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FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022 / RAJAB 3-4, 1443 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17911 16 PAGES 150 FILS

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US special ops take out DAESH top

People inspect a destroyed house following an operation by the U.S. military in the Syrian village of Atmeh, in Idlib province, Syria, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. Inset: In this image provided by the White House, President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris and members of the President’s national security team observe from the Situation Room at the White House in Washington, on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022, the counterterrorism operation responsible for removing from the battlefield Abu

Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the leader of the Islamic State group. (AP)

‘Leader blows himself up’ to avoid capture

ATMEH, Syria, Feb 3, (AP): The leader of the violent Islamic State group was killed Thursday, blowing himself up along with members of his family during an overnight raid carried out by U.S. special operations forces in northwestern Syria, President Joe Biden said.

The raid targeted Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who took over as head of the militant group on Oct. 31, 2019, just days after leader Abu Bakr al-Bagh-dadi died during a U.S. raid in the same area. Biden said al-Qurayshi died as

al-Baghdadi did, by exploding a bomb that killed himself and members of his family, including women and children, as U.S. forces approached.

The operation came as IS has been trying for a resurgence, with a series of attacks in the region, including an assault late last month to seize a prison in northeast Syria holding at least 3,000 IS detainees, its boldest operation in years.

“Thanks to the bravery of our troops this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said. He said al-Qurayshi had been responsible for the prison strike, as well as genocide against the Yazidi people in Iraq in 2014.

U.S. special forces landed in helicopters and attacked a house in a rebel-held corner of Syria, clashing for two hours with gunmen, witnesses said. Residents described continu-

US foes evade sanctions via techMIAMI, Feb 3, (AP): Technology to hide a ship’s location previously available only to the world’s militaries is spreading fast through the global mari-time industry as governments from Iran to Venezu-ela - and the rogue shipping companies they depend on to move their petroleum products - look for stealthier ways to circumvent U.S. sanctions.

Windward, a maritime intelligence company whose data is used by the U.S. government to inves-tigate sanctions violations, said that since January 2020 it has detected more than 200 vessels involved in over 350 incidents in which they appear to have electronically manipulated their GPS location.

“This is out of hand right now,” Matan Peled, co-founder of Windward and a former Israeli naval of-ficer, said in an interview. “It’s not driven by coun-tries or superpowers. It’s ordinary companies using this technique. The scale is astonishing.”

Peled said U.S. authorities have been slow to catch on to the spread of technology that has been part of the electronic warfare arsenal for decades but is only now cropping up in commercial shipping, with serious national security, environmental and maritime safety implications.

Windward was able to identify suspect ships us-ing technology that detects digital tracks that don’t correspond to actual movements, such as hairpin turns at breakneck speed or drifting in the form of perfect crop circles.

William Fallon, a retired four-star admiral and former head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said U.S. authorities have been aware for some time of the threat from electronic manipulation, one of a grow-ing number of so-called “gray zone” national secu-rity challenges that cut across traditional military, commercial and economic lines.

“Any time you can deceive somebody into believ-ing you’re somewhere where you’re not is concern-ing,” said Fallon, who is now a board member of the American Security Project, a Washington think tank. “It illustrates the extent to which people who don’t have any scruples are willing to go to achieve their objectives and the ease with which they can do it.”

One of the more egregious examples found by Windward involves a 183-meter-long oil tanker that could be tracked sailing to Iraq even as it was in reality loading crude in Iran, which is banned from selling its oil by U.S. sanctions.

The tanker, whose name Windward asked to be withheld so as not to disrupt any potential U.S. government investigation, set sail on Feb. 11, 2021, from the United Arab Emirates, reporting its desti-nation as Basra, Iraq. When it was 20 nautical miles away, its global navigation system began exhibit-ing strange drifting patterns. Twelve days later, its transmission stabilized and it could be tracked head-ing back through the Hormuz strait at normal sailing speed, this time fully laden with crude.

Satellite imagery shows that during the two-week voyage a ship of identical length and with the same red deck broken up by a white pole and bridge was spotted dozens of nautical miles away, in Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal. That vessel was then fol-lowed on satellite sailing back to the UAE, its course merging with the reported position of the original ship after it resumed its normal transmission.

Under a United Nations maritime treaty, ships of over 300 tons have been required since 2004 to use an automated identification system to avoid col-lisions and assist rescues in the event of a spill or accident at sea.

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait on Thursday said 5,990 more people tested positive for COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, taking the country’s caseload to 564,735, health ministry data showed.

Some 5,101 more people recovered from the virus to up the number of those to have overcome the disease to 507,174, according to ministry spokesman Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad, adding that the recovery to positive case ratio stands at 89.8 percent.

Two fatalities linked to the virus upped the country’s death toll from the pandemic to 2,503, while 503 people are hospitalized with the virus, 89 of whom need intensive care, he told KUNA. (KUNA)

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KUWAIT CITY: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent Thurs-day a cable of condolences to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud on the demise of Prince Faisal Bin Khaled Bin Fahad Bin Nasser Bin Ab-dulaziz Al-Saud.

In the cable, His Highness the Amir prayed to Al-mighty Allah to bestow mercy upon her soul.

His Highness Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah sent similar cables. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

KUWAIT CITY: According to a report published by Trade Arabia Magazine, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait lead the USD 1.6 trillion Gulf projects market, of which more than 21 thousand are ac-tive projects as of the third quarter of 2021. These projects derive their impetus mainly from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which dominated the scene of the implementation of projects, according to the Projects Journal BNC, which is specialized in monitoring projects, re-ports Al-Anba daily.

In its report titled “2022 - The Green Year”, the periodical said the construction activity in Kuwait rose signifi cantly in the last quarter of 2021, as new projects worth USD 9.9 billion were unveiled, mak-ing it the best quarter in the past two years. Kuwait was able to award projects worth USD 1.8 billion, and it completed projects worth USD 12 billion in that quarter.

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KUWAIT CITY: The concerned authorities contin-ued their inspection tours to implement health regu-lations in establishments, markets, shops and facili-ties, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The women’s teams in the Health Requirements Committee recorded 1,000 violations in wedding halls and women’s facilities; such as workers not wearing masks, failure to display warning posters, not providing sterilizers and others.

The daily’s staff accompanied the inspection team headed by Director of the Technical Staff Depart-ment in the Advisory Committee for Supervising Commodities and Determining Prices Faisal Al-An-sari during the inspection of a commercial complex in the Capital recently. The team issued warnings to several establishments for failure to comply with the health regulations.

ous gunfire and explosions that jolted the town of Atmeh near the Turk-ish border, an area dotted with camps for internally displaced people from Syria’s civil war.

Biden said he ordered U.S. forces to “take every precaution avail-able to minimize civilian casualties,” the reason they did not conduct an airstrike on the home.

First responders reported that 13 people had been killed, includ-ing six children and four women. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said U.S. officials believe al-Qurayshi’s explosive killed him-self, his wife, and three children. She added that U.S. officials were conducting an assessment to determine whether any civilians were killed.

U.S. forces collected DNA, which later confirmed al-Qurayshi’s death, officials said.

Biden, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and senior national security aides monitored a live-feed of the operation from the White House Situation Room according to an official. The president was kept abreast of the commandos’ long flight out of Syria by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan overnight.

The operation marked a military success for the United States at an important time after setbacks elsewhere - including the chaotic Af-ghanistan withdrawal - had led allies and opponents to conclude U.S. power globally was weakening.

The house, surrounded by olive trees in fields outside Atmeh, was left with its top floor shattered and blood spattered inside. A journalist on assignment for The Associated Press, and several residents, said they saw body parts scattered near the site. Most residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

“The mission was successful,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement. “There were no U.S. casualties.”

Idlib is largely controlled by Turkish-backed fighters but is also an al-Qaida stronghold and home to several of its top operatives. Other militants, including extremists from the rival IS group, have also found refuge in the region.

“The first moments were terrifying; no one knew what was happen-ing,” said Jamil el-Deddo, a resident of a nearby refugee camp. “We were worried it could be Syrian aircraft, which brought back memories of barrel bombs that used to be dropped on us,” he added, referring to crude explosives-filled containers used by President Bashar Assad’s forces against opponents during the Syrian conflict.

The top floor of the low house was nearly destroyed, sending white bricks tumbling to the ground below.

Blood could be seen on the walls and floor of the remaining struc-ture. A wrecked bedroom had a child’s wooden crib and a stuffed rabbit doll. On one damaged wall, a blue plastic baby swing was still hanging. Religious books, including a biography of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad, were in the house.

Al-Qurayshi had kept an extremely low profile since he took over leadership of the Islamic State. He had not appeared in public, and rarely released any audio recordings. His influence and day-to-day in-volvement in the group’s operations was not known and it is difficult to gauge how his death will affect the group.

U.S. officials said Al-Qurayshi never left his third floor apartment, where he lived with his family, except to bathe on the building’s roof. He communicated only through couriers, according to U.S. officials, directly overseeing the group’s operations in Syria, including last month’s assault on attack on the prison.

Over the past several months, Biden has been regularly updated on the intelligence surrounding al-Qurayshi’s whereabouts and the opera-tional planning for the raid once he was located, officials said.

In December, a tabletop model of the three-floor house was brought to the Situation Room.

The second floor of the house was occupied by a lower-ranking Is-lamic State leader and his family, but the first floor contained civilians who were unconnected to the terrorist group and unaware of al-Quray-shi’s presence, according to U.S. officials, who described them as the IS leader’s unwitting human shields.

Biden gave “the final go” on the mission on Tuesday morning dur-ing his daily national security briefing in the Oval Office, where he was joined by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

Opinion

Day by Day

Newswatch

By Ahmed Al-JarallahEditor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

WE hope that His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled will read these lines carefully.

We know that Your Highness is not involved in cor-ruption or is in support of the corrupt. We know that your integrity is unblemished. However, this is not enough, as it must be accompanied by serious work.

Negligence, hesitation, leaving matters to advisors, and delaying a decision can be considered as corruption in its own merit, as it leads to further backwardness and weakness of the state.

There are many examples that indicate the absence of the decision, such as the issue related to the work per-mits of residents who do not have a university degree and have reached 60 years of age. This matter took a year or more to resolve, and yet until today, the im-plementation of the new decision is yet to be enforced, despite the gross injustice in it to both the residents and the employers.

In the neighboring Gulf countries, similar matters were resolved years ago. Anyone who wants to visit any of these countries submits an online application, receives approval for the visa, and pays the prescribed fees. If he obtains a job, a residence permit is issued for him in accordance with the laws in force in those countries.

However, Kuwait has closed all the doors to every-one and there are decisions in this regard that seem to be from out of space. Of course this closure leads to more fi nancial losses for the state due to the absence of a sound vision for the advancement of the national economy.

Your Highness, to be frank, you are presiding over the government of a country that is plundered by the high cost of projects, especially since this cost is much lesser in the neighboring countries.

For example, the cost of building the Burj Khalifa amounted to about USD 1.5 billion. On the other hand, it was announced that the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Tower, which is within the Silk City, would cost about USD 7 billion dollars and perhaps more if you take into ac-count the bad habit trending in Kuwaiti projects, which is the change orders that cost the state billions of dinars and leads to delays in the completion of projects. The university city is a very strong example of such a trend.

These huge costs are part of corruption, as well as nepotism and quotas imposed by MPs, relatives of ministers and infl uential people on the government in the distribution of projects. They fuelled the wastage of public money and led the country to record the largest defi cit in its history. Radical treatments are still absent because the government is not in the process to address the issue that is in dire need for a resolution.

Once again, we remind you of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where King Salman bin Abdulaziz issued an order to recover the looted funds after the govern-ment discovered that about seven trillion riyals, or the equivalent of ten percent of the annual budget, had been embezzled over a period of 40 years. The Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman worked on recovering this amount through procedures that are now known to all.

Your Highness the Prime Minister, the corrupt will not be deterred if there is no serious accountability and a decisive decision, which is what the government and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers lack. The MPs have become convinced that they can get what they want just by threatening to interrogate you or any of the ministers. This means that the sail of the state will remain “nailed” until we have a decision-making government.

THE government, ministries and oil companies all owe a lot of money to contractors – money which must be paid imme-diately because it is long overdue, while the institutions con-tinue to procrastinate in their spending, and the government brags about completing such and such a project this year.

Oh Prime Minister, the people are not satisfied at all with the path your government is walking due to lack of proper de-cision-making on your part. Your smile is not enough to win people’s hearts or restore their confidence. In God we trust.

... Yet, tomorrow is another day.Zahed Matar

Bahrain, Israel ink defense memoJERUSALEM, Feb 3, (AP): Israel and Bahrain signed a defense agreement Thursday as part of a show of cooperation aimed at sending a message toward archenemy Iran.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed the memorandum of un-derstanding with his Bahraini counterpart in the capital of Mana-ma, a key step after the two nations normalized ties in 2020.

He called the agreement “a new high point” in the countries’ relationship that will help protect other countries in the region. Ear-lier, Gantz and his Bahraini counterpart visited the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which is based in the strategically located Arabian Gulf country.

Gantz’s offi ce said the agreement is designed to “help advance intelligence cooperation, a framework for exercises” and strength-en ties between the countries’ defense industries. The memoran-dum is Israel’s second with an Arab nation after Gantz signed one with Morocco last year.

The visit comes at a time of growing tensions in the region fueled by the unraveling of the international nuclear deal with Iran and the ongoing civil war in Yemen. The U.S. and Israel have accused Iran of carrying out a number of attacks on ships in the Gulf, including on Israeli-linked cargo carriers, and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels recently launched a series of missile strikes at the United Arab Emirates. Israel has acknowledged stepping up naval operations in the Red Sea, an important waterway in the region.

Email: ahmed@aljarallah.com

Follow me on:

ahmedaljarallah@gmail.com

See Also Page 8

2ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022

Photo courtesy of SahapediaEbrahim Alkazi’s spectacular production of Andha Yug at the historic site of Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi

The year was 1963, and India had just ended a war with China. The Cold War was raging, and the atom bomb was still a strong memory. Ebrahim

Alkazi, ‘the architect of modern Indian theatre’ an Indian with Saudi Ku-waiti roots who mentored, trained and taught some of India’s finest actors proud to call themselves ‘Alkazians’ was presenting Dharamvir Bharti’s Ándha Yug’, a Hindi drama against the battlements of FerozshahKotla in Delhi. Based on India’s ancient Sanskrit epic, the ‘Mahabharata’, ‘Andha Yug’ is an allegory on the destruction of human lives and ethical values. Alkazi had just taken over the National School of Drama leadership in Delhi, and in his grand vision for Indian Theatre, he was determined to break down a few walls. Legend goes that his production of the play was a milestone that changed the trajectory of Hindi theatre forever.

Arab Times remembers a man, nay a colossus, a symbol of the close relationship that Kuwait and the region has had with the Indian subconti-nent. EbrahimAlkazi was a Renaissance Man. He was a curator, collector, artist, institution builder, and teacher credited with changing the language of Indian Theatre. He shaped the National School of Drama into the region’s premier theatre institution. He groomed some of India’s greatest actors and staged spectacular theatrical productions ranging from western classics like Euripedes, Sophocles, Shakespeare to Indian greats like Girish Karna-dand Mohan Rakesh. For his incomparable contribution to India’s artistic tradition, India awarded and feted him with some of her most prestigious awards, including the Padma Shri (1966), the Padma Bhushan (1991), and India’s second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 2010. India’s National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama, the SangeetNatakAka-demi, gave its highest award, the SangeetNatakAkademi Fellowship, for his lifetime contribution to theatre.

Ebrahim Alkazi, who is counted among some of India’s greatest creatives like Satyajit Ray, MF Hussein, Nissim Ezekiel and Amrita Shergill, had

Arab roots. As he moulded the theatrical sensibilities and techniques of a new, post-independent India eager to take its place on the world stage, his family in Kuwait watched and took pride in his dynamism, patriotism, and creativity. They left India in 1948, a decision made in the wake of the politi-cal turmoil that gripped the country after the partition of the subcontinent.

The family had settled in India at the beginning of the 20th century when Hamad Bin Ali Al Qadi, a young man born in the Qassim region of Saudi Arabia, went to Bombay and started working for a relative of the Bassam family engaged in the tea business. India was on the ancient Silk Route, and had been a trading hub and a crossroads of cultures since ancient times. Because of this, Arab traders turned to India for commercial activities, and Arab families from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Yemen sent their children to India for study and work. These Arab migrants had a strong social, cultural and economic presence in the subcontinent.

“My grandfather was from a merchant family,” shares Amal Allana, Indian theatre director, scenic designer, costume designer, former Chairper-son of the National School of Drama, and daughter of Ebrahim Alkazi. “He didn’t find the atmosphere in Saudi Arabia conducive because of skirmishes between clans and tribes. So as a young boy, he made his way across the desert and reached Basra. He wanted to sail to India as he had heard of many Arabs shifting to India seeking their fortunes. He could read and write Arabic, so he joined an Arab family as a companion for their boys before he shifted to business.”

Having started with tea, Hamad Bin Ali Al Qadi soon ventured into tex-tiles and spices. He married Maryam Al Nasser, a Kuwaiti fluent in Marathi, Gujarati, Arabic and English, who lived in Bombay with her family. After some time, Hamad took his family to Pune, where he had nine children, including Ebrahim, who was born in 1925. “My grandfather had a lovely temperament. He was extremely honest and well respected,” says Amal Al-

lana. “He married my grandmother, who was Kuwaiti. Her family traded in horses.” Ebrahim Alkazi and his siblings grew up in the pleasant climes of Poona. “What a remarkable spirit of adventure he had!” says Amal Alana of her grandfather. “To sail across the sea to an unknown country; learn Hindi or Hindustani, and marry and settle down there because he knew that India was an up and coming country. Education was good in India, and he wanted his children to get similar opportunities,” she says. “My grandfather was a very progressive man. He wanted to expose his children to knowledge and information. All my aunts and uncles are well educated and speak excellent English. Many of them are in Kuwait.” Hamad Bin Ali Al Qadi’s daughter Munira Alkazi is a renowned artist whose works feature in the Victoria & Albert in London and the MOMA in New York. Basil Alkazi, Ebrahim’s brother, is a famous artist with an award instituted in his name at the Royal College of Art London. The Al Qadi’s are a prominent family in Kuwait. Dr Lubna Al Al-Qadi, Ebrahim Alkazi’s niece, is one of Kuwait’s leading women. She is the Director of the Women’s Research Studies Centre at Kuwait University and speaks fluent Hindi.

After studying at St Vincent’s High School in Poona, Ebrahim Alkazi shifted to Bombay in 1941 to join St Xavier’s College. “My grandfather was very liberal. He sent his sons to Jesuit institutions, while the daughters were initially homeschooled,” says Amal Allana. It was in Bombay that Ebrahim Alkazi was exposed to new theatrical techniques at the Dramatic Society of St Xavier’s College. Alkazi was fluent in English, Arabic, Marathi and Guja-rati. Soon, he joined Sultan ‘Bobby’ Padamsee’s English Theatre Company, Theatre Group, where he acted in several plays and directed some. “Bobby Padamsee was my mother’s older brother,” shares Amal Allana. “He was an Oxford returned young man, very famous. Both he and my father had a

editor’s choice

Photo courtesy Press In-formation Bureau

President of India, Smt Pratibha Devisingh Patil presenting Padma Vibhushan Award to Ebrahim Hamed Alkazi at the Civil Investiture Ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi in 2010.

Ebrahim Alkazi

Continued on Page 3

By Chaitali B. RoySpecial to the Arab Times

ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022 3

Fajr ........ 05:15Sunrise .. 06:36Zohr ....... 12:02

Asr .......... 15:06Maghrib .. 17:28Isha ........ 18:46

Prayer TimingsExpected weather for the next 24 hours:

By Day: A significant increase in temperature warm and partly cloudy with light to moderate freshening south easterly wind changing to north westerly wind with speeds of 12-40 km/h with

a chance for rain that might be thundery at times .

By Night: Rather cold and part-ly cloudy with light to moderate freshening later on north westerly wind with speeds of 10-45 km/h with a chance for scattered light rain.

Station Max Exp Min RecKuwait City 20 09Kuwait Airport 21 05Abdaly 20 06Jahra 21 08Salmiyah 19 12Ahmadi 19 11Nuwaisib 20 07

Weather

VACCINE BOOSTER REGISTRATION: https://cov19vaccine.moh.gov.kw/SPCMS/CVD_19_Vaccine_Booster_Registration.aspx

Ebrahim AlkaziContinued from Page 2

shared love of theatre. My father had acted in school plays. He was good at recitation, declamation and debate. He was very good at public speaking from a young age.” Bobby Padamsee, a gifted actor, poet, dramatist and painter, took Ebrahim Alkazi under his wings. After Bobby’s untimely death a few years later, the responsibility of the The-atre Group fell on young Ebrahim. By this time, Ebrahim Alkazi had already trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in Lon-don, where he was offered career opportunities after being lauded by the English Drama League and the British Broadcasting Corporation, but he turned them down. He wanted to return home and develop a new, robust theatrical lexicon and tradition in a newly independent India.

India was in a state of flux. Partitioned and independent, it was trying to find its own voice, its own road. “Decisions had to be made, and my grandfather decided to leave India,” recalls AmalAllana. He shifted to Karachi but left soon after and migrated to Lebanon, which he felt was free and open like India. Sometime later, the family relocated to Kuwait, where they built their home. Ebrahim Alkazi refused to leave India. “My father was born and brought up in India. He had a huge circle of friends among Bombay’s artists and theatre people. He didn’t want to leave. He was put in charge of this group of 150 members of very talented people, and he wanted to make a difference.” Alkazi was interested in a national vision. An extremely disciplined man, he had extraordinary leadership skills. “He was very serious, steady and thought on a large scale. He thought, ‘What do I need to do for theatre in India? How can I be of service to India?” His commitment to his craft and his country was a big part of who he was as a person,” says Amal Allana.

By then Alkazi was married to Roshan Padamsee, an Ismaili Khoja from Gujarat, a brilliant young woman, a scholar and a costume de-signer who, along with her husband, contributed to the contemporary art movements in Bombay and Delhi in post-independent India. Ama-lAllana recalls the great productions her legendary father produced out of a bustling Mumbai sixth-floor terrace. His home became his theatre, where he staged classics like Medea, Waiting for Godot and Suddenly Last Summer. Every member of the Alkazi family was involved in the production. These plays were occasions for extraordinary scenes like a barefooted MF Hussain, ‘The Picasso of India’ dropping in with a sketchbook, filling page after page with drawings of the performance. “My father wanted to do regular boot camp theatre,” says Amal Allana. “I grew up in this atmosphere, with all sorts of brilliant people dropping in all the time. He also made it a point to hold lectures and seminars by local and visiting scholars.”

