MUHARRAM 23, 1443 AH TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2021 16 Pages Max 44º Min 30º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18520 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Kuwait mulls work from CBK launches e-payment service 7-time Emmy winner From disaster to Paralympics 4 home for some categories 8 amid digital expansion plan 12 Ed Asner dies at 91 15 gold: China’s ‘Flying Fish’ Cabinet confident life ‘back to normal’ soon Iraq says Katyusha missiles fired by outlawed groups By B Izzak vaccinations. For most of the past 10 days, the number of new cases Kuwait’s Mutairi wins KUWAIT: The government said yes- remained below 200 as the number of terday it was confident that life in the deaths dropped sharply and coron- silver at Tokyo Paralympics country will return to normal “soon” avirus patients at hospitals have after indicators on the coronavirus declined to just 200. Those receiving pandemic have recorded positive treatment at intensive care units also Volvo Kuwait to present Mutairi a car results leading to achieving herd fell to just 89 yesterday. TOKYO: Kuwait’s Ahmad Al-Mutairi won a the event at the 2016 Rio Games and the immunity. Health Minister Sheikh Basel During the meeting, Defense silver medal in the men’s T33 100-meter race 2019 world champion, finished in his season’s Al-Sabah briefed the Cabinet’s weekly Minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali at the Tokyo Paralympics yesterday. best time of 17.83 seconds, missing gold by meeting that the country has wit- Al-Sabah briefed the Cabinet on the Volvo Kuwait announced yesterday that it just 0.1 seconds at Tokyo’s National Stadium. TOKYO: Ahmad Al-Mutairi, who won a sil- nessed a major drop in the number of firing of three Katyusha missiles from will present a car to Kuwaiti champion Ahmed Minister of Information and State ver medal at the Tokyo Paralympics, at cases, deaths and patients due to the inside Iraq towards the Kuwaiti-Iraqi Naqa Al-Mutairi as a token of appreciation. Minister for Youth Affairs Abdurrahman Al- the National Stadium yesterday. increase in the number of vaccinations. border zone. The minister told the Volvo Kuwait Chairman Bader Nasser Al- Mutairi yesterday praised Ahmad Al-Mutairi “The Cabinet expressed confidence Cabinet the rockets caused no materi- Kharafi, speaking on the occasion, said, “We for winning the silver medal at Tokyo Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and HH that these positive indicators will lead al damage or human losses. congratulate the hero Ahmed Naqa Al-Mutairi Paralympics 2020. In a statement, the minis- the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al- to herd immunity and the return of life He told the Cabinet that Kuwait for this great achievement. He deserves all our ter expressed his pride in Al-Mutairi’s Hamad Al-Sabah to the domain of sports in to normal very shortly,” said a state- coordinated with the Iraqi authorities admiration and congratulations.” remarkable achievement. He praised the val- Kuwait. He stressed the importance of pro- ment issued following the meeting. The over the incident and it was “found British athletes Andrew Small claimed ued and continued support of His Highnesses viding suitable environment for Kuwaiti ath- Cabinet however renewed its call to cit- that this type of projectiles is used by gold in 17.73 seconds while Harri Jenkins the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber letes with disabilities. izens and residents to continue to outlawed groups” in Iraq. won bronze. Al-Mutairi, who won a gold in Al-Sabah, HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Continued on Page 2 observe health conditions and take the Continued on Page 2 Afghanistan that has been marred by IS rockets hit Islamic State violence. President Joe Biden has set a dead- Kuwait bans line of August 31 to withdraw all US Kabul airport forces from Afghanistan, drawing to a close his nation’s longest war, which delivery bikes as US pulls out began in retaliation for the September 11 attacks. The return of the hardline on main roads KABUL: The Islamic State group Islamist Taleban movement, which was claimed a rocket attack on Kabul air- toppled in 2001 but took back power port yesterday as US troops raced to a fortnight ago, triggered a massive complete their withdrawal from exodus of terrified people aboard US- Afghanistan and evacuate allies under led evacuation flights. the threat of further violence. The Those flights, which have taken Pentagon warned yesterday of a more than 122,000 people out of “real” and “specific” threat of new Kabul airport, will officially end today attacks at Kabul airport, just hours when the last of the thousands of KABUL: A US Air Force aircraft takes off from the airport in Kabul yesterday. ahead of a US deadline to complete