-
6WORLDS P O R T S
Mohammed stars in Najma victorySharp-shooting guard buries 11
three-pointers in 41-point effort to lead team against Ettihad in
Zain basketball league | P12
THURSDAYJANUARY, 2021
210 FILS ISSUE NO. 8710
Frozen towers and palaces stun visitors at Harbin ice
festival7WHATSAPP3844 4692
TWITTER@newsofbahrain
[email protected]
WEBSITEnewsofbahrain.com
FACEBOOK/nobmedia
LINKEDINnewsofbahrain
INSTAGRAM/newsofbahrain
210 fils (includes VAT)
ACTIVE CASES
DEATHS
DISCHARGED
2,500
353
91,431
BAHRAIN
KIMSHEALTH Hospital opens in Umm Al Hassam5BUSINESSDrew
Barrymore was stood up by a man she met on a dating app 10
CELEBS
City Centre Bahrain Tel: +973 17556002
www.homesrusgroup.com AS GIFT VOUCHER ON A SPEND OF BHD 10 AND
ABOVE
50%GET BACKON EVERYTHINGNOW ONLY IN
CITYCENTREBAHRAIN
HM King receives HRH Crown Prince and Prime MinisterTDT |
Manama
His Majesty King Hamad binIsa Al Khalifa yesterday received His
Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince
and Prime Minister, who briefed HM the King on the 41st Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit held in Al Ula, Saudi Arabia.
HM the King praised the great efforts exerted by the Custodi-an
of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and HRH
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud to boost joint Gulf action
and strengthen cooperation among
the GCC countries. HM the King also praised the outstanding
preparation and organisation of the GCC Summit.
HM King Hamad lauded the summit’s important resolu-tions and
recommendations and stressed the significance of
protecting the rights of citizens.The summit’s resolutions
will
contribute to developing and consolidating the progress of the
GCC towards stronger co-operation, cohesion and com-plementarity
between its states and peoples, HM the King said.
HM the King HRH Crown Prince and Prime Minister
‘Very significant’ risksBritain, France and Germany ‘deeply
concerned’ over Iran’s move to enrich uranium
• European powersurge Tehran to reverse nuclear program
London
Germany, France and Brit-ain yesterday said they were “deeply
concerned” about Iran’s move to step up its uranium enrichment,
warning of “very significant” risks.
Tehran on Tuesday said it was now refining uranium to 20%
purity, the biggest break yet from its commitments under the 2015
nuclear deal struck with world powers.
“This action, which has no credible civil justification and
carries very significant prolif-eration-related risks, is in clear
violation of Iran’s commitments under the pact,” the European trio
said in a statement.
“It also risks compromising the important opportunity for a
return to diplomacy with the incoming US Administration.”
“We strongly urge Iran to stop enriching uranium to up to 20%
without delay,” they added.
Iran’s increased uranium en-richment has triggered
interna-tional concern because it is seen as a significant step
towards the
90% level required for a nuclear weapon.
The landmark 2015 deal agreed between Iran and the US, China,
Russia, Britain, France and Germany has been fraying since
President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed harsh
sanctions.
The Iranian government has signaled a readiness to engage
with US President-elect Joe Bid-en, who has expressed
willing-ness to return to diplomacy with Tehran and who takes
office on Jan. 20.
The agreement’s main aim was to extend the time Iran would need
to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb, if it chose
to, to at least a year from roughly two to three months.
European diplomats have said Iran’s repeated breaches have
already reduced the “breakout time” to well below a year.
The three European signato-ries to the deal, known as E3,
cautioned in their statement that Tehran’s latest move “risks
compromising the important opportunity for a return to di-plomacy
with the incoming US
administration.”“It’s their tactical objective to
pressure the Biden administra-tion, but at one point if you fill
the boat up too much it sinks,” said one European diplomat, adding
that for now the three powers would wait for the new US
administration to assess the situation.
“If we threw the accord out of the window then it would be even
harder to put back together again.”
In this 2019 file photo, technicians work at the Arak heavy
water reactor’s secondary circuit in Iran
This action, which has no credible
civil justification and carries
very significant proliferation-
related risks, is in clear violation of
Iran’s commitments under the pact.
It also risks compromising the important
opportunity for a return to diplomacy
with the incoming US Administration
EUROPEAN TRIO’S STATEMENT
HM King hailed by National Guard CommanderTDT | Manama
His Majesty King Ham-ad bin Isa Al Khalifa received a cable of
con-gratulations from National Guard Commander General Shaikh
Mohammed bin Isa Al Khalifa marking the 24th anniversary of the
National Guard.
Gen. Shaikh Mohammed extended, on behalf of all the National
Guard affili-ates, heartfelt congratula-tions to HM the King on the
occasion.
He stressed the ongoing development of the Nation-al Guard
thanks to the royal support, asserting its sacred national
role.
Individuals vaccinated
Last update - 9:00 pm6 January 2021
-
Education and training sector successes laudedDeputy Prime
Minister chairs council meeting; 2020 annual report reviewed and
approved
• It highlights the achievements, information and statistics
related to the education and training projects
TDT | Manama
The education and train-ing sector’s numerous achievements and
latest developments are highlighted in the 2020 annual report
pre-sented to Deputy Prime Minis-ter HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak
Al Khalifa.
Also as the president of the Supreme Council for the
Devel-opment of Education and Train-ing, HH Shaikh Mohammed bin
Mubarak yesterday chaired the Council’s 40th meeting.
The meeting reviewed the re-port, prepared by the Council’s team
who worked in coopera-tion with government entities, including the
Ministry of Ed-ucation, Labour and Social De-velopment Ministry,
Education and Training Quality Authority (BQA), University of
Bahrain, Bahrain Teachers’ College, Bah-rain Polytechnic and
Bahrain Training Institute.
It highlights the achieve-ments, information and statis-
tics related to the education and training projects, in addition
to the main challenges.
It also include the overhaul of the education and training
sys-tem through the restructuring of the Ministry of Education and
the post secondary education stage, in accordance with the
government’s priorities.
The report lauds the educa-tion and training sector’s ability to
continue despite the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, in
addition to the remarkable progress made by the Educa-tion Ministry
in the 2019 Trends
in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)
exams.
The Council approved the re-port, and extended thanks and
appreciation to all those who contributed to preparing it.
The Council was then briefed by the Ministry of Education about
the latest developments of its organisational structure following
the issuance of a Royal Decree in this regard, and the beginning of
its implementa-tion process, in addition to the initiatives related
to the unified framework of government pro-
grammes of priority for 2019-2020.
The panel was also informed about the taskforce’s comple-tion of
the schools institutions’ infrastructure plan, and the criteria of
the numerical and literacy skills initiative, under the supervision
of the Steering Committee of the institutional structure
development project. The two initiatives will be re-ferred to the
Government Ex-ecutive Committee.
The panel also discussed the Bahrain Teachers College (BTC)’s
expansion plan aimed at increasing the number of Bahraini graduate
teachers to achieve maximum rates of Bah-rainisation in educational
posts.
It also reviewed BTC’s exec-utive plan to achieve its goals for
the next 10 years, including the ability to meet 80% of the
Education Ministry’s needs of the teaching staff.
The report, prepared by BTC’s Board of Directors, will be
re-ferred to the Government Ex-ecutive Committee.
The Supreme Council for the Development of Education and
Training also approved BQA’s plan to focus on schools whose
performance needs more devel-opment.
The Council also approved the results of the National
Qual-ifications Framework’s accred-itation of eight national
qualifi-cations and the re-verification of two others.
HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak expressed sincere thanks and
appreciation to the members for their achieve-ments, stressing the
govern-ment’s unwavering keenness to support educational projects,
and the Ministry of Education.
02THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021
The annual report includes the achieve-ments, information
and statistics related to the education and training projects,
in addition to the main
challenges.
The Bahrain Teachers College’s executive plan
to achieve its goals for the next 10 years
included the ability to meet 80% of the Edu-
cation Ministry’s needs of the teaching staff.
KNOW WHAT
Deputy Prime Minister is briefed on the annual report
80%
Bahrain-US security cooperation discussed
• Three partnership agreements signed
TDT | Manama
Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa
received yesterday acting US Secretary of Home-land Security Chad
Wolf and his accompanying delegation in the presence of Public
Se-curity Chief, Interior Ministry Undersecretary for Nation-ality,
Passport and Residence Affairs, Bahrain Ambassador to the US,
Customs Chief and Head of the National Centre for Cyber
Security.
The Interior Minister laud-ed strategic relations and
partnership between Bahrain and the US, stressing common keenness
on further develop-ing them for the best interest of the two
friendly countries.