Ebrahim Alkazi ran the Theatre Group from 1950 to 1954. He be-came friendly with Nissim Ezekiel, a pioneer of Indian English po-etry. He was friends with MF Hussain and F N Souza, Co-Founder of the Bombay Progressive Artist’ Group., artists who were later to paint from his plays and design his sets. Some of the finest minds of twentieth-century India came together to carve a new path in art and culture. Meanwhile, EbrahimAlkazi also attended the JJ College of Art in Bombay to pursue his passion for painting. In the following years, he exhibited his works, became a noted art connoisseur and opened the Art Heritage Gallery in Delhi with his wife, Roshan Alkazi.

Always a pedagogue, and an institution builder, he accepted when he was invited to lead the National School of Drama in Delhi at the young age of 36. There, he embarked on a 15-year journey. He translated his magnificent vision and defined contemporary Indian theatre with in-depth research, analysis, technical perfection, scenography, attention to detail and lavish production. In Delhi, he realised that he would have to shift from English language to Hindi language theatre. In a 2015 article for Indian Express, DipanitaNath wrote, “It was in the 1960s, with Al-kazi that Hindi drama became a phenomenon. He staged Oedipus Rex, King Lear and Moliere’s The Miser in Hindi.” He also moved theatre from the closed proscenium to the open stage. Important heritage mon-uments like FerozShahKotla and PuranaQila provided the backdrop for his plays. Indian plays like Tughlaq ,AndhaYug and AshadKaEk Din became classics with him.

RevolutionisedAt the National School of Drama, Ebrahim Alkazi designed a course

that focussed not only on acting and direction but on all aspects of stagecraft. As the Director of NSD, he revolutionised Indian Theatre, particularly Hindi language theatre, with his vision and the meticulous-ness of his technical discipline. He also groomed, taught and mentored some of the finest actors and directors who contributed to creating an alternative stream of both arthouse and mainstream artists. His students or disciples in the ancient Indian tradition of Guru-Shishya parampa-ra revered him. Under him, the National School of Drama went from strength to strength and became a vibrant, intercultural, international institution. He encouraged Hindi playwrights, invited international tal-ents to teach and collaborate with his students. He built the institution and changed the language of modern Indian Theatre.

At the age of 50, Alkazi quit the NSD and set up the Art Heritage Gal-lery with his wife Roshan to encourage artists working in contemporary art. He continued with his commitment to theatre in India, mentoring and guiding. Even today, his influence is felt with younger generations of theatre practitioners of India who benefitted from the premium he placed on discipline and research and his sense of aesthetic. Quasar Thakore-Padamsee, in an article for the Mint, notes, “His interest in art gave him an aesthetic that was revolutionary for the 1940s-50s. By introducing actors to a different style so many generations ago, Alkazi saab inad-vertently has influenced our tastes in 2020.” Arundhati Nag, in the same article, concurs. “People have done much for language theatre, but not a single person has impacted ‘Indian’ theatre the way he has.”

Was there ever a duality in Ebrahim Alkazi about his identity? Ac-cording to Amal Allana, he was a world citizen. “He had an interna-tionalist vision for India. He believed that India had to march with the nations of the world. He wanted to create an international artform with a universal language.He was also very keen to develop Hindi theatre because he felt that one could not create a national theatre movement without a national language.” It is fascinating to see how a man who did not have a drop of Indian blood become a great scholar of Sanskrit. He moved himself and his family from Bombay to Delhi, which allowed him to explore his ‘Indianness’ further. He started doing Hindi plays, searched out new Hindi playwrights, encouraged and mentored them. He was also well known internationally and was on the board of several world-renowned institutions. His spirit was to combine the best of India and the rest of the world and create a modernity for Indian Theatre, the likes of which people had never imagined.

Students from all over India flocked to the NSD. After completing their training, many set up their own companies when they went back to their cities. He thus had a ripple effect on society, art and culture. His vision was pan India, and it embraced generations of young Indian actors and directors who in turn impacted the country’s theatre and film industry.

After leaving the NSD, Ebrahim Alkazi set up the Art Heritage Gallery in India. “He wanted to live many lifetimes; he wanted to mentor artists who were not getting an opportunity,” says Amal Al-lana. Ebrahim Alkazi searched out new artists, designed exhibitions, installed them and wrote about them.” Meanwhile, Alkazi had also built a formidable collection of 19th-century photographs of India. Inspired by his thirst for constant knowledge and interest in history and culture, his collection of pictures, which includes over 90,000 images, is one of the largest holdings of 19th and early 20th-century photographic prints from South and South East Asia. These images document the socio-political life in the subcontinent by linking his-tory, architecture, anthropology, topography and archaeology from the 1840s to the independence movement and the rise of modern In-dia. In 2006, Ebrahim Alkazi set up the Alkazi Foundation when he brought his collection of art and photographs from London and New York to make them available to an Indian audience. In 2015, Alam Allana and her husband, Dr Nissar Allana curated and designed an exhibition titled ‘The Theatre of E Alkazi’ covering the entire span of his theatrical career from the 1940s till 1996 to commemorate his 90th birthday. The exhibition opened in Delhi in 2016 and was shown in Mumbai and Jaipur in 2016 and 2017. In 2019, another exhibition titled ‘Opening Lines’ was organised to commemorate his 94th birth-day at the Art Heritage Gallery in New Delhi.

On August 4, 2020, Ebrahim Alkazi died In New Delhi at the age of 95 after an extraordinarily rich and fulfilling life. An ocean of a man he left behind a staggering legacy. A man with Saudi-Kuwaiti roots with India in his heart who became the ‘Father of Modern Indian Theatre’. His is a life that one should celebrate in a deeply divided world.

stc soars 251 fi ls, Gulf Investment House slides

Kuwait index wraps up week on a fi rm noteBy John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: Kuwait stocks swung higher Thursday after treading water in the previous session. The All Shares Index climbed 20.90 points to 7400.40 pts paced by stc and Ooredoo even as the heavyweights remained mostly subdued.

The Premier Market rose 6.37 points to 8036.67 pts taking the month’s gain to 24 pts and Main Market rallied 55.54 pts. The BK Main index soared 106.54 points to 6521.62 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile saw pullback fol-lowing the two-day rise. Over 278 mil-lion shares changed hands – down16 pct from the day before.

The sectors closed mostly in green. Telecommunications outshone the rest with 4.81 percent gain while Energy sector shed 1.31 pct, the biggest loser of the day. Volume wise, Financial Ser-vices topped with 150.46 million shares and sector was also ahead in value with KD 17.66 million.

Among the prime movers, Kuwait Telecommunications Co (stc) soared 251 fi ls to KD 1.116 on back of 15.4 million shares while Ooredoo rallied 47 fi ls to 692 fi ls after pushing 1.2 million shares. Humansoft Holding jumped 48 fi ls to KD 3.148 extending Wednesday’s modest gain and Boursa Kuwait Securi-ties paced 4 fi ls. Al Safat Investment Co sprinted 11 fi ls to 176 fi ls.

Zain rose 3 fi ls to 601 fi ls on back of

7.3 million shares while logistics major Agility added 2 fi ls to close at KD 1.000. Sector bellwether National Bank of Ku-wait eased 1 fi l to KD 1.040 after pushing 2.7 million shares whereas Gulf Bank and Burgan Bank dialed up 1 fi l each. Ku-wait Finance House tripped 1 fi l whereas Mabanee Co stood pat at 813 fi ls.

National Industries Group climbed 5 fi ls to 292 fi ls recouping Wednesday’s loss and the counter saw 9.5 million shares change hands, while Gulf Ca-ble was unchanged at 982 fi ls. Jazeera Airways climbed 30 fi ls to KD 1.600 on back of over 1 million share whereas ALAFCO tripped 1 fi l. Boubyan Petro-chemical Co slipped 6 fi ls to 911 fi ls and Qurain Petrochemical Co gave up 3 fi ls.

The market opened slightly gap down and rose sharply in early trade. The main index rose further in choppy trade to scale the day’s highest level of 7411 points half way into the session and piv-oted south. It drifted in the fi nal hour before closing with modest gain.

Top gainer of the day, stc rallied 29 percent to KD 1.116 while Warba Capital sprinted 8.22 pct to stand next. NICBM skidded 9 pct, the steepest de-cliner of the day and GFH topped the volume with 53 million shares.

Despite the day’s gain, losers outnum-bered the winners. 46 stocks advanced while 68 closed lower. Of the 140 coun-ters active on Thursday, 26 closed fl at. 15,66 deals worth KD 71 million were transacted during the session.

KIPCO and National Investment Co

where unchanged at 162 fi ls and 280 fi ls respectively whereas Al Imtiaz In-vestment took in 1 fi l. Kuwait Invest-ment Co added 1 fi l and International Fi-nancial Advisors followed suit on back of 2.8 million shares.

Gulf Investment House skidded 33 fi ls to 340 fi ls and Aayan Leasing gave up 6 fi ls. KAMCO Investment and Tamdeen Investment paused at 146 fi ls and 370 fi ls respectively while Noor Financial Investment gave up 12 fi ls.

Kuwait Cement Co eased 1 fi l to 282 fi ls after pushing 1.4 million shares and Kuwait Portland Cement Co gained 15 fi ls. HEISC fell 4 fi ls to 561 fi ls whereas Kuwait Foundry Co and ACICO Indus-tries gave up 3 fi ls each to close at 345 fi ls and 185 fi ls respectively.

Sultan Centre rose 4 fi ls to 204 fi ls whereas Arabi Group Holding shed 10 fi ls. Aznour was unchanged at 223 fi ls while Equipment Holding closed 2.8 fi ls in red. NCCI eased 1 fi l to 121 fi ls. Mezzan Holding paced 4 fi ls whereas Integrated Holding closed 8 fi ls in red.

NICBM skidded 23 fi ls to 232 fi ls whereas Warba Capital Holding was up 8.2 fi ls at 108 fi ls. Educational Holding slid 17 fi ls to KD 3.158 while Independ-ent Petroleum Group and Salbookh Trading paused at 583 fi ls and 43.9 fi ls respectively. Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co fell 2.4 fi ls to 65.5 fi ls. whereas NAPESCO was down 5 fi ls at 802 fi ls. KCPC was unchanged at 491 fi ls and Automated Systems Co added 2.8 fi ls. IFA Hotels and Resorts eased

0.8 fi l to 55.7 fi ls whereas OSOS Hold-ing stood pat at 116 fi ls. Mashaer Hold-ing inched 0.9 fi l up to 70.9 fi ls.

The market was buoyant during the week. The main index closed higher in three of the fi ve sessions scaling 74 points week-on-week. It had gained 307 points during January after rallying 1497 points during whole of 2021.

Euro/KD 0.3453

Yen/KD 0.0026

British £/KD 0.4118

Indian Rs/KD 0.0040

Philippines Peso/KD 0.0059

FTSE -27.63 pts at 18:50 Feb 03

Nikkei -292.29 pts at closing Feb 03

Gold $1803.75 per oz (London)

US$/KDUS$/KD 0.30240/50 0.30240/50

NYMEX crude $87.81 per barrel

Brent crude $89.14 per barrel

LIBOR rate 0.31057%

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KUNA photoDirector General of the Public Authority for Manpower, Ahmad Al-Mousa receives the Indian envoy

Sibi George.

250 inmates to go home: George

Talks on hiring Indian workersKUWAIT CITY, Feb 3, (KUNA): The Public Authority for Manpow-er (PAM) discussed on Thursday, with Indian Ambassador to Kuwait HE Sibi George and his accompa-nying delegation, ways of coopera-tion in the fi eld of recruitment and employment of Indian workers to the country, in addition to provid-ing them with legal protection.

In a press statement on the sidelines of the meeting, Director General of the Authority, Ahmad Al-Mousa, said that the labor mar-ket in the State of Kuwait attracts skilled workers to serve the labor needs.

Al-Mousa added that the authori-ty is making every effort to develop the process of bringing in skilled workers to serve the development and economic interests of the State of Kuwait and benefi t everyone.

He stressed the primary role of the authority in providing legal protection and ensuring an appro-priate work environment that guar-antees all workers their rights, in-cluding in the private and domestic sectors.

He praised the distinguished his-torical relations that bind the two countries in all fi elds, pointing to the authority’s keenness to support

and strengthen these good relations.For his part, Ambassador

George, in a similar statement, ex-pressed his gratitude and thanks to the State of Kuwait for the efforts and developments he witnessed in the ways of cooperation, stressing his quest to enhance this coopera-tion in the fi eld of manpower be-tween the two countries.

Meanwhile, the Indian ambas-sador to Kuwait, Sibi George, re-vealed there are 250 Indian pris-oners in Kuwait, who will soon be transferred to India, reports Al-Rai daily.

The daily quoting the ambassa-dor said a memorandum of under-standing was signed between the two countries about the exchange and transfer of prisoners some time ago and added, the names of those prisoners who will be deported has been completed and sent to the In-dian authorities to help these pris-oners complete their sentences in home country.

He praised the fruitful meeting he had with the Kuwaiti Attorney-General, Counselor Dirar Al-Asou-si, where they discussed the issue of transferring convicted prisoners, and other issues related to the In-dian community in Kuwait.

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: The Ministry of Com-merce and Industry stated free food supplies will be distributed to the front line workers of the ministries of Health and Interior as of March 1, 2022, reports Al-Rai daily.

In a letter to the Kuwait Catering Company and the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce stated, “With regard to the system of disbursing free supplies to the front rows, we inform you that it was decided to start disbursing food supplies as of March 1 according to the standard quantities in force in the current system (Rice, sugar, lentils, powdered milk, veg-etable oil, tomato paste and chicken).

The Ministry of Com-merce has issued a detailed table of the number of cards, individuals and allocations according to the data sent by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Interior for both Kuwaitis and residents, in addition to a list of distri-bution centers.

Free rationfrom Mar 1

KUNA photoMinister of Oil, Minister of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy, Dr. Muhammad Al-Faris, during his meeting with the Chinese Ambassador

to the country, Li Minggang.

Ties boost eyed in various fi eldsKuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Oil, Electricity, Water and Sustainable Energy and Chinese Ambassador to Kuwait Li Minggang, deliberated Thursday, ways of boosting col-laboration in varying develop-mental fi elds.

The Ministry of Oil mentioned in a statement that the meeting, held in the ministry headquarters, discussed boosting collaboration in fi elds of oil, gas, electricity, wa-ter, and renewable energy in what supports and bolsters the joint in-terest of both countries. (KUNA)

‘60s’ nod to makeKD 42.2 m in year

Docus still in process

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: Following the nod given by the Public Authority for Man-power for the non-graduate expatriates who are 60 years and above to renew their work permits for a fee in addition to the health insurance cover will generate 42.2 million dinars in the fi rst year, reports Al-Anba daily.

Informed sources said decision to renew work per-mits of this category of people, who are believed to number 56,000 will generate 14 million dinars as fees for renewing work permits and 28.2 million dinars to be paid to insurance policies.

In the same context, other sources indicated that until the end of the working day yesterday, Wednesday, the docu-ments had not been issued so the residents could start re-newing their residence permits, as the companies which are authorized to issue the documents are still in the preparation stage and submit the documents to the Insurance Regulatory Unit for their inclusion on the list of approved companies.

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‘Rights priority’: Acting Director General of the Public Authority for Disability Affairs (PADA) Eng Anwar Al-An-sari confi rmed that the authority is working hard to solidify Kuwait’s positive position in international human rights in-stitutions concerned with the affairs of persons with disabili-ties, reports Al-Anba daily.

Al-Ansari made the announcement on the sidelines of his meeting with Chairman of the Committee for People with Disabilities at the National Human Rights Offi ce Dr Youssef Al-Sager recently. They discussed ways to strengthen co-operation between the two parties in the human rights fi eld.

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Decision issued: Minister of Justice and Minister of State for Nazaha (Integrity) Enhancement Jamal Al-Jalawi issued a ministerial decision on the relocation of Hawally Court to the Hawally Courts Complex in Block Three, Hawally as of Feb 8, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The Ministry of Justice undersecretary has been instructed to implement this decision in coordination with the judges and heads of courts.

Hawally Court is currently located on Al-Moatasem Street, Block Five.

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Dr Al-Saeed takes post: The Decree No. 38 of 2022 which has been issued stipulates in its fi rst article that the Minister of Health, Dr. Khaled Al-Saeed, will supervise the Public Authority for Persons with Disabilities, reports Al-Rai daily.

According to the decree, Dr Al-Saeed chairs the author-ity’s Supreme Council and the decree gives him all the pow-ers assigned to the minister in accordance with the provi-sions of Law No. 8 of 2010.

LOCALARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022

4

‘Violations’ committed by KAC board members being queried

Finance panel cancels meet because of absence of ministers

By Saeed Mahmoud SalehArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: The Finan-cial and Economic Affairs Com-mittee cancelled its meeting on Thursday, because of the absence of Minister of Finance and Minis-ter of State for Economic Affairs and Investments Abdulwahab Al-Rushaid and Minister of Justice and State Minister of Nazaha (In-tegrity) Enhancement Jamal Al-Jalwai without coordinating with the committee.

Committee Chairman MP Ahmed Al-Hamad pointed out that Minister of Commerce and Industry Fahd Al-Shrean called the committee earlier and apolo-gized for not being able to attend the meeting due to prior engagements. He said only the undersecretaries and as-sistant undersecretaries were present at the meeting. He added that important issues are included in the agenda of the cancelled meeting, such as discussing the bill on granting compensation to the vic-tims of real estate fraud. He went on to say that this is the second meeting, which was canceled because of the absence of the government although compensating the real estate fraud victims is important for most citizens.

Meanwhile, MP Khalid Al-Otaibi for-warded queries to Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Economic Affairs and Investments Abdulwahab Al-Rushaid on the violations committed by the members of the Board of Directors of Kuwait Airways Corpo-ration (KAC) who distributed senior positions in subsidiaries among themselves.

AppointedAl-Otaibi disclosed one of the board mem-

bers appointed himself as acting chief execu-tive offi cer (CEO) of Kuwait Airways, another appointed himself as Board Chairman at Auto-matic Systems Company, and a third one ap-pointed himself as Board Chairman of Kuwait Aviation Services Company (KASCO).

He said the Board of Directors at Kuwait Airways asked the general assembly to ques-tion the subsidiaries in case they incur losses or commit violations. He disclosed the viola-

tions include confl ict of interests and breaking the relevant laws.

He asked the rationale behind the above-mentioned appointments, copies of the ap-pointment decisions and the approval of the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA). He wants to know if the appointments are in accordance with the relevant laws; particularly articles 54, 55 and 56 of the basic law. He requested copies of the academic certifi cates of offi cials who occupied leadership positions in subsidi-

aries besides their posts at the Board of Directors of KAC, and if their qualifi ca-tions match the positions they occupy.

The lawmaker asked for the method adopted in ap-pointing the members of the boards of directors in subsidiary companies and copies of the approval of the General Assembly of KIA. He wants to know if

there is any difference between the authorities granted to the Board Chairman and CEO of Kuwait Airways, if it is true that the Board of Directors of KASCO purchased four build-ings (each one consists of 16 fl oors) located in Sabah Al-Salem for KD 18 million. If it is true, he wants to know the reasons behind the purchase and if it was done according to the regulations.

ReplyOn the other hand, MP Marzouq Al-Khalifa

received the reply of Minister of Oil, Electric-ity, Water and Renewable Energy Muhammad Al-Fares to his query.

The MP asked about the date of supplying electricity and water to Mutla’a Residential City and reasons behind the delay. The min-ister disclosed that electricity will be supplied in the second quarter of 2022, clarifying the delay is due to exceptional circumstances re-sulting from Coronavirus crisis including the lockdown in areas where workers are residing; while drinking water will be supplied in the second quarter of 2023.

MP Muhannad Al-Sayer forwarded queries to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Muhammad about the reasons be-hind delegating counselors from the Arab Republic of Egypt to work at the Legal Ad-vice and Legislation Department. He wants to know the annual cost of appointing one Egyp-tian counselor. He wants to know the salary, allowances and other benefi ts granted to each

counselor; if the Legal Advice and Legislation Department published a job advertisement for Kuwaiti counselors before delegating those from Egypt; the institution which allowed co-ordination with Egypt in this regard; number of Kuwaiti counselors at the department com-pared to non-Kuwaitis, and tasks of the Egyp-tian counselors.

He asked Minister of Health Dr Khalid Al-Saeed if his ministry conducted scientifi c re-searches on the Covid-19 vaccine. He wants to know the reasons behind the decision of considering individuals who were vaccinated nine months ago as unvaccinated. He asked if Oxford has conducted researches on the third dose of the vaccine, if the ministry will obli-gate the individuals to take the third dose, and expiry date of the vaccines in the custody of the ministry at present.

Al-Sayer also forwarded queries to Minister of Social Affairs and Societal Development and State Minister for Housing Affairs and Urban Development Mubarak Al-Arow on the delayed issuance of the executive decree on the law on protection against family violence.

SummonedHe wants to know if personalities from

non-government organizations (NGOs) and specialists have been summoned to draft the executive decree of the abovementioned law, reasons behind the delayed opening of shel-ters for women who are victims of family violence, and if the fund allocated for support-ing the victims of family violence has been launched as Article 23 of the law.

In another development, MP Mehalhal Al-Mudaf submitted a proposal for the Council of Ministers to issue a decision to obligate com-panies to submit their statements of assets and liabilities; proving they have no debts to any public institution and have paid the full salaries of workers before participating in public tenders.

Moreover, MP Hamad Al-Matar fi led a case against Jamal Al-Menaifi for offending him and insulting his parents during their meeting in a diwaniya.

Al-Menaifi works at the Assembly Speak-er’s Offi ce and he is one of the employees who fi led lawsuits against MPs Khalid Al-Otaibi, Muhammad Al-Mutair and Thamer Al-Suwait because of the latter’s actions during the inau-gural session.

