a powerful message. On the other hand, if leagues might be hesitating. “The main question tles. Austrian minister resigns in student plagia- public health research body found. The rest they are hesitating themselves, it can increase posed by a vaccine that has been developed so rism scandal. — AFP expressed doubts to a greater or lesser extent: 29 skepticism.” quickly is ‘is it safe?’” she said. — AFP. Established 1961 7 International Monday, January 11, 2021 Pope, Queen Elizabeth join vaccine drive as German deaths top 40,000 Merkel warns worst is yet to come as global death toll crosses 1.9 million ROME: The pope and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and Moderna and domestically made jabs from became the latest high-profile figures to join the Russia and China. Britain is racing to protect as global vaccination campaign against the coron- many people as possible as a new variant believed avirus as Germany yesterday reported 40,000 to be more contagious pushes infections and deaths fatalities since the pandemic began a year ago. And to unprecedented levels. German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the Health authorities announced more than three worst was still to come. million coronavirus infections since the pandemic More than 1.9 million people worldwide have began last year. The total UK death toll stands at now died from the virus, with new variants adding 80,868, one of the highest in Europe. to soaring cases and prompting the re-introduction of restrictions on movement across the globe — ‘Worse to come’, warns Merkel even as with mass inoculation drives underway. Germany’s topped 40,000 fatalities yesterday, Pope Francis urged people to get the vaccination the center for disease control announced. In her saying he would be inoculated against the virus weekly video message, Chancellor Merkel had himself next week when the Vatican begins its cam- warned Saturday that the full impact of socializing paign and denouncing opposition to the jab. over the Christmas and New Year’s period had yet “There is a suicidal denial which I cannot to be felt. The coming weeks will be “the hardest explain, but today we have to get vaccinated,” the phase of the pandemic” so far, she said, with hospi- pontiff tells Canale 5 in an interview to be broad- tals stretched to their limits. More than 1.9 million cast later. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her hus- people have been infected so far, with almost band Prince Philip received their COVID-19 vacci- 17,000 new cases added since Saturday. Nursing staff take the details of a key worker as she waits to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Life nations on Saturday, said Buckingham Palace. Belgium also passed a significant threshold yes- Science Centre at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne, northeast England, on Saturday. — AFP A source told the Press Association news agency terday, recording 20,000 deaths, more than half in that the queen, 94, and Philip, 99, were given the retirement care homes, said health officials. With a figure stands at 372,051 fatalities, according to world’s lowest. injections by a royal household doctor at Windsor population of 11.5 million people, that gives it one of Johns Hopkins University. Cuba, meanwhile, said it would test its most Castle. More than 1.5 million people in Britain have the hightest death rates in the world, at 1,725 per India will launch one of the world’s most ambi- advanced COVID vaccine candidate in Iran, after so far been inoculated, in the biggest immunization 100,000 people, according to an AFP tally. tious coronavirus free vaccination drives next Tehran banned the import of already-proven US program in national history, with the elderly, their Cases and deaths also continue to spiral in the Saturday, aiming to reach 300 million people by and British-produced vaccines. Governments are carers and health workers first in line. Countries United States, the world’s worst-hit country. With July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. India is being forced to reintroduce restrictions that helped across the world are following suit with coronavirus the 24-hour death toll exceeding 3,000 in recent the second worst-hit country with more than 10 slow the spread of the virus last year, but badly dis- shots approved including those by Pfizer-BioNTech days — more than 4,000 on Saturday — the total million cases, though the death rate is one of the rupted their economies. —AFP Kazakhs vote in opposition-free News in brief parliamentary vote Zimbabwe journalist to be jailed HARARE: Zimbabwe police have re-arrest- NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan: Voters At a polling station in the capital ed award-winning journalist and government headed to parliamentary polls in Nur-Sultan a 50-year-old man named critic Hopewell Chin’ono, as well as one of his Kazakhstan yesterday with the ruling Nurzhan told AFP that many Kazakhs defenders, for allegedly posting false infor- party expected to score a big win and “have stopped believing in progress.” mation on social media, prosecutors and the oil-rich country’s only registered “But I still hope (things) can be better,” lawyers said. Chin’ono was detained in July opposition force boycotting the ballot. he said, explaining his decision to head last year ahead of banned anti-graft and anti- President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, 67, to the polls despite freezing conditions. government protests he backed through his had pledged gradual political reform in The ex-Soviet country has never Twitter account. He was charged with incit- the authoritarian Central Asian nation held an election deemed free or fair by ing public violence and released on bail one since being eased into his post by Western vote monitors. A notable NUR-SULTAN: A woman with a child votes during Kazakhstan’s parliamentary election month later. The journalist was behind bars Nursultan Nazarbayev, who called time candidate on the ballot is Nazarbayev’s in Nur-Sultan yesterday. — AFP again in November for allegedly obstructing on nearly three decades as head of eldest daughter, 57-year-old Dariga justice after tweeting about a gold smuggling state in early 2019. Nazarbayeva, who is representing Nur Nazarbayev’s honour when he stepped cent in 2020 as it grappled with the case involving political elites. Another tweet But 80-year-old Nazarbayev Otan. Her return to politics comes just down-Tokayev said he planned to effects of the coronavirus pandemic-a landed Chin’ono back in jail on Friday, this retains powerful positions, including eight months after Tokayev fired her unveil new reforms before the parlia- first year-on-year recession in two time for sharing a video he claims shows a the chairmanship of the Nur Otan par- from the position of senate speaker-a ment on January 15. decades. police officer beating a baby to death in the ty that controls the lower house and role that places the occupant second in He also pledged police would But suffocating authoritarianism has capital Harare. Israel records four S. African boasts 800,000 members among a line to the presidency. behave “within the framework of the left few outlets to voice dissatisfaction COVID-19 variant cases. — AFP population of 19 million. The dismissal, which was not law” after various opposition groups with the status quo. The NSDP faced The party is expected to win a explained, triggered speculation over a announced plans to protest on Sunday off with the ruling party in the last commanding majority in the lower power struggle in Kazakhstan’s leader- and rights groups said dozens of three parliamentary votes, missing out house polls featuring four other com- ship. But the new president regularly activists were arrested or fined in the on the legislature each time. The par- Israel records four S African cases peting parties that are viewed as prox- lavishes praise on his mentor’s achieve- build-up to the vote. “Protest moods ty’s decision not to participate in the ies. The only party that styles itself as ments and has pledged to continue his exist in all countries of the world, as it upcoming elections came as France- JERUSALEM: Israel’s health ministry said the opposition, the National Social strategic course. The two men turns out,” Tokayev said. based fugitive banker and long-time Saturday four people had tested positive for Democratic Party (NSDP), ruled itself appeared together at a Nur Otan party regime nemesis Mukhtar Ablyazov the novel coronavirus strain first detected in out of the contest in November, calling congress in November. ‘Alarm’ over vote transparency called on opposition activists to vote South Africa, with the new British variant the move a “protest” against a rigged After voting Sunday at a polling The World Bank has estimated for NSDP, even as he cast doubt over already recorded. The cases were discov- system. station in Nur-Sultan-renamed in Kazakhstan’s economy shrank 2.5 per- its opposition credentials. — AFP ered after testing of travellers arriving from South Africa. The two new strains are more infectious than previous variants of the virus. Amid surging cases, Israel last month Landslides kill reimposed a national lockdown. On Friday it tightened restrictions further as the daily caseload remained high. Israel has launched more than 11 a nationwide vaccination program and more than 70 percent of Israelis over the age of in Indonesia 60 have received a first dose, with 1.7 mil- lion jabs administered, according to the JAKARTA: At least 11 people were killed, includ- health ministry. —AFP ing a six-year-old boy, and scores more were missing after deadly landslides hit Indonesia’s West Java province, authorities said yesterday. Niger ‘won’t abandon’ jihadist-hit west Torrential rains triggered the disaster on Saturday evening in the town of Sumedang, where a second OUALLAM: Niger’s interior minister on landslide buried residents and a rescue team that Saturday promised not to “abandon” the had been searching for the initial victims, said country’s troubled west at a meeting of local Bandung rescue agency spokeswoman Seni leaders, a week after its worst-ever jihadist Wulandari. “We’re still documenting how many are INDONESIA: Rescuers searching for survivors after landslides killed at least 11 people in Sumedang yesterday. —AFP massacre against civilians. Last Saturday, missing after the second landslide because there around 100 attackers riding motorbikes were many people who joined the original rescue killed over 100 civilians in hours-long attacks effort,” she said. across the Indonesian archipelago, where seasonal earlier, landslides in Sulawesi killed dozens. on two villages in the jihadist-plagued region At least one survivor was seriously injured, downpours are frequent and relentless. In Indonesia’s disaster agency has estimated that 125 of Tillaberi, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of while 11 people were confirmed dead, Wulandari September last year, at least 11 people were killed million Indonesians-nearly half the country’s pop- the capital Niamey. Now the central govern- said. Fatal landslides and flash floods are common in landslides on Borneo island while a few months ulation-live in areas at risk of landslides. — AFP ment wants to “strengthen cohesion along the border,” Interior Minister Alkache Alhada most populous province, as well as the eco- told political, religious and community lead- Pakistan hit by nomic hub Karachi in the south. Bomb kills three ers at a meeting in the town of Ouallam. “We hope to bring the system back to its Niamey “will not abandon you and will full capacity by this evening, but it will take in Afghan capital always be by your side,” he added. Former nationwide some time for nuclear and thermal power Italian minister Salvini faces hearing in migrant affair. — AFP plants to get operational,” Khan tweeted. KABUL: An Afghan journalist-turned spokesman for the power blackout People were cracking jokes and exchanging country’s public protection force was killed along with two memes on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp, colleagues yesterday by a bomb targeting their vehicle, offi- ISLAMABAD: Power was gradually being mostly ridiculing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cials said. The murder of Zia Wadan, who previously worked Salvini faces hearing in migrant affair restored to major cities across Pakistan yester- government and its performance after the for several media networks, appeared to be the latest in a day after it was hit by a massive electricity breakdown. series of targeted killings that have rocked Afghanistan, ROME: Italian political leader Matteo blackout, officials said. The electricity distribu- “Power breakdown in Pakistan is black- especially Kabul. Wadan and his colleagues were killed in Salvini appeared Saturday before a Palermo tion system in the nation of more than 210 mil- mailing Imran Khan,” tweeted Musarrat morning rush-hour traffic in an eastern part of the capital, judge in connection with a 2019 incident dur- lion people is a complex and delicate web, and Ahmedzeb in reference to the premier’s interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian told reporters. “A ing which he blocked migrants at sea while a problem in one section of the grid can lead to recent statement accusing Shiite protesters vehicle carrying Zia Wadan was targeted with an IED... as a he was the interior minister. Salvini, head of cascading breakdowns countrywide. of blackmailing him after killing of 10 miners. result, Wadan and two of his colleagues were killed,” Arian the far-right political party known as the The latest blackout was caused by “an engi- “What a start for the new year... let us seek said, adding that another person was wounded. No group League, is suspected of sequestration and neering fault” in southern Pakistan at 11:41 pm Allah the Almighty’s mercy,” read another has claimed responsibility for the attack, but President abuse of power for having refused to allow local time on Saturday (1841 GMT), which tweet, while a message on WhatsApp said: Ashraf Ghani blamed it on the Taleban. around 100 migrants to land in Italy in tripped the system and caused power plants to “new Pakistan sleeps in a night mode”. “The spike in violence by the Taleban is against (the) August 2019. He had blocked a ship, the shut down, power minister Omar Ayub Khan There were no immediate reports of dis- spirit of commitment for peace and indicates the group still Open Arms, from docking in a port, forcing it told a press conference in Islamabad. ruption at hospitals, which often rely on pursues their hawkish attitude to take innocent lives and to anchor off the island of Lampedusa while “Our experts are trying to determine the back-up generators. Netblocks, which moni- damage public facilities,” the presidential palace said on conditions on board deteriorated. The exact location of the fault.” Khan said that will tors internet outages, said web connectivity Twitter, quoting Ghani. Wadan was spokesman for the migrants that had been picked up at sea were take “another few hours as the area is still cov- in the country “collapsed” as a result of the National Public Protection Force (NPPF), a security service finally able to disembark on the orders of a ered in dense fog”, but that power had been blackout. Connectivity was at “62 percent of under the interior ministry that deploys guards to interna- local prosecutor. — AFP partially restored in most areas of Punjab, the ordinary levels”, it said in a tweet. — AFP tional organizations across Afghanistan. —AFP Established 1961

MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2021 Major CES gadget show turns to tech for virtual salvation

Digital version of CES dubbed to be a ‘true broadcast experience’

SAN FRANCISCO: The Consumer Electronics Show known for crowds, sensory-overload, and deal- making is relying on technology it has long hawked to put pizzazz into its first virtual event, kicking off today. The deadly pandemic that has derailed in-per- son conferences around the world during the past year forced the Consumer Technology Association to follow suit with an online version of the annual gath- ering in Las Vegas. “CES is one of the most experiential events in the world, where attendees can actually see and touch and experience the latest innovations,” CTA spokes- woman Jean Foster said during a briefing ahead of the show. “And while we can’t recreate that magic that happens in Las Vegas, we can bring our audiences a new and unique whole digital experience.” Show In this file photo, Verizon Communications Hans Vestberg organizers worked with Microsoft to build an online speaks onstage at the 2019 Global Citizen Festival: platform, and help exhibitors craft video presenta- Power The Movement in Central Park in New York. tions, digital press kits, and chat forums for engaging with attendees. “We really built around the concept of planned, with many presentations captioned in more people being able to interact with each other,” Foster than a dozen languages. Digital CES is relying on arti- said, noting that Microsoft Teams video-conferencing ficial intelligence to match interests indicated in software was a strong component of the platform. attendee profiles with exhibitors, hoping to put a software spin on the serendipity of stumbling upon LAS VEGAS: In this file photo taken on January 10, 2020, attendees walk through the Las Vegas Convention Center on the ‘Broadcast experience’ cool products on show-floors. Software will recom- final day of the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Forced by the pandemic to go online, the The digital version of CES will be a “true broad- mend people or exhibitors to connect with, and pro- massive annual gathering for the technology industry normally held in Las Vegas still wants to be a place for connec- cast experience,” the centerpiece of which will be an vide tools for online meetings or chats. tions, even if virtual. — AFP photos online “anchor desk” staffed by social media and tech news veterans. The anchor desk will stream inter- Mellow media day? Freed from the Las Vegas time zone, CES press con- life CES events to account for limited attention views, announcements, analysis, and keynote presen- A media day typically packed with press confer- ferences will start early-morning New York time and spans and allow time for fielding questions. CES has tations, as well as recap daily events and preview ences in Las Vegas ballrooms will be replaced with continue into the evening. more than 300 speakers lined up, and a heightened what is ahead, according to Foster. streamed video presentations from companies, the list Presentations from keynotes to press confer- focus on sessions diving into issues such as privacy More than 100 hours of CES programming is of which includes Hisense, LG, Samsung and Sony. ences will be shorter that they have been at real- and 5G internet. — AFP Brexit deal’s ‘rules of origin’ spark trade confusion Soaring COVID-19 infections eroded LONDON: Many British businesses the rules therefore determine whether are swiftly discovering that they must an export is considered British or not. now pay duties on exports bound for US job recovery the European Union, despite the break- ‘Businesses blindsided’ through Brexit free trade deal clinched “It is clear that many UK businesses WASHINGTON: Hiring in the United States over Christmas. The development, exporting to the EU are going to be hit likely stalled at the end of 2020, economists say, which has already helped spark sliding by tariffs,” said Michelle Dale, senior as coronavirus infections soared and Washington freight traffic to Ireland, is part of trade manager at the Manchester office of lawmakers squabbled over a massive spending disruption that has become increasing- chartered accountants UHY Hacker bill that was approved only at the last minute. ly evident this year after Britain’s Brexit Young. “Businesses have also been The Labor Department it will release the divorce was finalised on December 31. completely blindsided by the ‘rule of December jobs report, the final report for a year Trade has also been badly hampered origin’ part of the deal, which leaves that saw the US economy unraveled by the by new COVID-19 border restrictions, them at a major competitive disadvan- COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to rage with the roll-out of testing for lorry tage when selling in the EU. In this file photo, members of the crew of the trawler ‘Good Fellowship’ process the even as vaccines are being rolled out. Business drivers as Britain races to curb a ram- “Unfortunately, not enough was day’s catch after berthing in Eyemouth Harbour in the Scottish Borders. —AFP closures to stop the virus from spreading sent the pant variant of the deadly virus. done to prepare them for this. It takes unemployment rate skyrocketing in April from its At the heart of the Brexit deal, which years to build an effective supply that the complexity of supply chains to the EU,” said William Bain, trade record-low level, and though it has since came into force on January 1, is the so- chain-and using non-EU suppliers is means that proof of origin can be diffi- policy adviser at the British Retail decreased, the forecast among analysts is for lit- called “rules of origin” condition often the best option both in terms of cult for businesses to ascertain-and Consortium industry organization. “We tle improvement from the 6.7 percent jobless rate applied to all goods crossing the bor- cost and quality.” The Brexit agree- hard for authorities to assess. A raft of are working with members on short- reported in November. der. The rules of origin, a key aspect of ment, which was sealed four and a British retailers are reportedly rushing term options and are seeking dialogue “I think things have slowed down,” said all major trade deals, can rapidly turn half years after Britons voted to leave to assess the impact of critical deliver- with the (UK) government and the EU William Spriggs, chief economist of the AFL-CIO into a costly headache for businesses. the European Union, grants zero cus- ies to EU nations, including London’s on longer-term solutions to mitigate the trade union federation. “We’ll continue to see Under the Brexit provision, any toms duties if at least roughly 50 per- top-end department store Fortnum and effects of new tariffs,” he added. what we saw in November, which is the bounce- good will be subject to a customs levy cent of an exported product is made Mason. Collapsed UK high-street High-street retail giant Marks & back is really grinding to a halt,” he said. The if it arrives in Britain from abroad and is in the UK. department store Debenhams has Spencer warned Friday that the trade report follows Labor Department data showing then exported back into the European That applies to the majority of UK already shut its online website in deal would “significantly impact” busi- new applications for jobless benefits remained at Union. For example, if a British clothing exports-but certainly not all of them. Ireland due to uncertainty over post- ness in the Czech Republic, Ireland and a high level in the final week of the year. “The retailer imports Chinese-made textiles, And the provision is all the more Brexit trade rules. France. The deal however removes tar- underlying story here is clear. A combination of then it would then have to pay a cus- important because the EU accounts for iffs for Britain’s largely foreign-owned COVID fear and state-mandated restrictions on toms charge if it re-exports the items more than half of Britain’s trade. ‘We need a solution’ carmaking industry, which avoids cus- activity in the services sector is squeezing busi- into a member nation of the EU’s single The London-based Institute of “At least 50 of our members face toms duties for cars manufactured with nesses, and no real relief is likely until a sustained market and customs union. Put simply, Government think tank argues however potential tariffs for re-exporting goods components made abroad. — AFP decline in pressure on hospitals emerges,” said Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics. Venezuela’s new complained Eusebio Correa, a 57-year-old career Worse than it looks taxi driver. “The military that should be providing The US was gripped by twin crises in 2020: taxi drivers: security are now chauffeurs in uniform.” the pandemic and its economic fallout. ‘Respect’ for the uniform The seemingly unstoppable COVID-19 out- break has infected more than 21.3 million people Moonlighting soldiers Sourcing fuel for vehicles is a major issue in and killed nearly 362,000 as of Thursday, Venezuela, but especially in remote Tachira state and according to Johns Hopkins University. Efforts to its capital San Cristobal. Fuel shortages have led to stop the virus by ordering many businesses to SAN CRISTOBAL: In crisis-hit Venezuela, even people waiting at gas stations for days at a time to fill close or restrict activities caused massive layoffs soldiers are struggling to make ends meet on meager their tanks, or alternatively turning to the black mar- beginning in March that moderated over the salaries rendered practically worthless by the highest ket, where prices are considerably higher. summer as those regulations were relaxed. inflation in the world and have taken to moonlight- That added cost has subsequently pushed up the But many states tightened rules again as ing-as taxi drivers. Some have taken to sneaking out price of taxi rides. But since the military controls gas COVID-19 cases began climbing in the winter, of their barracks to pick up customers needing a lift- stations, soldiers don’t face the same restrictions the slowing the recovery in the labor market. That a job that can earn them 60 times their monthly general population does. “This uniform that I wear has kept weekly new jobless claims above the salary with just one trip. represents respect. With the uniform, I can come and single worst week of the 2008-2010 global “I’m a father and given the situation in the country, go anywhere,” admitted the sergeant. financial crisis, with a seasonally adjusted my salary is worth nothing,” a 39-year-old sergeant Venezuela’s military control the country’s gas stations — The salaries of the rank and file may have plum- 787,000 filings in the week ended January 2, told AFP under the condition of anonymity. “I do my taxi drivers complain that this gives soldiers moonlight- meted alongside everyone else’s earnings in a coun- 2021, the Labor Department said. taxi journeys and I earn much more than in my other ing as drivers for extra cash an unfair advantage. — AFP try that has been in recession for seven years, but the Another 161,460 people, without seasonal job-that’s why I do it,” he added. The sergeant can military as an institution remains powerful. adjustment, filed claims under the Pandemic earn more than $500 for driving passengers from It is the main power propping up the government make up stuff to your own colleagues. I know many Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program for San Cristobal on the border with Colombia to the of President Nicolas Maduro. who do this job, right up to our superiors,” said the workers not usually eligible for government ben- capital Caracas, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) to The military also controls oil, mining and food dis- sergeant. Under the lockdown, regular comings and efits-a smaller than normal number only because the northeast. tribution companies, as well as customs and several goings were restricted-and only authorized via pass- that program briefly lapsed at the end of His monthly wage as a soldier-nine million boli- key ministries. Venezuela’s opposition and some es issued by the military. December. “Brace (for) job creation to be flat-to- vars-is worth just eight dollars. rights organizations claim many top military officials In Tachira state, there are “military taxi drivers” of negative when the data (for) December comes However, regular taxi drivers are furious and say have gotten rich through corruption. every rank, right up to generals, several insiders out tomorrow,” Diane Swonk of Grant Thornton members of the armed forces have an unfair advan- The taxi-driving sergeant said he started “escap- familiar with the business told AFP. A 32-year-old wrote on Twitter, predicting an increase of tage: their uniform. “They don’t get stopped at police ing” his barracks to moonlight once the country was lieutenant, who also asked for anonymity, said he had 100,000 jobs that “is not significantly different checkpoints” where drivers are often asked for a put under a coronavirus lockdown. “For the release thought about getting into driving but has so far than zero for the month.” —AFP bribe, and “they don’t have problems getting fuel,” permits, sometimes I ask for medical leave. You even decided against it for security reasons. — AFP Established 1961 9 Monday, January 11, 2021 Business Gulf Bank opens new branch in Crystal Tower for wealth management clients Branch boasts a distinctive modern design, equipped with state-of-the-art technology