The meeting cast light on fields of joint cooperation and
security coordination regard-ing fighting cybercrimes and booting
procedures related to protecting the vital infra-structure between
the Nation-al Centre for Cyber Security in the Kingdom and the
Cy-bersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) of the US
Department of Homeland
Security. Both sides also dis-cussed issues of common
con-cern.
General Shaikh Rashid and Secretary Wolf signed three memoranda
of joint coopera-tion concerning the security of borders and
commodities, fighting terrorism and organ-ised cross-border crimes,
and Global Entry, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
programme.
The programme aims to sup-port trade and enhance the security of
passengers. It will provide Bahraini nationals with the rapid
travel service to the US.
The three security partner-ships, launched by both coun-tries,
will expand the scope of information, share and build capabilities
and exchange ex-periences and best practices, as they aim to ensure
max-imum security and stability for both countries in the face of
terrorism, extremism and cross-border crimes.
The Bahraini Ministry of Interior and the US Depart-ment of
Homeland Security expressed their aspiration to implement the three
security cooperation agreements, and to emphasise the
long-stand-ing partnership between the two countries in the field
of security.
Interior Minister with Secretary Wolf
SEA head enhances India relations
• Partnership discussed on renewable energy and energy
efficiency
TDT | Manama
Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) president Dr Abdul Hussain
bin Ali Mirza received the newly-appointed Indian Ambassador to
Bahrain Piyush Srivastava.
Dr Mirza praised the histor-ical relations between the two
countries, which have always been reflected by cooperation and
trade and economic inte-gration in various fields, espe-cially in
the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
He briefed Ambassador Srivastava on the national plans for
renewable energy and en-ergy efficiency and the most prominent
existing and future projects in both fields.
He also highlighted the ini-tiatives and steps taken by the
Kingdom to overcome the chal-lenges of limited space for solar
energy projects.
The meeting discussed the
role of Bahrain in the Interna-tional Solar Alliance as a
part-ner in the alliance, and what this partnership could bring in
terms of investments and pos-sibilities for the exchange of
experiences between the two friendly countries and all mem-ber
states of the organisation.
The Ambassador expressed his aspiration to work with SEA to
enhance cooperation be-tween the two parties, and to achieve more
in the fields of renewable energy through the partnership of the
Bahrain in the International Solar Energy Alliance.
Dr Mirza receives Ambassador Srivastava
BDF Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al
Khalifa received Commander of the Royal Tanks Major-General Rashid
bin Abdullah Al-Nuaimi, on the 50th Anniversary of the Royal Tanks.
The commander-in-chief praised the great achievements made by the
Royal Tanks affiliates in carrying out their duties to protect the
homeland, preserve its gains and safeguard its security and the
citizens’ safety. Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed hailed their support for
the march HM King, the Supreme Commander, wishing all the BDF men
success.
BDF Commander-in-Chiefreceives Commander of Royal Tanks
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Conference on Youth tomorrowTDT |
Manama
The PBD (Pravasi Bharati-ya Divas) Conference on Youth will be
held remotely tomorrow at 8:30am (Bahrain Time).
All members of the Indian community are invited to take part in
the online event by watching live at:
https://you-tube.com/channel/UC-wttYG-dvP8Roy8mh8VbzKw. They can
also follow live on Face-book (@meaindia).
Shri Sanjay Bhattacharyya, Secretary (OIA & CPV), Min-istry
of External Affairs, will deliver the welcome remarks.
Those who will address the participants include Shri Kiren
Rijiju, Minister of State (In-dependent Charge) for Youth Affairs
and Sports; Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Minister for Community and
Voluntary Sector as Special Guest; and Shri V. Muraleedharan,
Minis-ter of State for External Affairs.
The closing remarks will be delivered by Usha Sharma,
Secretary
-
Housing Ministry distributes apartment units in Salman Town
• Project is in line with order of HRH the Crown Prince and
Prime Minister to distribute 5,000 housing units
TDT | Manama
Housing Ministry Assistant Undersecretary for Poli-cies and
Housing Services Dr Khalid Al Haidan announced the distribution of
apartments project in Salman Town to the
beneficiaries. This came in implementa-
tion of an order by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad
Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to distribute
5,000 housing units.
Dr Al Haidan confirmed that the Salman Town apart-ments project
is one of the main projects of the ministry following the royal
order of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa to build 40,000
housing units.
He added that the buildings of this project are unique for their
coastal location, as well
as their interior design, which is part of the modern designs of
the fifth generation of residen-tial buildings that the ministry is
implementing in new hous-ing cities and housing complex projects in
the Kingdom’s gov-ernorates.
The assistant undersecretary emphasised that the step of
dis-tributing the certificates of en-titlement represents new
acqui-sition. This meets the requests of ownership apartments for a
large number of citizens, in-dicating that this project will reduce
the number of applica-tions on the waiting list.
03THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021
Construction progress on timeTransportation Minister briefed on
second phase of work at airport’s new Passenger Terminal
• Four times larger than the existing facility and equipped with
the latest technologies
• It will increase the airport’s capacity to 14 million
passengers per year
TDT | Manama
Transportation and Tele-communications Minis-ter and Bahrain
Airport Company (BAC) Chairman Ka-mal bin Ahmed Mohamed paid an
inspection visit to Bahrain In-ternational Airport to follow up on
the progress of construction at the new Passenger Terminal.
The second phase, which is proceeding on schedule, is tak-ing
place in the eastern part of the airport. The site has been
cordoned off to maintain the highest levels of safety and
se-curity.
The Minister, BAC officials
and representatives of the pro-ject’s main contractor, Arabtec
TAV, were briefed on the latest developments, including dem-olition
works and the removal of all internal equipment and
installations, floors, ceilings, non-bearing partition walls,
me-chanical and electrical systems, and air conditioning
systems.
The Minister emphasised the importance of maintaining the
current pace of work, complet-ing the second phase on time, and
ensuring that the construc-tion does not affect airport
op-erations.
He reiterated that 2021 will be a major turning point for the
airport, praising the ongoing efforts of Team Bahrain, which
started work on this important national development project four
years ago.
He noted that the $1.1 billion Airport Modernisation Pro-gramme
(AMP) is the largest in-vestment in Bahrain’s aviation sector for
more than 20 years and will usher in a new era for air transport in
the Kingdom.
In addition to the new Pas-senger Terminal and related projects
such as the Central Utilities Complex, Multi-storey Cark Park,
Staff Parking Area, Super Gate and Fire Station, the AMP includes
several infrastruc-ture development projects that will contribute
to the realisation
of Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030, laying the foundation for a
more sustainable and diversified economy.
The transference of opera-tions to the new terminal will signal
a major shift in the King-dom’s aviation sector. This will be
complemented with Fuel Farm Complex operations, in-cluding three
aviation fuel tanks.
The coming months will also see the inauguration of the new
private aviation terminal, which will cater to businessmen and
private aircraft owners.
The private aviation termi-nal will be a major contributor to
trade and will support the growth of the tourism and travel sector
for decades to come.
Four times larger than the existing facility, the new Pas-senger
Terminal is equipped with the latest technologies and supported by
high quality infra-structure.
It will increase the airport’s capacity to 14 million
passen-gers per year, delivering a com-fortable and hassle-free
airport experience.
Transportation Minister during his visit
KNOW WHAT
The second phase, which is proceeding
on schedule, is taking place in the eastern part of the
airport. The site has been cordoned off to maintain the highest
levels of safety and
security.
Seven defendants, two restaurants receive hefty fines for
disregarding COVID safety rulesTDT | Manama
The court fined seven defendants and two restaurants BD1,000 to
BD2,000 for disregarding precautionary measures to prevent the
spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the Chief Prosecutor of
minis-tries and public institutions said.
The Public Health Direc-torate reported yesterday that two
restaurants did not follow the preventative measures to prevent the
spread of the virus, includ-ing leaving a distance be-tween tables,
not surpassing 50% of the table’s capacity and wearing face masks.
The two restaurants were shut down and legal proce-dures are being
taken.
The Public Prosecution launched an investigation immediately
after receiving a notification and ordered the defendants be
referred to the specialised crimi-nal court which issued its
afore-mentioned verdict.
Three Asians held for stealing BD2,300 worth of gold in
JuffairTDT | Manama
The Criminal Investi-gation Police arrested three Asians, aged
34 to 45 years, for stealing gold jew-ellery worth approximately
BD2,300 in an apartment in Juffair.
The Director General of the General Department of Criminal
Investigation dis-closed that one of the sus-pects broke into the
build-ing while his two compan-ions helped him carry out the
crime.
As soon as the police re-ceived a report of the inci-dent, they
began the inves-tigation that led to the iden-tification and arrest
of the suspects. The stolen items were seized from them.