Al-Menaifi was angry because Al-Matar voted against lifting the parliamentary immu-nity of Al-Mutair, Al-Otaibi and Al-Suwait; which means Al-Menaifi will not be able to sue them. Al-Menaifi and Al-Matar have been friends for more than 40 years.

A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION

diwaniya

‘Disclosing state secrets more reprehensible, greater crime’“MOHANDAS Karamchand Gan-dhi was born in 1869, and accord-ing to “History”, he was not an outstanding student, but he had the opportunity to study law in Eng-land,” columnist, Professor at Ku-wait University’s Political Science Department, an advisor to Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the sec-retary general of the Arab Fund for Human Rights (AFHR) Dr Ghanim Al-Najjar wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“When he returned to India and could not fi nd work, he traveled to South Africa, where he lived when apartheid was at its high-est, and remem-bers the moment he discovered that fact when he was thrown from his seat out of the train.

“Since then he decided to work against discrimination, and he re-mained in South Africa, founding the campaign to demand an end to discrimination.

“He led a mass civil disobedi-ence, which achieved partial suc-cess. As soon as he returned to India in 1914, he called for civil disobedi-ence against the British occupation, for imposing forced conscription on the Indians.

“Hundreds of thousands respond-ed to his call, until he became a leader of the Indian movement to-wards independence from Britain, so he formed the Indian National Congress, calling for a boycott of British goods, services and institu-tions, until he was imprisoned.

“After his release from prison, he organized an open fasting campaign to protest the violence between Hin-dus and Muslims. In 1930, he led a mass campaign against the British salt tax harmful to the poor.

“His most famous campaign was the “Salt March.” Protesters went to the Arabian Sea, to get salt, and he was arrested along with 60,000 peo-ple, and this gave him a reputation and international support.

“After his release in 1931, he was invited to the Round Table ne-gotiations on India in London, as a main representative of the Indian Congress Party. He soon left the party in 1934, to focus on economic activities to help the poor, leaving the party to his student Jawaharlal Nehru.

“With the outbreak of World War II, he declared his readiness to sup-port Britain in exchange for India’s independence, but Britain refused that, and headed to divide India into two countries between Hindus and Muslims, and he only demanded a complete British withdrawal, and he was imprisoned with other In-dian leaders until 1944.

“In 1945, a new government came in Britain and negotiations be-gan. Gandhi’s direction was to es-tablish a united India, while Britain went to establish two states; India and Pakistan, and so it was, and lat-er at the beginning of the seventies Pakistan again split and Bangladesh was born.

“In that diffi cult era, Gandhi was deeply frustrated by the violence between Muslims and Hindus dur-ing the partition, and on January 30, a Hindu extremist named Nathuram Ghodse, assassinated Gandhi, in protest of his tolerance of Muslims and his call for coexistence with them.

“Gandhi’s movement in peaceful disobedience continued to affect the world, and became a role model for many advocates of peaceful move-ment for change, such as Martin Lu-ther King in America, who was also assassinated by another extremist, as extremism has no religion.”

Also:“With the passage of a century,

the US and Russian intelligence structures became rubble and (junk) in exchange for the fl ow of informa-tion, the cascade of events, and the continuing escalation of challenges to the eastern and western camps alike,” columnist Dr Abdul Rah-man Al-Jeeran wrote for Al-Rai daily.

“This is no longer acceptable with the traditional intelligence work method and working in iso-lation from other departments, in addition to the complexity of the protection programs for the Internet with the high costs of developing them, leading to the conclusion that talk about reforming the American and Russian intelligence services are still frustrated, as former US President Donald Trump decided to reform the United Nations and the Security Council.

“Do we know this fact that the American intelligence services an-nually issue 50,000 intelligence reports that cover the whole world, and only a limited number of offi c-

ers read them? The fault lies with policy makers and intelligence ser-vices when they treat each national fi le as a set of separate issues that can be placed in separate boxes that eventually form thick walls of secrecy that have been exploited to the point that national security pro-fessionals believe that they are do-ing more harm than good?

“Today, there is no longer a great deal of interest in collecting and preserving secrets and trying to dis-cover what leaders in the Middle East say behind closed doors (!) in light of the information revolution and satellites that capture sound and image around the clock!

“The other fact that cannot be overlooked here in Kuwait is that we are at the threshold of a very bad scene, where the slogan of free-doms, transparency and governance was employed in order to disclose state secrets and leak its documents and audio clips by some of those who occupied senior positions in the state administration.

“No one disagrees that every state has secrets, and secrets deeper than them, and the one who is familiar with them needs a high degree of honesty and trust and is entrusted with them, whether he is an advisor or an authority fi gure, and to know that if he sees everything, this does not necessarily mean that he knows everything, and it does not mean that he is capable of making history.

“We live in today’s world that differs from the world of yesterday. Today, Kuwait is living in a state of continuous increase in everything in terms of population, budgets, and the number of challenges. Kuwait’s message has also evolved with the requirements of each stage, and its duties and responsibilities have in-creased with it.

“Accordingly, its secrets must be kept secret, and every work and task has its own privacy, the greatest and most worthy of keeping secrets re-lated to security, national wealth and the judiciary. But it is really un-fortunate that some of these secrets are circulated through social media, until our secrets have become an open book, transcontinental, ex-posed to visitors. This is of course no less dangerous than selling infor-mation to hostile parties!

“And what I would like to clarify here specifi cally, is that the secrets of the state are like the secrets of homes, there is no difference be-tween them in terms of the neces-sity of preserving and not revealing them due to the devastating effects that they have, while not exploiting them for arm-twisting or employing them for private agendas that have nothing to do with the public inter-est.

“For this reason, we fi nd that the Egyptian Parliament replaced Ar-ticle 80 of the Penal Code in the event of disclosing state secrets, as it raised the penalty ceiling to fi ve years in prison and a fi ne of fi fty thousand pounds due to people dar-ing to publish and circulate these secrets.

“Conclusion is that if disclosing the secrets of individuals and homes are reprehensible, then disclosing state secrets are more reprehensible and greater crime, and it results in evils that destabilize the security and stability of society.”

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“Perhaps, the confusion between the concept of the State and the con-cept of government is something that leads to uncertainty in plan-ning, implementation, evaluation or criticism,” columnist Dr Anwar Al-Shurian wrote for Al-Shahid daily.

“The State is a more comprehen-sive, larger and broader concept than the concept of government.

“The government is a group of agencies, ministries and institutions run by a group of people who are assigned specifi c roles to manage the State.

“The government is part of the State entity. In some countries, especially those whose economic systems adopt the market system, the size of the government is small compared to the size of the State or other sectors.

“For example, in a country such as the United States of America, the size of the government is very small compared to any other economic sector. In other countries, such as the People’s Republic of China, the size of the government exceeds the size of any other economic sector.

“In Kuwait, due to the infl ated size of the government, it is the largest consumer, the largest producer, the largest employee, the largest port, the largest importer and the largest ex-porter. The government’s economic activities constitute approximately 80 percent of the gross domestic product. This led to mixing of the concepts of State and government.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb

Al-Najjar

‘Football Academies for Girls’ program isbeing launched: PAYKUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: Public Authority for Youth launched the ‘Foot-ball Academies for Girls’ program at all youth cent-ers, which is part of the ‘Our Stadiums’ project included in the state’s development plan and the government’s work program for developing human capital, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The Director-General of the authority, Dr. Mishaal Al-Rabie, said in a press statement that the “Football Acade-mies for Girls” program is one of the author-ity’s recreational and entertainment programs and aims to provide a healthy environment and lifestyle.

ProgramAl-Rabie added that

in the program, the play-ers are helped to play the game in well-equipped places and under the supervision of coaches who have experience in dealing with the play-ers according to scien-tifi c methods to fi ll their spare time and unload their energies for the benefi t of them and their physical, psychological and mental health.

He explained the acad-emy enhances social communication skills among the players with each other and the spirit of teamwork, in addition to developing their moral values such as tolerance, respect, emotional self-discipline, commitment and responsibility.

He stated that the pro-gram is for girls in the evening period; for three days a week in all youth centers of Qadisiya, Faiha, Sabahiya, Shami-ya, Qusour, Ardhiya, Dai-ya and Jaber Al-Ahmad, which are affi liated with the authority.

He called on parents of girls between the ages of 10 and 15 to register for the program via the au-thority’s website www.youth.gov.kw.

Al-Rushaid

LOCALARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022

5

KUNA photoKuwaiti Deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Magdy Al-Dhafeeri receives

British Ambassador to Kuwait Belinda Lewis.

Sadaaqa poster

Envoy ‘building bridges’

Sadaaqa presents IndianAmbassador Sibi GeorgeKUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: In its second episode, Sadaaqa presents HE Sibi George, Ambassador of India to Ku-wait.

Ambassador George is very famil-iar and close to the Middle East hav-ing spent a better part of his career in this part of the world. As a diplomat, he has been posted in Cairo, Riyadh, Doha, and Tehran.

He has also served in Islamabad, Bern, and Washington, DC.

As a diplomat, Ambassador George believes that diplomacy offers a vast ocean of possibilities to build a mu-tually benefi cial relationship with the host country.

And that is what he has been doing in Kuwait, building bridges at all lev-els of society and increasing outreach with people-to-people contact.

In the time he has taken over, he has transformed the embassy into a hub of activities.

In this episode, apart from talking about historical ties between India and Kuwait, Ambassador Sibi George will share his personal experiences of learning in Kuwait, and about the nu-ances of the relationship between the two friendly nations with Chaitali B. Roy.

Special thanks to Anees Backer and Anupa Dasgupta for their support.

Kuwaiti Deputy FM, British envoy discuss bilateral tiesKUWAIT CITY, Feb 3, (KUNA): Kuwaiti Deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Magdy Al-Dhafeeri received Thursday British Ambas-sador to Kuwait Belinda Lewis.

During the meeting, both sides

discussed bilateral ties between the two countries.

The meeting was attended by the Assistant Foreign Minister for the Affairs of Deputy minister’s offi ce Ambassador Ayham Al-Omar.

Subscribers to telcos in Kuwaitreach 6.51 mln in Jan: statistics

Number of internet users in Kuwait 4.3 million

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: The number of subscribers to the services of telecom-munications companies in Kuwait reached 6.51 mil-lion in the month of Janu-ary, according to the data of the international Data Portal Corporation, re-ports Al-Rai daily.

According to statistics prepared by the daily in this regard, this represents 8.5 percent of the total of 76.67 million subscribers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

The statistics also revealed that the number of internet users in Ku-wait is 4.3 million, which represents 5.8 percent of the total of 58.8 mil-lion users in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

On the other hand, the percent-age of social media users in Kuwait, which is a total of 4.05 million users, constitute about 6.9 percent of the total of 58.89 million users in the six Gulf countries.

The number of local phone sub-scribers decreased by 7.4 percent on an annual basis, constituting about 149.5 percent of the country’s popu-lation, which grew by 1.3 percent to 4.3 million people.

According to Data Portal figures, the number of Internet users grew by 1.3 percent on an annual basis to reach about 4.3 million users, repre-senting 99 percent of the number of residents in the country. The number of active social media users reached 4.05 million subscribers, which rep-resents 93 percent of the population.

RanksKuwait ranks third in the Gulf in

terms of phone subscribers out of the total population. The UAE came first at about 169.4 percent with 17 mil-lion subscribers (10.04 million peo-ple). Qatar ranked second at about 151.8 percent with 4.48 million sub-scribers (2.96 million people).

Kuwait came first in terms of the number of internet users out of the total population, with 4.3 million users making up 99 percent of the population. The same percentage was recorded in Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE, which it was 97.9 percent in Saudi Arabia, and 95.8 percent in the Sultanate of Oman.

Kuwait came third in the Gulf in terms of the proportion of social media users to the total population, reaching 93 percent with 4.05 mil-lion subscribers. The UAE came first with 106.1 percent (10.65 million users), and Qatar second with 99.8 percent (2.95 million people). The rate is 87.8 percent for Bahrain, 83.2 percent for the Sultanate of Oman, and 82.3 percent for Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia, the number of telephone subscribers reached 41.03 million people, a growth of 3.3 per-cent. They constitute 115.3 percent of the Saudi population of 35.59 mil-lion people.

The number of internet users in Saudi Arabia has reached 34.84 mil-lion people, with a growth of 1.5 per-cent on an annual basis, representing 97.9 percent of the population. The users of social media sites, whose number increased by 5.4 percent to 29.3 million subscribers, constituted 82.3 percent of the total residents in Saudi Arabia.

KUNA photoThe delegation of the State of Kuwait, co-chaired by Director-General of the National Bureau for Academic Ac-

creditation and Education Quality Assurance (NBAQ) Hamad Al-Adwani.

Conference seeks to revamp high education in region

Kuwait educ official touts UNESCO conf findingsPARIS, Feb 3, (KUNA): A Kuwaiti education offi cial on Thursday com-mended the outcomes of a UNESCO-hosted international conference to adopt the Convention on the Recogni-tion of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Education in the Arab States, known as the Arab States Convention.

In a press statement following the wrapping-up of the gathering held in Paris, Director-General of the National Bureau for Academic Accreditation and Education Quality Assurance (NBAQ) Hamad Al-Adwani, said the conference focused on how to revamp high education in the region and cre-ate sustainable collaboration between Arab and world countries.

He hoped that the revised conven-tion, which is of paramount signifi -cance, would usher in a fresh stage of a more holistic endeavor to apply the 2019 Global Convention on the Rec-ognition of Qualifi cations concerning Higher Education.

The educational offi cial pointed out that the Kuwaiti delegation partaking in the international event had partici-pated in the revision of the Arab States Convention.

The 1978 Convention on the Rec-ognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Education in the Arab States, known as the Arab States Convention, was the only UNESCO regional recognition con-vention that had not been revised to

As for the UAE, the number of subscribers to telecommunications companies is about 17 million, con-stituting 169.4 percent of the popula-tion, which grew by one percent to 10.04 million people this January.

The number of internet users in the UAE is about 9.94 million us-ers, with a growth of one percent on an annual basis, and constituting 99 percent of the population. The num-ber of subscribers to social network-ing sites is 10.65 million people, with a growth of 8.2 percent on an annual basis, and constituting 106.1 percent of the population.

As for the Sultanate of Oman, the number of phone subscribers is about 5.87 million, which is down by 0.9 percent compared to January

2020. Their number represents 111.3 percent of the population, which in turn rose by 2.1 percent to 5.27 mil-lion people.

The number of internet users reached 5.02 million users, with a growth of 2.1 percent on an annual basis, and constituting 95.2 percent of the popu-lation. The users of social media sites increased by six percent to 4.39 million users, constituting 83.2 percent of the residents in Oman.

The number of Qatar’s subscrib-ers to telecommunications compa-nies is about 4.48 million, which is a decrease by 2 percent on an annual basis, and constituting 151.8 percent of the country’s population of 2.96 million people.

The number of internet users in

Qatar increased by 1.7 percent to about 2.99 million users. The num-ber of active users on social media reached about 2.95 million people, with a growth of 2.8 percent on an annual basis, equivalent to 99.8 per-cent of the country’s population.

In addition, the number of phone subscribers in Bahrain has reached 1.78 million, with a growth of 1.6 percent on an annual basis, constitut-ing 101 percent of the population of 1.77 million people.

There are 1.75 million internet us-ers in Bahrain, with an increase of 2.4 percent on an annual basis, repre-senting 99 percent of the population. The number of social media users is about 1.55 million people, constitut-ing 87.8 percent of the population.

Petrochemical Industries Co inks deal with Kuwaiti Farmers UnionKUWAIT CITY, Feb 3, (KUNA): The Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) signed on Thurs-day a contract with the Kuwaiti Farmers Union to supply quanti-ties of urea fertilizer to be avail-able in the local market.

PIC said in a press statement that the contract includes the sup-ply of 75 tons of urea (granular), as a start of cooperation, start-ing from this February and next March, at an appropriate shipping and transportation cost.

It added that the contract comes within the framework of joint co-operation and confi rms the compa-ny’s role in supporting agriculture

and local farmers.It stated that the company had

contacted the National Corpora-tion for Chemical Fertilizers in Bahrain to ship and transport the urea product (granular) from the Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company factory to produce fertilizers in Bahrain, at an ap-propriate shipping and transpor-tation cost.

The contract was signed on be-half of PIC Director of Fertilizer Marketing and Supply Operations Abeer Marafi , while it was signed on behalf of the Kuwait Farmers Union, the head of the union, Mu-hammad Al-Otaibi.

take into account transformations in higher education systems, policies and environments.

The International Conference of States to adopt the revised Convention, which took place at UNESCO Head-quarters from 1 to 2 February 2022, was co-chaired by Egypt and Morocco.

In 2017, two consultation meetings to revise the Convention took place between UNESCO and higher educa-

tion experts from the region (Sharm El Sheikh, March 2017, and Cairo, Octo-ber 2017).

In November 2019, the Global Con-vention on the Recognition of Quali-fi cations concerning Higher Education was adopted by the 40th session of the UNESCO General Conference, be-coming the fi rst United Nations treaty on higher education with a global scope.

MoE to provide vehicles for schools, educational districts & main officeKUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: The Ministry of Education will soon sign contracts with four companies to provide buses and other vehicles for schools, educa-tional districts and the ministry’s main offi ce, reports Al-Jarida daily quoting sources.

Sources disclosed the concerned

authorities in the ministry have com-pleted the procedures for floating tenders for the supply of buses and other vehicles. They also confirmed that the Central Agency for Public Tenders awarded the tenders to four companies at a total value of KD 25 million.

ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022

6

Photos from the visit

A group photo from the event.

International Women’s Group delegation visits the Botanical Garden at Bayan Palace

Ambassador praises association for their great services

PBFPK bids farewell to HE Ambassador of Pakistan, Syed Sajjad HaiderBy M. Irfan Shafi q

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: Farewell dinner was hosted by Pakistani Banking & Fi-nance Professionals in Kuwait (PBFPK) in the honor of His Excellency Syed Saj-jad Haider, the outgoing Ambassador of Pakistan, after completion of his very successful tenure in Kuwait.

Mrs. Ambassador Ambreen Mustafa, Faisal Majeed Second Secretary, Farrukh Amir Sial; Community Welfare Attaché, Embassy of Pakistan also graced the pro-gram.

The program commenced with the recitation of Holy Quran by Muhammad Tariq Mirza (Joint Secretary PBFPK) whose golden voice touched every heart and soul.

After the recitation, Muhammad Tahir Bashir; President PBFPK welcomed the distinguished guests and delivered his speech. He expressed his views on the successful tenure of His Excellency. He also acknowledged the encouragement and guidance received from His Excel-lency. He wished His Excellency all the very best on his endeavors ahead. He also thanked the respected guests for gracing the event.

Tariq Mirza, Joint Secretary; Fahad Zahid, Executive member PBFPK; Mu-hammad Farooq, Executive member PBFPK and other PBFPK members in-cluding Naeem Mirza, Masood Ul Has-san, Zahid Rashid and Tariq Iqbal also expressed their gratitude to His Excel-lency. They all wished His Excellency all the very best in his upcoming endeavors.

His Excellency Syed Sajjad Haider was invited to deliver his speech. His Excellency thanked and applauded presi-dent and members of PBFPK during his speech for bidding farewell. During his very enlightening speech, he expressed great thoughts and highlighted areas where we as Pakistanis can explore and can benefit the homeland. He mentioned the professionals of Pakistan in Kuwait are delivering great services and PBFPK is one of the platforms of profession-als. He expressed satisfaction and great achievements and successful operations of Pakistan Embassy in Kuwait. He mentioned that in his tenure he tried and

encouraged the Pakistani community to highlight their strengths by coming forward. He mentioned that President PBFPK and embassy of Pakistan also promoted Roshan Digital Account and tried to make it a success story, for which he applauded Muhammad Tahir Bashir President PBFPK for his contribution. He appeared satisfied on completion of his successful tenure and was concerned to leave behind so many loving and car-ing Pakistani community members. He thanked once again all guests for affec-tion and well wishes.

A token of appreciation presented to His Excellency by PBFPK. And program was concluded by serving lavish dinner and a group photo was taken at the end of the program. The farewell ceremony was attended by members of PBFPK.

Pakistani Banking and Finance Profes-sionals in Kuwait (PBFPK) is the promi-nent forum that assembles Pakistani leaders of finance, influential banking pioneers, top-notch banking and finance experts and remarkable professionals.

PBFPK is open to Pakistanis working in Banking, Investment Companies, Ex-change Companies, Insurance Compa-nies and Audit firms. Anyone with Paki-stani origin can also be part of this effort.

We firmly believe that PBFPK — is the ideal platform for communication, networking, and information sharing, which gathers today under its umbrella, the Pakistanis working in the Kuwait - to fostered mutual cooperation among its members and strives to serve their com-mon interests and goals thus reinforcing the local Banking and finance industry. It further represents a main drive for syn-ergizing competencies. Such synergy of talents will strengthen business relations, and ultimately energize their role in the “Global Village” we live in today.

Based on this belief, the Founding Members took the initiative of estab-lishing this forum that aims at weaving a network of connections among Paki-stani bankers and finance professionals along with their foreign counterparts, to give a strategic depth to the industry by strengthening relations with the interna-tional markets, and enhancing their posi-tion.

On Sunday morning, 23 January 2022, a delegation of members of the In-ternational Women’s Group visited the Botanical Garden at Bayan Palace, which is well known to be one of Bayan Palace’s outstanding creative proj-ects. The delegation was received by Mrs. Alia Al-Muhanna and a number of Bayan Palace employees.

In order to follow social distancing procedures, the delegation was di-vided into two groups; each group being taken separately on a tour through the magnificent garden. While enjoying the beauty of the garden, the vis-iting members were delighted with the explanations given about the na-ture of the garden detailing the various trees, plants and flowers that were

brought from tropical, desert and Mediterranean regions.At the end of the visit, the President of the International Women’s Group, the

wife of the Ambassador of the Republic of Italy, Cristiana Balducci, thanked Mrs. Alia Al-Muhanna and the ladies of her team, and through them also ex-tended IWG’s grateful thanks and appreciation to Bayan Palace.

A collage of photos from the event.

‘Pursue your dreams with dedication and sincerity’

FAIPS Kuwait bid adieu to Class XII batch of 2022KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: Another year gone by and another batch of fine young minds equipped with knowledge and superior values, passed out from the hallowed portals of FAIPS DPS, mak-ing the most significant transition of their life. To mark this transition, FAIPS (DPS) arranged a grand ceremony to bid farewell to the Batch of 2022 on Saturday, 22nd January 2022. Due to the ongoing restrictions, the event was organized on a virtual platform by the students of Class 11.

