Indian-American schoolgirl Natasha Perianayagam was named in the "world's brightest" students list for the second consecutive year by the US-based Johns Hopkins Center For Talented Youth, based on the results of above-grade-level tests of over 15,000 students across 76 countries.

Perianayagam, 13, is a student at Florence M Gaudineer Middle School, in New Jersey.

She also took the Johns Hopkins Center For Talented Youth (CTY) test in Spring 2021, when she was a Grade 5 student.

Her results in the verbal and quantitative sections levelled with the 90th percentile of advanced Grade 8 performance, which catapulted her into the honours list that year.

This year, she was honoured for her exceptional performance on the SAT, ACT, School and College Ability Test, or similar assessment taken as part of the CTY Talent Search, the university said in a press release on Monday.

Perianayagam, whose parents hail from Chennai, said she loves doodling and reading JRR Tolkien's novels in her spare time.

CTY used above-grade-level testing to identify advanced students from around the world and provide a clear picture of their academic abilities.

According to the university release, Perianayagam was among the 15,300 students from 76 countries who joined CTY in the 2021-22 Talent Search year.

Less than 27 per cent of those participants qualified for the CTY ceremony, receiving either high or grand honours based on their test scores.

In her latest attempt, Perianayagam scored the highest grades among all candidates.

"This is not just recognition of our students' success on one test, but a salute to their love of discovery and learning, and all the knowledge they have accumulated in their young lives so far," said CTY's executive director Dr Amy Shelton.

"It is exciting to think about all the ways in which they will use that potential to discover their passions, engage in rewarding and enriching experiences, and achieve remarkable things -- in their communities and in the world," she added.

The Kuwait Sat-1 satellite has reached the final stages of its launch and early orbit phase (LEOP), before it begins taking images of Kuwait, announced Dr Hala Al-Jassar, director of the national project for Kuwait Sat-1 backed by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences.

“This is an initial stage in which any satellite goes into orbit around Earth, which usually lasts for two to three months from the date of launch, during which the first signal is received and tests are conducted on the satellite. Moreover, all its systems are calibrated to ensure they work well and are performing their required functions,” Dr Jassar said.

“The technical team of the first Kuwaiti satellite is communicating with the satellite in an excellent way by sending and receiving signals from the earth station at the College of Science at Kuwait University. They are working 24/7 to ensure the safety of all systems, including the electric power system (EPS), which is responsible for generating power from solar cells and then storing it in a battery to be distributed to satellite systems,” she explained.

Dr Jassar pointed out the safety of the Attitude Determination And Control System (ADCS), which is responsible for ensuring the stability and guidance of the satellite during the orbit phase, has been successfully verified, and that work is ongoing daily by the technical team to verify the safety of all other systems in order to ensure they are working well.

“Soon, after completing all tests of the Kuwait Sat-1 satellite systems, the camera will be operated to take images of Kuwait, which will be sent to the ground station at the College of Science at Kuwait University to be used for environmental and other applications by researchers and students,” she added.

A powerful, 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked wide swaths of Turkey and neighboring Syria on Monday, killing more than 2,500 people and injuring thousands more as it toppled hundreds of buildings and trapped residents under mounds of rubble or pancaked floors. Authorities feared the death toll would rise further as rescuers searched through tangles of metal and concrete for survivors in a region beset by more than a decade of Syria’s civil war and a refugee crisis.

Civil defense workers and residents search through the rubble of collapsed buildings in the town of Harem near the Turkish border, Idlib province, Syria, Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. (AP)

In Kuwait, His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable of condolences Monday to the President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan, expressing sorrow over the recent earthquake that caused causalities and property damages. In the cable, His Highness the Amir expressed condolences to the Turkish President and the victims’ families, wishing speedy recovery for those injured.

Upon orders by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, a decree was issued on Monday to dispatch aid and medical equipment through airplanes to be sent to Turkiye in response to the devastating earthquake that hit the southern part of the country. As part of the helping efforts, teams from the foreign ministry, Fire Department, Kuwait Red Crescent, health ministry, and Kuwait army will participate in this regard.