KUWAIT: Gulf Bank has opened its latest branch at clientele with even more Crystal Tower in Kuwait City. The new branch will services that can enable cater exclusively to Gulf Bank’s wealth management them to conduct their clients, and boasts a distinctive modern design, banking requirements equipped with state-of-the-art technology with the utmost ease and designed to provide a seamless banking experience. convenience.” Gulf Bank has dedicated its latest branch in Since 2010, Gulf Bank service of its wealth management clientele as part has offered its Priority of its commitment to fulfilling the client segment’s and Private Banking unique banking requirements. Gulf Bank is current- clientele access to a suite ly the only bank in Kuwait with a dedicated branch of banking and invest- for Wealth Management clients that provides an ment products and serv- Mohammed Al-Qattan additional sense of privacy and convenience for ices designed specifically customers. Commenting on the new branch, Gulf around their banking needs. Gulf Bank’s wealth Bank’s General Manager of Consumer Banking, management clients benefit from exclusive offerings Mohammed Al-Qattan, said: “At Gulf Bank, we take designed to add even more ease and comfort to pride in paying special attention to the unique daily banking transactions. needs and requirements of all our customers. This Wealth management services are continuously is especially true for our Wealth Management updated to ensure they satisfy the requirements of clients, whose distinct lifestyles and banking needs clients, who often require customized services and require tailor-made services and solutions. We look solutions. Wealth Management services are cur- forward to providing our Wealth Management rently available to Gulf Bank’s Priority Banking clients, ie. clients with an account balance of KD 50,000 up to KD 500,000 in cash or investable assets, or a monthly salary transfer of KD 3,500 and more. Wealth management services are also avail- able to Gulf Bank’s Private Banking clients, ie. clients with an account balance of KD 500,000 in cash or investable assets. assistance from Gulf Bank representatives, or call banking, treasury, and financial services through its To learn more about Gulf Bank’s various prod- the Customer Contact Center on the same number. large network of more than 50 branches and more ucts and services, customers can visit one of the Gulf Bank is one of the leading conventional than 200 ATMs in Kuwait. Bank’s branches, or visit the Gulf Bank website at banks in Kuwait with total assets of KD 6 billion for The Bank was founded in 1960 and is listed on www.e-gulfbank.com. Customers can also use the year ending 31 December 2019. The Bank provides the Kuwait Stock Exchange (Boursa Kuwait) since WhatsApp service on 1805805 for round-the-clock a broad offering of consumer banking, wholesale 1984. Samsung forecasts 25.7% jump in Q4 German car sales, operating profit output posts SEOUL: South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics flagged a jump of more than 25 per- historic slump cent in fourth-quarter operating profit, with FRANKFURT: Germany’s key car market plunged pandemic-induced working from home driving in 2020 to its lowest levels since reunification, data demand for devices powered by its chips. The showed Saturday, with output and sales down dra- world’s biggest manufacturer of smartphones matically due to the coronavirus pandemic. and memory chips said in an earnings estimate A total of 2.9 million cars were registered in that it expected operating profit of 9 trillion won Europe’s largest economy last year, down 19 per- ($8.23 billion) for October to December, up from cent, with production of 3.5 million vehicles reaching 7.16 trillion won a year earlier. The prediction the lowest volume in 45 years, according to the VDA was slightly short of analyst forecasts of 9.34 auto federation. Efforts to halt the spread of the trillion won, compiled by market researcher coronavirus shuttered factories early in the year and FnGuide, but Samsung shares jumped on the the latest lockdown, set to last until the end of news, closing 7.12 percent higher in Seoul. January, have closed brick-and-mortar dealerships. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked hav- “We expect the German passenger car market to oc with the world economy, but has also seen recover in 2021,” VDA president Hildegard Mueller many tech companies boom. LG Electronics, said in a statement. “Nevertheless, the very strong South Korea’s second-largest appliance firm pre-corona level isn’t expected to be reached for the after Samsung, forecast its highest-ever fourth- SEOUL: A man walks past an advertisement for the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra smartphone at time being.” quarter operating profit on Friday, projecting it the company’s showroom in Seoul. —AFP The slump makes for numbers not seen since would soar more than five-fold year-on-year to before the country’s reunification. The last time few- 647 billion won. er than three million cars were registered was 1989. ter decline in profits. year, with the stay-at-home economy persisting The 19 percent fall in 2020 was only eclipsed in And South Korea as a whole saw a return to “Samsung’s midrange and value smartphones because of the pandemic, according to Taipei- quarter-on-quarter growth in Q3 last year, driven 2010, after a year in which sales had been inflated account for about 80 percent of its mobile based market tracker TrendForce. “2021 will be a by a scrappage premium. But in a glimmer of hope, by a better-than-expected exports performance. sales,” said Jusy Hong, a director at market year for the growth of Samsung foundry (chip- Samsung Electronics is crucial to the country’s in December 2020, just over 310,000 cars were researcher Omdia. “But Chinese firms-such as manufacturing) business,” Sujeong Lim, an ana- registered in Germany, an increase of 10 percent on economic health-its overall turnover is equivalent Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo-have also been expand- lyst at market observer Counterpoint, told AFP. to a fifth of the national gross domestic product. the same month of 2019. ing their share in the midrange phone market, in “Demand for semiconductors such as 5G, IoT Germany’s government introduced a temporary It is the flagship subsidiary of the giant regions including India and Southeast Asia.” (Internet of Things), and high-performance Samsung group, by far the largest of the family- VAT reduction in July, which “had an effect” ahead smartphones is exploding.” The Q4 figures come of its expiry at the end of the year, the VDA said. controlled conglomerates known as chaebols Leader’s retrial about two months after the burial of late chair- that dominate business in the world’s 12th- Exports of German-made cars were down 24 per- Looking forward, analysts said the company’s man Lee Kun-hee, who turned Samsung cent at 2.6 million vehicles. The news come as largest economy. Samsung’s operating profit and outlook for 2021 was fairly stable, driven by con- Electronics into a global powerhouse. German manufacturers struggle to adapt to 61-trillion-won sales forecast were both lower tinued demand for memory, and growth in the But his son, and the firm’s de facto leader, Lee European Union emissions targets and make the than its third-quarter figures, when its mobile consumer electronics and chip-manufacturing Jae-yong, is awaiting the verdict in his retrial costly switch to electric vehicles. and chip businesses were boosted by US sanc- businesses. They also expected Samsung’s mobile over a sprawling corruption scandal, which could Mueller argued that the slump in sales was bad for tions against Chinese tech giant Huawei. business to improve, with the firm unveiling its lat- see him return to prison. The ruling is due later the environment, as without renewing the car fleet, Analysts say a stronger won, and rival Apple’s est lineup of flagship Galaxy phones next week. this month and a conviction could deprive the “older cars stay longer on the streets”. The market October launch of its flagship iPhone 12, were Meanwhile, the global chip-manufacturing firm of its top decision-maker after prosecutors share of electric cars continues to rise, tripling in the among the factors behind the quarter-on-quar- industry is expected to see record revenue this requested a nine-year jail term. —AFP year to reach 6.7 percent of new registrations. Including hybrids, e-vehicles accounted for 13.5 per- cent of new registrations at 395,000, a share that rose violates our terms of service,” the letter, the more than a fifth in the last quarter of the year. —AFP Amazon pushes contents of which were confirmed to AFP by Amazon, said. Given the riot at the Capitol this week, the letter continued, there was a “serious Parler offline after risk that this type of content will further incite New Zealand violence.” Capitol attack It will suspend the account just before mid- central bank hit night Pacific Standard Time on Sunday (0759 SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon will suspend Parler, GMT Monday). the tech giant confirmed Saturday, sending the As the group hosts Parler’s data on its cloud by cyber attack social media network offline after it was banned service, this should prevent it from functioning, WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s central bank said yes- by Apple and Google for allowing “threats of at least temporarily. terday it was responding with urgency to a “malicious” violence” in the wake of a deadly riot at the US breach of one of its data systems, a third-party file Capitol. The Parler social network has become a ‘Threats of violence’ ARLINGTON: In this file photo, an illustration picture sharing service that stored “sensitive information”. haven for conservatives who say they have been The founder of Parler, John Matz, confirmed shows social media application logo from Parler dis- Reserve Bank of New Zealand governor Adrian Orr censored by other social media platforms. on his profile that there was a possibility the played on a smartphone with its website in the back- said the breach had been contained and the system It had soared in popularity in recent months, network would be unavailable “for up to a week” ground in Arlington, Virginia. —AFP was taken offline but it would take time to determine becoming the No 1 free app on Apple’s App as it searches for a new host. what information had been accessed. Store on Saturday after the much larger “We will try our best to move to a new Google pulled Parler from its app store for “We are working closely with domestic and inter- Twitter decided to permanently ban US provider right now,” he said. Amazon’s decision allowing “egregious content” that could incite national cyber security experts and other relevant President Trump from its platform for his role has much more far-reaching impact than the deadly violence like that seen at the Capitol. authorities as part of our investigation and response to in inciting violence at the Capitol. Messages of moves by Google and Apple. Angry Trump supporters swarmed the building this malicious attack,” Orr said. “The nature and extent of information that has been potentially accessed is support for the Wednesday’s rioters along with They had made it more complicated to down- on Wednesday as lawmakers met to certify Joe calls for new demonstrations had flourished on still being determined, but it may include some com- load the Parler app, but users could still access it Biden’s November 3 election win, leaving five mercially and personally sensitive information,” he the platform, leading Google to remove it from if it was already downloaded or if they were people-including a policeman-dead. added. “It will take time to understand the full implica- its app store on Friday, followed by Apple on using an internet browser. “We have always sup- Other mainstream social media networks like tions of this breach, and we are working with system Saturday. Amazon then moved to wipe it from its ported diverse points of view being represented Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitch have users whose information may have been accessed.” cloud hosting Amazon Web Services, pushing it on the App Store, but there is no place on our also suspended Trump following the attack on In its latest report, the government agency CERT offline entirely. platform for threats of violence and illegal activ- the Capitol. Matze has said the platform has (Computer Emergency Response Team) said cyberat- In a letter to Parler first published by ity,” Apple said in a statement Saturday. “many options” for moving ahead. tacks had increased 33 percent year-on-year in New Buzzfeed, Amazon said the network was not act- “Parler has not taken adequate measures to Parler started in 2018 and was initially a home Zealand. The country’s stock exchange was targeted ing quickly enough against violent content on address the proliferation of these threats to peo- for the extreme right, but now it attracts more by sustained DDoS (distributed denial of service) the platform. “We’ve seen a steady increase in ple’s safety. We have suspended Parler from the traditional conservative voices including attacks last August, forcing trading to be halted on four this violent content on your website, all of which App Store until they resolve these issues.” Republican lawmakers. —AFP consecutive days. —AFP 10 Established 1961