The event commenced with the re-cital of verses from the Holy Quran fol-lowed by its translation. The Principal, Ravi Ayanoli in his address exhorted the students to pursue things only if they are truly passionate with enough interest. He also urged them to make the best of the options life offers by being meticu-lous, hardworking, disciplined and am-bitious, if they couldn’t identify some-thing as their passion. Wishing them a bright future, he emphasized keeping up the dedication and sincerity to catch up with their dreams. A medley of cultural extravaganza for the evening which included mellifluous singing, well-cho-reographed dance and a hilarious skit by the students of class 11 kept the online spectators glued to their seats.

Three engaging game shows namely “Who wants to be a millionaire”, “What will you do”,” Guess who” witnessed enthusiastic participation from the se-nior batch. In keeping with past tradi-tion, a fabulous yearbook with an in-novative design was launched to add to their bag of cherished possessions for the class of ‘22. Awards were conferred on the outgoing students in various cat-egories. The awardees were selected by a process of voting by their peers.

The teachers congratulated the senior batch of students, and sent their bless-ings and words of wisdom through

video clippings. The Vice Principal Ms. Vineeta Munshi proposed a vote of thanks, wishing the batch of ‘22 a prom-ising future. She complimented them

for their efforts during these difficult times. She also thanked all the teachers and praised the Deputy Student Council members and all the students of class 11

for their stupendous efforts to conduct an event of this scale and duration. The program concluded with the rendition of the Indian National Anthem.

ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022

7

Champions of Inclusive World organizes the webinar

Summit celebrates ‘leading women of the world’By M. Irfan Shafi q

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: Champi-ons of Inclusive World organized a summit with the theme “#Power-ful Women Shaping the World” to thank all women who are making this world a better place. The Lead-ing Women of the World introduced the women from 30 plus countries in the group and 20 plus supportive partners from around the world we really admire. In this valuable sum-mit, 30 speakers from Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe, North America and South America, Australia come together.

The purpose of this summit is the pre-celebration of Women’s Day and also bring all ladies and men who support women’s work on one platform to support one another and find out a way forward for the next step.

At the start of the summit, Rabia Nasir Mahmood, Founder/CEO of the Leading Women of the World said that it’s the greatest time of hu-man history when we have the power of technology that can help us to cre-ate miracles and fulfill our dreams. Dr. Hynd Bouhia from Morocco, Af-rica, author of 2 books and Founder, Director at BAL Method Ltd; Rayan Najjar from Lebanon, member at Federation of Arab Engineers; Ms. Arooj Saqib from Pakistan, CEO & Founder at Training Institute for Mentors Excellence; Saima Khan from Pakistan, CEO Founder, Direc-tor, CEO at FitXpress365; Anusha

Chowdhury from Bangladesh, Entre-preneur and Mental Health Educate; Daphne Soares from Dubai, CEO — Qualified Professional Coach in Mindset, Business, and Leadership at Carousel Moms Business & Leader-ship Coaching; Dr. Anand from the UK; Farha Mahmud Trina Vice-chairman investment committee at E-Commerce Association of Bangla-desh; Mireille Toulekima from Aus-tralia, author of 3 books, Founder at STEM Queens UG; Shah Aijaz from Kashmir, Founder Director, Chair-man at GLOSS Foundation; Junaid Memon from India, Founder, Di-rector, CEO at 11 Days For Earth’s Healing; Muhammad Ameen Keryo from Pakistan, Regional Focal Per-son South & West Asia Region at GEF NGO Network; Rayed Afzal from Pakistan, Managing Director at EAST, Kurt Krueger from Los Ange-les, California, President at Success Systems International; Gynecolo-gist Zainab Malik from Bahawalpur Pakistan; Okama Ekpe Brook from Africa, CEO of ACHA Organiza-tion; Angelika Christie from Germa-ny, (residing in the Bahamas) CEO Founder; Khurram Zuberi, CEO of Jumpstart from Pakistan and Franca Colozzo from Italy attended the sum-mit.

In the end of the meeting Ra-bia Nasir Mahmood Founder/CEO thanked everyone and concluded by saying that we must come together to move forward to the next step and be together.

Indian Republic Day marked

IMA Kuwait organizes online webinar on ‘Unity In Diversity’KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: The human nature of all humans in the world is same and it is built in nature of hu-man being that he loves good quali-ties such as justice, equality, truth-fulness etc. said Shahed Menon, Indian Academician and a Propaga-tor of Interfaith & Communal Har-mony through lectures, presiding to an online Webinar on ‘Unity in Di-versity”, organized by Indian Mus-lim Association Kuwait, to com-memorate 73rd Indian Republic Day on Jan 28, 2022.

The keynote speaker also stated that the preamble of constitution of India guarantees unity in diversity. Referring from principles of differ-ent religions he conveyed that “Ser-vice to Humanity” is the best service. By few references from an Indian court decision and quotations from Swami Vivekananda, he emphasized that hate fetches only short gains.

K. Chinamaya, President of Ku-wait Kannada Koota, Suresh K.P., Prominent Indian Community Leader in Kuwait, Shatish Chandra Shetty, President of Art of Living, Kuwait, and Dr. Thomas Koshy George, Joint Cultural Secretary In-dian Doctors Forum Kuwait were the “Guests of Honor” of the Webinar

All the dignitaries expressed their views on the topic and highlighted that the principles of unity in diver-sity shall be respected to live peace-fully, people are able to stand unit-edly despite of huge diversity and due to the Indian constitution, which ensures Justice, freedom, equality and secularism for all citizens of In-dia. There is no other country in the world with so much diversity and where people are living peacefully with respect to each other. It was conveyed also by the guest speak-ers that we should take care of our nation and spend life together with compassion, love, and joy. Just like music becomes harmonious when different strings of guitar are stroked, similarly patriotism, diversity, love, joy and respect in combination give

harmony to our great nation.The keynote speaker appreciated the

people away from their home country celebrating the Republic Day and their contribution towards the development of the resident country. He said that India is a land of huge diversity in reli-gion, caste, culture, food but tied unit-edly as Indians and living together for centuries.

He explained the meaning of unity in diversity as “Unity without uni-formity” and “diversity without frag-mentation”. By quoting verses from Quran and giving examples from nature he emphasized that the Gal-axies, Planets with different energy but there exists a harmony. An atom with different constituents having different energy which bind matter to create huge energy.

One of the important areas for strengthening unity in diversity, he said that we should respect each oth-er’s religions, have interfaith under-standing and adjusting the differenc-es, work for the welfare of mankind and these are also the requirements of globalization in the present time.

He said that liberty lies in the heart of human being and emphasized to resolve to protect our constitution and live with peace, love and har-mony. COVID-19 has refreshed in our mind various lessons on human-ity that we should follow noble prin-ciples & values by practicing them and not just a lip service.

The program was followed by a Question & Answer Session. It was appreciated by an overwhelming at-tendees and audiences representing different Indian associations and di-aspora in Kuwait.

IMA, an Indian organization, well-known as socio-religious organization in Kuwait, carries out its various activ-ities under patronship of “Ministry of Awqaaf and Islamic Affairs, Kuwait”. IMA is always keen to provide plat-form for enhancement of expatriates living in Kuwait for their social & spir-itual aspect through various programs & webinars.

Application helps users find recorded information more efficiently

BDK Kuwait and Indian Pharmacists Forum hold Indian Republic Day Blood Donation driveBDK Kuwait Chapter and Indian Pharmacists Forum have jointly or-ganized a blood donation drive on Jan 28 at Adan Blood Bank. The blood donation drive was organized as a part of India’s 73rd Republic Day celebrations. The camp was also attributed to the 60th anniver-sary of India-Kuwait diplomatic re-lations and the 75th anniversary of Indian independence.

Amidst the current pandemic cri-

sis, a large number of donors from various segments of the community have come forward, making the blood donation drive a great suc-cess.

The blood donation drive was for-mally inaugurated by Nasirudeen, President of Indian Pharmacists Forum Kuwait. Rajan Thottathil, General Convener - BDK Kuwait, Manoj Mavelikara BDK, Faisal (HR Manager, Metro Medical Care Hos-

pital), Nasar Al-Shammari, David (Managers, Oncoast Hypermarket) delivered felicitation messages to the donors. The blood donation drive was supported by BDK Ku-wait Chapter’s corporate partner BEC Exchange, Oncoast Hyper-market and Metro Medical Care Hospital.

The sponsors were honored dur-ing the event for exhibiting their social responsibility to promote the

noble act of voluntary blood dona-tion. BDK Kuwait was honored with a souvenir, by IPF team, for their proactive involvement in promoting voluntary blood donation activities. BDK has presented a token of ap-preciation to the IPF team for the successful conduct of the camp. BDK Kuwait Chapter’s joint con-vener Jayan Sadasivan welcomed the gathering and IPF secretary Gopakumar presented the vote

of thanks. BDK event coordinator Nimish Kavalam coordinated the event.

BDK volunteers Thomas Adoor, Venugopal, NithinThottathil, Sree-kumar, Ratheesh, Reji Achenkunju, Unnikrishnan, Nalinakshan, Jolly, Beena, Liny Jayan along with IPF volunteers Mirsaad, Abdullah, Jus-tin, Nirmal, Deepa Gopakumar, Rabeeb, Noushad has offered vol-untary service to the successful

execution of the camp. Certificates were distributed to all the donors attended the camp

Social welfare enthusiasts and organizations can contact Blood donors Kerala to organize blood donation camps, awareness classes in collaboration with the Central Blood Bank and voluntary blood donor services; at Kuwait helpline numbers 99811972/6999 7588.

AUK’s library among first users of OHMS application in the Arab worldKUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: The Library at the American University of Kuwait (AUK) has started utilizing the latest application for the indexing and ar-chiving of oral history interviews. The application has been launched by the libraries of the University of Kentucky in the United States of America, which facilitates the synchronization of the recorded audio and the written tran-script of the interview, which in turn makes it easier for researchers to locate any subject or audio excerpt without the need to listen to the entire interview or move across hours of the recording on the seek bar. The application is available for free, as it is intended to support libraries and research centers in their quest for sustainability. The libraries at the University of Kentucky

have received a special grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Ser-vices in the United States for the pur-pose of creating this application to help users and researchers fi nd the recorded information they seek more effi ciently.

As AUK librarian, Ms. Asma Al-Kanan, explains, “The library at the American University of Kuwait is among the fi rst users of this new system in the Arab world, known as ‘OHMS’ which serves as an Oral History Meta-data Synchronizer. The library’s ef-forts and communications with the University of Kentucky Libraries have led to improving some of the features that support Arabic Language, which will make it easier for other institutions in the Arab world to use the system for oral history documentation in Arabic.”

The Oral History and Documenta-tion Project (OHDP) at the Library of the American University of Kuwait has recently added a number of new interviews to its archive. The collec-tion of recorded interviews, which can be accessed on the project’s website, includes interviews with Ambassa-dor Abdullah Bishara, Ms. Louloua Al-Mulla, Abdulatif Al-Hamad, Ms. Claudia Al-Rashoud, Dr. Adnan Shi-hab-Eldin, among others. The project continues with its main objective of building an archive of recorded inter-views that acts as a valuable resource for researchers, students, and all mem-bers of society, with the aim of pre-serving the history of Kuwait and doc-umenting the testimonies of pioneers and older generations through these

recorded interviews. The Oral History and Documentation Project has also received funding from Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO) since its launch in 2020.

To access the interviews and to learn more about the OHDP visit our web-site: https://oralhistory.auk.edu.kw

The American University of Ku-wait (AUK) is an independent, private, equal opportunity, and coeducational liberal arts institution of higher edu-cation. The educational, cultural and administrative structure, methods and standards of AUK are based on the American model of higher learning. The language of instruction is English. More information on the American University of Kuwait can be found at www.auk.edu.kwAUK library staff exhibiting about the Oral History Project

Photos from the event

Photos of the participants in the webinar

Webinar photo

The ambassador presented a memento and a ponnada (golden shawl) to honour Mr. Sam and Mrs. Valsa.

Indian Embassy hosts farewellmeeting for Sam PynummooduKUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: Embassy of India, Kuwait held a farewell meeting for Sam Pynummoodu and his wife Mrs. Valsa Sam who are returning to India after 42 years of expatriate life. Sam who hails from Alappuzha (Ker-ala) is well known for his involvement in the socio-cultural, media and politi-cal scenes. He is a Loka Kerala Sabha member and has written about the his-tory of Kuwait-India migration.

The meeting held in the Embassy

auditorium following COVID proto-cols, and streamed through Zoom, was presided by the Ambassador H.E. Sibi George and attended by Embassy First Secretaries Kamal Singh Rathore and Rahul, as well as media persons A.M. Hassan, Sajeev Peter, S.A.Labba, Thomas Mathew Kadavil, T.V. Hik-math, Nixon George, Anil Nambiar, SatharKunnil, Muneer Ahmed, Nijas-Kasim, RevanDesouza, Francis Jo-seph, SunojNambiar and Najeem.

8ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022

editor’s choice

Prison attack puts child detainees in harm’s ways

DAESH and diapers

Children gather outside their tents, at al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group, in Hasakeh province, Syria, May 1, 2021. Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, said Wednesday, Jan 26, 2022, that they have wrestled control of the last section in a

prison controlled by Islamic State militants, ending a weeklong assault by the extremists. The militants had used child detainees as human shields slowing down the effort to retake the facility located in the north-eastern city of Hassakeh. (AP)

In a recording that emerged from a Syrian prison wing taken over by Islamic State group militants, a trapped teenager pleads for help, de-

scribing the mayhem of a days-long battle over the facility that has re-portedly left multiple child inmates killed and wounded.

U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces were advancing slowly inside the de-tention facility, where they said Tuesday they freed nine of their service-men held hostage by the militants. At least 15 others are still held by IS, one Kurdish official said.

IS militants stormed the prison late Thursday, aiming to break out comrades inside. Around 200 militants remain holed up in the northern wing at one end of the prison complex, holding hostages from among the prison staff.

The Gweiran Prison, also known as al-Sinaa, is the largest detention facility in northeast Syria for suspected IS members, with more than 3,000 inmates, including hundreds of minors.

The attack is the biggest by IS militants since the fall of the group’s “caliphate” in 2019. Dozens from both sides have been killed in the clashes, the U.S.-led coalition has carried out nearly a dozen airstrikes, and thousands of civilians living nearby have been displaced.

The militants are also using minors as human shields, Kurdish officials say, slowing the effort by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to retake the facility, located in the northeastern city of Hassakeh.

Children are reportedly among the dead and wounded from the fight-ing, rights groups say, though numbers are not known.

Letta Tayler, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch, said she had unconfirmed reports that SDF paramedics were treating wounded children, along with others, in newly recaptured parts of the prison complex.

She said she learned from a well-placed source that militants had moved the boys to various parts of the prison and they were no longer segregated in an area for minors, “which complicates rescue and recap-ture efforts.”

Human Rights Watch provided The Associated Press with a series of audio messages sent by a 17-year-old Australian from inside the prison.

He appealed for help and described his surroundings, saying he was in a kitchen when fighting erupted around him. He said he was injured in the head and was bleeding.

“They are not stopping shooting. Every little bit they shoot. Every little bit they hit a missile. I don’t know what to do,” the teen said. HRW removed the teen’s name from the recording.

“I have seen a lot of bodies of kids. Eight, 10, 12 years (old). My friends got killed here. I am very scared. I am by myself,” he said.

“There is no doctors here that can help me. I need help please. I am very scared. There are a lot of people dead in front of me. I am scared I might die anytime because of bleeding. Please help me.”

Overnight, scores of minors were transported in buses out of the complex, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdurrahman, said. But it appears some remain in the militants’ hands.

Some 600 minor boys, around half of them Iraqis and other non-Syr-ians, were inmates in the prison. Most are between 14 to 17 years old, though some are as young as 12, Tayler said.

Most were captured by Kurdish forces during their U.S.-backed cam-paign that brought down IS three years ago. IS had trained young boys for combat, calling them “Cubs of the Caliphate,” but it is not known how many of those in the prison are from the Cubs ranks.

“These children ... should never have been placed in this squalid, overcrowded prison, where their lives are clearly at risk to begin with,” Tayler said.

The days of fighting has shaken Hassakeh, spreading to residential ar-

‘Cubs of the caliphate’

Who are they, why are they there?A distressing series of voice notes sent by an

Australian teenager from a prison in north-east Syria underscores the plight of thousands of forgotten children who remain trapped in detention facilities in Syria and Iraq.

Hundreds of minors are believed to be holed up in Gweiran Prison, which has been at the center of an ongoing violent standoff between Islamic State group militants and U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters that began a week ago.

IS fighters stormed the prison on Thursday, aiming to break out thousands of comrades who simultaneously rioted inside. The attack is the biggest by IS militants since the fall of the group’s “caliphate” in 2019.

Dozens from both sides have been killed in the clash, which has drawn back in U.S.-led coalition forces who have come to the aid of their Kurdish allies. Thousands of civilians liv-ing nearby have been displaced.

The fighting appears to have left multiple child inmates killed or wounded, though num-bers are not known.

Human Rights Watch provided The Associ-ated Press with a series of audio messages sent by the 17-year-old Australian from inside the prison in which he appealed for help, saying he was injured in the head and was bleeding. The boy says his friends got killed and he has seen bodies of kids aged 8 to 12.

But who are these kids, and why are they there?

Some of the kids were children when their par-ents plucked them from their own countries after they decided to join the so-called Islamic caliph-ate declared in 2014 over parts of Syria and Iraq. Others were born there. Many attended IS-run schools where they were trained for combat.

While IS carried out massacres against resi-dents and enslaved many of the women and girls, they also sought to re-educate young boys and tried to turn them into jihadi fighters. They recruited teens and children using gifts, threats and brainwashing. Boys were turned into killers and suicide bombers. IS videos showed kids carrying out beheadings or shoot-ing captives in cold blood.

It was all part of a concerted effort to build a new generation of militants. They called them cubs of the caliphate.

Most were later captured by Kurdish-led forces during the U.S.-backed campaign that brought down IS three years ago, thrown into squalid, overcrowded detention centers and where they continue to languish.

Others were put in squalid camps in northeast Syria that hold families of suspected IS fighters, where they are exposed to violence, exploitation and abuse. Once they become teenagers deemed old enough to separate from their mothers, they are transferred to one of the detention centers where they join the fighters. The age cut-off rules are not exactly clear. Some as young as 12 were reportedly in Gweiran Prison, despite warning from rights groups that these young-sters are too young to be in adult facilities or to be held at all without justice.

Letta Tayler of Human Rights Watch esti-mates 600 minor boys, around half of them Iraqis and other non-Syrians, were inmates in the prison. Most are between 14 and 17 years old, though some are as young as 12, Tayler said. It is not clear how many of the boys in prison were trained by IS or whether any have committed any crimes.

Why they are still there

Mostly because their governments have re-fused to repatriate them.

Kurdish authorities have asked countries to repatriate their nationals, saying keeping thou-sands of detainees in cramped facilities is put-ting a strain on their forces and creating a new generation of militants.

“None has even been brought before a judge to determine whether they should be detained,” Tayler said. “These children, some we are told as young as 12, should never have been placed in this squalid overcrowded prison where their lives are clearly at risk to begin with. Their countries should have brought them home to help them rebuild their lives long ago.”

But home governments often see the chil-dren as posing a danger rather than as needing rescue.

Some former Soviet bloc states have let some of their citizens back in, but other Arab, European and African countries have repatri-ated only minimal numbers or have refused.

Kurdish authorities run more than two dozen detention facilities scattered around northeast-ern Syria holding about 10,000 IS fighters. Among the detainees are some 2,000 foreign-ers, including about 800 Europeans.

The foreign detainees have never been brought before a court, making their detention arbitrary as well as indefinite.

In addition, some 27,500 children are locked up at the sprawling al-Hol camp, which houses families of IS members.

Most of them not yet teenagers, they are spending their childhood in limbo under mis-erable conditions with no schools, no place to play or develop, and seemingly no interna-tional interest in resolving their situation. (AP)

eas where the militants have taken cover. Coalition airstrikes have hit the prison and the nearby neighborhoods. The coalition also deployed Brad-ley Fighting Vehicles to support the operation, according to a coalition official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Some 45,000 civilians have fled, according to the U.N. Most have moved in with family and friends, but 750 have taken refuge in tempo-rary shelters, including mosques.

Shexa Miziyen is one of about 150 in a mosque in the Til Hajar neigh-borhood. She said IS militants forced their way into her home at dawn and kicked her and her family out.

“They said they didn’t want anything. They wanted safety,” she said. Miziyen said those in the mosque were receiving no help even as more sought shelter there. “It seems that they forgot about us.”

Khalil Hassan was forced to host militants who took over his home for a few hours overnight for shelter from the fighting.

“They said, ‘We are your brothers from the Islamic State and we won’t hurt you. Just let us in,’” Hassan said. They left hours later.

The SDF said in a statement that it had gained control of more prison cells Tuesday and freed nine hostages. It said more inmates have sur-rendered, bringing the total number to 550. (AP)

Market Movements 03-02-2022

Business Change Closing ptsSINGAPORE - Straits Times STI +66.40 3,315.99

Change Closing ptsSAUDI - Tadawul -50.23 12,142.38JAPAN - Nikkei -292.29 27,241.31UK - FTSE 100 -54.16 7,528.84EUROPE - Euro Stoxx 50 -81.03 4,141.02UAE - DFM -21.53 3,152.80EGYPT - EGX -53.76 11,638.00PHILIPPINES - PSEi -76.22 7,382.77

Meta, formerly Facebook, faces historic drop as stock tanks

Shares in Facebook parent company Meta are in the midst of their worst day ever Thursday after the social media gi-ant reported a rare decline in profit due to a sharp increase in expenses as it in-vests heavily in its transformation into a virtual reality-based company.

Meta’s shares fell more than 23% to $246.76 in early trading Thursday, lop-ping off more than $215 billion of the company’s overall value, known as its market capitalization. A drop that big would be the largest ever for a compa-

ny on a single day. Facebook’s market cap dropped $120 billion on July 26, 2018.

The Menlo Park, California, based company said Wednesday that profit declined 8% to $10.29 billion in the final three months of 2021. Revenue rose to 20% to $33.67 billion.