His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah also sent a cable of condolences Monday to President Erdogan, expressing sorrow over the recent earthquake that caused causalities and property damages. In the cable, His Highness the Crown Prince expressed condolences to the Turkish President and the victims’ families, wishing speedy recovery for those injured. Parliament Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun sent a cable of condolences Monday to the President of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Mustafa Sentop, expressing deep sorrow over the recent earthquake south of the country that caused causalities and property damages.

In his cable, Al-Saadoun also expressed condolences to the victims’ families, wishing speedy recovery for those injured. A cable of condolences was also sent by His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Nawaf Al- Ahmad Al-Sabah to the President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Sabah expressed on Monday, on behalf of the country, concern for the recent earthquakes that hit Syria and Southern Turkey as thousands of casualties have been affected and the aftershock reverberations of the impact settle.

In a press release, Sheikh Salem presented Kuwait’s grieve concerns towards the families affected and hoped a quick recovery as further rescue operations are underway to uncover some of the missing casualties. Under these circumstances, a decree was issued by the nation’s political leadership to operate a designated airplane to help extract Kuwaiti nationals currently located in those areas while the Foreign Ministry is keeping a close eye on the situation through its offices in Ankara and Istanbul. Meanwhile, the Kuwait Embassy in Turkiye urged Kuwaitis in the Turkish southern governorates to take caution and adhere to the instructions issued by the official authorities, following the earthquake that struck the Kahramatmaras governorate earlier today. The Embassy also went on encouraging the Kuwaiti citizens to contact the embassy or with the Consulate General in Istanbul when necessary on the following numbers: 00905331648479, 00905306902097.

Residents jolted out of sleep by the pre-dawn quake rushed outside in the rain and snow to escape falling debris, while those who were trapped cried for help. Major aftershocks, including one nearly as strong as the initial quake, continued to rattle the region. “I don’t have the strength anymore,” one survivor could be heard calling out from beneath the rubble in the Turkish city of Adana, as rescue workers tried to reach him, said a resident, journalism student Muhammet Fatih Yavuz. He said three buildings near his home were toppled. The quake, which was centered on Turkey’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, sent residents of Damascus rushing into the street and was felt as far away as Cairo and Beirut.

“Because the debris removal efforts are continuing in many buildings in the earthquake zone, we do not know how high the number of dead and injured will rise,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. The quake piled more misery on a region that has seen tremendous suffering over the past decade. On the Syrian side, the area affected is divided between government-held territory and the country’s last opposition- held enclave, which is surrounded by Russianbacked government forces. Turkey, meanwhile, is home to millions of refugees from the civil war.

The suffocating traffic congestion returned to various parts of the country on Sunday; as more than 550,000 students thronged to their schools at the beginning of the second semester of the current academic year, reports Al- Anba daily.

About 500,000 of these students are in the general education stages; while more than 42,000 are enrolled at Kuwait University and other academic institutions.

A large number of road users expressed disappointment over the traffic jam, as they were late for their appointments.

Once again, this raises the question about the possibility of implementing fl exible school hours; such that classes in the general education stages do not start at the same time.

There are many excuses for the delay caused by the Public Authority for Civil Information in issuing civil cards to expatriates and limiting them to citizens and children under the age of 5, despite the authority collecting five dinars to issue the cards.

Kuwait wants to fully rely on the digital civil card (My Identity) as part of its digital transformation, but some parties inside and outside Kuwait do not recognize it and do not accept it for official transactions.

The use of "My ID" for travel and most government transactions has resulted in complaints from residents about specific cases, most notably:

- Some foreign embassies require the original civil ID when submitting application for the visa, after they used to rely on the residence sticker in the passport, which has been cancelled.

- Some private schools require copies of the civil ID cards of the father, mother and the child to accept the student, or when submitting his academic certificate.