Monday, January 11, 2021 Business Kuwait’s budget for 2020/2021 may record a deficit of KD 11bn: Al-Shall Global economy on track to lose 4.3% of its volume due to pandemic

KUWAIT: The global economy is Foreigners’ contribution to liquidity rose report indicated that individual traders expected to lose 4.3 percent of its vol- from 19.2 percent in 2019 to about 26.5 still form the largest trading group but ume or $3.9 trillion. Also, unemployment percent in 2020. Foreigners’ ownership their contribution is declining in terms of rate multiplied and 83.3 million individ- in the Kuwaiti banking sector scored selling and purchasing shares. They uals were infected by COVID-19 and about KD 1.894 billion as of 30/12/2020, acquired 39 percent of total value of 1.8 million people passed away. Some although Kuwait did not adopt any sold shares (44.3 percent for 2019) and still believe that the pandemic is a con- measure to solve the public budget liq- 37.8 percent of total value of purchased spiracy by some pharmaceutical com- uidity crisis or the economic reform. shares (40.5 percent for 2019). panies to control people and gain bil- Individual investors sold shares in the lions of dollars. Parliamentary elections amount of KD 4.214 billion and pur- The probable negative impacts have As for the political arena influencing chased shares in the amount of KD 4.082 been mitigated by President Biden win- the public administration formation, par- billion with a net trading of selling by KD ning the presidential elections on liamentary elections on December 5th 132.222 million. The second largest con- November 3rd 2020, in the USA which 2020, resulted in a considerable qualita- tributor to liquidity is the would suggest cooling the trade war led tive and quantitative change in the companies/establishment sector and by President Trump against China, which National Assembly composition. This their purchases rose alongside their sold even affected his allies. This coincided significant change was mainly due to the shares. with the beginning of containing popular wrath due to the spread of cor- This sector acquired 35.5 percent of COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, the global ruption and waste in public finance and total purchased shares (29.9 percent for economy might restore most 2020 losses the failure of the two wings of power 2019) and 31 percent of total value of though with less figures than 2019. (the Executive and the Legislative) to sold shares (22 percent for 2019). The GCC economies received two blows, achieve anything significant. Despite the sector purchased shares worth KD 3.830 the first one was a sharp drop in oil significant indicators to change the billion and sold shares worth KD 3.345 prices due to an inter-oil war within the adopted approach to contain the anger, billion becoming the only sector with net “OPEC+” Group and prices collapsed the forming of the new cabinet followed trading of purchasing by KD 484.455 sharply after the repercussions of the the same old approach and since the for- million, and if its contribution continues COVID-19 crisis. Most GCC states mation of the new cabinet is committing to growth at a steady rate it could end began to lose their high credit ratings. similar mistakes of former governments. up as the largest contributor in Boursa Expected economic losses range Kuwait transactions during the year between 2 percent the least for Qatar Oil and public finance 2021. The third contributor is the and 9.4 percent the highest for Oman By the end of December 2020, the 9th clients’ accounts (portfolios) and their (according to the World Bank report month of the current fiscal year contribution has dropped, it captured issued last week). Brent Mix oil prices 2020/2021 ended and the average price 23.1 percent of total sold shares (26.7 during the second quarter of 2020 for Kuwaiti oil for December scored percent for 2019) and 22.4 percent of scored $29.3 per barrel, which is close to $49.4 per barrel. The average Kuwaiti oil total purchased shares (23.2 percent for its production cost for some nontradi- price during the first three quarters of 2019). This sector sold shares worth KD tional oils. GCC economies are still weak the current fiscal year (April 2020- 2.492 billion and purchased shares though they began to improve. December 2020) scored $37.8 per bar- worth KD 2.416 billion, with a net trad- Average Brent mix prices for the rel, higher by $7.8 per barrel or by 26.1 ing balance of sold shares by KD fourth quarter of 2020 scored $43 per percent than the hypothetical price esti- 75.600 million. barrel. Most GCC states compressed mated in the current budget of about The last contributor to liquidity is the their public expenditures, increased their $30 per barrel, but lower by $17.2 per investment funds sector and their contri- non-oil revenues, and adopted long-term barrel or by -31.2 percent than the hypo- bution has declined, it acquired 6.9 per- strategies to diversify their income. thetical price for the past fiscal year of cent of total sold shares (7 percent for Kuwaiti economy is expected to have $55 per barrel. The average oil price in 2019) and 4.3 percent of total purchased lost 7.9 percent of its volume in 2020, the last fiscal year 2019/2020 which shares (6.4 percent for 2019). The sector according to the World Bank report. ended at the end of last March scored sold shares worth KD 742.309 million Despite the dual blow mentioned previ- $61.6 per barrel, the average price per and purchased shares worth KD 465.676 ously, the economic administration did barrel for the first 9 months of the cur- million, with a net trading of most selling not adopt any measure suggesting its rent fiscal year is lower by 38.6 percent at KD 276.633 million. Boursa Kuwait awareness of the deep blow and the or by $23.8 lower than the average barrel still continues to be a domestic market necessity of due surgical action. As a price for the past fiscal year, and lower with Kuwaiti traders forming the result, the unsustainable economic by 56 percent or by $48.2 below the new largest trading group. They sold shares repercussions accelerated. Kuwaiti oil parity price of the current budget at $86, worth KD 8.203 billion capturing 76 average price for 2020 scored $41.5 per according to the Ministry of Finance percent of total sold shares (84.3 per- barrel losing -35.5 percent from the estimates and after deducting the 10 cent for 2019), and purchased shares $64.3 per barrel average for 2019. This percent in favor of the future generations worth KD 7.674 billion acquiring 71.1 decline might increase the budget deficit reserve, the break-even price decreased percent of total purchased shares (77.3 from KD 3.9 billion (2019/2020 budget) after the government stopped transfer- percent for 2019). to KD 10-11 billion (for the 2020/2021 ring that percentage to the future gener- As such, their net trading balance was budget). Once again, this means the loss ations reserve. -most selling- by KD 528.454 million. of sustainable public finance. After the Kuwait is supposed to achieved KD Percentage share of other foreign general reserve depletion to face liquidi- 800 million in oil revenues in December. investors out of the total purchased ty, the government adopted non-consti- If we assume a modest increase in pro- stocks value scored 25.4 percent (18.1 tutional and non-prudent measures by duction level during the remaining three percent for 2019), foreign investors pur- selling non-liquid assets from the general months of the current fiscal year accord- chased shares worth KD 2.738 billion reserves by KD 2.3 billion. Then it ing to the recent OPEC agreement, and and sold shares worth KD 2.180 billion, adopted what is more dangerous by with the assumption that the price of a 20.2 percent of total sold shares (10.7 withdrawing what has been transferred barrel of oil is stable for the period percent for 2019); thus their net trading from the general reserve to the future January 2021-March 2021 at an average value was -the 5 only purchasing - by generations reserve for three fiscal years. level of $52, it is expected that total oil KD 557 .668 million . This means that the Due to the global economic crisis and revenues, after deducting production other foreign investors’ confidence in the active trading accounts in the end of Jones Index, and then the Saudi market the dual blow to the global economy, the costs for the entire current fiscal year to local Boursa is higher and increasing . December 2020 was at 24,983 or 6.2 (the best performing GCC market) with Central Bank of Kuwait reduced the dis- be at KD 8.6 billion, a value that is high- GCC Investors’ share out of total sold percent of total accounts, compared to about 3.6 percent gains. count rate on the Kuwaiti dinar to its er by KD 3 billion than the estimated in shares scored 3.8 percent (5 percent for 36,982 accounts in the end of November The Qatari market was the least prof- lowest record rate at 1.5 percent on the budget for the current fiscal year at 2019 ) worth KD 410 .891 million, while 2020, i e, 9.2 percent of total accounts itable and achieved very slight gains of 16/03/2020 after reduction of the basic KD 5.6 billion. With the addition of value of their purchased shares scored for the same month, a drop by 32.4 per- 0.1 percent. The UK market was the interest rate on the US dollar to nearly 0 about KD 1.9 billion in non-oil revenues, 3.5 percent ( 4.6 percent for 2019 ) and cent during December 2020. biggest loser at the end of 2020 affected percent on 15/03/2020 to contain the the total budget revenues for the current worth KD 381 .667 million . by Brexit as it lost -14.3 percent. The probable impacts of the crisis. A com- fiscal year will score about KD 10.5 bil- Their net trading was selling by KD Comparative performance second-biggest loser was Boursa Kuwait mittee chaired by the CBK Governor was lion. Comparing that figure with total 29.214 million. Relative distribution of selected stock markets with losses at -11.7 percent for its All- formed last April to support the compa- expenditures appropriations in the among nationalities changed from its The performance of December was Share Market index, and then Dubai nies and individuals to ward against amount of about KD 21.5 billion, the predecessor and was at 73.5 percent for positive for most of the selected markets market, Muscat market, and the Bahrain transforming a temporary liquidity crisis public budget for the fiscal year Kuwaitis, 22.8 percent for traders from during which 13 markets achieved gains market that lost 9.9 percent, 8.1 percent to a permanent solvency crisis that 2020/2021 may record a deficit of about other nationalities and 3.7 percent for and one market achieved losses. As a and 7.5 percent respectively. The Abu would transfer the repercussions into the KD 11 billion and perhaps a little less if GCC traders, compared with 80.8 per- result of this performance, seven markets Dhabi market managed to limit its loss in banking sector. That was achieved by the oil prices rise higher than our estimates, cent, 14.4 percent and 4.8 percent for achieved gains at the end of 2020 com- 2020 to just 0.6 percent. It is expected least cost to the exhausted public treas- and nine months of data provide an indi- Kuwaitis, other nationalities and GCC pared to the end of 2019, and seven other that the positive performance of most ury. The Capital Markets Authority cation close to the hypothetical deficit traders respectively, for the same period markets achieved losses compared to the sample markets will prevail as the world (CMA), Boursa Kuwait and the Kuwait volume. The actual deficit remains a vari- of 2019. This means Boursa Kuwait same period including 5 GCC markets. is expecting to compensate for the loss- Clearing Co continued their work to pre- able dependent on the movement of oil remained domestic with the major share The biggest gainer in 2020 was the es of its economy in 2021. serve the promotion of Kuwaiti shares’ prices and oil production during the next for the local investors with more traders Japanese market whose index gained 16 The performance of Boursa Kuwait attraction within a visibly developed three months. from outside the GCC region than their percent, compared to the gains by about for last week was more active, where the niche, which led to promoting Boursa GCC counterparts, and individual traders 18.2 percent achieved at the end of 2019. traded value, traded volume, number of Kuwait to the Emerging Market’s level Trading features at Boursa Kuwait still the form the majority. The second biggest gainer was the transactions and the general index on MSCI Index on November 30, 2020. Kuwait Clearing Company issued its Number of active accounts between Indian market which gained about 15.8 (AlShall index) increased. AlShall Index Despite the dual blow and the loss of report regarding “Trading Volume the end of December 2019 and the end percent versus 14.4 percent gains at the (value weighted) closed at 489.9 points the AllShare Market index by -11.7 per- according to Nationality and Category” of December 2020 rose by 45.3 percent, end of 2019. The third biggest gainer as of last Thursday, showing an cent in 2020, Boursa liquidity rose by for the period from 01/01/2020 to compared with a rise by 18.1 percent was the Chinese market with 13.9 per- increase by 2.7 points or by 0.6 per- 35.5 percent compared to 2019 total liq- 31/12/2020 which is published on the between the end of December 2018 and cent gains, followed by the US market cent compared with its level last week uidity and scored KD 10.754 billion. official website of Boursa Kuwait. The the end of December 2019. Number of with about 7.2 percent gains for the Dow (end of 2020). 11