The decline could partly be tied to Meta’s spending on its Reality Labs seg-ment - which includes its virtual reality headsets and augmented reality tech-nology. Meta invested more than $10

billion in the segment in 2021.In addition, recent privacy changes

by Apple make it harder for companies like Meta to track people for advertis-ing purposes, which also puts pres-sure on the company’s revenue. On a conference call with analysts Wednes-day, Meta’s chief financial officer said the company faces a $10 billion “headwind” from Apple’s changes in 2022. Analysts at MoffettNathanson, in a note to clients, called the estimate “stunning.” (AP)

Facebook employees take a photo with the company’s new name and logo outside its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Oct 28, 2021. (AP)

Bank leaves rates and stimulus programs unchanged

Inflation may linger for longer: ECB headFRANKFURT, Germany, Feb 3, (AP): The head of the Eu-ropean Central Bank said record infl ation could linger for “longer than expected” and avoided repeating that an interest rate increase was all but ruled out this year.

Asked twice by journalists Thursday, Christine Lagarde declined to reiterate her previous statement that a rate in-crease was “very unlikely” this year. She said offi cials would pay careful attention to the numbers and revisit their infl ation stance at their March meeting.

At the same time, she said the bank would stick with its road map for withdrawing economic stimulus, which leaves little room for a rate hike this year. Any hike would have to follow the end of bond purchases, slated for October at the earliest.

And she maintained her view that the primary factors be-hind high infl ation were expensive oil and gas and supply chain logjams, which could ease this year.

Lagarde spoke after the bank left interest rates and stimu-lus programs unchanged even as the other central banks move to counter infl ation with interest rate hike.

Lagarde has said an increase from her bank is unlikely this year, but Europe’s record 5.1% infl ation raises questions about when that should happen to counteract high infl ation.

Here’s what the bank has on its plate in the wake of Thurs-day’s decision:

Record price rises are putting central bankers on the spot: Annual inflation in the eurozone came in at 5.1% on Wednesday, the highest since 1997, when re-cordkeeping began ahead of the euro being established in 1999. Inflation is way above the bank’s goal of 2% that is considered best for the economy. And the usual medi-cine for high consumer prices is raising interest rates that influence borrowing costs.

So far the bank has argued infl ation is temporary: One big reason is high oil and gas prices. Another is logjams that have arisen as supply chains struggle to cope with the sud-den rebound of the global economy from the coronavirus pandemic. And both those should fade with time. The bank sees infl ation falling to 1.8% in 2023 and Lagarde has previ-ously said a rate rise this year is “very unlikely.”

Markets are watching to see if Lagarde adjusts the bank’s stance: Analysts will closely watch her post-deci-sion news conference. Lagarde will likely acknowledge high infl ation levels while trying to keep markets from thinking an earlier rate hike is coming. That would lead to rising mar-ket borrowing costs and hold back the recovery just as euro-zone economic growth is reaching pre-pandemic levels. One analyst, Andrew Kenningham at Capital Economics, thinks Lagarde might drop the “very” and stick with “unlikely” about rate hikes. She could talk about uncertainty regard-ing the course of infl ation and underline the need to remain

fl exible.The bank is staying with its road map for now: The

governing council didn’t touch plans to gradually wind down pandemic stimulus. A 1.8 trillion euro bond purchase program will end in March. Some of its purchases will be moved to another program that is to run through October, and longer if needed to hold down market borrowing costs. Once the bond purchases end, the bank could start raising rates. Rates are at record lows: One key benchmark is at zero and another is at minus 0.5%.

The European central bank is well behind the U.S. and United Kingdom: The U.S. Federal Reserve has signaled it could start a series of rate increases as early as March to counter infl ation, which is at a 40-year high of 7%. One reason the Fed’s ahead is that the U.S. recovery is farther advanced and needs less support from low borrowing costs, with the economy some 3% bigger than it was before the pandemic. Europe is just now reaching pre-pandemic lev-els of output. U.K. consumer prices rose 5.4% in the year through December, the highest infl ation rate in almost 30 years.

Infl ation is hitting home for consumers: Households are seeing higher utility bills and fuel costs, leaving them with less money to buy other things. That has been an additional drag on the European economy on top of the COVID-19 wave blamed on the omicron variant. Gasoline prices in Germany have reached a record of 1.71 euros per liter, or the equivalent of $7.31 per gallon.

President of European Central Bank, Christine La-garde, bites on a pen during a press conference fol-lowing a meeting of the governing council in Frankfurt,

Germany, Thursday, Feb 3, 2022. (AP)

BoE hikes rates again as prices surgeUK faces record rise in energy prices, adding to bill stress

LONDON, Feb 3, (AP): The Bank of England raised in-terest rates for the second time in three months on Thursday, putting the Unit-ed Kingdom far ahead of the rest of Europe and the U.S. in moving to tame surging inflation that is squeezing consumers and businesses.

The bank’s monetary policy committee voted 5-4 to boost its key rate to 0.5% from 0.25%, with the dissenting members argu-ing for a bigger increase. It also voted unanimously to begin reduc-ing holdings of U.K. government bonds and corporate debt, which the bank has built up since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago to bolster the economy.

U.K. consumer prices rose 5.4% in the year through December, the highest infl a-tion rate in almost 30 years. The squeeze is only going to get worse with household energy prices expected to jump a record 54% in April and income taxes set to rise by 1.5% the same month.

“Amid the global monetary policy

regime shift from easing to tighten-ing, the Bank of England is storming ahead, pressing forward with decisive action as a time when other central banks are falling behind the curve on infl ation,” said Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor.

The decision comes a week after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would end its own asset purchases in March and was likely to raise interest rates for the fi rst time in more than three years. Monetary policymakers around the world are trying to contain infl ation fu-eled by rising energy prices and supply shortages as the global economy re-covers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

By contrast, the European Central Bank doesn’t plan to raise rates until 2023 despite record infl ation in the 19 countries that use the euro, blaming it on temporary factors. At a meeting Thursday, it stuck to its plan of care-fully dialing back its key economic stimulus efforts over the next year. The bank is facing questions about when it will hike rates to ease high prices.

Meanwhile, investors expect the Bank of England to raise its key rate three times this year, pushing it to 1% by August.

The bank adjusts interest rates as it tries to keep the infl ation rate below 2% while also promoting economic growth.

Higher rates increase how much bor-rowers pay on everything from home mortgages to credit card purchases, re-ducing spending and slowing price in-creases. Lower rates tend to encourage spending and increase economic growth.

The Bank of England began buying U.K. government bonds and corporate bonds held by fi nancial institutions in 2009 to pump money into the economy during the global fi nancial crisis. Poli-cymakers were forced to turn to asset purchases after they had slashed inter-est rates to 0.5%, limiting their ability to use interest rates to stimulate eco-nomic growth.

With rates remaining near record lows, the bank continued to buy bonds during the shocks caused by Brit-ain’s departure from the European Union and the pandemic. It is now the single biggest holder of U.K. govern-ment debt, owning 875 billion pounds ($1.19 trillion) of government bonds, known as gilts.

Last August, the bank said it would begin reducing its bond holdings once the key interest rate reached 0.5%, “if appropriate given the economic cir-cumstances.”

The bank said it would reduce the holdings gradually, initially by not reinvesting the money it gets from maturing bonds. Sales of the assets

wouldn’t begin until rates reached 1%, the bank said.

That strategy contrasts with the Federal Reserve, which is likely to take a more staggered approach, ING economists Antoine Bouvet and James Smith said in a note to investors.

Meanwhile, Britain’s energy regula-tor announced Thursday that a cap on energy prices is going up by a record 54% because of the soaring costs of wholesale natural gas, a change that will signifi cantly burden millions of households already squeezed by rap-idly climbing bills.

The Offi ce of Gas and Electricity Markets, known as Ofgem, said the new price cap - the maximum amount that gas suppliers can charge custom-ers - will rise by 693 pounds ($940) per year in most parts of the U.K. starting in April. That will cause the annual bill for the average customer to go up to 1,971 pounds ($2,670).

The decision is likely to affect 22 million households across the country.

The Treasury chief, Rishi Sunak, immediately announced a package of measures to help millions of people - including those on lower incomes - cope with the huge hike in gas bills.

“Without government action, this will be incredibly tough for millions of hardworking families,” Sunak told

lawmakers. He said the government will ease

the pain by spreading the worst of the extra cost over time. Customers will get 200-pound ($271) discount on bills

from October, which will be repaid in small instalments over the next few years. The majority of council tax pay-ers will also get a 150-pound ($200) saving this year, Sunak said.

From left, Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy Ben Broadbent, Gover-nor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey, Chief Press Officer Sebastian Walsh and Deputy Governor for Markets and Banking Dave Ramsden dur-ing a Monetary Policy Report press conference at the Bank of England in London, Thursday, Feb 3, 2022. The Bank of England has raised interest rates for the second time in three months. That decision Thursday puts the United Kingdom far ahead of the rest of Europe and the U.S. in moving to tame surging inflation that’s squeezing consumers and businesses. (AP)

The sun rises over the headquarters of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. headquarters that dominates the skyline in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Nov 7, 2016. Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil and gas company announced Thurs-day, Feb 3, 2022, the discovery of between 1.5 to 2 trillion standard cubic feet of gas in an offshore area located

north-west of the emirate. (AP)

ADNOC announces a new offshore gas findDUBAI, Feb 3, (AP): Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil and gas company announced Thursday the discovery of between 1.5 to 2 trillion standard cubic feet of raw gas in an offshore area located in the emirate’s north-west.

The discovery comes as Gulf Arab states continue to rely heavily on prof-its from oil and gas exports, despite rising global temperatures and climate change from burning fossil fuels. The United Arab Emirates, where Abu Dhabi is capital, was the fi rst Gulf Arab state last year to join other coun-tries around the world in pledging “net-zero” emissions targets within its borders - while maintaining fossil fuel exports abroad.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Com-pany, also known as ADNOC, said the discovery came about in partnership with a consortium led by Italy’s Eni and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production Company Limited, which were awarded concession rights in the area. The 2019 agreement saw Eni and PTTEP vowing to invest $230 million to explore for oil and gas and appraise

existing discoveries in two blocks spanning a total of 8,000 square kilo-meters (3,000 miles).

For their natural gas discovery, the companies relied in part on insights from a massive 3D seismic survey underway in Abu Dhabi, according to ADNOC.

ADNOC Managing Director and CEO Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber hailed the discovery. He said it speaks to the company’s commitment to partner-

ships that help Abu Dhabi explore and develop its untapped hydrocarbon re-sources.

In December, ADNOC announced the discovery of up to 1 billion bar-rels of oil in another block of Abu Dhabi.

The U.S. Energy Information Agen-cy cites fi gures estimating the UAE holds the seventh-largest proven re-serves of natural gas in the world at over 215 trillion cubic feet.

Inflation in Turkey reaches 20-year high of nearly 49%ANKARA, Turkey, Feb 3, (AP): Turkey’s annual infl ation came in at nearly 49% on Thursday, hitting a nearly 20-year high and further eroding people’s ability to buy even basic things like food.

The Turkish Statistical Institute said the consumer price index in-creased by just over 11% in Janu-

ary from the previous month. The yearly increase in food prices was more than 55%, according to the data.

The infl ation rate was the high-est since April 2002 in a country that is facing an economic upheav-al and currency crisis, triggered by a series of interest rate cuts.

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022

10

Special Report

ARA Consumer Confi dence Index – December 2021

Consumer pessimism grows as Omicron spreadsOn account of its interest for moni-

toring the economic situation in Kuwait, “ARA Research & Consultan-cy” issues a monthly Consumer Confi -dence Index, in collaboration with the “Arab Times” newspaper and under the sponsorship of the “Lexus” trade-mark. The Consumer Confi dence In-dex is considered as the only indicator that measures the Consumers’ psycho-logical factors, based on people’s opin-ions and their prospects about the cur-rent economic situation and its future as well as their expectations regarding their fi nancial conditions, and how that refl ects on their purchasing power.

The Consumer Confi dence Index is issued the fi rst Sunday of each month, and is based on quantitative research on a sample of 500 people, distributed among Kuwaitis and Arab residents in different Governorates.

The study was conducted by tele-phone through a random call selection, taking into account that the distribution of the sample should be representative of the population in Kuwait.

The general Consumer Confi dence Index is based on six indices which the researchers at ARA use to measure the level of the consumer satisfaction and optimism. These are:

■ Current Economic Situation In-dex

■ Expected Economic Situation In-dex

■ Current Personal Income Index■ Expected Personal Income Index■ Current Employment Opportuni-

ties Index■ Purchase of Durables

Index The indices’ results in a month ba-

sis measure the psychological state of consumers in Kuwait, which equal 100 points. This result (100 points) draws the line between optimism and pessi-mism among consumers. The more the index surpasses this point, the more the psychological state of consumers in Kuwait is considered to be inclined towards optimism. The more the index declines below this point, the more pessimistic the outlook.

Decline in most of the Indexes by Respondents in the Capital

The General Index registered a ratio of 102 points, dropping by three points within a month and increasing by three points on an annual basis.

What is remarkable in this regard is the decline in the rates of most indexes

among the respondents in the Capital. They gave the General Index only 78 points, decreasing by 15 points com-pared to their last monthly balance.

The other governorates also ex-pressed their dissatisfaction, whereby the rate of the governorates declined as follows: Mubarak Al-Kabeer 19 points, the Capital 15 points, Al-Ah-mad 5 points, Al-Jahra and Al-Far-waniya 3 points and 2 points, respec-tively. Thus, 5 governorates showed their dissatisfaction by one rate or an-other, except for Hawalli Governorate, which boosted its previous ratio by 4 points.

This conservative inclination which emerged in the governorates refl ects the decline in confi dence in 20 out of the 27 social and regional components of those who participated in the study.

Citizens scored a ratio of 92 points for the General Index, losing seven points from their balance in Novem-ber. Moreover, the females’ rate de-creased by 6 points.

It is noticeable that the ratio of those with private businesses increased to 104 points, adding 9 points to their previous monthly ratio.

Comparing to the fi nancial, mon-etary and economic developments in Kuwait during December 2021 does not give a direct explanation for the reasons behind the decline in con-sumer confi dence levels at this stage. Therefore, there must be a general as-sessment of the various other factors which occurred during that period, especially the pressures on oil prices, due to the spread of the Corona pan-demic, especially its new variant,

Omicron, and the preventive measures taken in facing it in various parts of the world. Such factors negatively and directly affect the level of production and commercial activity and hit some important sectors such as air transport, travel, tourism and many others.

In addition to the pandemic factor and the future expectations associated with it, the USA and some other coun-tries, including the European Union and Japan, complain from high gas prices during the winter season and are trying to lower global oil prices to reduce the levels of defi cit in their budgets.

It seems that the news and facts about Omicron’s spread and the lock-down procedures in several countries as well as the pressure exerted on oil prices, which coincided with the loss incurred by the Kuwait Stock Ex-change in the fi rst week of Decem-ber, created an atmosphere of anxiety among consumers.

Decrease in Level of Consumer Confi dence in Economic Conditions

The Current Economic Situation Index registered 90 points; a loss of 4 points compared to November 2021, and an annual drop of 6 points.

The Expected Economic Situation Index also stopped at 100 points, de-creasing by 3 points within a month, and losing 12 points on an annual ba-sis.

It is noteworthy that more than half of the research components registered a drop in their level of confi dence in the current economic situation.

Therefore, we must review the main data of the fi nancial and economic situations during December 2021, and the rest of the developments at various levels, to clarify the reasons for the decline in consumer confi dence during this period of time.

With regard to oil prices, which oc-cupies a decisive position in the oil-producing and exporting countries, especially Kuwait, the average price of a barrel of Kuwaiti oil during October reached USD 83, which is 84% higher than the hypothetical price approved in the 2021-2022 budget, set at USD 45. Moreover, the average price of a bar-rel of Kuwaiti oil during the fi rst seven months of the budget’s period was USD 72.6, which is USD 29 higher than the average price recorded in the previous budget 2020-2021.

It is certain that the increase in oil prices leads to a decrease in the size of the current and prospective budget defi cit.

Additionally, the construction and real estate sector overcame the partial contraction it was exposed to during the spread of the pandemic, and has been able to raise the level of real es-tate trading liquidity during November 2021 to about 25 million dinars, boost-ing its previous numbers by 22.7%. The importance in the continuity of public investment in infrastructure and various vital projects is highlighted here, with a major focus on the oil sec-tor, especially that the construction and real estate sector plays the locomotive role for many commercial and service sectors.

Inevitably, there are some obstacles in the fi nancial and economic fi elds, including the budget defi cit, the high level of infl ation, the pressures on oil prices and some losses incurred by the Kuwait Stock Exchange in the fi rst week of December. As well as two main factors:

The fi rst: the spread of the Omicron variant, which is characterized by its rapid spread, the measures it imposes, and the threat of contraction, even if partial on the economy, growth and global trade, and the resulting negative pressures on oil prices.

The second: the increase in mone-tary infl ation, which reached 7% in the United States during November and exceeded 5% in the European Union.

The main reasons for the conserva-tive attitude of the respondents to-wards the economic indexes during December, may stem from the return of the epidemic and its repercussions.

The Stability of the Personal In-come Indexes

The current Personal Income Index registered 98 points, adding 6 points within a month, and 25 points on an annual basis. Moreover, the Expected Personal Income Index settled at 107 points, adding 1 point to its previous month balance.

Thus, these two indexes alone gained the confi dence of consumers, while the ratios of the other indexes declined at varying rates.

The Kuwaiti economy was able to overcome the negative aspects of the previous period, relying primarily on the increase in oil prices on the one hand, and the need of consumers to speed up the markets’ activity and the recovery of the real estate sector on the other hand. These achievements in the labor market activity, and the return of large groups of expatriate workers to Kuwait, have preserved the respond-ents’ confi dence in the Current and Expected Personal Incomes.

Naturally, this positive tendency towards personal monthly incomes does not include all components of the research, as they differ between the public and private sectors, as well as between one economic sector and an-other, and between one profession and other.

Within these realities, couple of ex-amples about the recorded rates can be presented that justify some of the most important discrepancies among the components of the study.

At the regional level, the Cur-rent Personal Income Index in the Capital decreased by 28 points, and in Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governorate by 25 points, while on the other hand, the balance of Hawalli Governorate in-creased by 46 points.

Likewise, the rate of young peo-ple aged between 18 and 35 years in-creased by 15 points, while the ratio for the middle age group dropped by

5 points.The rate among workers with in-

termediate education increased by 24 points, while the rate of the category with higher salaries that exceeds 2850 dinars per month dropped by 20 points within a month.

These facts reveal the extent to which the research components vary in their assessment of personal income.

Reasons for the Downturn in the Labor Market

ARA’s index for Current Employ-ment Opportunities available in the market recorded a ratio of 144 points, a decline of 19 points compared to the ratio of November. Despite this de-cline, it achieved an annual progress of 41 points compared to the results of December 2020.

The fi rst obvious reason is that No-vember recorded a high rate of 143 points, which is the second highest rate in years. Thus, the month of December corrected the ratio relatively.

In the past months, thousands of expatriate workers returned, spontane-ously and inconsistent with the volume and quality of the labor market’s need, which saturated the labor market and increased marginal job demands that do not comply with the law of supply and demand.

The spread of Omicron forced the public and economic sectors to take the necessary procedures and meas-ures to confront the epidemic, which refl ected negatively on the relaunch of the economic growth and weakened the level of demand for the workforce.

In this atmosphere, 20 of the 27 research components expressed their dissatisfaction with the reality and the level of the currently available em-ployment opportunities.

The ratio of the workers’ category with a secondary education level dropped by 68 points and the univer-sity category by 43 points. Moreover, the higher salary categories decreased their balance by 80 points, and the monthly salary category that exceeds 2849 dinars also decreased by 35 points.

Al-Jahra governorate’s ratio also dropped by 63 points, while the Capi-tal exclusively increased its ratio by 21 points within a month. The other governorates expressed their dissatis-faction with the Employment Oppor-tunities Index.

Forthcoming adjustments are ex-pected in the coming months to the level of the labor market activity in Kuwait in light of the changes in the health situation and the extent of suc-cess in overcoming or limiting the spread of the epidemic and its reper-cussions.

Almost Unanimous on the Decline in the Level of Consumption in De-cember

The Purchase of Durable Goods In-dex recorded a ratio of 98 points dur-ing the month of December, decreas-ing by 15 points within a month, and also by 15 points compared to Decem-ber 2020.

It is noteworthy that 21 of the 27 research components expressed their tendency to decrease the level of pur-chase in December 2021.

The monetary infl ation rate in-creased to 4.1% during the month of September, which led to an increase in the prices of a number of commodities and foodstuffs, noting that Kuwait was able to limit the annual monetary infl a-tion at around 3% during the past year, while many countries recorded unprec-edented levels of infl ation.

Thus, the Kuwaiti dinar has rela-tively maintained its purchasing power and its exchange power with other cur-rencies.

Noting that the volume of loans to citizens and residents increased to 1.7 billion dinars during a year from Octo-ber 2020 to October 2021.

Some of these data, especially the increase of some prices, can curb the consumption activity to a certain extent, but the almost unanimous re-search data on the low intention to buy, is undoubtedly due to the spread of the mutated epidemic and its threat with various economic and social re-percussions.

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022

11

Stocks fall as Facebook parentcompany Meta plummets 25%

Communications, tech companies lead decline

NEW YORK, Feb 3, (AP): Stocks fell on Wall Street Thursday as Facebook par-ent company Meta plunged 24.5%, erasing more than $220 billion in market val-ue, the largest drop in his-tory.

Meta’s lofty stock price, as with several other big communications and technology companies, has an outsize infl uence on markets. That means a big swing in either direction for such a company can do much to sink or lift the broader market.

The S&P 500 index fell 1.4% as of 10:03 a.m. Eastern and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 275 points, or 0.8%, to 35,353.

Meta sank after forecasting revenue well below analysts’ expectations for the current quarter, a disappointment for a company that investors have be-come accustomed to delivering spec-tacular growth. It also reported a rare decline in profi t due to a sharp increase in expenses.

The steep drop weighed on fellow social media company Twitter, which shed 6.1%. Snapchat’s parent compa-ny Snap sank 18.6%.

