The plan by Ministry of Education (MOE) to return students to regular classes during the upcoming academic year, and to modify working hours so as to enable conducting classes in two shifts, has received approval from the Education Committee in the Council of Ministers.
Approval for the plan came after the Education Committee made several amendments and recommendations to the original education plan submitted by the ministry, including modifying working hours so as to start the first session at 7.30 in the morning instead of 7am, and increase the time for students to leave and enter school between two sessions by half-an-hour instead of the earlier 10 minutes, and with the second session now scheduled to start at 11.10am.
The ministerial committee also recommended that government entities, including the Ministry of Interior and the Fire Services Sector, should coordinate their services and assist the MoE in implementing the plan, by helping school authorities to regulate traffic in front of schools at the start of the academic year.
The education committee is also reported to have stipulated that MoE should ensure that the number of students per class remains at 20 students, in both public and private sector schools. In addition, following the education committee’s recommendation, the MoE is likely to insist that students who are not immunized or have received only one dose of vaccination, submit a PCR examination certificate every week to enter schools.
Elaborating on the new regulations, Minister of Education, Dr. Ali Al-Mudhaf hinted that if the epidemiological situation improved over the coming months, the decision on schools operating in two shifts could be reconsidered and attempts would be made to return schools to regular working hours.
For his part, Minister of Health Sheikh Dr. Basel Al-Sabah stressed his keenness to increase the number of vaccinations and to ramp up the speed of the vaccination drive, while giving students and teachers the highest priority to obtain the vaccine./agenciesa
The total salaries paid to workers of the public sector and included in the budget witnessed a jump of KD 4 billion in the last ten years from the 2009/2010 fiscal year to the 2018/2019 fiscal year. It has increased from KD 3.2 billion to KD 7.2 billion, with an annual growth rate of 9.5 percent, thus bringing the total salaries paid to ministries and government departments in the past ten years to about KD 52 billion, reports Al-Anba daily.
In an exclusive study prepared by the daily regarding the consumption spending of citizens and residents in Kuwait and overseas during the period from 2010 to 2020, and based on the consumption statistics in the country and the data of the Central Bank of Kuwait, it appears that high salaries in the government and private sectors and the strong growth of personal facilities provided by Kuwaiti banks are the two main drivers of increased consumer spending by citizens and residents both inside and outside Kuwait. According to the data, the spending of citizens and residents during the past ten years amounted to about KD 88 billion through transactions of point-of-sale (POS) devices inside and outside Kuwait, with a compound annual growth rate of nine percent./KT
Kuwait Reports 3 Covid Deaths, 375 Infections
August 15, 2021Kuwait’s Ministry of Health on Saturday said three people succumbed to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and 375 others tested positive for the pandemic over the past 24 hours. The new figures raised death toll to 2,386 and overall infections to 406,234, spokesman for the Ministry Dr. Abdullah Al-Sabah told KUNA.
304 people killed after magnitude 7.2 earthquake hits Haiti
August 15, 2021At least 304 people are dead and more than 2,000 injured after a magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck Haiti on Saturday, according to the country’s civil defense agency.
The quake's epicenter was 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) northeast of Saint-Louis-du-Sud, at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).
The US Tsunami Warning System issued a tsunami alert in the region warning that waves could rise 3 meters (9.8 feet). The alert was later lifted.
A magnitude-5.2 aftershock was felt and more aftershocks are expected in coming days, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
Officials said the USGS recorded nine aftershocks since the main earthquake.
"We will make the necessary arrangements to assist people affected by the earthquake in the Southern Peninsula. We must show a lot of solidarity with regard to the emergency. The government will declare a state of emergency. We will act quickly," said Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Authorities said hundreds of injuries have been decimated from the ruins in search and rescue efforts, while the exact number of casualties is unknown.
The country, which has suffered huge devastation and tremors, has called for international help.
One of the world’s most deadly earthquakes in the last century occurred in Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010.
According to official figures, 316,000 people died and 300,000 were injured in the magnitude-7.0 quake that occurred in the south of the country.
About 1.3 million people were left homeless in the aftermath./agencies
Death toll from floods in Turkey's Black Sea region rises to 57
August 15, 2021
The death toll from floods in Turkey's Black Sea region rose to 57, authorities said late Saturday.