Monday, January 11, 2021

Dr. Hamoud Abdullah Alarouj ENT Consultant, Laryngologist Kuwait Board of Otolaryngology. Experienced In: Laryngology Fellowship, McGill Management of benign and malignant vocal cord lesions. University- Canada. Vocal cord augmentation. Fellow of the European Board of Diagnosis and treatment of spasmodic dysphonia. Otolaryngology – Head & Neck surgery. Adenotonsillectomy using latest techniques. Member of the American Academy of Myringotomy and ventilation tube insertion. Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery. Surgery for the deviated nasal septum. Member of the British Laryngological Endoscopic sinus surgery. Association. Diagnosis and treatment of allergic rhinitis. Member of the European Laryngological Tympanoplasty. Society. Diagnosis and treatment of vertigo. Member of the Canadian Society of Thyroid surgery Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery. Diagnosis and treatment of snoring.

To advertise on this Page Call: 24833199 ext:101,102 or Direct line: 24835616 / 24835617 or email: [email protected] 12 Established 1961 Lifestyle Features Monday, January 11, 2021 Falcons over Liwa desert

Emirati Ali Mansouri trains a falcon in the Liwa desert, some 250 kilometers west of the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi. —AFP photos

An Emirati youth plays in the sand dunes in the Liwa desert. Emirati Ali Mansouri (left) trains a falcon in the Liwa desert. Emirati youths run across a sand dune in the Liwa desert.

Emirati Ali Mansouri (left) trains a falcon in the Liwa desert. Emirati Ali Mansouri (second left) trains a falcon in the Liwa desert. Emirati Ali Mansouri trains a falcon in the Liwa desert. Louvre visitor numbers plunge due to COVID restrictions

A picture taken on January 8, 2021 at the Louvre Museum in Paris shows a view of the empty entrance hall, as A picture at the Louvre Museum in Paris shows the Winged Victory of Samothrace in an empty hall, as the the Museum remains closed due to the sanitary situation. —AFP photos Museum remains closed due to the sanitary situation.

he Louvre, the world’s biggest museum, suf- China, Japan and Brazil, who usually make up three ing 21 million hits. It also found new ways to raise cash, meanwhile reported Friday that income from tourism fered a drop in visitor numbers of over 70 per- quarters of total visits, all but dried up, especially including with the worldwide distribution of the docu- had dropped by 61 billion euros, or 41 percent, in Tcent last year as COVID restrictions kept art during the usually busy summer months. mentary “A Night at the Louvre: Leonardo da Vinci”, 2020 to 89 billion. Tourism minister Jean-Baptiste lovers away, it said on Friday. Receipts fell by more The museum managed to limit the damage with its destined for movie theatres, and “Bid for the Louvre”, Lemoyne called the annual shortfall “a shock”, but than 90 million euros ($110 million) compared with blockbuster Leonardo da Vinci exhibition that attract- which it said had raised 2.4 million euros through the said that France-the world’s number one tourist desti- 2019. The Louvre, which closed for six months during ed 1.1 million visitors and ended before the first French auction of works by living artists and of “once-in-a- nation-had weathered COVID relatively well. “France French coronavirus lockdowns, saw visitor numbers lockdown in the spring. The Louvre also used the lifetime experiences”. has been more resilient than other world destina- plunge to 2.7 million in 2020, from 9.6 million in 2019 downtime to boost its digital offering, with the number A livestreamed New Year concert by DJ and song- tions,” he told France Televison, thanks to visitors and 10.2 million in 2018, which was a record year. of online subscribers growing by over a million from writer David Guetta, part of a fundraising drive, from neighbouring countries and French people holi- Visits by foreigners, notably from the United States, 2019 to 9.3 million, and the louvre.fr website register- attracted 16 million views. The French government daying at home. —AFP Established 1961 13 Lifestyle Features Monday, January 11, 2021

This picture shows the walls of an abandoned house in the Omani village of Wadi Al-Murr. Mohammed Al-Ghanbousi, a former inhabitant of Wadi Al-Murr, stands next to his abandoned —AFP photos house in the Omani village.

ncroaching sands have left little evidence that to visit the village, whose structures still stand the Omani village of Wadi Al-Murr ever existed, because they are built from stone,” he said. “The vil- Ebut former inhabitants and curious visitors are lage has recently been included in trekking tours and coming to rediscover the hamlet engulfed by the also attracts photography enthusiasts,” he added. A desert. Salem Al-Arimi, originally from the area, mosque that sits within the village, which in its hey- looked out nostalgically over the expanse. According day had about 30 houses and 150 inhabitants, is one to local elders, “all the houses in the village were building that has resurfaced. Mohammed Al-Alaoui invaded by the sand that assailed them 30 years ago, said that when his mother learnt some homes had forcing the inhabitants to leave their homes,” he said. reappeared, she asked him to take her back. “She Building tops and sections of stone wall emerge here often wants to go, and she likes to be there while she and there, bearing witness to those who once lived relates her memories of the old days, and sheds a few here. Deserts are expanding all over the world, tears,” he said. pushed on by climate change, and affected popula- Former inhabitants of Wadi Al-Murr, gather tions have few weapons to fight back. Wadi Al-Murr’s Tourism Mohammed Al-Ghanbousi, a former inhabitant of inhabitants, who mostly relied on pastoral activities, Rashed Al-Ameri is among the Omani tourists who near abandoned houses in the Omani village. had to give up their village, swelling the ranks of have come to discover the hamlet swallowed by the Wadi Al-Murr, kneels to pray on a sand dune among those migrating to towns and cities. desert. He travelled from Sur, hundreds of kilometers abandoned houses in the Omani village. away, with two friends who were also keen to see Nostalgia Wadi Al-Murr. Oman, which is trying to diversify its Located at the bottom of a valley nearly 400 kilo- oil-reliant economy, is seeking to develop its tourism meters (250 miles) southwest of the capital Muscat, industry-capitalizing on its rich heritage, scenic Wadi Al-Murr is cut off from main roads and only coasts and stunning mountain geography. The sul- reachable via a long, rough track. Its isolation, includ- tanate attracted three million foreign tourists in 2019, ing from the electricity and water grids, contributed but like almost everywhere else, the novel coron- to its slide into obscurity. But that has not prevented avirus pandemic reduced visitors to a trickle in 2020. erstwhile residents from returning to visit, along with Ameri is among those who believe Wadi Al-Murr trekking enthusiasts who take desert hikes in the could easily be included on Oman’s tourist trail. region. Mohammed Al-Ghanbousi, a former inhabi- “What amazed me was that the force of nature could tant, said the moving dunes had re-exposed some erase an entire village,” he said. “And what’s more Photo shows the walls of an abandoned house dwellings after they were covered by sand. amazing is how this place, with its old walls, resists A former inhabitant of Wadi Al-Murr, walks near in the Omani village of Wadi Al-Murr. This phenomenon has prompted “nostalgic people these assaults.”—AFP an abandoned house in the Omani village.

Photo shows abandoned houses in the Omani village of Wadi Al-Murr. Former inhabitants of Wadi Al-Murr, walk near abandoned houses in the Omani village Funny old world: The Home-turned-museum week’s offbeat news retains ‘soul’ of southern Iraq