All necessary legal meas-ures have been taken in preparation for
referring the case to the Public Pros-ecution.
Muharraq centre working hours extendedTDT | Manama
The Forensic Infor-mation Directorate announced yesterday the
extension of the working hours at its service office at the
Muharraq Security Complex from Sunday, Jan-uary 10.
The working hours will be from 9am to 5:30pm dur-ing the working
days. Before visiting the centre, appli-cants should book
appoint-ments through the Skiplino app.
Demolition works in progress
Citizens receiving their certificates of entitlement
Request made for BD1.3m government procurementTDT | Manama
Strategic projects and pro-curement requests by gov-ernment
entities valued at approximately BD1.3 million were discussed at
the 40th In-formation and Communica-tion Technology Governance
Committee (ICTGC) meeting, which was held online, under the
chairman of Information and e-Government Authority (iGA) Chief
Executive, Mo-hammed Ali Al Qaed.
Al Qaed expressed his as-pirations for the new year to carry
with it more achieve-ments that benefit the country and the
citizens, wishing the committee further successes.
The committee agreed on choosing Dr Zakaria Ahmed Al Khaja,
Deputy Chief Exec-utive, iGA, as Deputy Chairper-son of the
committee.
It reviewed procurement re-quests, including an initiative to
modernise the television archives at the Ministry of In-formation
Affairs and upgrade its media archiving system through modern
management and classification technolo-gies.
Artificial Intelligence will
be used to improve search, retrieval, and backup copying of
media material in line with International Telecommuni-cations Union
(ITU) stand-ards.
The meeting also discussed the Births and Deaths certifi-cate
archival system at the iGA, which will call for replacing paper
archives with a cate-gorised archiving system that enables easy and
quick search. The project will enhance the quality of services
offered to the public, including retrieval of Births and Deaths
certifi-cates.
The committee reviewed the latest version of the govern-ment’s
website development standards, which will include the latest best
practices in line with United Nations (UN) eGovernment Survey
require-ments, in addition to an updat-ing of the Web Content
Acces-sibility Guidelines (WCAG) to be in line with the World Wide
Web Consortium (W3C).
The meeting covered a num-ber of decisions taken during previous
meetings, and a sum-mary of the projects reviewed by the iGA’s
Information Tech-nology Project Review Team.
-
04THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021
Benchmark for excellence in healthcare and educationKing
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Medical City Hospital to receive patients
early next year
• Construction works to be completed at the end of this year
TDT | Manama
The construction work at the Arab Gulf Universi-ty’s King
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Medical City Hospi-tal has gone a long way
and it is expected to be completed at the end of this year.
It will be ready to be opera-tional and receive patients early
next year.
The project aims to become a benchmark for excellence in
healthcare and education in the Gulf region.
Dr Khaled Tabbara, who is in charge of supervising the progress
of the project, assured that the construction work of the
university hospital is pro-ceeding according to schedule despite
the pandemic.
Last month, two batches of academic staff from the Col-lege of
Medicine and Medical Sciences and the College of Graduate Studies
visited the site located in the Southern Governorate.
Dr Tabbara briefed them on the progress of construction works
being carried out accord-ing to their specified dates.
He expressed his deep thanks
and appreciation to the Custo-dian of the Two Holy Mosques King
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for his directives to contin-ue to
support the project.
He also thanked His Majesty the King Hamad bin Isa Al Khal-ifa,
who directed the provision of a land grant for the project on an
area of one million square metres.
But while the pandemic has affected the progress of the
pro-ject, the university is working with its contractors to develop
alternative plans to complete the project on time.
The project cut advanced stages that represent more than 40% of
the completion period. It includes preparations for the
next phase such as offering ten-ders for the provision of
medical devices and furniture.
The construction work are being implemented in four phases.
The first phase includes the implementation of electricity,
water and sewage networks, and fire-fighting, irrigation and
rainwater drainage net-works, that is in addition to the
construction of internal roads and installation of street
lighting.
The second phase will be the construction of a main power plant
to supply the city with electricity, while the third and fourth
phases will include the construction of a sewage plant and the
development of the roads networks surrounding and leading to the
city.
It was a grant from the late King Abdullah bin Abdu-laziz Al
Saud, who instructed to construct the SR1 billion worth medical
city in Bahrain as a gift from the people of Saudi Arabia to the
people of Bahrain.
It will be a multiple phased, mixed use development, com-prising
an Academic Medical Centre, an innovative teaching hospital built
in two phases, a state-of-the-art Medical Uni-versity Campus with
Research and Conference Facilities, on-site accommodation for both
staff and students, and other communal facilities to create a
self-sustained campus.
The design concept was to create a supportive environ-ment for
healing and learning.
Phase 1, the Academic Med-ical Centre, will offer 269 in-patient
beds, 12 birthing rooms and 11 operating theatres as well as
high-quality diagnostic and treatment services in four primary
specialties; medicine, surgery, women’s and children’s
healthcare.
The completion of the devel-opment will see the capacity of the
hospital increased to over 500 beds, with an academic school, a
research facility, medi-cal hotel, rehabilitation hospital and
on-site accommodation for students and staff.
Works at the site in progress
The project was a grant from the late King Abdullah bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud, who instructed to construct the SR1 billion King
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz
Medical City in Bahrain as a gift from the people of Saudi
Arabia to the peo-
ple of Bahrain.
KNOW WHAT
Developing skills in accounting and finance
• The University of Applied Sciences’ undergraduate programme is
in line with global standards
TDT | Manama
The College of Administra-tive Sciences at the Uni-versity of
Applied Sciences is offering distinguished edu-cational programmes
for stu-dents at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in line
with the needs of the local and foreign market.
The Dean of the College, Dr Ramzi Al Nakhili, said that they
tirelessly pursues new scientif-ic infrastructure according to the
highest standards of edu-cation and accreditation.
He pointed out that the Bachelor of Finance and Ac-counting
programme being offered by the university in the English language
provides knowledge and understand-ing of specialised theories and
modern essential concepts in accounting and finance.
It aims to qualify students scientifically and practically and
provide them with high professional skills to help them enter and
compete in the la-
bour market, as well as pass exams for professional
cer-tificates.
Dr Al Nakhili explained that the bachelor’s programme in Finance
and Accounting focus-es on developing the students’ analytical
skills and enabling them to think in an in-depth and comprehensive
way that helps them provide creative solutions to complex issues in
the work environment.
It also helps the, develop the students’ capabilities in
em-ploying technology by using applications and software to collect
and analyse data, which supports planning and deci-sion-making
processes at all administrative levels in the digital business
environment.
The college’s achievements since its inception have at-tested to
its accreditation by the Association of Certified Public
Accountants (ACCA) for the Bachelor of Science pro-gramme.
Finance and accounting, where the graduate obtains an exemption
from some ex-amination papers from the certificate component, which
includes 14 scientific subjects, and the certificate provided by
the association is one of the highest international profes-sional
certificates in the field of accounting.
The University of Applied Sciences
UoB offers ‘quality’ post-graduate programmes• Experts reviewed
the latest developments and research trends in artificial
intelligence
TDT | Manama
The annual graduate studies forum recently organised by the
College of Engineering at the University of Bahrain has
strengthened its conviction about the high quality of its
pro-grammes.
The virtual forum introduced four post-graduate programmes that
the college developed and introduced during the academ-ic year
2020-2021, namely the Master in Communication and Network
Engineering, Master in Architecture, Master in Renew-able Energy
Engineering, and Master in Artificial Intelligence Systems.
At the event, experts reviewed the latest developments and
re-search trends in the fields of artificial intelligence,
renewable energy engineering, and com-munication systems.
The Dean of the College of Engineering at the University
of Bahrain, Dr Fuad Muham-mad Al Ansari, said: “One of the most
important fruits of the forum, which lasted for nearly five hours,
was the agreement on further research cooperation in the scientific
fields discussed with the participating experts and their
universities.”
He pointed out the impor-tance of the dimension related to
opening new channels for scientific research through documenting
the network of research relations, which paves the way for holding
specialised
courses in modern fields, such as artificial intelligence,
net-works, among others.
During the forum, Profes-sor of Communication Systems at
Alexandria University, Dr Mustafa Youssef, talked about the
master’s programme in communications and network engineering that
the college proposed and reviewed a re-search paper on how to
benefit from recent studies related to it.
University of Jordan Prof Dr Ghaith Abanda reviewed the
most important components and advantages of the Master of
Artificial Intelligence Systems offered by the Faculty of
Engi-neering, indicating its impor-tance to the requirements of the
contemporary labour market.