Floods caused by heavy rains hit the region in the north on Wednesday, leaving 48 people dead in the province of Kastamonu, according to a statement by the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
Eight others died in Sinop province and one in Bartin province.
A total of 62 people are reported missing in Kastamonu, along with 14 in Sinop, Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said after examinations in the Bozkurt district in Kastamonu province alongside Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum and Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez
“We delivered 20 tons of food yesterday and today by helicopter alone,” Soylu said, adding that officials are trying to meet the needs of victims -- from funerals to damage assessment.
Kurum said there are at least 454 severely damaged and ruined buildings in the three provinces but authorities are working on building new structures within the next year.
Arife Unal, an 85-year-old woman, drowned and was swept away during the floods in Bartin. Four days of search and rescue efforts ended after finding her lifeless body 600 meters (1,970 feet) from her house.
According to a statement by the governor's office in Bartin, 13 bridges were destroyed in the flood, while at least 45 buildings were heavily damaged.
Rescue and relief operations continue in the flood-hit areas, the statement added.
Some 918 workers in Bartin, 3,547 in Kastamonu, and 1,910 in Sinop are conducting relief work in the affected areas, according to AFAD.
A total of 341 people in Bartin, 1,580 in Kastamonu, and 533 in Sinop were evacuated to safe areas by helicopters and boats, the disaster management agency said.
Meanwhile, 223 volunteers, nine catering trucks, and 54 vehicles sent by the Turkish Red Crescent to the region are working on the ground.
On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the Bozkurt district in Kastamonu, the worst-hit flood area.
"We will do our best as a state as quickly as possible, and hopefully we will rise from our ashes again," he said.
The president added that he would make an on-the-spot assessment together with Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoglu, and Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum. The necessary steps will be taken after the assessment, he said.
Later in the day, Erdogan announced that the places affected had been declared a disaster area.
These places will be able to defer tax dues and local tradespeople will be allowed to postpone payments to the country's Social Security Institution. Assistance will also be provided to cover property, vehicle, and workplace losses.
Businesses' loan repayments will also be postponed, with the state preparing an emergency support plan for disaster-hit areas./agencies
Scores of Rohingya refugees, attempting to flee a remote Bangladeshi island, have been missing since the early hours of Saturday as a boat carrying them capsized in the Bay of Bengal, officials said.
“Refugees were on board the boat when it capsized last late night. Some 14 of them have returned unharmed,” Mahe Alam, police chief on the Bhasan Char island, told Anadolu Agency over the telephone.
He added a joint rescue operation conducted by police, coast guard, navy and air force is still ongoing to reach out to the missing ones.
Bangladesh in several phases have relocated nearly 20,000 Rohingya on the island amid opposition from the international community over the safety at the distant location reportedly prone to natural disasters.
Currently, more than 1.1 million stateless Rohingya have been living in Bangladesh’s refugee camps in the southern district of Cox’s Bazar that is considered to be the world’s largest refugee settlements. Most of the persecuted Rohingya fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in August 2017.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Sujit Kumar Chandra, camp-in-charge of the Bhasan Char Rohingya project, said that around 40 Rohingya were on board the boat that capsized in the Bay of Bengal.
“We are continuing our search to find out the missing ones,” he said, adding that no dead body has been found yet.
Requesting anonymity, a Rohingya refugee told Anadolu Agency there are many families who are mourning for their missing family members.
In February 2020, at least 15 Rohingya refugees died as an overcrowded wooden boat carrying over 100 people capsized en route to Malaysia./aa
Lebanon’s foreign reserves reach ‘red line’: Central bank chief
August 15, 2021Lebanon’s foreign reserves have reached a “red line”, the country’s central bank governor warned on Saturday.
"Everyone was aware of the decision to lift fuel subsidies, starting from the government to the parliament and up to the presidency,” Riad Salameh said in an interview with Free Lebanon Radio.
On Wednesday, the central bank halted fuel subsidies that have drained the country’s foreign reserves.
On Thursday, caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab rejected the bank’s decision, saying it was “against the law and does not take into account the reality of the deep living and social crisis."
A foreign currency shortage and devaluation of the currency have caused the central bank's dollar reserves to dwindle from an average of $38 billion at the end of 2019 to its current average of $16 billion.
Official estimates put the cost of the Lebanese subsidy program for basic materials at about $6 billion annually, half of which goes to subsidize fuel.