- The resident who obtains residence for the first time is asked for the serial number on the card, so that he can download “My Identity” on his mobile phone, and this number is not issued until the card is issued for the first time, which makes his matter suspended, so he does not carry a smart or ordinary civil card.

- During the security campaigns, especially in the places where the expatriates are, the policemen ask for the civil card to prove the legal status, but sometimes the expatriate worker may not have a smart phone or his phone has a problem or its screen is not clear, which leads to obstruction in checking his papers.

- Some government agencies outside Kuwait do not consider my ID and require the resident to show the original civil card in order to prove that he is a resident of Kuwait, especially since there is no residence sticker on his passport.

Many expatriates hope that measures will be taken to speed up card issuance and return to the pre-Corona conditions when cards were issued within a few days of requesting them.

Tamil Nadu has once again produced the highest number of PhD holders in the country, according to the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) report for 2020-21, which was released by the Union Human Resources Development Ministry recently. The state has produced 3,206 PhD doctorates in the academic year 2020-21, of which 1,493 are female and 1,713 are male research scholars.

Uttar Pradesh comes second in the list by awarding 2,217 PhD degrees while Karnataka and Delhi stand in the third and fourth position by producing 2,125 and 2,055 PhD graduates respectively. Though TN tops the list this year too, the number of PhD graduates has been coming down in the state over the years, and the trend is the same across the country. As per AISHE report 2019-2020, Tamil Nadu produced 5,324 PhD students, out of which 2,768 were female and 2,556 were male students and had topped the category. In 2018-19, the state had produced 5,844 PhD holders.

This comes in the backdrop of 2.1% drop in Tamil Nadu’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education. The 2020-21 report states that the GER stands at 46.9%, while in 2019-20 it was 49%. However, Tamil Nadu continues to have the highest GER in the country, even as the national GER increased to 27.3%  in 2020-21, from 25.6%.

Academicians have attributed the trend of drop in PhD graduates mainly to lack of adequate job opportunities and focus by institutes to produce quality PhD work over quantity. “After completing PhD, most of the students want to pursue academic jobs but there are hardly enough opportunities. Teaching posts are lying vacant in large numbers in universities, but recruitment is never done timely and properly. Upset over the scenario, not many are opting for PhD degrees,” said Avinashilingam University chancellor SP Thyagarajan.  

The vice-chancellor of a state university said in the last two-three years state universities have brought in some stringent rules like publication in reputed journals and strengthening the examination panel to ensure that good quality PhD work is produced from the institution and this could also be a reason for the drop in figures. “Universities are focusing on producing quality work over quantity. Moreover, there has been a nationwide decline in the PhD awardees in 2020-21,” said the vice-chancellor.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate to the nation the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) new greenfield helicopter factory at Bidarehallakaval at Nittur near Tumakuru in Karnataka at 3.30 pm on Monday. He had laid the foundation stone for the project in 2016. But there will be no fly-past at the event as certain parameters are yet to be met, sources said.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, it is yet another step towards Atma Nirbharta in the defence sector which will enhance capacity and ecosystem to build helicopters at Asia’s largest helicopter manufacturing facility. Initially, the unit will manufacture the Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), which is an indigenously designed and developed 3-tonne class, single-engine, multipurpose utility helicopter with unique features of high manoeu-vrability. 

The factory, spread across 615 acres, will be expanded to manufacture other choppers, like the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) and Indian Multirole Helicopter (IMRH). The facility will also be used for repair and overhaul of LCH, LUH, Civil ALH and IMRH in the future.

The factory has the potential to export Civil LUHs in years to come. The new facility can meet the country’s entire requirement of helicopters, and will attain the distinction of enabling self-reliance in helicopter design, development and manufacture in the country. The factory will have a manufacturing setup of Industry 4.0 standards.

Over the next 20 years, HAL is planning to produce more than 1,000 helicopters in 3-15 tonne class here, generating employment for around 6,000 people. On the occasion, Modi will lay the foundation stone for the Tumakuru Industrial Township under the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme, spread across 8,484 acres to be implemented in three phases as part of the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor.