Dr Abanda conducted an academic paper in the field of artificial
intelligence, in which he referred to the link with the outputs
related to the master’s programme in artificial intel-ligence
systems offered by the College of Engineering at the University of
Bahrain.
Participants at the virtual forum
“One of the most important fruits of
the forum as the agreement on further research cooperation in
the scientific fields
discussed with the participating experts
and their universities.” – Dr Fuad Muhammad Al Ansari, Dean of
the College of Engineering
at the University of Bahrain
Electricity Minister and EWA CEO praise Fikra’s visionTDT |
Manama
Electricity and Water Affairs Minister Wael bin Nasser Al
Mubarak, and Electricity and Water Au-thority (EWA) CEO Shaikh
Nawaf bin Ibrahim Al Khal-ifa, praised the Government Innovation
Competition (Fikra), which reflects the ambitious vision of His
Roy-al Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown
Prince and Prime Minister.
The Minister received Ali Al Jowder, Head of In-formation, and
Eng Hassan Jaafar Abdullah, the partic-ipants in Fikra, noting that
EWA is proud of their ideas in the competition.
Minister Al Mubarak stressed that the inclusion of modern and
innovative initiatives in future gov-ernment plans and projects
will contribute effectively to raising the efficiency of the
government work system.
Call to set up committeesTDT | Manama
A scientific study at a fo-rum recently organised by the
University of Bahrain called for the establishment of specialised
legal commit-tees to look into small issues related to
administrative contracts that have become impossible to implement
for small and medium-sized companies, given the eco-nomic
repercussions im-posed by the pandemic.
The University of Bahrain recently organised the In-ternational
Forum “Legal, Objective and Procedural Dimensions of the
Corona-virus (COVID-19) Pandemic,” with the participation of le-gal
experts and academics.
The study, which was reviewed by a professor of law at the
Police College at Saad Al Abdullah Academy for Security Sciences in
the State of Kuwait, Dr Majed Melfi Al Daihani, warned that small
enterprises will not be able to bear the eco-nomic repercussions or
even the burdens of litiga-tion.
-
54.45Brent crude rose 85
cents, or 1.6 per cent, to $54.45 a barrel at 1050
GMT
05THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021
Investcorp’s Impero buys educational software solution provider
Netop
• Impero is Investcorp portfolio company
• It’s a leading provider of online student safety and classroom
and network management software
TDT | Manama
Investcorp, a leading global provider and manager of
al-ternative investment products, yesterday announced acquiring
Netop, an international soft-ware solutions provider to the
education sector and corpo-rates.
The acquisition through In-vestcorp’s portfolio company, Impero,
a leading provider of online student safety and classroom and
network man-agement software, was from Consolidated Holdings
A/S.
The transaction, expected to close within the next four weeks,
is subject to customary closing conditions. Terms are not
disclosed.
The acquisition, Investcorp said, will significantly increase
Impero’s scale and presence in the United States, and has the
potential to increase Impero’s
total and recurring revenue base.
“The deal further expands Impero’s addressable market while
diversifying its customer base and providing an entry into the
corporate sector, pri-marily in financial services and retail.”
Upon completing the trans-action, Impero would be better
positioned to serve custom-ers in both the education and corporate
end markets with a broader suite of offerings and would have the
potential to both accelerate its product roadmap and realize
substantial revenue synergies by incorpo-rating Netop’s
complementa-ry technology into its existing portfolio.
Gilbert Kamieniecky, Man-
aging Director and Head of Investcorp’s Private Equi-ty
Technology business said: “Impero and Netop are highly
complementary businesses and we are excited by the compel-ling
growth and value-creation potential of the transaction and the
strong progress that Impero is continuing to deliver on its
strategy.”
Ali AlRahma, Private Equity Product Specialist at Investcorp
said: “Impero’s acquisition of Netop comes at a time when both
students and profession-als around the world need the technology
solutions provided by these two organizations. We believe that this
acquisition will further advance Impero’s abil-ity to serve both
education and corporate clients.”
Gilbert KamienieckyAli AlRahma
KIMSHEALTH Hospital opens in Umm Al Hassam • The new hospital is
located in the residential area of Umm Al Hassam
TDT | Manama
Bahrain’s leading health-c a r e p r o v i d e r, K I M -S H E A
LT H , h a s s o f t -launched its latest medical fa-cility –
KIMSHEALTH Hospital in Umm Al Hassam.
With this launch, KIM-SHEALTH said it became the largest
provider in the country’s private healthcare space with two
hospitals and four medical centres.
The new hospital is located in the residential area of Umm Al
Hassam and 400 meters away from the existing KIMSHEALTH Medical
Center, on the old Asian School premises.
KIMSHEALTH is designed to provide – inpatient and outpa-tient
services, operating rooms, maternity, pharmacy, labora-
tory, radiology and emergency services.
Some of the specialities are General Practice, Internal
Med-icine, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Pediatrics, Orthopedics,
ENT,
Ophthalmology, Urology, Der-matology & Cosmetology,
Cardi-ology, Dentistry, Physiotherapy and more.
In addition to the new doc-tors and additional specialities
planned for the hospital, the ser-vices of existing doctors from
KIMSHEALTH Medical Center will be available at the hospital. “This
will ensure continuity of care for existing patients, espe-
cially those who need to undergo surgeries or require inpatient
care.”
Speaking on the launch, Dr M. I. Sahadulla, Group Chair-man
& Managing Director at KIMSHEALTH reiterated KIM-SHEALTH’s new
Mission - to pro-vide, high-quality, cost-effective care with
courtesy, compassion and competence.
“Over the years, KIMSHEALTH has earned an exemplary repu-tation
for its quality of service, care and affordability. The new
KIMSHEALTH Hospital will pro-vide communities and existing patients
of KIMSHEALTH Med-ical Center seamless access to all of our new
services,” added Dr Sahadulla.
Explaining the importance of the Indo-Bahraini partnership,
Ahmed Jawahery, Chairman – KIMSHEALTH Medical Center and President
– Royal Bahrain Hospital, said: “KIMSHEALTH Hospital aims to cater
to the af-fordable segment of the society and will offer a wide
number of services. Also, KIMSHEALTH is
an example of perfect Indo-Bah-raini partnership that has grown
beyond Bahrain, serving the other GCC countries, namely – Oman,
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.”
“KIMSHEALTH’s objective is to offer a wide variety of ser-vices
covering the entire spec-trum of healthcare delivery to the
patient. Thus, KIMSHEALTH will be providing primary, in-patient,
rehabilitation and post-discharge care at home,” said Dr Sheriff M.
Sahadulla, Group Chief Executive Officer at KIMSHEALTH.
Jacob Thomas, Executive Di-rector – Operations & Projects
(GCC) at KIMSHEALTH said: “KIMSHEALTH has been serving Bahrainis
and expatriates in the Kingdom since 2004.”
“This is our fifth facility af-ter – Royal Bahrain Hospital,
KIMSHEALTH Medical Center’s in Umm Al Hassam, Muharraq and Askar.
We are also looking forward to the launch of new RBH Medical Center
in Saar/Janabiyah.”
KIMSHEALTH Hospital
2020 marks Alba’s highest production record with more than 1.548
m MT TDT | Manama
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) - the world’s largest alumin-ium
smelter ex-China - closes 2020 by beating its Production Target of
1,540,000 metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) to top a breakthrough
record of 1,548,500 metric tonnes.
The new feat is also the high-est-ever achieved in 50-years of
commercial operations, up by 13 per cent Year-over-Year versus
1,365,005 mtpa in 2019.
Commenting, Alba’s Chief Executive Officer Ali Al Baqali said:
“2020 was a year like no other with world-shifting chal-lenges. But
for Alba and despite all odds, we have raised the bar
and finished 2020 strong by achieving the highest-ever re-cord
in our operational perfor-mance.”
He added: “This achievement was possible, thanks to our
ded-icated workforce, employees and contractors’ employees who rose
to such challenges
while remaining committed to our motto of ‘Safety First, Safety
Always’.”
The celebratory ceremony, held adhering to social distanc-ing
norms, was attended by the Executive Management team, and employees
from across the plant.
Group photo for the celebratory ceremony
Oil extends gains after Saudi output cutReuters | London
Oil prices extended gains yesterday, rising to their highest
since late February, af-ter Saudi Arabia announced a big voluntary
production cut, and as an industry report showed US inventories
fell last week.
Brent crude rose 85 cents, or 1.6 per cent, to $54.45 a barrel
at 1050 GMT, its highest level since Feb. 26, 2020, after jump-ing
about 5pc on Tuesday.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were up 52 cents, or
1pc, to $50.45 a barrel, also their highest since Feb. 26. The
contract on Tuesday closed up 4.6pc.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s big-gest oil exporter, on Tuesday
announced it would make ad-ditional, voluntary oil output cuts of 1
million barrels per day
(bpd) in February and March, after a meeting of OPEC+, which
groups Organisation of the Pe-troleum Exporting Countries producers
and others, including Russia.