n imposing house stands ‘Human remains’ find turned out to be a potato out among other buildings Ain Iraq’s Samawah city-once a multi-generational family home, dog walker in northeast England sparked a large- it’s now a museum of a bygone age scale police search after reporting suspected in the country’s tribal south. Ahuman remains in a muddy field. But the suspect- Abdellatif Al-Jablawi, the proper- ed grisly find turned out to be a potato, officers said ty’s owner and family patriarch, led Friday. Northumbria Police said specialist teams and a tour of the traditional house sniffer dogs were sent to scour the field in the Winlaton where he was born 80 years ago. area of Gateshead, after a concerned member of the At the time, three generations, from public contacted them on Tuesday. An accompanying grandparents to grandchildren, photograph sent to officers appeared to show a human lived in the house, with its intricate foot, the force said on its Facebook page. “Eventually “shanasheel” bay windows, wood- we tracked down the ‘scene’ only to discover the toe en balconies and tall doors topped was in fact a potato with a mushroom growing next to by elaborate lintels. “Over the gen- it,” a spokesman said. “We can only praise the vigilance erations, everyone preferred to of the woman who made the call and if anyone does rent elsewhere and the house emp- Al-Jablawi said the structure had been at risk of falling into come across suspected human remains, please do the tied out,” said Jablawi, now the ruin, when he decided to act. —AFP same and give us a call. “If it does turn out to be a veg- oldest member of his family. etable, our police dogs will thank you for the treat!” had her heart and her car stolen,” her dad wrote on The house is comprised of 13 lion dinars, or around $171,000. one, so we understood that our Facebook as he appealed to neighbours in Connecticut rooms splashed with sunlight father was right,” Ali said as he Crocked to help track the cad down. coloured by stained glass win- ‘Symbol of the city’ walked along the balcony that Two Australian friends out fishing on their boat dows, including a grand ceremo- At the start, some family mem- overlooks the inner courtyard. came across a naked man in “a nest up a tree” in a You can’t take it with you nial salon and kitchen, which bers were resistant to the project, The antiquities directorate in crocodile-infested mangrove swamp near Darwin. Kev Staying in India, villagers in Bihar state took the Jablawi still calls “the fireplace”, as said Ali, Jablawi’s eldest son, Muthanna province, one of Iraq’s Joiner and Cam Faust offered the man-who had been corpse of a farm worker to a bank so they could get it was known when he was young. standing in front of an old radio poorest, only provides logistical living on snails-a drink and brought him back to civili- money from his account to cremate him. Canara Bank The rooms are connected by set in the inner courtyard, where a support in protecting heritage sites sation. “We didn’t understand how he got there” and branch manager Sanjeev Kumar told AFP of the steep, narrow stairs and walls of well recalls the days before run- “when necessary”, one of the how he survived the crocs, said Joiner, given that his extraordinary posthumous withdrawal. “After over an yellow brick, a historic building ning water. “We didn’t agree with directorate’s officials Mustafa al- improvised “nest” was within easy snapping distance hour (when his account book was produced), I gave material still produced in southern this project and the expense; we Ghazi told AFP. Before the novel of the water. “We thought he must have had a big night them money and they finally left with his body for the Iraq. Jablawi said the structure suggested he sell the dilapidated coronavirus pandemic, the house after New Year’s... and done himself a mischief in the cremation ground.” had been at risk of “falling into house to construct a building regularly hosted cultural events and bush,” he added. But it turned out the man-who was ruin” when he decided to act. “I because we are in the commercial other evenings of poetry or music covered in insect bites-was a fugitive wanted for Brexit shmexit decided to buy back all the shares center of the city,” he added. among carved wooden chests, car- armed robbery. He is now in hospital under armed Never mind Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s father of the house... and, in 2015, I found Jablawi categorically rejected this pets and cushions arrayed on the guard. “We were going to visit him... then we thought, and sister applying for French nationality after Brexit, an architect specialized in reno- proposal, and his stubborn com- floor for family or tribal gatherings. ‘We might give that one a miss,’” Faust said. UK Independence Party backer Arron Banks’ vating heritage buildings,” he said. mitment to the plan eventually In 2020, the house was the subject Leave.EU group which helped lead the campaign for “I told myself: ‘This is our loyalty convinced the rest of his family. of a documentary, titled “The Soul Stole her heart and her car Britain to quit Europe is now also jumping ship. It has to the past’.” All told, the work to “The house has become a symbol of Samawah”-an honor for its A young American woman has been left devastated moved its registered office to Ireland so it can keep its restore the building cost 250 mil- of the city and it is open to every- proud owner. —AFP after her boyfriend left her and then stole her car. “She “.eu” internet address. —AFP 14 Sports Monday, January 11, 2021 Saudi Al-Rajhi denies ‘Mr Dakar’ on marathon stage Explorer Horn in Saudi sands seeks a rally without petrol

SAKAKA, Saudi Arabia: Toyota’s Saudi driver champion Ricky Brabec took the seventh stage win Yazeed Al-Rajhi took the Dakar Rally marathon in a time of 4hr 37mins 44sec. The American, winner seventh stage honors yesterday, the home hope of the prologue, came in 2mins 07sec clear of denying Stephane Peterhansel, the overall leader in Honda’s Chilean rider Jose Ignacio Cornejo, the new pursuit of his 14th title. Mini driver Peterhansel was overall leader. on target to cross the line first at the end of the But only by one second from Toby Price (KTM) arduous 453km timed special featuring sand moun- with Sam Sunderland, the British 2017 champion, in tains between Ha’il and Sakaka. third at 2min 11sec. Overnight leader Xavier de But Al-Rajhi had other ideas, and with the benefit Soultrait slipped to fourth, 2min 34sec off the pace. of his experienced co-driver Dirk Von Zitzewitz, an Botswanan Ross Branch suffered a spectacular spill 18-Dakar veteran, he took command around 100km from his Yamaha early in the stage but thankfully out. He secured his first stage win in the event since escaped uninjured. 2015 and his Dakar debut with 48sec to spare over Peterhansel, with Carlos Sainz third at 1min 15sec. In Rally without petrol fourth came Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, who is now Mike Horn made his name by walking to some of 7min 53sec behind Peterhansel in the overall stand- the world’s remotest spots but as the Dakar Rally ings with last year’s champion Sainz over 40 min- resumed yesterday, he is in a diesel car, trying to utes adrift in third. navigate the Saudi Arabian desert with the aim of Peterhansel, 55, first competed in the Dakar in “conserving the planet”. Horn, a 54-year-old Swiss 1988, the year leader Ari Vatanen’s Peugeot 405 based South African, is famed for exploits that SAKAKA, Saudi Arabia: Toyota’s driver Yazeed Al Rajhi of Saudi Arabia and co-driver Dirk Von Zitzewitz of Germany com- was infamously stolen in Bamako, with a ransom for include circling the Equator without using any pete during stage 7 of the Dakar Rally 2021, between Saudi Arabia’s northern cities of Hail and Sakaka yesterday. —AFP its return demanded. It turned up eventually, but too motorized transport and walking to the North Pole late for Vatanen. Since then Peterhansel has made in winter without dogs or motor vehicles. Commission (CEA) which plans to manufacture the carbon footprint. “There are three things that made motorsport’s toughest test an annual pilgrimage, He is competing in his second Dakar Rally, as prototype that will run on an electric motor pow- me come back,” he said: “First of all the human and with 13 wins on both two and four wheels he navigator for veteran French driver Cyril Despres, in ered by a hydrogen fuel cell. “There’s a real goal adventure, then the competition, I like to win and to has rightly earned his nickname ‘Monsieur Dakar’. a traditional diesel-powered car with the objective behind all this, and it’s essential,” said the 46-year- reach the end of my expeditions and of course col- He now has six podium finishes in seven stages of making such cars obsolete. In addition to com- old Despres, who is in his 21st Dakar rally and has lect data for research and for future generations.” and will be hoping to get his first win of 2021 on the peting, the car is designed to collect data as part of won the motorbike category five times. “That’s “I can play an important part in changing the board on Monday’s eighth stage which sees the a project named Gen-Z which aims to enter a com- new for me.” way we participate in motor sports,” said Horn. Dakar travelling circus heading west from Sakaka to petitive hydrogen-powered car in the 2023 rally. Horn first raced last year, when he and Despres “To conserve the planet to be able to leave a the Red Sea resort of Neom. The car has been fitted with sensors by the lasted three stages. The explorer took heavy criti- future to the younger generation is one of my life In the motorbike category, defending motorbike French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy cism for participating in a rally with a notorious missions.” — AFP

contact tracing for Houston. Large turnout of Nuggets beat Nikola Jokic had 15 points and 12 assists and Gary Harris scored 21 points to lead the Nuggets. registration for short-handed Jamal Murray and Will Barton had 14 points apiece for the Nuggets, who broke open a close game after halftime. JaMychal Green and Monte Morris shooters’ tournament 76ers added 12 points apiece. Rookie Tyrese Maxey tallied a career-high 39 By Abdellatif Sharaa points on 18-of-33 shooting, Isaiah Joe added 13 WASHINGTON: The Philadelphia 76ers were and Dakota Mathias had 12 for Philadelphia, who KUWAIT: Sheikh Sabah Al- routed 115-103 by the visiting Denver Nuggets on lost their second in a row and had their 20-game Ahmad Olympic Shooting Saturday, with the team so badly depleted by home winning streak snapped. Complex is welcoming a large COVID-19 protocols and injuries that they were Cameroonian star center Embiid was sidelined number of shooters to partici- forced to dress an injured player. with back tightness while Australian guard pate in the late Sheikh Ali The short-handed Sixers were down to just sev- Simmons was out with knee stiffness. “With the Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah en healthy players, pushing coach Doc Rivers to minutes we would have to ask (from Embiid), it Tournament to be held on Jan activate Mike Scott, who had a left knee injury, just would be insane to play him,” Rivers said. 14-16. Club and National so they could meet the league requirement to have The Sixers started veterans Dwight Howard and Guard shooters will compete in a minimum of eight players. Scott sat on the team Danny Green alongside rookie guards Isaiah Joe, Olympic skeet and trap events bench but didn’t play. “COVID created this but the Tyrese Maxey and Dakota Mathias. The Nuggets for both men and women. Obaid Al-Osaimi concern is not COVID now,” Rivers said. “The con- were without Michael Porter, who is in quarantine Obaid Al-Osaimi, cern is injuries.” due to COVID-19 safety protocols. “They deemed Secretary General of Arab The Sixers were missing a number of starters, it safe enough to play,” Nuggets coach Mike and Kuwait Shooting Federations, thanked the family of including Seth Curry, who tested positive for the Malone said. “To be honest, I think we’re going to the late Sheikh Ali for joining Kuwait Shooting Sport coronavirus on Thursday. Because of contact trac- start seeing more of this.” Club’s chairman and board members in organizing this ing, COVID-19 health protocols and injuries sever- Elsewhere, LaMelo Ball became the youngest tournament, and their continued support and encour- al other stars were also missing including Ben player in NBA history to record a triple-double agement of Kuwait’s shooters to keep making Simmons, Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris. with 22 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists, and the achievements at all level. Before the game, Rivers said he felt it should Charlotte Hornets beat the Atlanta Hawks 113-105. Osaimi said the organizing committee held several have been postponed. “I don’t think we should The 19-year-old Ball is 177 days younger than meetings with various subcommittees in order to make (play) but it’s not for me to express that,” Rivers Markelle Fultz when he set the triple double sure everything is ready for the distinguished launch of said. “I do worry about our player health.” Also record. the tournament, which is being officiated by an elite missing were Matisse Thybulle, Shake Milton and Ball shot nine-of-13 from the floor as the CHARLOTTE: LaMelo Ball #2 of the Charlotte Hornets group of international Kuwaiti referees who are highly experienced. Shooting ranges are also ready with equip- Vincent Poirier. “I trust the league and I trust the Hornets handed the struggling Hawks their fourth shoots the ball on Saturday at Spectrum Center in straight defeat. Ball was the third overall pick in the ment and systems for this important event. doctors as far as health-wise,” Rivers said. “I’m Charlotte, North Carolina. — AFP more concerned with health on the floor.” 2020 entry draft. Tim Hardaway also scored 36 Notably, this tournament comes ahead of the HH the Saturday’s game had a chance to be the season’s points and Trey Burke added a season-high 29 to Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah second coronavirus-related game postponement. lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 112-98 victory over Jalen Brunson due to COVID-19 health and safety Annual International Grand Prix, which gives Kuwait The Houston Rockets had their season opener the visiting Orlando Magic. protocols. Hardaway made eight of 13 three-point shooters an opportunity to get ready in a competitive against the Oklahoma City Thunder postponed The Mavericks were without forward Dorian attempts as the Mavericks defeated Magic for the atmosphere. The HH the Amir tournament will be held because of a combination of positive tests and Finney-Smith and guards Josh Richardson and 14th time in the past 18 meetings. — AFP from Feb 12 to 19, 2021.