The foundation stones will also be laid for two Jal Jeevan Mission projects at Tiptur and Chikkanayakanahalli as part of Multi-Village Drinking Water Supply Project, to be built at a cost of Rs 430 crore and Rs 115 crore, respectively.

According to Al-Qabas daily, the head of the Kuwait Society for Organ Transplant, Dr. Mustafa Al-Moussawi, said urgent action is needed to prevent continued organ trade in Kuwait without deterrents. He pointed out that a kidney is sold for approximately 20 thousand dinars, outside the framework of the law.

He said, in a statement to the daily, that widespread advertisements requesting organ donation, especially kidney donation, are illegal, and that authorities must take swift action to prevent such ads with heavy punishments and deter those behind them.

According to Dr Al-Moussawi, some people request kidney donations through advertisements on social media, and banners are being placed along roads and streets. It is an explicit violation of the law, and the necessary measures must be taken to ban it. Earlier, we had submitted proposals to the Ministry of Health to prevent organ sale, and we hope that the current administration will implement these proposals,” said Al-Moussawi. According to him, Kuwait has a relatively small number of donors after death, compared to European and North American countries, but is better than Arab countries in terms of organ donation after death.

According to Al-Moussawi, there is a neutral committee that investigates cases of organ donation within the Jahra Hospital. Upon detecting an agreement to sell, committee members immediately take legal action. Organ trade exists in all countries of the world, and Kuwait must take strict measures to prevent it, as it is inhumane and illegal, he said, stressing that it is against the law and contrary to human values.

He stressed on the keenness to provide health and social care for patients and their organ donors, and to encourage research and scientific studies that contribute to improving, developing ways to transfer organs. He added, “We seek to reach 30,000 people who recommend donating their organs after their death.” He said Kuwait is the first country in the Arab world and the second in the Middle East, after Iran, in terms of the number of organ donors after death, compared to the population. About 50 kidney transplants were performed from 32 deceased donors last year, while 49 similar operations were performed from living donors. "We hope that most transplants in the future will be from dead donors," he said.

The fire that destroyed an Arab house in the Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh area was controlled by firefighting teams without causing any casualties.

The Public Relations Department of the General Fire Force stated after “a report was received from the Central Operations Department at dawn today, stating that a fire broke out in an Arab house consisting of two floors in the Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh area,” that firemen from the Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh and Al-Ardiya centers rushed to the scene of the accident and put out the fire.

The fire started in the attached prefabricated house on the ground floor.

Kuwait’s streets were congested again with the return of half a million students back to school for the second semester of the 2022-2023 academic year. The hashtag ‘flexible_fingerprint_attendance’ trended on Twitter, where citizens complained about traffic jams in various areas. To fix the traffic crisis, many solutions have been suggested, including “flexible fingerprint attendance”, which allows employees to have flexible working hours, ensuring their entry and exit from work smoothly, without failing to perform the job tasks assigned to them.

Secretary of the Transparency Society Asrar Hayat tweeted: “With every start of the school year, we face the same congested streets and are unable to find solutions to traffic jams. We were also unable to significantly develop the streets and the public transport system, and still have not applied the flexible fingerprint attendance.”

Attorney Mohamed Bou Abbas suggested having morning and evening shifts for all ministries. “Every employee should have a work period that must be decided by the department’s head. Each employee can choose any time, but can only change this timing after two years. The working hours for the morning shift must be from 9 am to 1 pm, and the evening shift from 3 pm to 8 pm,” he said.

Alia Al-Ali tweeted the flexible work system will contribute to raising the level of employee happiness, improving the work environment, increasing employee productivity, reducing the need for overtime and reducing delays and permissions.

Shaikha Al-Musallam said applying flexible fingerprint attendance and raising salaries will change the productivity of employees and everyone will benefit. “Also, parents will be able to spend more time with their children, while the problem of over-employment will be solved because many parents hire drivers for their children. But when they are free, they will drop them off to school. In addition, citizens will respect the government more,” she said.