OPEC+ agreed most produc-ers would hold output steady in
February and March while allowing Russia and Kazakh-stan to raise
output by a mod-est 75,000 bpd in February and a further 75,000 bpd
in March. US crude oil invento-ries fell by 1.7 million barrels in
the week to Jan. 1 to 491.3 mil-lion barrels, data from industry
group the American Petroleum Institute showed.
The Bahrain Petroleum Company BSC (Closed) hereby invites tender
for the following:
KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN
PROVISION OF MAINTENANCE SERVICES SUPPORT FOR VARIOUS AGILENT
ANALYZERS
22975 500/- 15.750 16-Feb-2021
The above public tenders are issued through Bapco’s EAM (Oracle)
system. Bapco invites interested Vendors with proven experience in
providing the above services to participate in the above tenders.
Registered suppliers with Bapco’s EAM system can log in with their
username and password and purchase the tender. Tender documents can
be downloaded after paying the tender fee. Unregistered suppliers
can register by visiting the following website:
https://www.bapco.net/doing-business-with-us.html#prequalificationsUnder
prequalification, please select new supplier registration and
complete the steps. For further clarification you may contact Bapco
Procurement Department at the Refinery on Telephone 1775 5845, 1775
7054, 775 2995 or 17755684Submission of the Tender is online
through EAM system, but the Initial Bond is to be submitted in
original. Initial Bond shall be payable by a Certified Cheque,
Cash, Manager cheque, letter of guarantee or insurance policy. The
Initial bond shall remain valid throughout the tender period
specified in the relevant tender documents (6 months from the date
of submission). Initial Bond can be submitted at old BBK Building
(Procurement Department – Tendering Unit) located outside the
refinery, near North Gate between 9:00 am and 11:00 am on Sundays
and Tuesdays only. This tender is subject to the provisions of
Legislative Decree No.36 of 2002 with respect to Regulating
Government Tenders & Purchases and the Legislative Decree No.37
of 2002 with respect to the Tender Law’s implementing
regulations.The following conditions shall be complied with: 1.
Enclose a copy of the Commercial Registration Certificate valid for
the current year,
and be in conformity with the subject tender. 2. Enclose a copy
of Certificate of Compliance with the Employment Percentage for
Bahraini Manpower issued by the Ministry of Labour. 3. Submit
quotations on Tender Submission Form. 4. Ensure to stamp with the
official seal on all the original documents and copies
thereof, which form part of the offer. 5. Award of Purchase
Agreement to a Contractor who is not on Bapco’s Approved List
of Contractors will be subject to successful pre-qualification.•
This announcement is to be read as part of the Tender
Documents.
-
WHOEVER IS HAPPY WILL MAKE OTHERS HAPPY TOOANNE FRANK
QUOTE OF THE DAY
THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021
1714 1941 1953 1954TODAY IN
HISTORYTypewriter patented by Englishman Henry Mill (built years
later)
Chinese Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-shek open
fire on the surrounded Communist New Fourth Army at Maolin, An-
hui Province, killing or capturing 7,000 troops
US President Harry Truman announces American development of the
hydrogen bomb
Georgetown-IBM experiment, 1st public demonstration of a machine
translation system, is held at IBM’s
head office in New York
TOP
4TWEETS
04
03
01
Because in America, everyone’s voice matters. And that’s still
the truth, no matter what some folks want you to believe.
@MichelleObama
One gift Trump could give the country and the world is to not
start a war with Iran in his fi-nal 15 days in office. It’s hard to
tell whether his administration is mak-ing intentional moves or
simply displaying in-competence. Either way, they are playing a
dan-gerous game.
@HillaryClinton
Georgia — If you elect @ReverendWar-nock and @Ossoff , we can
break the gridlock that has gripped Washington. We’ll be able to
make the progress we need to make on jobs, health care, justice,
and more.
@JoeBiden
The States want to redo their votes. They found out they v o t e
d o n a F R AU D . Legislatures never ap-proved. Let them do it. BE
STRONG!
@realDonaldTrump
Disclaimer: (Views expressed by columnists are personal and need
not necessarily reflect our
editorial stances)
02
86,989,000
1,879,176
61,687,932
Deaths
Recovered:
New cases
New deaths +167,672
+3,967
Country Total cases
new cases
Total deaths
New Deaths
Total recovered
Active cases
Egypt 144,583 7,918 115,414 21,251
Saudi Arabia
363,377 +118 6,272 +7 354,899 2,206
UAE 216,699 685 193,321 22,693
Kuwait 152,438 +411 938 148,015 3,485
Oman 129,888 +114 1,504 +2 122,456 5,928
Qatar 145,061 +209 245 142,182 2,634
Middle East
Country Total cases Total deaths
1 USA 21,588,382 365,740
2 India 10,377,329 150,179
3 Brazil 7,812,007 197,777
4 Russia 3,308,601 59,951
5 UK 2,774,479 76,305
6 France 2,680,239 66,282
7 Turkey 2,270,101 21,879
8 Italy 2,181,619 76,329
9 Spain 1,982,544 51,430
10 Germany 1,818,705 37,351
11 Colombia 1,702,966 44,426
12 Argentina 1,662,730 43,785
13 Mexico 1,466,490 128,822
14 Poland 1,344,763 30,055
G l o b a l t a l l y
C O V I D - 1 : 9 C o u n t r i e s w o r s t a f f e c t e
d
Figures as of closing
News in brief u Russia has inoculated one million people against
COVID-19 with its Sputnik V vaccine, according to a statement on
the Sputnik V Twitter account yesterday. Russia, which has the
world’s fourth highest number of COVID-19 cases, started
large-scale vaccinations last month. No new adverse reactions have
been reported, RIA news agency quoted Alexander Gintsburg, director
of the Gamaleya Institute which developed the vaccine, as
saying.
u Britain is to name former Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp
as the next chairman of the BBC as the broadcaster faces questions
about its future funding and purpose as viewers turn to new
competitors, Sky News reported yesterday. Sharp has recently been
acting as an adviser to finance minister
Rishi Sunak, Sky said. He will succeed David Clementi, a former
deputy governor of the Bank of England, who is stepping down
next
month after four years. The chairman, who is officially
appointed by the queen on the recommendation of the government, is
responsible for upholding and protecting the independence of the
BBC, which is funded by a licence fee paid by every TV-watching
household.
u The office of the US Director of National Intelligence on
Tuesday said Russia was “likely” behind a string of hacks
identified last month that gained access to several federal
agencies. The office, along with the FBI, the National Security
Agency, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency inside
the Department of Homeland Security, in a joint statement, said the
hackers’ goal appeared to be collecting intelligence, rather than
any destructive acts. They said they had so far identified “fewer
than 10” agencies that were hacked.
u A fire at a Spanish care home killed an 89-year-old woman and
injured 18 people, emergency services said yesterday. The blaze
began on the third floor at the Domusvi-Adorea home in Seville in
southern Spain just before midnight on Tuesday, firefighters
said.
u North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his five-year economic
plan had failed to meet its goals “on almost every sector”
as he kicked off a congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, state
media KCNA reported yesterday. The rare political gathering, which
Kim last hosted in 2016, has drawn international attention as he is
expected to unveil a new five-year economic plan and address
inter-Korean ties and foreign policy.
Britain to name former Goldman banker Sharp as BBC chairman
Russia likely behind hacking of government agencies
Spanish care home fire kills 89-year-old woman, injures 18
Kim tells party congress economic plan failed
‘tremendously’
Russia inoculates 1 million people against
COVID-19
Democrats in full control Wins one seat in Georgia, surges ahed
in another
• Republicans loose state they controlled for decades
• Black voters turned out in numbers unprecedented for a run-off
vote
• Trump’s supporters plan to rally in the streets of
Washington
Reuters | Altanta
Democrats won one US Sen-ate race in Georgia and surged ahead in
anoth-er yesterday, moving closer to a stunning sweep that would g
i v e t h e m control of Congress a n d
t h e power to ad-v a n c e
President-elect Joe Biden’s pol-icy goals.
Raphael Warnock, a Bap-tist preacher from the historic church of
Martin Luther King Jr., beat Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler to
become the first Black senator in the history of the deep South
state.
Jon Ossoff, a documenta-ry filmmaker who at 33 would become the
Senate’s youngest member, held a narrow lead over
incumbent David Perdue in the
other race, with a fi-nal out-come not
e x p e c t -ed unt i l later on Wednes-d a y a t the
ear-liest.