The bank has supported fuel imports by securing the dollar for importers at an exchange rate of 3,900 pounds ($2.59) per dollar, while its exchange rate in the parallel market in recent days topped 20,000 pounds ($13.30).
Immediately after Salameh announced the lifting of fuel subsidies, hundreds of Lebanese took to the streets to express their anger against the decision, blocking several main roads.
Salameh warned that the country’s foreign reserves were insufficient and called for either passing legislation to allow the central bank to use the mandatory reserve to fund the subsidies or “form a government with a vision that begins with the reform project in the country."
On July 26, Najib Mikati received support from 72 out of 128 parliamentarians to form a new government,
Lebanon has been unable to form a new administration since the resignation of Diab's cabinet on Aug. 10, 2020, six days after the massive Beirut port blast.
The Arab country is facing a severe economic crisis, with the local currency losing nearly all of its value against the dollar, and streets witnessing massive protests and rallies.
Observers say lifting fuel subsidies would raise the prices of other goods and services that depend on fuel to generate electricity for production such as factories and private bakeries./aa
Grenade blast kills 3 children, injures 5 in northeast Nigeria
August 15, 2021A grenade blast killed at least three children and wounded another five in Nigeria's volatile northeast town of Ngala.
In a statement, the UN agency said the children playing on Mblu Bridge in Ngala, a town near the Cameroon border, were killed by “unexploded remnants of war.”
Government troops and the Boko Haram terrorists fought pitched battles in the town between 2015 and 2018.
“Three children have sadly lost their lives, three others are in critical conditions while two other children sustained mild injuries,” the global body said.
Peter Hawkins, a UNICEF representative in Nigeria, warned no children should fall victim to unexploded remnants of war while playing.
He said thousands of children have been killed, maimed, abducted, or displaced over a decade of terror attacks in the West Africa country's northeast region.
Boko Haram has been carrying out violent attacks on civilians in vulnerable communities and military bases in the region since July 2009./aa
A firefighting plane linked to Turkey's General Directorate of Forestry crashed in the southern province of Kahramanmaras on Saturday, killing all eight people on board.
Contact was lost with the plane which had been rented from Russia to help Turkey's efforts to contain a forest fire in Kahramanmaras, Governor Omer Faruk Coskun told Anadolu Agency.
A large number of search and rescue teams were dispatched to the region, added Coskun.
Speaking at a news conference in Kahramanmaras, Turkey's Forestry and Agriculture Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said, "I would like to express with regret that we lost eight of our colleagues, three of whom were Turkish nationals."
Pakdemirli added that technical investigations were ongoing and that further details would be given afterwards.
In a separate statement, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the Russian Be-200 amphibious plane crashed while landing following a firefighting mission.
All five Russian and three Turkish servicemen on board the plane were killed in the crash, the statement said.
A special commission of the Russian Defense Ministry, as well as the employees of the Russian Embassy in Turkey, are heading to the place for the investigation, it added.
The plane was sent to Turkey on July 8 to help Turkey fight the wildfires.
Be-200 is designed specifically for fighting fires, including in remote areas, it can carry 12 tons of water.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he is "deeply saddened" by the loss of the Turkish and Russian crew in the tragic plane crash.
"Their heroic sacrifices will not be forgotten!," Cavusoglu added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also offered his condolences to Turkey over the loss of lives in a telegram addressing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan./aa
Turkey deports over 37,000 irregular migrants in 7 months
August 15, 2021Over 37,000 irregular migrants have been sent to the repatriation centers of local migration offices across Turkey over the past seven months, according to the metropolis Istanbul's migration authority on Saturday.
As part of efforts to prevent the flow of irregular migration, Turkey in 2021 has sent 37,072 irregular migrants to repatriation centers located across 22 provinces.
The Istanbul Migration Authority said 12,893 of the foreigners subject to deportation were from Afghanistan, 5,840 from Pakistan, and 18,339 from other nationalities.
Anadolu Agency captured the moment of the departure of hundreds of Afghan irregular migrants from Istanbul Airport. The footage shows migrants passing through an airport security point and escorted by police and gendarmerie.
Turkey has been a key transit point for asylum seekers who want to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution.
Turkey, which already hosts 4 million refugees -- more than any country in the world -- is taking new security measures both within and on borders to prevent a fresh influx of migrants./aa