Muhammad Al-Nama is against the flexible fingerprint attendance, explaining this system will make employees lazy and less productive. For Hamad Al-Saadoun, the system will be a huge help, especially since many employees fail in the annual evolution by more than 30 percent because they are late, noting that people are denied privileges because of this.

In October, the Civil Service Commission had put forward many options to resolve traffic congestions, saying these options are still subject to study and evaluation, including studying the possibility of giving governmental ministries the green light to apply the flexible fingerprint attendance for their employees.

Kuwait comes first in the Arab region and second in the Middle East in terms of the number of organ donors after death, compared to the population, a health official said. Kuwait witnessed, last year, around 50 kidney transplants, sourced from 50 deceased individuals, and 49 operations, sourced from live patients, Dr Mustafa Al-Musawi, Ministry of Health Organ Provision Unit Director and Kuwait Transplant Society chief said.

His comments came during a Kuwait Transplant Society event held to honor these donors, and to launch a similar campaign urging further organ donations. The campaign seeks to raise the number of donors from 17,000, currently, to 30,000. Around 100 kidney transplants are carried out annually, being the most common, said Dr Al-Musawi.

However, heart transplants have just started to enter the fray as the country remains lagging in the transplantation of other organs in comparison to neighboring Gulf Arab countries. – KUNA

'Whatsapp' has begun testing a feature that has been used in social networks for a long time.

WabetaInfo, which follows the news of "WhatsApp" first, reported that the application launched the message feature installed in the "beta" trial version.

In the new service, users can find important messages in chats, and if they install a message in a chat with another user, or in a group, and the other user is using an old version of the application, he will not be able to see the pinned message, but instead will see a message telling him "someone has installed a message here." Please update WhatsApp.

It is difficult to track messages in large groups, especially those with many subscribers, until now.

A pinned message can be, for instance, an important alert to group members, which the administrators want to remain for a long time, so that it does not disappear under a mountain of accumulated messages from other users. In the next update of the application, the new service will be implemented.

There has been a pinned message service in the competing instant communication application "Telegram" for quite some time, and it also forms an important part of social networking sites such as "Facebook" and "Twitter".

As part of the Government Communication Center’s initiative to reduce manipulation and forgery in expatriate entry features, as well as the inclusion of the worker’s smart identity in the My Identity application, the Government Communication Center announced the launch of the “Kuwait Visa” application soon.

The Kuwaiti family is protected, the residency trade is combated, and manipulative and fraudulent expat entry visas are curtailed.

This decision aims to limit the entry of those with criminal records or infectious diseases. According to the Government Communication Center, the decision is the result of a meeting of the Committee on "Demographics and Labor Market Development" headed by Sheikh Talal Khaled Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior, and Acting Defense Minister.

The 16-year-long career of Laxman (name changed), a native of Tamil Nadu, working as a safety engineer in Kuwait came to an end as he failed to obtain a no-objection certificate from the Kuwait society of engineers (KSE), which is mandatory for an expat to work as an engineer in the country. The reason: his engineering college has not been accredited by the National board of Accreditation (NBA) in India.

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In addition to Laxman, many Indian engineers working in Kuwait have started losing their jobs in the Gulf country. This is because they failed to produce an NBA certificate to KSE to renew their resident permit.

KSE and the Public authority of manpower (PAM) in Kuwait have come up with a rule that NOCs are issued to expat engineers only if their college and courses are NBA accredited. Though NBA was implemented in India two decades ago, not many colleges/courses in India are accredited by the NBA to date. All colleges are approved by AICTE.

Kuwait has close to 12,000 registered engineers from India, and some of them are in key positions. The highest number of engineers in Kuwait are Indian expats.
"I graduated in 1995, and NBA accreditation started in India after many years. In such a scenario, how can I provide an NBA-approved course certificate? However, I earned my master's degree from an NBA-accredited institution, which is not taken into account. Since I failed to obtain a NOC, which is mandatory, I lost my job in Kuwait and was jobless for four months. However, I was fortunate that my company signed a project in Saudi Arabia. I was asked to relocate there by the end of December," Laxman explained his ordeal.