T h e r e s u l t s w e r e a
repudiation of Donald Trump in a state his Republicans have
controlled for decades.
The outgoing president cam-paigned for both Republicans, while
at the same time levelling false accusations that his own loss in
the November presidential election was tainted by fraud, and
attacking Republican officials in the state. Some Republicans said
that discouraged his supporters from voting.
With 98 per cent of votes in and counting mostly stopped for the
night, Warnock was ahead of Loeffler by 1.2 percentage points,
roughly 54,000 votes, ac-cording to Edison Research. O s s o f f l
e d P e r -due by more t h a n 16,000 votes, o r 0.4 percentage
points, j u s t shy of the state’s 0 . 5 percent thresh-old to
avoid a recount.
W i n -ning both
contests would give Democrats control of the Senate, creating a
50-50 split and giving Vice Pres-ident-elect Kamala Harris the
tie-breaking vote once she and Biden take office on Jan. 20. The
party already has a narrow ma-jority in the US House of
Repre-sentatives.
If Republicans hold the second seat, they would effectively
wield veto power over Biden’s political and judicial appointees as
well as many of his legislative initiatives in areas such as
economic relief from the coronavirus pandemic, climate change,
healthcare and criminal justice.
The campaign’s final days were overshadowed by Trump’s attacks o
n h i s ow n election defeat in the state, in-cluding a recording
of a phone call in which he
hectored Republican Georgia of-ficials to “find” enough votes to
make him the winner.
On Trump’s shoulders
Gabriel Sterling, a Republican and a top election official in
the
state, told CNN that if Demo-crats won, the losses would
“fall
squarely on the shoulders of President Trump and his actions
since Nov. 3.”
The election also signalled a shift in the politics
of Georgia and the wider deep South. Black v o t e r s , t h e
most reliable Democratic supporters
in the region, turned out
i n
numbers unprecedented for a run-off vote.
In a video message, Warnock, whose Ebenezer Baptist Church is
legendary in Georgia because of its role in the civil rights
move-ment under King, recalled his humble upbringing as one of 12
children of a woman who worked in cotton fields.
“Because this is America, the 8 2 - y e a r - o l d hands that
used to pick some-body else’s cot-ton went to the p o l l s a n
d
picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” he
said.
During the campaign, Republi-cans had painted Ossoff and
War-nock as radicals who would pur-sue a hard-left agenda. But that
message failed to resonate with many white suburbanites who have
increasingly abandoned the Republican party under Trump.
Trump’s flailing efforts to over-turn his own defeat move to
Con-gress later on Wednesday, when Vice President Mike Pence is due
to preside over the counting of electoral votes to certify Biden’s
victory.
Trump has called on Pence to throw out the results in states he
narrowly lost, although Pence has no authority to do so. Some
Republican lawmakers have said they will try to reject some state
tallies, a move that stands no chance of success but which could
force debate and drag out the certification process.
Trump’s supporters plan to ral-ly in the streets of Washington,
with the city bracing for poten-tial violence. Police banned the
leader of a far-right group from the city and made several arrests
as protests ramped up on Tues-day. Trump is due to address the
crowd at 11 a.m. (1600 GMT)
Both Republican senators, following the lead of Trump who has
never conceded his own loss, predicted they would ultimately win
and insisted they would fight on: “We have a path to victory and
we’re staying
on it,” Loeffler told supporters in
Atlanta.
A Fulton County election worker puts absentee ballots in a
scanner as election observers look on, at the Georgia World
Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia
Students gets COVID test kits by vending machineReuters | San
Diego
The University of Califor-nia’s San Diego campus has launched
the winter academ-ic term with a unique twist to its coronavirus
safety regimen: newly installed vending ma-chines stocked with
do-it-your-self COVID-19 tests for students.
The 11 dispensers at UC San Diego since Jan. 2 - with nine more
to be added over the next week or two - are the first of their kind
to be introduced on a college or university campus in the United
States, according to school officials.
Adapted from conventional vending machines, the systems
aim to make it easier and less costly to regularly screen
the
school’s student body.All 10,000 students living on
campus, accounting for about a quarter of the school’s total
enrollment, are required to be tested at least once a week, up from
once every two weeks last quarter, university officials said.
The test kits are free and can be obtained from the machines
with the swipe of a university ID card. Students then swab their
own nostrils and deposit the sample for collection and anal-ysis by
one of two on-campus laboratories.
Results are usually returned within 12 to 24 hours, UC San Diego
Chancellor Pradeep Kh-osla said Tuesday as he showed off one of the
machines at an
indoor campus food court.
AFP News
Giant snow mazes, illuminated frozen towers and crystal pal-aces
etched from vast blocks of ice greeted visitors to China’s annual
ice festival in Harbin.
The frozen dreamscapes have drawn millions of visitors over the
years to the wintery northeastern city, which opened the festival
on Tuesday despite small Covid-19 out-breaks across China.
Preparations for the annual win-ter celebration begin weeks in
ad-vance, with workers mining millions of cubic feet of ice from
the surface of the Songhua river over long, gru-elling shifts.
Walls of ice carved into the shape of a giant flower were lit up
on Tues-day night as the festival opened.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Games
have inspired a push across China to promote winter sports and
tourism, with the number of Chinese snow resorts increasing nearly
fourfold in the past decade.
China has largely brought coro-navirus infections under control
domestically, with entertain-ment and cultural venues reopening and
life largely returning to normal in re-cent months.
But small o u t -
breaks in multiple cities have prompted authorities to step up
testing and travel restrictions.
Visitors to this year’s festival are required to show a “health
code” on a contact-tracing app and have their temperatures measured
before
entering venues.
Frozen towers and palaces stun visitors at Harbin ice festivalUS
hits Iran with fresh sanctions
Reuters | Washington
The United States on Tuesday blacklisted a Chinese company that
makes elements for steel production, 12 Iranian steel and metals
makers and three foreign-based sales agents of an Iranian metals
and mining holding compa-ny, seeking to deprive Iran of revenues as
US President Donald Trump’s term winds down.
The US Treasury Depart-ment, in a statement, named the
China-based company as Kaifeng Pingmei New Carbon Materials
Technol-ogy Co Ltd. (KFCC), saying it specialized in the
manu-facture of carbon materials and provided thousands of metric
tonnes of materials to Iranian steel companies between December
2019 and June 2020.
Among the 12 Iranian companies blacklisted are the Pasargad
Steel Complex and the Gilan Steel Com-plex Co, both of which were
designated under Execu-tive Order 13871 for oper-ating in the
Iranian steel sector.
The others are: Iran-based Middle East Mines and Mineral
Industries Development Holding Co (MIDHCO), Khazar Steel Co, Vian
Steel Complex, South Rouhina Steel Complex, Yazd Industrial
Construc-tional Steel Rolling Mill, West Alborz Steel Complex,
Esfarayen Industrial Com-plex, Bonab Steel Industry Complex, Sirjan
Iranian Steel and Zarand Iranian Steel Co.
Courtesy of USA today
China notifies Mekong River neighbours it is holding back
waters
Reuters | Bangkok
China has notified down-stream neighbours it is holding back the
Mekong River flow at a hydropow-er dam on the waterway’s upper
reaches for 20 days, as part of a new data-shar-ing pact, the
Mekong Riv-er Commission (MRC) and Thailand said yesterday.
The statements came a day after a new U.S.-backed monitoring
system said China had failed to notify downstream countries of
water restrictions that start-ed on Dec. 31.
China agreed last October to share water data with the MRC, an
advisory body to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam that had long
sought the information for planning.
More than 60 million peo-ple in those countries de-pend on the
river for fishing and farming.
Thailand’s National Wa-ter Command Center said China had on
Tuesday notified Thailand that its Jinghong Dam will from Jan. 5 to
24 reduce the water discharge rate from 1,904 cubic metres per
sec-ond to 1,000 cubic metres per second, which amounts to a
decrease of about 47pc.
That was for “mainte-nance of transmission lines” in its
electricity grid, it said. The MRC said it received notification
the same day, though it first detected wa-ter levels dropping on
Dec. 31. The level would likely drop by about 1.2 metres and river
navigation and fishing could be affected, it said.