Communications and technology stocks had some of the biggest loss-es, though the slump was spread out through other sectors. Retailers and industrial companies also fell.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which is used as a benchmark to set interest rates on mortgages and many other kinds of loans, rose sharply, to 1.84% from 1.76% late Wednesday.

Investors also had their eyes on monetary policy updates in Europe. The Bank of England raised inter-est rates for the second time in three months on Thursday, putting the United Kingdom far ahead of the rest of Europe and the U.S. in moving to tame surging infl ation that is squeezing consumers and businesses.

The losses on Wall Streeet threaten to end a run of solid daily gains for the

In this photo provided by the New York Stock Exchange, trader Edward Curran works on the fl oor, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. Stocks fell on Wall Street Thursday as Facebook parent company Meta plunged 24.5%, erasing more than $220 billion in market value, the largest drop in history. (AP)

MEXICO CITY, Feb 3, (AP): The money that Mexican mi-grants send home to their relatives grew 27.1% in 2021, totaling about $51.6 billion for the year as a whole, Mexico’s central bank said Tuesday.

That is a record amount for migrant remittances to Mexico, despite the coronavirus pandem-ic, and would surpass almost all other sources of the country’s for-eign income, including tourism, oil exports and most manufactur-ing exports.

The bank said the phenomenon doesn’t appear to be tailing off. Remittances in December grew to $4.76 billion, 30.4% more than in the same month of 2020.

Remittances as a percentage of Mexico’s GDP have almost dou-bled over the past decade, grow-ing from 2% of GDP in 2010 to 3.8% in 2020, according to the government. Between 2010 and 2020, the percentage of house-holds in Mexico receiving remit-tances rose from 3.6% to 5.1%.

Mexico is now the third larg-est receiver of remittances in the world, behind only India and China, and Mexico now accounts for about 6.1% of world remit-tances, according to a govern-ment report.

On one hand, the spike may be simply a matter of need, caused in part by the coronavirus pandem-ic. Mexico’s GDP shrank 8.5% in 2020, and while the economy rebounded 5% in 2021, the last two quarters of the year showed a slight contraction, putting the country into a technical recession.

That may have led migrants to send more money to their families at home.

“When a Mexican family suf-fers illness or their household suf-fers damage, they receive more. … Why? Because, basically, they ask for help,” said Agustín Esco-bar, a professor at Mexico’s Cent-er for Research and Higher Edu-cation in Social Anthropology.

Part of that growth may also have been fueled by strong labor markets and job opportunities for migrants in the United States.

In a report, Mexico’s BBVA Research said that “throughout 2021 there has been a drop in un-employment rates among Mexi-cans living in the United States, which improved their economic conditions and their ability to send remittances to relatives in Mexico.”

The report also noted that “the partial closing of the border be-tween Mexico and the United States during the COVID-19 pan-demic led many people who work on the US side and live in Mexico to remain and live and work in the United States.”

Also: MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s president said Wednesday he will create a state-owned company to mine lithium and appeared to suggest

he will seek to cancel one of the few existing permits held by a Chinese company.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had said in Oc-tober that he wants to declare lithium a “strategic mineral” and reserve future exploration and mining to the government. Lithi-um is a key component of batter-ies.

It hadn’t been clear if he would rely on private companies to do the work, which Mexico has no experience in. But López Obrador said Wednesday that a newly cre-ated government company will do the mining and processing.

The president also said a pri-vate lithium mine in the northern state of Sonora that involves a Chinese company would not be allowed to start production.

“What they want to do is to continue looting and that is over. We are going to take legal steps,” López Obrador said.

Asked specifi cally if that meant the mine would be blocked from operating, López Obrador said, “Lithium is going to be mined by the government.”

ViableThat operation, Bacanora

Lithium, is Mexico’s only viable private lithium mine, and had been expected to start production in 2023. It is currently owned by Chinese lithium giant Ganfeng International.

In October, Interior Secretary Adán López Hernández had said the eight concessions for mining lithium already granted in Mexico would be respected as long as they were well on the way to pro-ducing the metal.

López Hernández said at the time that only one private min-ing company met those criteria. Though he didn’t name the mine, he apparently referred to Ba-canora Lithium, a project hoping to produce 35,000 tons of lithium annually starting in 2023.

López Obrador suggested the concession was illegally granted by a previous administration, saying that “this warrants an in-vestigation into who gave these permits, this authorization.”

The declaration of lithium as a “strategic mineral” reserved for the state must still be adopted. The change is contained in leg-islation that López Obrador has sent to Congress that also would change Mexico’s constitution to strengthen government control over electricity production and distribution. It requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and a majority of state legislatures.

The bill would eliminate much of the framework of private sector openings in Mexico’s electrical power market, giving the state-owned utility a guarantee major-ity market share and allowing it to buy power from private plants if it so chooses.

State lithium company eyed

Mexico’s remittances up27% in 2021 to $51.6 bln

Game maker posts $3.2 billion profi t

Nintendo’s profi ts hurt by chips crunchTOKYO, Feb 3, (AP): Nintendo’s profi t for the nine months through De-cember slipped 2.5%, as shortages of computer chips hurt production, the Japanese video game maker behind the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises said Thursday.

Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. recorded a 367 billion yen ($3.2 billion) profi t for the period, down from 377 billion yen the previous year. Its sales in the same period fell 6% to 1.3 trillion yen ($11 billion).

Game makers have reaped wind-fall profi ts from more people staying home during the pandemic. But sales of Nintendo Switch consoles had more momentum in the previous fi scal year, driven by its hit “Animal Crossing: New Horizons.”

Console sales are often driven by hit

games, although the devices tend to sell better early on and then slowly decline in popularity.

Nintendo cut its forecast for Switch console sales for the fi scal year through March to 23 million machines. It had forecast 24 million units, previously slashed from an projection of 25.5 mil-lion units.

President Shuntaro Furukawa has said the dearth of computer chips has hindered output, complicating planning for the next fi scal year and beyond. The prob-lem has also slowed the design process for its next game machine. Nintendo is developing a device to follow the Switch.

Despite the setbacks, more than 100 million Switch machines have sold so far globally. Its most popular games for the latest period were “Pokémon Bril-liant Diamond” and “Pokémon Shining Pearl,” and new Mario Kart and Mario Party games.

“Pokemon Legends Arceus,” which

went on sale last month, and the latest Kirby game, set for release in March, are expected to boost sales in the fi nal fi scal quarter, according to Nintendo.

Nintendo faces stiff competition both from longtime rivals such as Mi-crosoft Corp. and Sony Corp. and from newcomers like Netfl ix and Google.

Microsoft recently announced it’s acquiring Activision Blizzard, the mak-er of Candy Crush and Call of Duty, for $68.7 billion, turning the maker of the Xbox into one of the world’s largest game companies.

Sony, which makes the PlayStation series of consoles, is acquiring Bungie Inc., known for its Halo and Destiny games, for $3.6 billion. Such acquisi-tions add game titles under their wings and in effect dwarf Nintendo.

Nintendo expects to post a 400 bil-lion yen ($3.5 billion) profi t on 1.65 trillion yen ($14 billion) sales for the fi scal year through March.

major indexes this week, though they are still on track for weekly gains.

Wireless carrier T-Mobile rose 9% after reporting strong results. Health insurer Humana rose 5.8% and upscale clothing company Ralph Lauren rose 4.4% after also reporting encouraging fi nancial results.Investors have been reviewing the latest round of corporate earnings to gauge the damage that ris-ing costs on different industries and consider how companies will deal with infl ation moving forward.

Most companies that have reported results for the last three months of 2021 have delivered earnings and revenue that topped forecasts, despite the higher costs they face due to rising infl ation.

Shares slipped in Europe on Thurs-day after a mixed session in Asia, with markets in China still closed for Lunar New Year holidays.

The Bank of England was expected to raise interest rates again Thursday, putting the United Kingdom far ahead of the rest of Europe and the U.S. in moving to tame surging infl ation that is squeezing consumers and businesses.

In contrast, the European Central

Bank doesn’t plan to raise rates until 2023 despite record inflation, blam-ing it on temporary factors. But it has decided the economic recovery is strong enough to start carefully dialing back some of its stimulus ef-forts over the next year. It also meets Thursday.

“Although ECB President Lagarde stated last week that the central bank has no motive to move as quickly as the Fed, pressure on the central bank to decrease support is increasing,” Naeem Aslam of Avatrade said in a commen-tary.

Germany’s DAX lost 0.5% to 15,531.97, while the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.4% to 7,099.12. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged 0.1% lower, to 7,574.69.

Oil prices fell after major oil-pro-ducing countries decided Wednesday to stick with their plan to just a bit more oil to the global economy. That will likely keep prices near their highest levels in seven years. The 23-member OPEC+ alliance opted to add 400,000 barrels per day in March.

U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 93 cents to $87.33 per barrel in electronic

trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had gained 6 cents to $88.26 per barrel on Wednesday.

Brent crude, the basis for pricing in-ternational oils, lost 84 cents to $88.63 per barrel.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 1.1% to 27,241.31 while the S&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.1% to 7,078.00. Seoul’s Kospi climbed 1.7% to 2,707.82, catching up on earlier gains elsewhere after markets in South Korea reopened from holidays.

Markets are facing various threats including rising infl ation, the prospect of higher interest rates, potential con-fl ict in Ukraine and COVID-19�s con-tinued drag on economic recoveries.

With infl ation at a 40-year high, ris-ing costs are threatening profi t mar-gins and putting pressure on consumer spending. The Federal Reserve intends to raise interest rates to try to tamp down price increases. In==vestors ex-pect the fi rst rate hike in March and at least three more in 2022.

In other trading, the U.S. dollar was unchanged at 114.43 Japanese yen. The euro was fl at at $1.1306.

Toyota apologizes for suicide after overwork, harassment

Toyota has settled a lawsuit that blamed overwork and har-assment for the suicide of one of its employees.

Toyota Motor Corp. Presi-dent Akio Toyoda has apolo-gized to the family, the Japa-nese automaker said Tuesday. Monetary details of the settle-ment were not disclosed. The lawsuit fi led by the worker’s family had sought 123 million yen ($1.1 million) in damages,

Japanese media reports said. The wife told reporters she

felt her husband, then 40, would have understood and she be-lieves Toyota has the opportu-nity to change for the better.

Toyota promised an investi-gation into the case to prevent a recurrence and apologized for the family’s suffering.

“We are now trying to create a more transparent workplace environment that makes it eas-

ier for people to speak up, as well as a management that’s free of power harassment, so that each and every employee can work without fear,” it said in a statement.

Deaths from overwork and on-the-job stress, including su-icides, are a common problem in workaholic Japan. Troubles with abusive bosses also have been gaining attention.

The Nagoya High Court ruled

in September the employee’s death was work-related, not-ing he suffered severe stress at work before his suicide in 2010. Toyota, based in Toyota city, near Nagoya, had initially contested the allegations.

Deaths from overwork and on-the-job stress, including suicides, have been a common problem in workaholic Japan. Abusive bosses have also been gaining attention. (AP)

In this fi le photo, the company logo adorns a sign outside a Toyota dealership in Lakewood, Colo. Toyota announced Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, that it has settled a law-suit that blamed overwork and harassment for the suicide of one of its em-ployees. (AP)

In this Jan 23, 2020, fi le photo, Nintendo characters including Mario (right), are displayed at its offi cial store in Tokyo. Nintendo’s profi t for the nine months through December slipped 2.5%, as shortages of computer chips hurt production, the Japanese video game maker behind the Super Mario

and Pokemon franchises said Thursday, Feb 3, 2022. (AP)

TOKYO, Feb 3, (AP): Sony’s profi t for the quarter through December edged up 11% on healthy sales from its fi lm division, including the new Spider-Man movie, the Japanese electronics and entertainment com-pany said Wednesday.

Tokyo-based Sony Corp. recorded a 346 billion yen ($3 billion) profi t for the fi scal third quarter, up from 310.7 billion yen the previous year.

Quarterly sales edged up to 3 tril-lion yen ($26 billion) from 2.7 tril-lion yen.

Sony said strong offerings in its music division, like the album “30” from Adele; movies like “Spider-

Man: No Way Home” and licensing income from the “Seinfeld” series lifted earnings.

Its imaging and sensor unit also posted solid results.

In video games, sales fell short of expectations as a parts supply crunch, especially of semiconductors, dented sales of its PlayStation 5 machine, Sony said.

The company’s chief fi nancial of-fi cer, Hiroki Totoki, said Sony’s ac-quisition of Bungie Inc., known for its Halo and Destiny games, for $3.6 billion highlighted its commitment to the gaming business.

The purchase includes payments to

the shareholder creators at the inde-pendent studio to ensure their reten-tion, he said.

Analysts say the addition comple-ments Sony’s strength in shooting games and will further solidify its position.

But competition is heating up in the video game industry.

Microsoft Corp. is buying Acti-vision Blizzard, the maker of Candy Crush and Call of Duty, for $68.7 bil-lion, turning the maker of the Xbox into one of the world’s largest game companies.

Sony has been branching into new areas, recently showing an electric-

vehicle prototype at a Las Vegas trade show. The company has said it hopes to turn the car into a new kind of entertainment space.

Sony, which also makes TVs and portable digital music players, is also banking on the metaverse, the im-mersive virtual world, where it faces rivals like Facebook, or Meta.

Sony forecast an 860 billion yen ($7.5 billion) profi t for the full year through March, down from 1 trillion yen in the previous fi scal year. The latest forecast marks an improve-ment from the 730 billion yen ($6.3 billion) profi t it projected in Octo-ber.

Spider-Man lifts profi t at electronics maker Sony

In this fi le photo, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gives his daily, morning news conference at the presidential palace, Palacio Nacional, in Mexico City. Lopez Obrador said Wednesday, Feb 2, 2022, that he will create a state-owned company to mine lithium and appeared to suggest he will seek to cancel one of the

few existing permits held by a Chinese company. (AP)

HEALTHARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022

12

US plans to cut cancer deaths by at least 50 pct

Cancer patients cured a decade after gene therapy: doctorsNEW YORK, Feb 3, (Agencies): In 2010, doctors treated Doug Olson’s leu-kemia with an experimental gene thera-py that transformed some of his blood cells into cancer killers. More than a decade later, there’s no sign of cancer in his body.

The treatment cured Olson and a sec-ond patient, according to the University of Pennsylvania doctors, who said it was the fi rst time the therapy had been stud-ied for so long.

“I’m doing great right now. I’m still very active. I was running half mara-thons until 2018,” said Olson, 75, who lives in Pleasanton, California. “This is a cure. And they don’t use the word lightly.”

His doctors describe the two cases in a study published Wednesday in the jour-nal Nature. They say the two examples show the treatment, called CAR-T cell therapy, can attack cancer immediately, then stay inside the body for years and evolve there to keep the disease at bay. Such so-called “living drugs” are now used by thousands around the world to treat certain blood cancers.

Based on the 10-year results, “we can now conclude that CAR-T cells can ac-tually cure patients of leukemia,” said Dr. Carl June, one of the authors of the study.

The one-time treatment involves col-lecting the patient’s own T cells, white blood cells key to the immune system, and genetically changing them in the lab so that they will fi nd and attack cancer cells. The modifi ed cells are given back to the patient through IV.

By the time Olson got the treatment, he’d been fi ghting cancer for years. When doctors diagnosed him with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 1996, he said, “I thought I had months to live.”

He eventually underwent chemo-therapy and, at one point, his physician, Dr. David Porter, suggested he may need a bone marrow transplant. Porter also raised the idea of joining a CAR-

T therapy study. Olson, CEO of a New Hampshire lab products company, said he was excited by the science and eager to avoid the transplant.

A couple weeks after getting the treat-ment, he felt sick for about a week and was hospitalized for three days.

“It was the very next week he sat me down and he said, ‘We cannot fi nd a single cancer cell in your body,” Olson recalled.

The other patient, retired corrections offi cer Bill Ludwig, had similar results.

Over time, researchers said, the modi-fi ed cells evolved, many turning into “helper” cells that work with the cancer-killing cells. Helper cells eventually be-came dominant in both patients.

Study author J. Joseph Melenhorst said they were able to isolate and ana-lyze the cells using new technologies, which gave them “very good insight” into how they persisted in the patients’ bodies.

Dr. Armin Ghobadi of Washington University in St. Louis, an expert in gene and cellular immunotherapy for cancer, called the fi ndings “incredible.” Though the word “cure” is rarely used in cancer, he said it appears these patients were “most likely” cured.

He was intrigued by the persistence of the CAR-T cells and the way the liv-ing drug evolves.

“That’s just really beautiful to see,” said Ghobadi, who was not involved in the study.

At this point, June said, tens of thou-sands of patients are being treated with CAR-T cell therapies, which have been approved for certain blood cancers by health authorities around the world, including the US Food and Drug Ad-ministration. The agency fi rst approved a CAR-T therapy treatment in 2017 developed by Penn and the drugmaker Novartis for childhood leukemia.

ExpensiveThe Nature study was paid for partly

by the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research and partly by National Insti-tutes of Health grants.

Scientists hope to see wider use of CAR-T therapies in the future for other cancers. Last year, a CAR-T cell therapy was approved for multiple myeloma, the most common malignancy of the bone marrow in adults. According to the Leu-kemia & Lymphoma Society, leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma were expected to make up just under 10% of the 1.9 million new cancer cases in the US last year.

“But the big scientifi c challenge - and it’s a big one - is how to make this work in solid cancers,” like those in the lung,

colon and other places, June said. Even in blood cancers, there are chal-

lenges. The therapies are expensive, running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars just for the drugs. And there’s the risk of signifi cant side effects, in-cluding an immune overreaction called “cytokine release syndrome” and nerv-ous system-related problems such as brain swelling.

Both of the Penn patients did ex-tremely well after the treatment. Lud-wig traveled the country with his wife in a motor home and celebrated family milestones before dying early last year of COVID-19 complications.

Olson said he’s extremely grateful

for the decade of life since doctors used cutting-edge science to save him.

“What’s changed is the dimension of hope. The pace of discovery takes your breath away,” he said. “It’s a brand new world.”

Also:WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden announced Wednesday a plan to cut the cancer death rate by at least 50 percent in the next 25 years and “to turn more cancers from death sentences into chronic diseases that people can live with.”

At a White House event “to reignite the Cancer Moonshot,” Biden said, “I’m

proud to announce our plan to super-charge the Cancer Moonshot as a cen-tral effort of the Biden-Harris adminis-tration. It’s bold. It’s ambitious. But it’s completely doable.”

“Just as we harness science to de-velop cutting edge COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, we’ll bring a fi erce sense of urgency to the fi ght against cancer,” he added.

“The goal is to cut the cancer death rate in half in the next 25 years, at least by 50 percent, and to turn more can-cers from death sentences into chronic diseases that people can live with. To create a more supportive experience for patients and their families.

“Our message today is this. We can do this. I promise you, we can do this. All those we lost, all those we miss, we can end cancer as we know it. I com-mitted to this fi ght when I was vice president. It’s one of the reasons why, quite frankly, I ran for President,” he remarked.

“Let there be no doubt. Now that I am president, this is a presidential White House priority.

“We learned cancer is not a single disease. We used to think at that time it was a single disease. There are -- 200 different types of cancer caused by dif-ferent genetic mutations in ourselves.

“We discovered new medicines, ther-apies, early detection, prevention meas-ures that extend lives and save lives.

“In the last two years of COVID-19 -- the pandemic has taken more than 800,000 American lives. But that same period of time, cancer has claimed 1.2 million American lives year in and year out,” he went on.

Biden promised to do his part “on funding and using my authorities as President to break logjams and speed breakthroughs.”

“This will be bipartisan. This will bring the country together and quite frankly, other nations as well,” he stressed.

This 2021 photo provided by the family shows Doug Olson of Pleasanton, Calif., in Bend, Ore. In 2010, doctors treated Olson’s leukemia with an experimental gene therapy that transformed his own blood cells into cancer kill-

ers. More than a decade later, there’s no sign of cancer in his body. (AP)

Featu

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This image released by Neon shows Renata Reinsve in a scene from ‘The Worst Person in the World.’ (AP)

New characters add a critical freshness to fi lm

‘Ice Age’ franchise tries spin-off with possums brothersBy Mark Kennedy

At one point in “The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild,” the twin heroes fi nd themselves in a familiar place and voice what

many in the audience are quietly thinking.“Have we been here before?” asks the slightly dim possum

named Eddie. Replies his equally dim brother, Crash: “It does kin-da look familiar.”

Yes, we’ve been here before. This is the sixth “Ice Age” feature — not counting two TV specials — and it’s all alarmingly familiar even as it tries to refocus away from the original stars: Sid the sloth, Mannie and Ellie the mammoths, and Diego the saber-toothed ti-ger, none of whom are voiced by celebrities this time.

Screenplay writers Jim Hecht, Ray DeLaurentis and Will Schi-frin have reached back to recruit many old friends for this spin-off. Crash and Eddie fi rst appeared in “Ice Age: The Meltdown,” the one-eyed, dinosaur-hunting weasel of the title has been around for a few fi lms now and the whole thing is set in the same underground world that was introduced in “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.” Even Momma Dino makes a cameo.

There are two welcome new characters: Justina Machado voices a cool, striped polecat named Zee and Utkarsh Ambudkar is the bad

guy, a big-brained dinosaur named Orson. They add a critical fresh-ness or else the fi lm would seem to last as long as a real ice age.

The plot is a possum-coming-of-age tale. Crash and Eddie (now voiced by Aaron Harris and Vincent Tong) feel stifl ed by their mot-ley crew of a herd and sneak off. “It’s time for us to make our own destiny,” one says. “And maybe even make our own lunch,” says the other.

DiscoverThe two accidentally discover (again) the Lost World and are

protected by Buck, a confi rmed bachelor with a pirate’s heart voiced by Simon Pegg. The possums will need his help because Orson hopes to destroy the underground peace with an army of rap-tors. “Dinos rule, mammals drool!” he says.

Buck and Zee are yin and yang here. He’s the rush-in-without-a-plan guy and she’s more practical. “We’ll never defeat Orson if you keep going all ‘buck wild’ without thinking fi rst,” she tells him. He’s got nice advice for the twin possums: “It’s not powers that make you a superhero. It’s courage and resourcefulness.”

Making Eddie and Crash the heroes this time is a bit of a gamble since they’ve always been just humorous sidekicks. But it mostly pays off since little viewers will see a pair of kids standing up for

themselves and learning to be courageous. Or as one creature notes: “What they lack in intelligence, they make up for with bumbling ineptitude.”