team by sections of the crowd. India battle to save Sydney Test The International Cricket Council launched an investigation with Cricket marred by crowd abuse allegations Australia apologizing to India and vow- ing anyone at fault faced “lengthy bans, further sanctions and referral to NSW SYDNEY: India were battling to avoid can put together a good performance,” Police”. “We’ve seen it happen in differ- defeat against Australia after losing two he added. ent parts of the world and I’m really sad wickets before the close of play yesterday Australia’s declaration came after to see it happen in Australia,” said in a third Test marred by allegations of Cameron Green fell on the stroke of tea for Australia coach Justin Langer. “I think racist abuse from the Sydney crowd. The an entertaining 84, his maiden Test half- our series so far has been played in such hosts declared their second innings at tea century, with captain Tim Paine unbeaten great spirits ... it’s shame to see it getting on day four at 312 for six, leaving India on 39. Steve Smith made 81 and Marnus marred by incidents like we’re hearing needing a mammoth 407 to win and they Labuschagne 73, with Ashwin and about today and last night.” reached 98-2 at stumps, still needing a fur- Navdeep Saini grabbing two wickets each. Australia had resumed the day on 103 TOKYO: Olympic Rings are seen near the National Stadium, the main venue for the Tokyo ther 309 runs with the four-match series Just before the break there was a near for two after India were bowled out for locked at 1-1. 10-minute interruption to play that saw 244 in the first innings in reply to 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in Tokyo on January 8, 2021. — AFP No team has ever bettered 288 to six fans removed after Mohammed Siraj, Australia’s 338, with Smith on 29 and clinch victory in the fourth innings at the fielding on the boundary, complained to Labuschagne 47. Labuschagne survived Support for in the greater Tokyo area this week Sydney Cricket Ground, with Australia the umpire. It was not clear what was an appalling dropped catch by Hanuma over a surge in COVID-19 cases. achieving that mark against South Africa in said, but the incident followed India Vihari on the day’s second ball that left In yesterday’s national telephone 2006. India’s record run chase started lodging a complaint on Saturday after bowler Jasprit Bumrah clutching his face in Olympics hits poll, around 35 percent of people told steadily before losing openers Shubman allegations of racist abuse towards the disbelief. — AFP Kyodo they favored outright cancella- Gill for 31 and Rohit Sharma for 52, leaving new low in Japan tion, while some 45 percent said the their hopes resting on Cheteshwar Pujara, event should be postponed a second who was nine not out, and captain Ajinkya time. The month-long emergency in the Rahane, unbeaten on four. TOKYO: Support for holding the capital and surrounding regions is less Sharma and Gill lived dangerously coronavirus-postponed Tokyo strict than harsh lockdowns seen else- against some early torrid bowling by Josh Olympics this summer has hit a new where in the world and primarily tar- Hazlewood and Pat Cummins. But they set- low in Japan, a poll found yesterday as tled in during a 71-run stand to begin the country battles a third wave of gets restaurants and bars, which have playing their shots, with the graceful infections. Just over 80 percent of been asked to close early. Sharma bringing up an 11th Test 50 before those asked by Kyodo news agency Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said being caught at fine leg hooking a said the huge global event should be this week that Japan is committed to Cummins short ball. cancelled or postponed again — a holding a “safe and secure” Olympics. Gill, who has cemented his place in the jump from around 60 percent in a He said he believed the public mood side after making a debut this series, December 6 survey by the same outlet. will change when the country begins again looked at home until he nicked a Kyodo said the survey asked 1,041 vaccinations, currently scheduled for Hazlewood delivery to Tim Paine behind participants nationwide, who were late February. But senior International the stumps on 31. “The batsmen will walk selected by random dialing. Tokyo Olympic Committee official Dick Pound in tomorrow believing they can do it,” SYDNEY: A policeman (center) stands guard among sections of the crowd as the game was halted 2020 organizers have said another told the BBC he could not “be certain” said veteran Ravi Ashwin. “That belief is after allegedly some remarks were made by the spectators on the fourth day of the third cricket Test delay is out of the question and are the Games will go ahead, because “the ongoing elephant in the room would be very important when you step onto the match between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in Sydney yesterday. —AFP insisting the Games will go ahead pitch. “As a team, we are very hopeful we despite a state of emergency declared the surges in the virus”. — AFP Established 1961 15 Sports Monday, January 11, 2021 Leeds stunned by Crawley in FA Cup, as Chelsea, Man City advance

Cup holders Arsenal beat Newcastle as Chorley shock virus-hit Derby

LONDON: Leeds suffered a humiliating FA Cup first career goal in the 51st minute. Ashley exit against Crawley as the League Two side swept Nadesan’s low shot crept under Leeds keeper Kiko to a shock 3-0 win, while Timo Werner ended his Casilla’s weak attempted save to double Crawley’s Chelsea goal drought and Bernardo Silva sparkled lead two minutes later. for Manchester City as the Premier League giants Jordan Tunnicliffe delivered the final blow in the eased into the fourth round yesterday. 70th minute, forcing the ball into the roof of the net After the spiking coronavirus pandemic wreaked after Leeds failed to clear a Sam Matthews free- havoc with matches across the third round on kick. It is not the first time Leeds have endured FA Friday and Saturday, the FA Cup was back on more Cup ignominy after Don Revie’s stars were famous- familiar ground as Leeds became the competition’s ly eliminated by Colchester in 1971, while the club’s latest big name to be knocked out by a feisty 2008 side were embarrassed by Histon and the underdog. 2017 squad lost to Sutton. Crawley’s unexpected success encapsulated the FA Cup’s unique charm and football’s restorative Werner back on track powers at a time when the sport is badly in need of Chelsea, eight-time winners of the FA Cup and some positive news. Numerous clubs have been hit runners-up last season, showed Leeds how to by COVID-19 problems as the new variant sweeps deal with an upset threat as they thrashed League across Britain, forcing Aston Villa and Derby to Two team Morecambe 4-0 at Stamford Bridge. field entire teams of youth players while their sen- Two-time world heavyweight boxing champion ior stars went into self-isolation. Tyson Fury has a gym at Morecambe’s Mazuma Villa’s kids were beaten by Liverpool on Friday Stadium, but it was Chelsea who delivered the and Derby’s youngsters lost to non-league Chorley, knockout blows. with Southampton’s tie against Shrewsbury post- Mason Mount marked his 22nd birthday in mem- poned after a virus outbreak at the League One orable fashion as the midfielder fired in from 25 side. Despite calls for the English season to be halt- yards in the 18th minute. Werner finally got on the ed while the virus is contained, the FA Cup goes on scoresheet in the 44th minute, bundling home after CRAWLEY: Crawley Town’s Cypriot defender Nick Tsaroulla (C) shoots past Leeds United’s Spanish goalkeeper Kiko for now and Crawley relished their chance to steal Kai Havertz headed into his path. Callum Hudson- Casilla to open the scoring during the English FA Cup third round football match between Crawley Town and Leeds the spotlight. Odoi struck in the 49th minute and Havertz got the United at Broadfield Stadium in Crawley, southern England yesterday. — AFP Leeds sit 12th in the Premier League after a fourth in the 85th minute. fine first season back in the top-flight, but boss Romantics looking for a shock at the Etihad Marcelo Bielsa paid the price for making seven Stadium were left disappointed as Manchester City close-range finish in the 15th minute and Phil Foden staff, bin men and factory workers, with the high- changes at The People’s Pension Stadium in leafy cruised to a 3-0 win against second tier got the third in the 33rd minute. est-paid player earning between £200 and £300 a Sussex. Crawley, sixth in League Two, had sur- Birmingham. Pep Guardiola made four changes Yesterday’s standout tie sees Marine, of the week. If Marine cause the biggest shock in FA Cup vived an incredible 6-5 win against Torquay in the from the team that beat Manchester United in the eighth tier Northern Premier League Division One history, fans in the Merseyside town of Crosby FA Cup first round, but this victory was even more League Cup semi-finals on Wednesday. North West, host Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham. It is should look out for goalkeeper Bayleigh Passant, remarkable. Bernardo Silva was one of those who came in the biggest gap — 161 places — between oppo- who visited a local shop to get beers to celebrate On a fairytale day for Crawley, it was fitting that and he opened the scoring with a superb half-vol- nents in FA Cup history. his side’s second round win — still dressed in his Nick Tsaroulla should open the scoring with his ley after eight minutes. Silva struck again with a Marine’s squad is made up of teachers, NHS full kit. —AFP Inter stalled; Ibra returns as Milan Pochettino gets bounce back first win with PSG,