Dog walks towards a fisherman in a boat on the Mekong River in
Nakhon Phanom
Democratic US Senate candidate Raphael Warnock
Biden
Trump
-
WHOEVER IS HAPPY WILL MAKE OTHERS HAPPY TOOANNE FRANK
QUOTE OF THE DAY
THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021
1714 1941 1953 1954TODAY IN
HISTORYTypewriter patented by Englishman Henry Mill (built years
later)
Chinese Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-shek open
fire on the surrounded Communist New Fourth Army at Maolin, An-
hui Province, killing or capturing 7,000 troops
US President Harry Truman announces American development of the
hydrogen bomb
Georgetown-IBM experiment, 1st public demonstration of a machine
translation system, is held at IBM’s
head office in New York
TOP
4TWEETS
04
03
01
Because in America, everyone’s voice matters. And that’s still
the truth, no matter what some folks want you to believe.
@MichelleObama
One gift Trump could give the country and the world is to not
start a war with Iran in his fi-nal 15 days in office. It’s hard to
tell whether his administration is mak-ing intentional moves or
simply displaying in-competence. Either way, they are playing a
dan-gerous game.
@HillaryClinton
Georgia — If you elect @ReverendWar-nock and @Ossoff , we can
break the gridlock that has gripped Washington. We’ll be able to
make the progress we need to make on jobs, health care, justice,
and more.
@JoeBiden
The States want to redo their votes. They found out they v o t e
d o n a F R AU D . Legislatures never ap-proved. Let them do it. BE
STRONG!
@realDonaldTrump
Disclaimer: (Views expressed by columnists are personal and need
not necessarily reflect our
editorial stances)
02
86,989,000
1,879,176
61,687,932
Deaths
Recovered:
New cases
New deaths +167,672
+3,967
Country Total cases
new cases
Total deaths
New Deaths
Total recovered
Active cases
Egypt 144,583 7,918 115,414 21,251
Saudi Arabia
363,377 +118 6,272 +7 354,899 2,206
UAE 216,699 685 193,321 22,693
Kuwait 152,438 +411 938 148,015 3,485
Oman 129,888 +114 1,504 +2 122,456 5,928
Qatar 145,061 +209 245 142,182 2,634
Middle East
Country Total cases Total deaths
1 USA 21,588,382 365,740
2 India 10,377,329 150,179
3 Brazil 7,812,007 197,777
4 Russia 3,308,601 59,951
5 UK 2,774,479 76,305
6 France 2,680,239 66,282
7 Turkey 2,270,101 21,879
8 Italy 2,181,619 76,329
9 Spain 1,982,544 51,430
10 Germany 1,818,705 37,351
11 Colombia 1,702,966 44,426
12 Argentina 1,662,730 43,785
13 Mexico 1,466,490 128,822
14 Poland 1,344,763 30,055
G l o b a l t a l l y
C O V I D - 1 : 9 C o u n t r i e s w o r s t a f f e c t e
d
Figures as of closing
News in brief u Russia has inoculated one million people against
COVID-19 with its Sputnik V vaccine, according to a statement on
the Sputnik V Twitter account yesterday. Russia, which has the
world’s fourth highest number of COVID-19 cases, started
large-scale vaccinations last month. No new adverse reactions have
been reported, RIA news agency quoted Alexander Gintsburg, director
of the Gamaleya Institute which developed the vaccine, as
saying.
u Britain is to name former Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp
as the next chairman of the BBC as the broadcaster faces questions
about its future funding and purpose as viewers turn to new
competitors, Sky News reported yesterday. Sharp has recently been
acting as an adviser to finance minister
Rishi Sunak, Sky said. He will succeed David Clementi, a former
deputy governor of the Bank of England, who is stepping down
next
month after four years. The chairman, who is officially
appointed by the queen on the recommendation of the government, is
responsible for upholding and protecting the independence of the
BBC, which is funded by a licence fee paid by every TV-watching
household.
u The office of the US Director of National Intelligence on
Tuesday said Russia was “likely” behind a string of hacks
identified last month that gained access to several federal
agencies. The office, along with the FBI, the National Security
Agency, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency inside
the Department of Homeland Security, in a joint statement, said the
hackers’ goal appeared to be collecting intelligence, rather than
any destructive acts. They said they had so far identified “fewer
than 10” agencies that were hacked.
u A fire at a Spanish care home killed an 89-year-old woman and
injured 18 people, emergency services said yesterday. The blaze
began on the third floor at the Domusvi-Adorea home in Seville in
southern Spain just before midnight on Tuesday, firefighters
said.
u North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his five-year economic
plan had failed to meet its goals “on almost every sector”
as he kicked off a congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, state
media KCNA reported yesterday. The rare political gathering, which
Kim last hosted in 2016, has drawn international attention as he is
expected to unveil a new five-year economic plan and address
inter-Korean ties and foreign policy.
Britain to name former Goldman banker Sharp as BBC chairman
Russia likely behind hacking of government agencies
Spanish care home fire kills 89-year-old woman, injures 18
Kim tells party congress economic plan failed
‘tremendously’
Russia inoculates 1 million people against
COVID-19
Democrats in full control Wins one seat in Georgia, surges ahed
in another
• Republicans loose state they controlled for decades
• Black voters turned out in numbers unprecedented for a run-off
vote
• Trump’s supporters plan to rally in the streets of
Washington
Reuters | Altanta
Democrats won one US Sen-ate race in Georgia and surged ahead in
anoth-er yesterday, moving closer to a stunning sweep that would g
i v e t h e m control of Congress a n d
t h e power to ad-v a n c e
President-elect Joe Biden’s pol-icy goals.
Raphael Warnock, a Bap-tist preacher from the historic church of
Martin Luther King Jr., beat Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler to
become the first Black senator in the history of the deep South
state.
Jon Ossoff, a documenta-ry filmmaker who at 33 would become the
Senate’s youngest member, held a narrow lead over
incumbent David Perdue in the
other race, with a fi-nal out-come not
e x p e c t -ed unt i l later on Wednes-d a y a t the
ear-liest.
T h e r e s u l t s w e r e a
repudiation of Donald Trump in a state his Republicans have
controlled for decades.
The outgoing president cam-paigned for both Republicans, while
at the same time levelling false accusations that his own loss in
the November presidential election was tainted by fraud, and
attacking Republican officials in the state. Some Republicans said
that discouraged his supporters from voting.
With 98 per cent of votes in and counting mostly stopped for the
night, Warnock was ahead of Loeffler by 1.2 percentage points,
roughly 54,000 votes, ac-cording to Edison Research. O s s o f f l
e d P e r -due by more t h a n 16,000 votes, o r 0.4 percentage
points, j u s t shy of the state’s 0 . 5 percent thresh-old to
avoid a recount.
W i n -ning both
contests would give Democrats control of the Senate, creating a
50-50 split and giving Vice Pres-ident-elect Kamala Harris the
tie-breaking vote once she and Biden take office on Jan. 20. The
party already has a narrow ma-jority in the US House of
Repre-sentatives.
If Republicans hold the second seat, they would effectively
wield veto power over Biden’s political and judicial appointees as
well as many of his legislative initiatives in areas such as
economic relief from the coronavirus pandemic, climate change,
healthcare and criminal justice.
The campaign’s final days were overshadowed by Trump’s attacks o
n h i s ow n election defeat in the state, in-cluding a recording
of a phone call in which he
hectored Republican Georgia of-ficials to “find” enough votes to
make him the winner.
On Trump’s shoulders
Gabriel Sterling, a Republican and a top election official in
the
state, told CNN that if Demo-crats won, the losses would
“fall
squarely on the shoulders of President Trump and his actions
since Nov. 3.”
The election also signalled a shift in the politics
of Georgia and the wider deep South. Black v o t e r s , t h e
most reliable Democratic supporters
in the region, turned out
i n
numbers unprecedented for a run-off vote.
In a video message, Warnock, whose Ebenezer Baptist Church is
legendary in Georgia because of its role in the civil rights
move-ment under King, recalled his humble upbringing as one of 12
children of a woman who worked in cotton fields.
“Because this is America, the 8 2 - y e a r - o l d hands that
used to pick some-body else’s cot-ton went to the p o l l s a n
d
picked her youngest son to be a United States senator,” he
said.
During the campaign, Republi-cans had painted Ossoff and
War-nock as radicals who would pur-sue a hard-left agenda. But that
message failed to resonate with many white suburbanites who have
increasingly abandoned the Republican party under Trump.
Trump’s flailing efforts to over-turn his own defeat move to
Con-gress later on Wednesday, when Vice President Mike Pence is due
to preside over the counting of electoral votes to certify Biden’s
victory.
Trump has called on Pence to throw out the results in states he
narrowly lost, although Pence has no authority to do so. Some
Republican lawmakers have said they will try to reject some state
tallies, a move that stands no chance of success but which could
force debate and drag out the certification process.