Director John C. Donkin, a longtime part of the franchise, doesn’t mess with the visual language. There is always a tiny pause when creatures hang in midair before falling and there are lots of martial arts fl ips. In all the bathroom humor — yes, “Buck crack” is a joke — there are attempts to make the adults laugh: “I love the smell of skunky gas in the morning” and “Use your feeling words.”

“The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild” is actually a little bet-ter than you might expect on its sixth outing. There are lessons for the kids about how the strong mustn’t dominate the weak, about independence and change, and new families that can be born of love not blood. But visually and storytelling-wise it’s not a cut above much of what kids can watch on TV these days. This is a franchise that looks like it’s slowly going the way of the dinos, while we drool.

“The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild,” a Walt Disney Pictures release that is streaming on Disney+, is rated PG for “some action and mild language.” Running time: 81 minutes. Two stars out of four. (AP)

NEW YORK: With Tara Setmay-er, a former GOP communications director on Capitol Hill, sitting in Wednesday as guest co-host for a second day this week, Whoopi Goldberg’s colleagues on “The View” had virtually nothing to say about her two-week suspension for her comments.

At the top of the ABC talk show, co-host Joy Behar noted Goldberg’s absence and said simply, with a tiny head tilt, “OK,” before moving on to other topics. The show went on with four co-hosts.

Goldberg’s suspension was an-nounced by ABC News President Kim Godwin on Tuesday, the day after Goldberg said during a discussion of a Tennessee school board’s banning of the book “Maus” that the Holocaust was “not about race ... it’s about man’s inhumanity to other man.”

She apologized hours later and again on air Tuesday, but not before her words rallied critics and defenders alike.

“While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to refl ect and learn about the impact of her comments. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

NEW YORK: Elaine May is receiving a literary prize named for a director and stage performer she knew well.

The 89-year-old May is this year’s recipient of the PEN/Mike Nichols Writing for Performance Award, a $25,000 prize estab-lished in 2019 to honor the legacy of Nichols, whose many achieve-ments included his work with May as one of the leading comedy duos of the late 1950s and early ‘60s. On her own, May directed such acclaimed fi lms as “The Heartbreak Kid” and “Mikey and Nicky” and worked on the screen-play for “Heaven Can Wait” and the Nichols fi lm “The Birdcage” among others.

On Wednesday, PEN also announced that Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o received the $50,000 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature and playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury the $10,000 PEN/Laura Pels International Founda-tion for Theater Award.

PEN America, the literary and human rights organization, will celebrate the winners Feb 28 at

an in-person event in New York hosted by Seth Meyers. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

NEW YORK: Dolly Parton, Eminem, Lionel Richie, Duran Duran and A Tribe Called Quest are among this year’s fi rst-time nominees for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The Cleveland-based institution announced 17 artists and groups being considered for Rock Hall induction, including Rage Against the Machine, Pat Benatar, Dionne Warwick, Carly Simon, Judas Priest and Beck.

Beck and Simon are also nominated for the fi rst time. Eminem, who is playing the Super

Bowl Halftime Show with Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar, earned a nomination in the fi rst year he was eligible.

This year’s class will be an-nounced in May, with an induction ceremony planned for later this year.

“This year’s ballot recognizes a diverse group of incredible artists,

each who has had a profound impact on the sound of youth culture,” said John Sykes, head of the foundation that runs the Rock Hall, in a press release on Wednesday.

Artists must have released their fi rst commercial recording at least 25 years before they’re eligible for induction. (AP)

Film

Variety

Film

A weepy melodrama

Life in chapters in ‘The Worst Person’By Jake Coyle

Last fall, fi lm director Joachim Trier and the actors Renata Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie gath-

ered at a restaurant in midtown New York to talk about why people seem to keep crying during their movie.

If their fi lm, “The Worst Person in the World,” was a weepy melodrama, such responses could be ex-pected. But while “The Worst Person in the World” has moments of grief and loss, it’s principally about an uncertain, meandering journey of self-discovery for a young woman (Reinsve) in early adulthood. The emotional response the fi lm engenders has more to do with its warm compassion and fullness of spir-it. It captures much of the delight, confusion, folly and romance of life, in 35mm.

“A friend of mine was jokingly saying, ‘Oh, TV shows. Isn’t that very 2016?’” Trier said. “There’s something about: We need to fi ght for the big screen again and do something that breathes and has a big heart. That’s where we’re coming from.”

“The Worst Person in the World” is Norway’s shortlisted Oscar submission and Trier’s stab at something like a romantic comedy. It’s already been a long ride for the fi lm, which landed Reinsve the award for best actress at the Cannes Film Festival last summer and opens in theaters Friday. Since then, it’s been a regular at fi lm festivals (including the New York Film Festival, during which an interview took place last September before the fi lm’s release was delayed) and on Top 10 lists (including that of The Associated Press ).

It’s the third fi lm in Trier’s so-called Oslo trilogy, a disjointed but similarly set group of fi lms begun with 2008’s “Reprise” and continued with 2012’s “Oslo, August 31” - both of which starred Lie. “The Worst Person in the World,” though, takes place over a longer stretch of time, with ellipses in be-tween. It’s a period of years in Julie’s life that spans her relationship with a ready-to-settle-down cartoon-ist (Lie) and a hard-to-shake chance encounter (Her-

bert Nordrum).Including prologue and epilogue, the fi lm has 12

chapters. Julie, a 29-year-old millennial searching for a purpose, envisions a grand narrative for her life but she experiences it without anything like an ob-jective perspective.

“It’s Scandinavian and pretentious but Kierkeg-aard once said ‘We can only understand life back-wards, but we’re forced to live it forwards,”’ says Trier. “We make a self-narrative where we do see our life in chapters. I put my life in chapters by the eras I made my fi lms. I remember 10 years ago being with Anders making ‘Oslo, August 31’ and Renata was there, just out of theater school and us realizing she was actually awesome and we had to do some-thing later.”

Reinsve had a small part in “Oslo, August 31” with just one line: “Let’s go to the party.”

“That’s a very human thing to say,” Lie says, chuckling. “Part of life.”

ConnectWhile scripting “The Worst Person in the World”

with his regular writing partner, Eskil Vogt, Trier be-gan to imagine Reinsve, who had spent the intervening years largely in theater, in the role. The movie has been a breakthrough for the 34-year-old actor. Reinsve, who is still adjusting to her new fame, Julie’s sense of con-stant existential wonder is easy to connect to.

“I agree with her a lot,” says Reinsve. “It’s impos-sible to make a choice that’s right. You just have to live it, you live out the chaos. But you don’t know until later. I can relate to that very much. It’s all cha-os. I’ve just surrendered.”

If “The Worst Person in the World” is about the indecision that can grip anyone as they navigate their way through life, it’s an ongoing issue for Lie. While a celebrated and widely known actor (the National Society of Film Critics named him best supporting actor for his performance in “The Worst Person in the World”), Lie works as a full-time doctor in Oslo

when he’s not acting.“That’s my chaos,” he sighs.But for the 43-year-old actor-doctor, the twists

and turns of fate are hard to separate from the fi ction-al lives he’s played across the Oslo trilogy. To him, a connecting theme in the fi lms is the clash between one’s expectations for their life and how it actually turns out - on screen and off. “Reprise” led directly to Lie meeting his wife at a party for the fi lm.

“We think that our lives will be like a story with a linear development. But when we live our lives, in the present, it’s just random chaos all over the place. Why am I here? What’s my purpose?” says Lie. “Then when you look back on your life, there’s structure. You create fi ction, a narrative to make sense of what’s going on.”

Trier, though, didn’t want “The Worst Person in the World” to be weighed down by its existentialism. He plays with time, even stopping it in one moment of magical realism that he likes to compare to the “Twist and Shout” parade scene in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” To Trier, “The Worst Person in the World” is part of an earnest and playful tradition that spans both international art house and Hollywood studio, encompassing the French New Wave, George Cukor screwball comedies and the ‘70s fi lms of Paul Ma-zursky, Mike Nichols and Hal Ashby.

“There’s a strand of cinema that plays around with this, that form doesn’t have to be a formal, static camera of seriousness but a way of accessing human emotions in a musical way,” says Trier. “We talked about it almost being a musical even though there’s no song and dance numbers.”

That people keep responding - and, yes, crying - at “The Worst Person in the World” is to Trier a sign that audiences are embracing the movie’s intimacy, “and caring for it.”

“If you feel like you can access that space watch-ing the movie where you can allow yourself to be emotional like that,” he says, “that’s the biggest compliment.” (AP)

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CANBERRA, Feb 3, (AP): Aus-tralia retained the women’s Ashes after beating England in the fi rst one-day international of the multi-format series on Thursday.

England required victories in all three ODIs to win the Ashes but lost by 27 runs in Canberra after getting dismissed for 178, needing 206 to win.

Australia took an 8-4 points lead in the series and cannot be beaten, with each of the remaining two ODIs earning two points for the winner. The Australians have held the Ashes since the 2013-14 winter.

Australia won the only match to be completed of the scheduled three Twenty20s. The one-off test was drawn.

England can still draw the series with two wins in the remaining ODIs.

Australia also won the men’s Ashes last month.

Meanwhile, one of the leaders of English cricket has stepped down following the humiliating Ashes series in Australia.

Ashley Giles, managing direc-tor of the England men’s team, is leaving after three years in the role. Former test captain Andrew Strauss will take over on an interim basis.

England lost 4-0 in the Ashes series.

“Off the back of a disappointing men’s Ashes this winter, we must ensure we put in place the condi-tions across our game to enable our test team to succeed,” said Tom Harrison, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s chief executive.

Under Giles, England won the 50-over Cricket World Cup for the fi rst time but has had a turbu-lent time in the test format, with the ECB’s focus seemingly having been on white-ball cricket.

Giles said he was “looking for-ward to spending some time with my family before looking at the next challenge.”

KARACHI, Pakistan, Feb 3, (AP): Lahore Qalandars dropped half a dozen catches but still managed a 29-run win over Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League.

Despite scrappy fi elding, Lahore restricted Peshawar to 170-9 after Fakhar Zaman (66) and Mohammad Hafeez (37) had lifted Lahore to 199-4.

Fast bowler David Wiese (2-11) came close to record fi rst hat trick this season when Peshawar’s last man Salman Ir-shad was ruled out leg before wicket but the batter success-fully overturned the decision as televi-sion replays showed the ball would have missed the stumps.

The pace of captain Shaheen Shah Afridi (2-19) made early inroads when Afghanistan’s Hazratullah Zazai was clean bowled by the leftarmer off the third ball without scoring.

Hussain Talat struggled to score 15 off 24 balls in a 62-run stand with Kamran Akmal (41), but the lefthand-er could not profi t from the three dropped catches.

Young fast bowler Zaman Khan (3-32), who had dropped a diffi cult catch of Talat at third man, removed both batsmen off successive deliveries in his return spell as Talat was caught in the deep by Fakhar and the fast bowler followed it up by rattling the stumps of Akmal off the next delivery.

Lahore’s ace spinner – Rashid Khan of Afghanistan – made a strong comeback by removing Shoaib Malik (7) in the 12th over despite conceding 15 runs off his fi rst over against Akmal, playing his fi rst game this season after test-ing positive for COVID-19.

Haider Ali, who was also dropped early in his innings, top-scored with 49 before Lahore struck in the last two overs by claiming four wickets for 12 runs, including Haider, who got run out off a direct throw from Fakhar.

Earlier, the opening pair of Fakhar and Abdullah Shafi que (41) laid a solid foundation of 94 runs by the halfway mark after Lahore lost the toss and were asked to bat fi rst.

Shafi que holed out at deep mid-wicket off legspinner Us-man Qadir (1-43), who also should have got the wicket of Fakhar but Haider dropped a sitter on the edge of the bound-ary which went for a six.

SPORTSARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022

14

Cádiz and Mallorca beaten

Valencia, Rayo advance toCopa del Rey quarterfi nalsMADRID, Feb 3, (AP): Valencia reached its second Copa del Rey sem-ifi nal in four years by defeating Cádiz 2-1, while Rayo Vallecano made the last four for the fi rst time in four dec-ades by beating Mallorca 1-0.

Hugo Duro scored the winner for Valencia in the 79th minute after set-ting up the opener by Gonçalo Guedes in the 24th to lead the hosts to the semifi nals for the fi rst time since it won the title in 2019.

Cádiz scored with a penalty kick converted by Lucas Pérez in the 55th at Mestalla Stadium. It played the fi nal minutes of the game with 10 men after Juan Cala was sent off with a sec-ond yellow for a hard sliding tackle.

Va l enc i a ’ s only two vic-tories in its last six matches had come in Copa games - against Cartagena in the round of 32 and Atlético Baleares in the round of 16. It sits 10th in the Spanish league.

Cádiz defeated Levante before the international break to end an eight-game winless streak in the league.

Valencia’s three new signings - Il-aix Moriba, Eray Comert and Bryan Gil - made their debut for the club.

Rayo moves onRayo continued its good run at

home by defeating Mallorca to reach the semifi nals for the fi rst time since 1982.

Óscar Trejo converted a 44th-minute penalty to send the Madrid club, which had not even made the quarterfi nals since 2002.

Rayo had been unbeaten in its fi rst 10 home matches this season before losing to Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish

league before the international break. Mallorca, the 2003 Copa champion,

gave debuts to its three new signings - Giovanni González, Vedat Muriqi and goalkeeper Sergio Rico. Ameri-can striker Matthew Hoppe came on early in the second half.

Rayo was missing striker Radamel Falcao, who played for Colombia in World Cup qualifying during the in-ternational break.

Real Madrid, which visits Athletic Bilbao in another Copa quarterfi nal on Thursday, will also have players missing because of international duty,

as will Real Betis, which visits 2020 champion Real Sociedad on the same day.

Winners and organizers post for a group photo during the Women’s Winter Tennis Championship awarding ceremony.

Grubauer, Kraken blank Isles,record fi rst franchise shutout

Nugent-Hopkins breaks late tie, Oilers topple Capitals 5-3

NEW YORK, Feb 3, (AP): Jared McCann had a goal and an assist, and Philipp Grubauer stopped 19 shots for the fi rst shutout in fran-chise history as the expan-sion Seattle Kraken beat the New York Islanders 3-0.

Mason Appleton had a goal and an assist and Vince Dunn also scored to help Seattle to its third win in seven games. Grubauer got his 19th career shutout and fi rst since last May 12 against Los Angeles in the season fi nale while playing for Colorado.

The Kraken go into the All-Star break last in the Pacifi c Division at 15-27-4.

Semyon Varlamov had 28 saves and lost his third straight start for New York, falling to 3-9-1 this season. The Islanders have lost four of six and re-mained 17 points out of the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.

Oilers 5, Capitals 3In Washington, Ryan Nugent-Hop-

kins broke a tie with a short-handed goal with 4:03 remaining as Edmonton beat Washington.

Nugent-Hopkins added an empty-net goal to wrap up the Oilers’ fi fth victory in six games.

Washington played without Alex Ovechkin, who entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols Wednesday. He’ll also will miss the All-Star Game.

Leon Draisaitl, Evander Kane and Connor McDavid scored in the fi rst 5:07 to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead. Mik-ko Koskinen stopped 24 shots.

Lars Eller, Conor Sheary and Evg-eny Kuznetsov scored for Washington.

After allowing three goals and stop-ping just one shot, Ilya Samsonov was replaced by Pheonix Copley, who stopped 22 shots.

Kings 5, Red Wings 3In Detroit, Phillip Danault scored

twice, including the go-ahead goal in the third period, and Los Angeles beat Detroit.

Arthur Kaliyev, Victor Arvidsson and Adrian Kempe also scored for the Kings, who went 4-0-2 on their road swing. Jonathan Quick made 22 saves. Trevor Moore and rookie Austin Strand had two assists apiece. Strand assisted on one goal in his previous 16 career games.

Michael Rasmussen, Tyler Bertuzzi and Joe Veleno scored for Detroit. Alex Nedeljkovic made 40 saves.

Flames 4, Coyotes 2In Glendale, Arizona, Christopher

Tanev scored the go-ahead goal and had three assists, Blake Coleman scored twice and Calgary beat Arizona for its fi fth win in six games.

Elias Lindholm also scored, and Ja-cob Markstrom had 24 saves for Cal-gary, which had 50 shots on goal.

Clayton Keller and Alex Galche-nyuk scored for the Coyotes, Arizona and goaltender Karel Vejmelka made 46 saves, including a franchise-record 24 in the fi rst period while facing a franchise-record 26 shots.

Keller, Arizona’s All-Star, added an assist and extended his points streak to six games, tying a career high. He has three goals and fi ve assists during the streak.

Wild 5, Blackhawks 0In Chicago, Cam Talbot made 30

saves for his fi rst shutout of the season and the 25th of his career, and Min-nesota beat Chicago to extended its points streak to 10 games.

Mats Zuccarello, Kevin Fiala and Frederick Gaudreau each had a goal and an assist for surging Minnesota. The Wild head into the NHL’s All-Star break on a 9-0-1 roll.

Fiala extended his career-high points streak to 12 games, matching Mikael

ICE HOCKEY

SOCCER

CRICKET

CRICKET

Australia retain women’s Ashes

Scrappy Lahore Qalandars rout Peshawar Zalmi in PSL

Edmonton Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (93) defends against Wash-ington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom (19) during the fi rst period of an

NHL hockey game, on Feb 2, in Washington. (AP)

Seattle Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer (31) makes a save in the second period of an NHL hockey game against the New York Island-ers on Feb 2, in Elmont, N.Y. (AP)

Behbehani wins Women’s Winter Tennis ChampionshipBy Suzan NasserAl-Seyassah Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: Kuwait’s national tennis team player Sarah Be-hbehani defeated her compatriot Yas-mine Al-Shamali by two sets (6-1, 6-2) to win the Women’s Winter Tennis Championship title.

The championship was held on the courts of the Sheikh Jaber Al-Abdullah International Tennis Complex in con-junction with the Rafael Nadal Acad-emy.

It witnessed the participation of 48 players in the women’s and junior (Un-der-18) categories.

In the U-18 category, tennis player

Tanishka Kanan won the fi rst place, and Kavnei Raniara the second place.

The closing ceremony was attended by the Chairman of the Board of Di-rectors of the Arab Tennis Federation and Kuwait Tennis Federation Sheikh Ahmed Al-Jaber, the British Ambas-sador to Kuwait Linda Lewis, and the Vice Chairman of the Women’s Com-mittee at the Kuwait Tennis Federation Dalal Behbehani.

Director of the Rafael Nadal Acad-emy Martin Belgrayfar expressed his appreciation and gratitude for the hosting of the Winter Women’s Ten-nis Championship, affi rming that the tournament was successful and dis-tinguished by all standards, and many

good female talents in the game of ten-nis were presented.

Dalal Behbehani said, “The success that the tournament witnessed was the result of everyone’s cooperation. The technical levels of the tournament were high. We witnessed strong competition both in the women’s and in the junior levels. We will be keen to organize many women’s tournaments in the future”.

The player Sarah Behbehani ex-pressed her happiness about winning the championship, saying, “This vic-tory is precious to me and will be a valuable addition to my sports career.”

She indicated that the performance level of the players participating in the tournament was outstanding.

Zaman

NHL Results/Standings

WASHINGTON, Feb 3, (AP): Results and standings from the NHL games on Wednesday.

Note: Two points for a win one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per conference advance to playoffs.

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GAFlorida 47 32 10 5 69 194 139Tampa Bay 46 30 10 6 66 157 130Toronto 42 29 10 3 61 153 112Boston 43 26 14 3 55 131 120Detroit 47 20 21 6 46 130 162Buffalo 45 14 24 7 35 117 157Ottawa 40 14 22 4 32 110 136Montreal 44 8 29 7 23 99 172

Metropolitan Division GP W L OT Pts GF GACarolina 42 31 9 2 64 147 98NY Rangers 47 30 13 4 64 145 122Pittsburgh 46 27 11 8 62 154 124Washington 47 25 13 9 59 152 130Columbus 43 20 22 1 41 136 159NY Islanders 39 16 17 6 38 93 105Philadelphia 45 15 22 8 38 113 152New Jersey 45 15 25 5 35 126 163

Western ConferenceCentral Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GAColorado 44 32 8 4 68 183 129Nashville 46 28 14 4 60 144 125Minnesota 41 28 10 3 59 161 120St Louis 44 26 13 5 57 153 121Dallas 43 23 18 2 48 129 131Winnipeg 42 18 17 7 43 120 128Chicago 46 16 23 7 39 112 156Arizona 45 11 30 4 26 99 169

Pacifi c Division GP W L OT Pts GF GAVegas 46 27 16 3 57 158 137Los Angeles 47 24 16 7 55 136 130Anaheim 48 23 16 9 55 141 137Calgary 42 23 13 6 52 136 104Edmonton 42 23 16 3 49 142 138San Jose 46 22 20 4 48 126 142Vancouver 46 20 20 6 46 115 126Seattle 46 15 27 4 34 121 159

Seattle 3 NY Islanders 0Edmonton 5 Washington 3Los Angeles 5 Detroit 3

Calgary 4 Arizona 2Minnesota 5 Chicago 0

Granlund’s Wild record set in 2017.Kirill Kaprizov scored his team-lead-

ing 19th goal to stretch his career-best

points streak to eight games. Nico Sturm also connected to help Minnesota im-prove to 3-0-0 against fading Chicago.

Duro

Giles steps down

SPORTSARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022

15

Wizards stun 76ers, snap 6-game skidLakers rally in 4th to defeat Blazers

PHILADELPHIA, Feb 3, (AP): Spencer Dinwiddie scored the go-ahead buck-et with 1:30 left and had a triple-double to lead the Washington Wizards to a 106-103 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.

Dinwiddie had 14 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Kyle Kuzma scored 24 points to help the Wizards snap a six-game losing streak.

Montrezl Harrell hit a 16-footer for 102-98 lead and blew kisses to the Philly crowd headed into a time-out. The Wizards won with Bradley Beal sidelined at least a week with an injured left wrist.

Joel Embiid had 27 points and 14 rebounds for the 76ers.

Lakers 99, Trail Blazers 94In Los Angeles, Anthony Davis

scored 30 points, Carmelo Anthony added 24 and Los Angeles rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Portland.

