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.