Trump’s supporters plan to ral-ly in the streets of Washington,
with the city bracing for poten-tial violence. Police banned the
leader of a far-right group from the city and made several arrests
as protests ramped up on Tues-day. Trump is due to address the
crowd at 11 a.m. (1600 GMT)
Both Republican senators, following the lead of Trump who has
never conceded his own loss, predicted they would ultimately win
and insisted they would fight on: “We have a path to victory and
we’re staying
on it,” Loeffler told supporters in
Atlanta.
A Fulton County election worker puts absentee ballots in a
scanner as election observers look on, at the Georgia World
Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia
Students gets COVID test kits by vending machineReuters | San
Diego
The University of Califor-nia’s San Diego campus has launched
the winter academ-ic term with a unique twist to its coronavirus
safety regimen: newly installed vending ma-chines stocked with
do-it-your-self COVID-19 tests for students.
The 11 dispensers at UC San Diego since Jan. 2 - with nine more
to be added over the next week or two - are the first of their kind
to be introduced on a college or university campus in the United
States, according to school officials.
Adapted from conventional vending machines, the systems
aim to make it easier and less costly to regularly screen
the
school’s student body.All 10,000 students living on
campus, accounting for about a quarter of the school’s total
enrollment, are required to be tested at least once a week, up from
once every two weeks last quarter, university officials said.
The test kits are free and can be obtained from the machines
with the swipe of a university ID card. Students then swab their
own nostrils and deposit the sample for collection and anal-ysis by
one of two on-campus laboratories.
Results are usually returned within 12 to 24 hours, UC San Diego
Chancellor Pradeep Kh-osla said Tuesday as he showed off one of the
machines at an
indoor campus food court.
AFP News
Giant snow mazes, illuminated frozen towers and crystal pal-aces
etched from vast blocks of ice greeted visitors to China’s annual
ice festival in Harbin.
The frozen dreamscapes have drawn millions of visitors over the
years to the wintery northeastern city, which opened the festival
on Tuesday despite small Covid-19 out-breaks across China.
Preparations for the annual win-ter celebration begin weeks in
ad-vance, with workers mining millions of cubic feet of ice from
the surface of the Songhua river over long, gru-elling shifts.
Walls of ice carved into the shape of a giant flower were lit up
on Tues-day night as the festival opened.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Games
have inspired a push across China to promote winter sports and
tourism, with the number of Chinese snow resorts increasing nearly
fourfold in the past decade.
China has largely brought coro-navirus infections under control
domestically, with entertain-ment and cultural venues reopening and
life largely returning to normal in re-cent months.
But small o u t -
breaks in multiple cities have prompted authorities to step up
testing and travel restrictions.
Visitors to this year’s festival are required to show a “health
code” on a contact-tracing app and have their temperatures measured
before
entering venues.
Frozen towers and palaces stun visitors at Harbin ice festivalUS
hits Iran with fresh sanctions
Reuters | Washington
The United States on Tuesday blacklisted a Chinese company that
makes elements for steel production, 12 Iranian steel and metals
makers and three foreign-based sales agents of an Iranian metals
and mining holding compa-ny, seeking to deprive Iran of revenues as
US President Donald Trump’s term winds down.
The US Treasury Depart-ment, in a statement, named the
China-based company as Kaifeng Pingmei New Carbon Materials
Technol-ogy Co Ltd. (KFCC), saying it specialized in the
manu-facture of carbon materials and provided thousands of metric
tonnes of materials to Iranian steel companies between December
2019 and June 2020.
Among the 12 Iranian companies blacklisted are the Pasargad
Steel Complex and the Gilan Steel Com-plex Co, both of which were
designated under Execu-tive Order 13871 for oper-ating in the
Iranian steel sector.
The others are: Iran-based Middle East Mines and Mineral
Industries Development Holding Co (MIDHCO), Khazar Steel Co, Vian
Steel Complex, South Rouhina Steel Complex, Yazd Industrial
Construc-tional Steel Rolling Mill, West Alborz Steel Complex,
Esfarayen Industrial Com-plex, Bonab Steel Industry Complex, Sirjan
Iranian Steel and Zarand Iranian Steel Co.
Courtesy of USA today
China notifies Mekong River neighbours it is holding back
waters
Reuters | Bangkok
China has notified down-stream neighbours it is holding back the
Mekong River flow at a hydropow-er dam on the waterway’s upper
reaches for 20 days, as part of a new data-shar-ing pact, the
Mekong Riv-er Commission (MRC) and Thailand said yesterday.
The statements came a day after a new U.S.-backed monitoring
system said China had failed to notify downstream countries of
water restrictions that start-ed on Dec. 31.
China agreed last October to share water data with the MRC, an
advisory body to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam that had long
sought the information for planning.
More than 60 million peo-ple in those countries de-pend on the
river for fishing and farming.
Thailand’s National Wa-ter Command Center said China had on
Tuesday notified Thailand that its Jinghong Dam will from Jan. 5 to
24 reduce the water discharge rate from 1,904 cubic metres per
sec-ond to 1,000 cubic metres per second, which amounts to a
decrease of about 47pc.
That was for “mainte-nance of transmission lines” in its
electricity grid, it said. The MRC said it received notification
the same day, though it first detected wa-ter levels dropping on
Dec. 31. The level would likely drop by about 1.2 metres and river
navigation and fishing could be affected, it said.
Dog walks towards a fisherman in a boat on the Mekong River in
Nakhon Phanom
Democratic US Senate candidate Raphael Warnock
Biden
Trump
-
THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 202108 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 202006
Classifieds ������ ����� ��� ������ ���� �� �������� ����
������������������������������������������������� �������
���������� ���� �������� �����������
������� ������ ���� �� �������� ���� ��������������� ��� � �����
������������� � ������� ������� ���������� ������������ � �
��������������
��������������������������������������������� � ������� ��������
�������� �������� ������� ���������� ����
�������� �������������
����������������������������������������� ���� ����������� ��� �
������� ����� �������� ������� ���������� ����
�������� �������������������
����������������������������������������� ���� ����������� ��� �
������� ����� �������� ������� ���������� ����
�������� �������������������
��������������������������������������������������� ��� � �����
���������� �������� ������� ���������� ����
�������� ������������������
��� ��� �� � �� �
������������������������������������������������������ �������
���������� ���� �������� ��������������
����� �������� � ��� ���� ���� �� �������� ���� ���������������
��� � �������� � ������� ����������������� ���� �������� � �
���������������
�������� ������ ���� �� �������� ���� ��������������� ��� �
����� � ������� ����������������� ���� �������� � �
�����������
������� ��� �� ���� �� �������� ���� ��������������� ��� �
����������� ��
��������� ������������ ����� �� � ������� ������� ����������
������������ � � ������������
��������� ���� �������� ��������������� �� �������� ���� ����
����������� ��� �
�����������������������������������������������������������������
��������������������������������������������������� ��� � �����
� ������� ����������������� ���� �������� � �
������������
��� ������ ��������� ���� �� �������� ���� ��������������� ��� �
���� �������� � ������������������������������������������
��� �����
���� ��� ������� ��������������� ���� �� ������ ��� ����
���������� ���� ���� ����������� ��� � ��� �������� �������
���������� ���� ���������������¡�����
����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
������� ���������� ���� �������� ��������������
����� ����������� ������ ���������� ������ ���� ��
�������� ���� ���� ����������� ����������� � ������� �������
�������������� �������� � � ��������������������
�������� ����������������� �������� ����������� ��� �
������� ��� �������� ������� ���������� ����
�������� �������������
��� ��� �� ���� �� � ������
�������¢����������������������������������������������������������������
����� � ������� ����������������� ���� �������� � �
�����������������
��� ������ ����������� ���
������������������������������������������������������ ����
����������� ��� � ����� �
������������������������������������������
���������
����� ��� �
� ���� �� �����
��� ���� �� �������� ���� ���� ����������� ��������� � �������
������� ���������� ������������ � � ���������������
�������������
����������� ����� �������� �� ������������ ���� ����������� ���
� ������� � �������
����������������������������� ������������������
�� ���� � � ���� �������
�������������������������������������������� ��� � ��� � �������
����������������� ���� �������� � � ����
�������������
�������� ��� ������� ���� ���������� ���� ���� �����������
����
������������� ������ �
������������������������������������ ��������¡������
���������������� ����������
� ���� �� �������� ���� ���� ����������� ���������� � �������
������� ���������� �������������������������£���
����������������������������������������� ���� ����������� ��� �
������� ����� �������� ������� ���������� ����
�������� ��������������������
��� ��������������������������������� ���� ����������� ���
� ����� � ������������������������������������������
��������
��� ������ ����������� �� ���� ���� ���������� ���� ����
����������� ��� � ��� �������� ������� ���������� ���� ��������� �
����
������������
����� ���������
���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������