Davis had 19 points and seven of

his 15 rebounds in the fi nal 12 min-utes as the Lakers returned home with a win after going 2-4 on their Eastern road trip.

Norman Powell led the Trail Blazers with 30 points and tied a season high with fi ve 3-pointers. Anfernee Simons added 19 points, and Jusuf Nurkic had a double-dou-ble with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Portland has dropped three straight and fi ve of its last six.

Grizzlies 120, Knicks 108In New York, Jaren Jackson Jr.

had 26 points and 10 rebounds, Ja Morant added 23 points and nine as-sists and Memphis beat New York.

Morant had some of his usual high-fl ying highlight plays, but shot just 9 for 27 from the fi eld, missing all six 3-point attempts.

But the Grizzlies go well beyond their fi rst-time All-Star. Rookie Ziaire Williams scored a season-high 21 points on 9-for-11 shoot-ing, while Jackson, Desmond Bane and De’Anthony Melton all hit four 3-pointers. Evan Fournier scored 30 points for the Knicks.

Kings 112, Nets 101In Sacramento, Calif., Tyrese

Haliburton scored seven of his 12 points in the fourth quarter and Sac-ramento handed Brooklyn its sixth consecutive loss.

Harrison Barnes scored 19 points and Haliburton had 11 assists to help the Kings stop a seven-game skid. Buddy Hield and Davion Mitchell scored 18 apiece.

Nic Claxton had a career-high 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for Brooklyn. James Harden, who has been nursing a sore right hand and a hamstring injury, was held to four points, his fewest since scoring fi ve against Chicago on May 15, 2021.

The Nets’ skid is their longest since a seven-game slide Dec. 26, 2019, to Jan. 7, 2020. Brooklyn, which played at NBA-best Phoenix on Tuesday night, hasn’t won since beating the Spurs in San Antonio on Jan. 21.

Jazz 108, Nuggets 104In Salt Lake City, Trent Forrest

had career highs of 18 points and eight assists to lead Utah past Den-ver Nuggets.

Mike Conley added 17 points, and Rudy Gay, Royce O’Neale, and Bojan Bogdanovic had 15 points apiece. Utah won for just the third time in 14 games. The Jazz swept the season series 4-0.

Bryn Forbes scored 26 points for Denver. Nikola Jokic sat out be-cause of a toe injury.

Celtics 113, Hornets 107In Boston, Josh Richardson made

six 3-pointers and scored 23 points, Jayson Tatum hit two key free throws and fi nished with 19 points and Boston held off Charlotte.

Marcus Smart scored 22 points, and Jaylen Brown added 15 to help Boston win its third straight.

LaMelo Ball had a career-best 38

points for Charlotte.Thunder 120, Mavericks 114, OTIn Dallas, Lu Dort scored 30

points, including 14 straight for

Oklahoma City in overtime, and rookie Tre Mann added a career-best 29 in a victory over Dallas.

The Thunder won their second

consecutive game for their fi rst winning streak since taking three straight Dec. 18-22.

Luka Doncic scored 40 points for the Mavericks in the opener of a six-game homestand, their longest of the season.

Magic 119, Pacers 118In Indianapolis, Gary Harris

scored 22 points and Wendell Cart-er Jr. had 19 points and 18 rebounds to help Orlando rally past Indiana.

Harris scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, including two key 3-pointers.

Caris LeVert led the Pacers with 26 points, and rookie Terry Taylor had 24 points and 16 rebounds.

Rockets 115, Cavaliers 104In Houston, Christian Wood and

rookie Jalen Green each scored 21 points and Houston beat Cleveland to snap an 11-game home skid.

Cleveland rookie Evan Mobley had a career-high 29 points and added 12 rebounds.

NBA Results/Standings

WASHINGTON, Feb 3, (AP): Results and standings from the NBA games on Wednesday.Washington 106 Philadelphia 103Orlando 119 Indiana 118Boston 113 Charlotte 107Memphis 120 New York 108Houston 115 Cleveland 104Okla. City 120 Dallas (OT) 114Sacramento 112 Brooklyn 101Utah 108 Denver 104LA Lakers 99 Portland 94

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

W L Pct GBPhiladelphia 31 20 .608 —Brooklyn 29 22 .569 2Toronto 26 23 .531 4Boston 28 25 .528 4New York 24 28 .462 7-1/2

Southeast Division W L Pct GBMiami 32 20 .615 —Charlotte 28 24 .538 4Atlanta 24 26 .480 7Washington 24 27 .471 7-1/2Orlando 12 41 .226 20-1/2

Central Division W L Pct GBChicago 32 18 .640 —Milwaukee 32 21 .604 1-1/2Cleveland 31 21 .596 2Indiana 19 34 .358 14-1/2Detroit 12 38 .240 20

Western ConferenceSouthwest Division

W L Pct GBMemphis 36 18 .667 —Dallas 29 23 .558 6New Orleans 19 32 .373 15-1/2San Antonio 19 33 .365 16Houston 15 36 .294 19-1/2

Northwest Division W L Pct GBUtah 31 21 .596 —Denver 28 23 .549 2-1/2Minnesota 26 25 .510 4-1/2Portland 21 31 .404 10Oklahoma City 16 34 .320 14

Pacific Division W L Pct GBPhoenix 41 9 .820 —Golden State 39 13 .750 3LA Clippers 26 27 .491 16-1/2LA Lakers 25 27 .481 17Sacramento 19 34 .358 23-1/2

Portland Trail Blazers forward Norman Powell, left, shoots as Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis defends during the second half of an NBA bas-ketball game, on Feb. 2, in Los Angeles. (AP)

Washington Wizards’ Spencer Dinwiddie, (left), drives to the basket against Philadelphia 76ers’ Matisse Thybulle, (right), during the fi rst half of an NBA

basketball game, on Feb. 2, in Philadelphia. (AP)

Purdue guard Jaden Ivey (left), col-lides with Minnesota guard Luke Loewe during the second half an NCAA college basketball game, on

Feb 2, in Minneapolis. (AP)

Ivey scores 21, Purdue beats MinnesotaMINNEAPOLIS, Feb 3, (AP): Jaden Ivey scored 21 points and Zach Edey added 14 points and 12 rebounds, leading No. 4 Purdue to an 88-73 win over Minnesota.

Senior guard Eric Hunter Jr. added a career-high 20 points and the Boil-ermakers got double-fi gure scoring from four players. Hunter entered av-eraging 4.3 points per game.

Purdue (19-3, 8-3 Big Ten) has won four straight and seven of eight.

Payton Willis scored 24 points and Jamsion Battle added 21 for Minne-sota (11-8, 2-8), which lost its third in a row.

Kentucky 77, Vanderbilt 70In Lexington, Ky., Davion Mintz

scored 21 points off the bench, hitting a 3-pointer during a pivotal 11-2 run,

and Kentucky held off Vanderbilt for its third consecutive victory.

The Wildcats (18-4, 7-2 Southeast-ern Conference) twice led by 10 in the second half, but the Commodores closed to 56-53 with 9:28 remain-ing. Keion Brooks Jr. answered with a jumper, Lance Ware made a free throw and Mintz drained a wide-open 3 from the corner for a 62-53 advan-tage with 7:23 left.

Oscar Tshiebwe had 11 points and 17 rebounds for Kentucky, which earned its 11th straight win over the Commodores.

Scotty Pippen Jr. scored 33 points for his second 30-point outing this season against Kentucky. Jordan Wright added 14 points for the Com-modores (11-10, 3-6), who haven’t beaten the Wildcats since 2016.

Houston 73, Tulane 62In Houston, Fabian White Jr. scored

16 of his career high-tying 21 points in the fi rst half and Houston beat Tu-lane for its 11th straight victory.

White, a fi fth-year graduate senior, also surpassed 1,000 points in his ca-reer at Houston (19-2, 8-0 American) and fi nished with eight rebounds.

Josh Carlton added 14 points, nine rebounds and three blocks de-spite being in foul trouble through-out the game. Taze Moore had 12

streak in the nation behind Gonzaga.Kevin Cross had 17 points for Tu-

lane (9-10, 6-4). Illinois 80, Wisconsin 67

In Champaign, Ill., Kofi Cockburn had 37 points and 12 rebounds to lead Illinois over Wisconsin.

Cockburn had 20 fi rst-half points on 10-of-12 shooting, including two rim-rattling dunks. He fi nished 16 of 19, making his last fi ve shots for the Illini (16-5, 9-2 Big Ten).

Jacob Grandison added 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists for Illinois.

Johnny Davis led Wisconsin (17-4, 8-3) with 22 points and 15 rebounds.

Marquette 83, Villanova 73In Milwaukee, Justin Lewis had 19

points and nine rebounds, and Mar-quette never trailed in an impressive victory over Villanova.

Marquette (16-7, 8-4 Big East) won for the eighth time in nine games and completed its fi rst regular-season sweep of Villanova (16-6, 9-3) since 2011-12. The Golden Eagles won 57-54 at Villanova on Jan. 19 to snap the Wildcats’ 29-game winning streak on campus.

Those two losses to Marquette rep-resent Villanova’s only defeats in its last 11 games.

It marks the fi rst time any Big East team has swept a regular-season se-ries from Villanova since Butler did it in 2016-17.

Tyler Kolek scored 18 points for the Golden Eagles and Darryl Morsell added 15 before fouling out. Villano-va got 18 points from Brandon Slater, 16 from Collin Gillespie and 15 from Caleb Daniels.

Xavier 68, Butler 66In Cincinnati, Zach Freemantle

scored 23 points and Xavier overcame a miserable 3-point shooting night to beat Butler.

Xavier (16-5, 6-4 Big East) matched its season low for 3s, going just 3 for 17.

Chuck Harris and Jayden Taylor each scored 18 points for Butler (11-11, 4-7). The Bulldogs trimmed a 15-point defi cit to four twice in the last minute before Taylor hit a 3 at the buzzer. Butler fell to 0-9 against ranked opponents.

points, five rebounds and six assists.The Cougars won their 37th straight

home game - the second-longest

Ryan, Donarski lead Iowa St past K-StateAMES, Iowa, Feb 3, (AP): Emily Ryan and Lexi Donarski scored 15 points apiece, Ashley Joens had a double-double and No. 11 Iowa State used a dominant third quar-ter to defeat No. 25 Kansas State 70-55.

The Cyclones scored the last fi ve points of the second quarter to lead 31-25 at the half and outscored the Wildcats 24-8 in the third to go up 55-33.

Iowa was 10 of 14 in the quarter with three 3-pointers while Kansas State was 4 of 19.

Ryan had eight assists, six re-bounds, four steals and two blocks. Joens had 11 points and 12 re-bounds. Nyamer Diew added 10 points for the Cyclones (19-3, 8-2 Big 12 Conference), off to the sec-ond-best start in school history after the 2000-01 team went 20-2.

Bill Fennelly, in his 27th season at Iowa State, picked up his 350th win in Hilton Coliseum.

Brylee Glenn, scoreless in the fi rst half, matched her career high with 19 points for the Wildcats (16-6, 6-4), 17 in the fourth quarter. Ayoka Lee had 12 points on 6-of-16 shooting after she had 38 points in the fi rst meeting, a 73-70 loss.

Iowa State forward Morgan Kane shoots over Kansas State center Ayoka Lee, (left), during the fi rst half of an NCAA college basketball game, on Feb. 2, in Ames, Iowa.

(AP)

BASKETBALL

BASKETBALL

Kentucky holds off Vanderbilt for 3rd straight win

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ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2022 16

SportsUnited States’ Weston McKennie (8) celebrates a goal with teammates Kellyn Acosta (23), Reggie Cannon (4), Antonee Robinson (5), Tim Weah, (21) and Ricardo Pepi (18) during the fi rst half of the team’s FIFA World Cup qualifying soccer match against Honduras in St. Paul, Minn. (AP)

US dominate winless HondurasMexico win

ST. PAUL, Minn. Feb 3, (AP): The U.S. strategical-ly picked frigid Minnesota for this match to minimize travel time, maintain con-sistency of conditions and, of course, gain an edge over an opponents from a tropi-cal country.

The Americans sure didn’t need the advantage against winless Honduras.

They have a commanding, complete and confi dence-boosting performance to build on, once they thaw out.

Weston McKennie and Walker Zim-merman had fi rst-half goals to give the U.S. an early spark on a frigid night and a fresh Christian Pulisic scored af-ter entering in the second half, leading the Americans past Honduras 3-0 in a

World Cup quali-fi er on Wednes-day night.

“Right from the opening whistle,” coach Gregg Berhalter said, “I knew that we were in good control.”

Goalkeeper Matt Turner didn’t have to make a single

save for the Americans, who emerged from the pandemic-altered schedule - forcing games in January and February - in second place with three matches to go. The U.S. outshot Honduras 16-2 and had 71.8% possession.

The kickoff temperature was 3 de-grees (minus-16 Celsius) with a mi-nus-14 wind chill at Allianz Field, selected by the U.S. Soccer Federation along with Columbus, Ohio, to bracket a road game against Canada.

The Americans beat El Salvador 1-0 on Thursday, when it was 29 in Ohio. They lost 2-0 to Canada in Hamilton, Ontario, when it was 22. The weather in Minnesota was a whole differ-ent level of chill, the coldest in U.S. team history and in violation of USSF guidelines for safe outdoor play. The game ended with a 1-degree tempera-ture.

Still, the match was a sellout - an an-nounced crowd of 19,202 - with red-white-and-blue-clad fans clutching their complimentary hand warmers and how-ever many layers they could fi nd in their closets. Players wore skin-tight thermal tops and black gloves, but most of them had bare skin exposed on their knees as they jogged and jumped around on the grass at 3-year-old stadium that’s sup-ported by subsurface heating coils.

Honduras didn’t have as much fun. Eliminated from contention at home

on Sunday, the Catrachos had to travel all day on Monday and practiced in-doors on Tuesday. Goalkeeper Luis López and forward Rommel Quioto did not return for the second half due to what was described as hypothermia.

Berhalter defended the USSF deci-sion to play here, pointing to the ther-mal head coverings the Americans pro-vided to Honduras before the match.

“When we go down to those countries and it’s 90 degrees and 90% dew point and it’s unbearable humidity and guys are getting dehydrated and cramping up and getting heat exhaustion, that’s the na-ture of our competition,” Berhalter said.

McKennie had on two sets of gloves, peeling off one pair as he came to the bench after being replaced in the 84th. The star midfi elder scored on a header in the eighth minute, fi ttingly after jok-ing on a video interview the day before that his big head ought to minimize any discomfort from a frozen ball in the February chill.

That was McKennie’s ninth interna-tional goal, his second in World Cup qualifying, and it proved to be enough for the Americans on this night.

Canada lead North and Central Amer-ica and the Caribbean with 25 points, fol-lowed by the U.S. (21), which are ahead of Mexico on goal difference. Panama (17) are fourth and Costa Rica (16) fi fth.

The top three nations qualify for this year’s tournament in Qatar, and fourth place advance to a playoff against the Oceania champions, likely New Zealand.

After no goals off set pieces in the fi rst 10 qualifi ers, the U.S. scored three in this one.

The second goal was set up by Kel-lyn Acosta, who started in the defen-sive midfi eld for the fi rst time since the October loss at Panama. Acosta’s free kick whizzed past the head of a leaping Jordan Morris, and Zimmerman pivot-ed around defender Denil Maldonado in the 37th minute.

The ball glanced off Zimmerman’s left leg, and he kicked it in with his right from 5 yards for his third inter-

Switzerland’s Nicole Vallario (16) and Canada’s Sarah Nurse (20) chase the puck during a preliminary round women’s hockey game at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. (AP)

Mané shines in victory over Burkina Faso

Senegal reach 2nd successive Afcon finalYAOUNDE, Cameroon, Feb 3, (AP): Sadio Mané set up one goal and scored the last one himself as Senegal beat Burkina Faso 3-1 to reach their second successive African Cup of Nations fi nal.

Now, Senegal hope to fi nally win a title.Mané scored on a breakaway in

the 87th minute to seal the win at Ah-madou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde af-ter Senegal went 2-0 up and then saw Burkina Faso pull a goal back with eight minutes to go.

The Senegal-Burkina Faso semi burst into life at the end of the game, with all four goals coming in the last 20 minutes.

Defender Abdou Diallo pounced at a corner to give Senegal the lead in the 70th after fellow center back Kalidou Koulibaly sent the ball toward goal with an overhead kick. Bamba Dieng made it 2-0 in the 76th when Mané cleverly robbed a Burkina Faso defender of pos-session on the byline and put a cross on a plate for Dieng, who only just got the touch ahead of teammate Idrissa Gueye.

Blati Touré briefl y gave Burkina Faso hope when he forced a cross in with his knee in the 82nd.

But Mané snapped up a chance on a counterattack as he sped clear of the Burkinabe defense and chipped the ball over goalkeeper Farid Ouédraogo.

Mané spun away casually after scoring and jogged onto the running track sur-rounding the fi eld, where he was mobbed by teammates. Mané has done his part in setting up a meeting in the fi nal between two of African soccer’s superstars.

Senegal have for years carried the

unwanted label of being the best team in Africa to never win the Cup of Na-tions. They lost the fi nal in 2002 and at the last tournament in 2019.

Mané, coach Aliou Cisse and others from the losing effort three years ago in Egypt now have a chance to put it

right straight away.Burkina Faso starting goalkeeper

Hervé Koffi was taken off on a stretcher in the fi rst half after racing off his line to punch a ball clear and crashing into Sene-gal’s Cheikhou Kouyaté, who then land-ed with his full weight on top of Koffi .

national goal. Zimmerman had on the captain’s armband for the night, and the Americans have four wins and one loss when he wears it.

Pulisic scored about three minutes after entering. Acosta’s corner kick was headed by Ricardo Pepi to Zim-merman, and the ball bounced off a leg to the right foot of Pulisic. He scored from near the penalty spot with his sec-ond touch of the game - his 18th inter-national goal.

“It’s my job to come in and make a difference, and I’m glad I did,” Pulisic said.

Raúl Jiménez converted a penalty kick in the 80th after Diego Lainez was fouled by Abdiel Ayarza, lifting Mexico over visiting Panama 1-0.

Costa Rica won 1-0 at Jamaica and eliminated the Reggae Boyz as Joel Campbell scored in the 62nd.

Unbeaten Canada won 2-0 at El Sal-vador for their sixth straight victory. Atiba Hutchinson scored in the 66th when Cyle Larin’s cross ricocheted three times - off the near post, defender Eriq Zavaleta and Hutchison’s back - and went in. Jonathan David added a goal in the third minute of stoppage time, his ninth of qualifying.

Strong in qualifying, Kauf gets head startZHANGJIAKOU, China, Feb 3, (AP): Before her qualifying round, moguls skier Jaelin Kauf put on a pair of neck-laces - one silver, the other gold - cus-tom-made by her mom. Then, she went out and put herself in the mix for more

hardware this weekend.The 25-year-old American got a

great start on her Olympic journey, speeding through the bumps to fi nish third in a qualifying round Thursday, the night before the cauldron is lit in

Beijing to mark the offi cial start of these Olympics. She’ll be back at it Sunday with the medals on the line.

“I’m stoked I put a solid top-to-bottom (run) down to start off the Olympics,” said Kauf, who also painted her nails red with gold sparkles for the occasion.

Jakara Anthony of Australia led the way in qualifying, followed by defending Olympic champion Perrine Laffont of France. Kauf’s American teammates, Olivia Giaccio and Han-nah Soar, each fi nished in the top 10 to guarantee their spots in the fi nal. No-body was completely eliminated. The 11th through 30th fi nishers get another qualifying round Sunday.

Next up, an interesting decision: at-tend the opening ceremony Friday or stay home and get some rest?

“I’ve had a little bit of experience competing before the opening ceremo-ny and I’ve never really marched in an opening ceremony,” said Britteny Cox, an Aussie at her fourth Olympics who qualifi ed for the fi nal. “So, for me, it’s kind of business as usual.”

El Salvador’s goalkeeper Kevin Carabantes, (right top), cuts off a corner kick during a qualifying soccer match against Canada for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 at Cuscatlan Stadium in San Salvador, El Salvador. (AP)

Senegal’s Bouna Sarr (right), defends against Burkina Faso’s Hassane Bande during the African Cup of Nations 2022 semifinal soccer match between Burkina Faso and Senegal at the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium in Yaounde,

Cameroon. (AP)

Decker hurt asUS rout FinlandBEIJING, Feb 3, (AP): Kendall Coyne Schofield and Alex Carpenter each scored twice, and the U.S. women’s hockey team began the defense of their Olympic title with a 5-2 win over Finland on Thursday in a game over-shadowed by an injury to American forward Brianna Decker.

The assistant captain and three-time Olympian yelped out in pain af-ter being tripped from behind by Finland’s Ronja Savolainen mid-way through the first period. Decker was un-able to place any weight on her left leg and was taken off on a stretcher. USA Hockey said the 31-year-old Decker had a lower body injury and was being evaluated at the arena.

Decker later was on crutches next to the bench and was hugged by team-mates as they left the ice.

Decker’s injury represents a poten-tially significant blow to the Ameri-cans, who are trying to become the first U.S. team to win back-to-back gold medals. The versatile forward has been a national team staple for 11 years.

Decker’s injury was the second to a key player during the tournament’s opening day at the Beijing Games. Canadian forward Melodie Daoust did not return after being checked hard into the boards by Sarah Foster in Can-ada’s 12-1 rout of Switzerland.

The Americans improved to 9-0 against Finland in Olympic play. The U.S. haveFriday off before facing Rus-sia on Saturday.

In other games, Natalie Spooner had two goals and three assists and Claire Thompson had a goal and four assists in Canada’s win over the Swiss in Group A.

Sarah Fillier scored the first two goals and the Canadians led 8-0 through two periods. Canada are the reigning world champions after a 3-2 overtime win over the U.S. in August ended the Americans’ five-tournament gold-medal run.

In Group B, Michaela Pejzlova scored on a breakaway with 13:33 left in the third period, and the Czech Republic capped their women’s hockey Olympic debut with a 3-1 win over host China.

Tereza Radova became her nation’s first woman to score in the Olympics by redirecting defender Aneta Tejralo-va’s pass to open the scoring 10:38 into a game the Czech Republic never trailed. Denisa Krizova also scored and Klara Peslarova stopped 13 shots in a Group B preliminary round game.

Decker

Jiménez

SOCCER

SOCCER

OLYMPICS