American troops pull out. US forces Rockets were fired at Kabul Airport where US troops were racing to complete its frenzied withdrawal from Continued on Page 2 their withdrawal from Afghanistan. — AFP an AFP tally yesterday. WHO sounds Infections rates are ticking up globally again, as the highly trans- missible Delta variant takes hold- KUWAIT: Kuwait’s traffic authorities imposed alarm over especially among the unvaccinated- a ban on delivery motorbikes on highways and preying on populations where anti- Ring Roads starting from October 3, 2021 due to COVID deaths virus measures have been relaxed. a rise in accidents. The head of WHO Europe said yes- According to the Traffic General Department, COPENHAGEN: The World Health terday that infections and deaths the new regulation, issued to ‘streamline the Organization warned yesterday that were on the rise again in Europe, delivery motorcycle service’ in the country, pro- another 236,000 people could die particularly in poorer nations in the hibits bikes delivering items to use the first, from COVID in Europe by December Balkans, the Caucasus and Central fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh Ring Roads, in 1, sounding the alarm over rising infec- Asia. “Last week, there was an 11 addition to roads 30, 40, 50, 60 and 80, as well tions and stagnating vaccine rates on percent increase in the number of as Jamal Abdul-Nasser Road and Jaber the continent. The warning comes as deaths in the region-one reliable Causeway. Delivery services on bikes have the world passed the grim milestone of projection is expecting 236,000 BERLIN: A man receives a Johnson & Johnson Janssen COVID-19 vaccine in a reportedly mushroomed in Kuwait in recent 4.5 million deaths from COVID since deaths in Europe, by so-called ‘Impfzug’ (vaccination train) operated by Berliner S-Bahn in Gruenau months due to the COVID-19 restrictions. the start of the pandemic, according to Continued on Page 2 near Berlin yesterday. —AFP the ex-Soviet state. in the same period last year, according to Ukraine pins The trend has given hope to the coun- the country’s state tourism agency. This try’s pandemic-hit tourism industry. “We new cohort are attracted by a visa-free need to seize the moment,” says Bogdan regime enacted in August last year and hopes on Gets, a tour guide on a sightseeing train cheap direct flights. that ferries tourists along cobbled streets In previous years, the city was mostly Gulf visitors in central Lviv, a city in western Ukraine visited by Poles, Belarusians, Turks, known for its Renaissance architecture. Germans and Britons. “Last year put the LVIV, Ukraine: Saudi tourists ride horse- For Gets and his colleagues at “Chudo tourism industry in extreme conditions”, drawn carriages, pose for portraits by Tour” (Wonder Tour), the unexpected the agency said, and “radically changed” street artists and play chess on benches influx of tourists from the Middle East is a how tourists decide which countries to with locals in Lviv, a city in Ukraine more chance to recover after a string of lock- visit. Before the pandemic 32-year-old accustomed to hosting European guests. downs that put pressure on Ukraine’s Asma, a tourist from Saudi Arabia, trav- But with strict COVID-19 travel restric- struggling economy. elled with her husband and two sons to tions still in place across Europe, travellers In the first half of 2021, the number of various European destinations every year, from the Middle East-especially Saudi Saudi tourists alone visiting Ukraine sky- but never considered Ukraine. LVIV, Ukraine: Tourists from the GCC countries sit in a street cafe in Lviv, some Arabia-now rank among the top visitors to rocketed to 14,000 compared to just 350 Continued on Page 2 540 km west of Kiev. — AFP 2 Established 1961 Tuesday, August 31, 2021 Local Amir, Crown Prince meet Kuwait commerce chamber’s chief Sheikh Nawaf, Sheikh Mishal receive Saleh Al-Fadhala KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received at Seif Palace yesterday Chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Mohammad Jasem Al-Saqr. His Highness also received the head of the central agency for illegal residents’ affairs Saleh Al-Fadhala. His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah also received Saqr and Fadhala at Seif Palace yesterday. — Amiri Diwan and KUNA photos Kluge stressed that since public health and social WHO sounds measures were being relaxed in many places, “the public’s vaccination acceptance is crucial”. “Vaccine skepticism and science denial is holding alarm over... us back from stabilizing this crisis. It serves no pur- Continued from Page 1 pose, and is good for no one.” The warning comes as the WHO and UNICEF urged European countries December 1,” WHO Europe director Hans Kluge earlier yesterday to make teachers a priority group for said yesterday.