MILAN: Gianluca Mancini headed in a late equal- Lyon stay on top izer as AS Roma stalled Serie A title rivals Inter Milan with a 2-2 draw in Rome yesterday. Antonio Conte’s second-placed Inter lost further ground PARIS: Mauricio Pochettino celebrated his after their midweek defeat to Sampdoria to drop first victory as Paris Saint-Germain coach on three points behind leaders AC Milan. Roma remain his home debut on Saturday as Moise Kean set a further three points behind Inter in third. the reigning champions on their way to a 3-0 Defender Mancini got his head to a Gonzalo win over Brest, but Lyon remain top of Ligue 1 Villar cross four minutes from time to keep Roma after drawing at Rennes. three points behind Inter in third. Conte’s side had Substitutes Mauro Icardi and Pablo Sarabia fought back after Lorenzo Pellegrini gave Roma the added late goals for PSG who would have gone lead just after quarter of an hour in the Stadio top on goal difference had Lyon not recovered Olimpico. MILAN: AC Milan’s Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic enters the pitch during the Italian Serie A football match between AC Milan and Torino at the San Siro stadium in Milan on Saturday. — AFP from 2-0 down to earn a point in Rennes and Milan Skriniar headed in the equaliser 11 minutes extend their unbeaten run to 16 games. PSG after the break with Achraf Hakimi putting Inter are second at the season’s halfway stage, a ahead seven minutes later with a superb long range penalty in the first half ensured AC Milan moved tinued Pioli. “He’s such a strong player, a great stim- point behind the leaders and ahead on goal shot that blasted off the crossbar into the net. But four points ahead of Inter Milan before they played ulus for the whole team.” difference of third-placed Lille, who triumphed the visitors were unable to resist the Roman pres- third-placed Roma yesterday. Ibrahimovic started Leao opened the scoring on 25 minutes after 1-0 at Nimes. sure in the last quarter of an hour with goalkeeper on the bench, having been out of action since scor- Theo Hernandez combined with Brahim Diaz to With Neymar still missing, it was not a vin- Samir Handanovic saving Inter several times, deny- ing a double against Napoli on November 22, with a send the Portuguese forward clear to beat Torino tage performance from PSG on a freezing ing Mancini from close range before being beaten thigh injury and then a calf problem. goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu. Kessie calmly slotted Parisian night in an empty stadium — support- by the defender on the following corner. “We had a clear program, if Ibrahimovic passed in the second from the penalty spot in the 36th ers are still barred from games in France with a the last test yesterday he could have a small role as minute after a VAR review judged Torino captain Milan extends lead nighttime curfew in place nationwide as part of he did,” said Milan coach Stefano Pioli. The 39- Andrea Belotti to have tripped Diaz. the fight against coronavirus. That meant it was Zlatan Ibrahimovic had returned from injury, year-old Swede, who scored 10 goals in six league Ricardo Rodriguez missed a chance to score for never going to be the return to the Parc des coming off the bench for a late cameo appearance, games before injury, replaced Leao with five min- Torino against his former club, rattling the crossbar Princes that Pochettino — who was a popular as AC Milan defeated Torino 2-0 on Saturday to utes to go in a game the hosts dominated against before the break, with Sirigu denying Kessie from player for PSG two decades ago — would extend their lead at the top of Serie A. Last week- lowly Torino. close range. Milan’s injury woes were compounded have liked. end, champions Juventus ended Milan’s 27-match “The important thing is that the muscular prob- when midfielder Sandro Tonali was stretchered off Nevertheless the Argentine will be relieved unbeaten run in the league dating back to March. lem is behind him, now we’ll have to help him find five minutes after the break after colliding with to have his first win in charge after his first But Rafael Leao’s goal and a Franck Kessie his way back because he was out a long time,” con- Simone Verdi. —AFP game ended in a 1-1 draw at Saint-Etienne in midweek. “We have still only had a few days working together and we have had two very Zidane blasts upturn for the team too; this victory is Barca’s third difficult, very competitive games,” Pochettino on the bounce. “We are calmer,” said Barca coach said. “I am really satisfied with the effort put in Ronald Koeman. “We have to stay humble, to keep by the players. It was an improved perform- snow-hit pitch as working and winning.” ance and an important victory.” Messi’s double, the second a sweetly-struck Of his first game back at the Parc des Real Madrid held free-kick, came between two strikes from Antoine Princes, he added: “It was very emotional. This Griezmann, who is also enjoying a revival after a stadium has one of the best atmospheres in disappointing 18 months at Camp Nou. Some had football and we missed having the fans here, MADRID: Zinedine Zidane said Real Madrid’s wondered if Messi would ever get back to his best but I have had a superb welcome at this club goalless draw with Osasuna on Saturday was “not following an underwhelming start to the season and in this magnificent city since arriving.” a football match” and should have been called off but his latest contribution makes him the league’s Pochettino could now get his first piece of after Spain was hit by a snowstorm. Madrid missed top scorer on 11 goals, five months after he tried silverware when PSG play Marseille on the chance to overtake Atletico Madrid at the top to leave. Wednesday in the Champions Trophy, the of La Liga and allowed Barcelona to creep closer French equivalent of a Super Cup that in nor- after Lionel Messi scored twice in a 4-0 victory ‘Good Messi interaction’ mal times is the curtain-raiser to the season. It over Granada. “From day one, my interactions with Leo have remains to be seen if Neymar, after four weeks Atletico’s match at home to Athletic Bilbao ear- been good,” said Koeman. “We’re used to this, if on the sidelines, will be fit for that game, while lier on Saturday was postponed due to the snow, there are a couple of games where he doesn’t defender Thilo Kehrer will be sidelined after meaning Diego Simeone’s side are top with three score, there will be a couple of people who will be news of his positive coronavirus test fell short- games in hand over their rivals. Osasuna’s pitch in unhappy, but not me, never.” ly before kick-off against Brest. Pamplona was certainly affected by the snowfall, Koeman deserves credit for the rejuvenation of Pochettino again started playmaker Marco especially in the middle third, but large parts were players like Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele and Verratti in an advanced role behind central green and the referee decided the game should go Frenkie de Jong, all of whom have improved signifi- PAMPLONA: Real Madrid’s Spanish defender Sergio striker Kean, with the latter opening the scor- ahead. cantly in recent matches. Barcelona’s recovery has Ramos reacts during the Spanish League football match ing in the 16th minute. Captain Marquinhos “We played the game because they told us to a long way to run, with unresolved issues on and between Osasuna and Real Madrid at the El Sadar stadi- headed Angel Di Maria’s corner against the play the game but the conditions were very diffi- off the pitch likely to resurface before the end of um in Pamplona on Saturday. — AFP post and Kean was on hand to nod in the cult,” said Zidane. “For me this was not a football the season. rebound from barely a meter out. It was his match. In the end we played, and that’s it.” Real Yet Koeman will hope a corner has been turned 11th goal, and his ninth in Ligue 1, since signing Madrid are due to play Athletic Bilbao in Malaga on and at a good time, with the Champions League last foot and curl home. on loan from Everton in October. Thursday in the Spanish Super Cup semi-finals. 16 tie against Paris Saint-Germain to come next Messi made it three from a similar position, just Brest, who sit in mid-table and are one of “We don’t know what we’re going to do now, month and a large chunk of the league calendar still on the edge of the box, this time with a free-kick, the best sides to watch in France, could have whether we stay here tomorrow or if we’re going to remaining. which he harpooned into the corner. Griezmann scored before that but Keylor Navas clawed travel on Monday, we’ll see.” Zidane added: “It is Barca’s first goal was fortunate, after Roberto added a fourth by firing in a scooped pass from away Romain Faivre’s early effort for the visi- not an excuse. What everyone wants to see is a Soldado’s lashed clearance saw the ball sliced back- Dembele on the turn. Messi went off with almost tors. It was only in the final 10 minutes that football match and today the conditions were not wards to Griezmann, who touched and shot past Rui half an hour left, his work already done, while PSG ran away with the game, as Kylian met to see a football match.” Silva. Griezmann was the instigator for the second Granada’s Jesus Vallejo was sent off late on. Mbappe set up Icardi — on in place of Kean Messi scored twice against Granada to make it too, the Frenchman driving forward to the edge of Granada was spared the awful conditions that swept — to get the second before Sarabia fired in to four goals in three matches for him since the turn of the area before transferring inside to Messi. Messi across much of the country, with the snowfall in make it 3-0. — AFP the year and his resurgence has coincided with an was given the yard he needed to shift onto his left Madrid on Friday the heaviest since 1971. — AFP Established 1961 Sport

MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2021 Buccaneers, Bills end NFL playoff droughts, Rams down Seahawks

LOS ANGELES: Six-time Super Bowl scoring run while starting in place of champ Tom Brady padded his postseason injured Alex Smith. resume as both the Tampa Bay In Buffalo, Allen finished with 324 Buccaneers and the Buffalo Bills snapped yards from 26 of 35 attempts to send the long playoff win droughts with a pair of Bills into next week’s AFC divisional NFL wild-card victories on Saturday. round while the Colts were left ruing a Brady completed 22 of 40 passes for decision not to kick an easy first-half 381 yards and two touchdowns as the field goal that ultimately proved the dif- Buccaneers won their first playoff contest ference. It was the second-seeded Bills’ in 18 years with a 31-23 victory over first win in the postseason since Washington. The Bills’ Josh Allen threw December 1995, ending a run of five for two touchdowns and rushed for straight playoff losses. another as the Bills bagged their first The Colts, meanwhile, rallied from a playoff victory in a quarter-century with 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter to a nail-biting 27-24 wild-card defeat of come within a field goal of tying the game the Indianapolis Colts. with two minutes remaining, only to come “If you could win 100-0, it’s going to up agonizingly short. The Colts had one be the same result in the end,” Brady said. last chance to mount a game-winning “It’s good to win and advance.” Brady drive, but the game ended when a desper- showed why the fifth-seeded Buccaneers ate Hail Mary attempt from quarterback brought him to Tampa as he got his new Philip Rivers was batted away by Bills team to the playoffs for the first time since safety Micah Hyde. 2007 and their first win since the 2002 “It doesn’t matter how it looks, it’s the season Super Bowl. playoffs, it’s win or go home,” a relieved Brady, whose nine Super Bowl starts Allen said afterwards. Veteran Colts quar- LANDOVER: Quarterback Tom Brady #12 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers passes during the game against the Washington Football Team are the most by any player in history, terback Rivers, who turned 39 last month, at FedExField on Saturday in Landover, Maryland. — AFP earned his NFL all-time leading 31st was uncertain over whether he would playoff victory. “He is a fighter. He plays extend his career into an 18th season. hard and studies hard and he is the man “If it’s God’s will that I’m in Indy with bruising battle between the two NFC pass for Metcalf for a 42-yard pick six from a D.J. Reed punt return to give the for the job,” said Buccaneers back the Colts next year, then I’ll be here,” said West rivals. Defenses dominated and a 13-3 lead. Rams possession at the Seattle 36-yard Leonard Fournette, who had 19 carries Rivers, who made 27-of-46 for 309 yards throughout, with the Rams stifling the The Seahawks responded immediately line. On the following drive, Goff picked for 93 yards. and two touchdowns. “If not, I’ll be on the threat of Seahawks quarterback Russell when Wilson hit Metcalf for a 51-yard out a wide-open Robert Woods for a 15- Fournette added 39 receiving yards sideline with a ballcap on my head, Wilson and receiver DK Metcalf. touchdown but the Rams restored their yard score with the extra-point making it and a three-yard touchdown run. “It has coaching football.” The Bills’ victory was The Seahawks defense was similarly 10-point cushion with a touchdown from 30-13. been trying times for me this season. I one of three games on Saturday in an aggressive, and knocked Rams quarter- running back Cam Akers that made it 20- The Seahawks made it a 10-point got cut and now I am back in the play- expanded wild card round. back John Wolford — chosen to start 10 at half-time. The Seahawks were game when Wilson picked out Metcalf offs,” Fournette said. Washington’s emer- ahead of Jared Goff — out of the game always chasing the game from that point with 2min 28sec remaining. But it was too gency quarterback Taylor Heinicke per- Rams defense downs Seahawks with a brutal hit by Jamal Adams early in as Wilson was bottled up by the rampant little too late, and the Rams defense formed admirably in his first career play- In the day’s second game, the Los the first quarter. The Rams defense engi- Rams defense. effectively sealed victory by sacking off start. He threw for 306 yards with a Angeles Rams powered to a 30-20 road neered the game’s opening touchdown, The knockout blow came in the fourth Wilson for the fifth time on the touchdown and added an eight-yard victory over the Seattle Seahawks in a Darious Williams picking off Wilson’s quarter, Samson Ebukam forcing a fumble Seahawks’ final possession. — AFP