Not every engineering expat from India is as lucky as Laxman. Another expat from Tamil Nadu, who landed in Kuwait in 2018 and worked as a safety engineer, is counting his days in Kuwait. "I received NOCs between 2018 and 2021, but I was denied in 2022," he explained.
Other expats who previously worked as engineers have been demoted to lower posts since they did not furnish NOCs.

The Indian engineers' forum (IEF) and other engineers' forums in Kuwait have discussed the issue with the Kuwaiti and Indian governments. "Of the 12,000 engineers registered at the Embassy of India, Kuwait, it is learnt that 1,200 engineers have lost their jobs in the last two months," said another engineering forum member.
Many more may lose jobs, says IEF, Kuwait

Indian Engineers Forum, Kuwait said if KSE sticks to the updated rule, it will affect almost all engineers. All engineers' forums in Kuwait have contacted the Government of India through the embassy in Kuwait. NBA began independent operations in 2012, according to the Indian government.

The Civil Service Commission has lifted the ban on non-Kuwaitis filling 625 vacancies in the Ministry of Health. In its letter addressed to the Ministry of Health, the CSC stated that the jobs for which the ban was lifted is for 77 doctors, 485 nursing staff, 52 technicians and 11 pharmacists.

As reported by Al-Anba daily, the CSC requested that the Ministry of Health not fill these positions before completing the legal period for which salaries were paid to their outgoing staff.

 A Kuwaiti flag-hoisting ceremony took place at Bayan Palace on Wednesday under the patronage of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, in presence of his representative, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Abdulaziz Al-Saadoun, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al- Ahmad Al-Sabah and senior state officials attended the event. The motorcade of His Highness the Amir’s Representative arrived at the venue, given a 21-gun salute and warm welcome by the personnel of the Army, Police and National Guard.

His Highness the Amir’s representative then hoisted the flag and the National Anthem was played. Meanwhile, His Highness the Amir received a cable of congratulation from His Highness the Crown Prince on the flaghoisting ceremony. The ceremony, held at Bayan Palace on Wednesday under the motto of “dignity and pride,” commenced the celebrations marking the 62nd National Day and the 32nd Liberation Day. In his cable, His Highness the Crown Prince said, “Your Highness Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, “I’ve had the honor to attend the flaghoisting ceremony at Bayan Palace under your patronage to kick off the celebrations of the 62nd National Day and the 32nd Liberation Day.

“It’s my pleasure to express sincere congratulations to Your Highness and express the best wishes for the sons of our dear homeland and the residents living on its land. “We recall, in dignity and pride, the selfless sacrifices offered by our dauntless martyrs for the sake of the dear homeland. We pray for Almighty Allah to bestow His mercy upon their souls and lodge them in Paradise.”

His Highness the Crown Prince wished His Highness the Amir everlasting wellbeing, and the homeland more prosperity and progress under the wise leadership of His Highness the Amir. On his part, His Highness the Amir sent a reply cable to His Highness the Crown Prince to thank him for his sincere sentiments on his national occasion. Recalling the sacrifices of martyrs, he said they will remain in the memory of the homeland and prayed for Almighty Allah to have mercy on their souls. His Highness the Amir expressed his best wishes for the homeland. (KUNA)

While health insurance revenues for expatriates recorded the second highest collection rate in the history of the Ministry during the previous fiscal year, health sources said the rate of collection of money due to the Ministry of Health from some government agencies, related to health insurance fees for expatriate workers, continued to be low or nonexistent, reports Al-Rai daily. The sources pointed out that the balance of the account of the amounts due to the Ministry for the value of health insurance fees with government agencies has ballooned to more than 15 million dinars during the previous fiscal year, without effective follow-up from the Ministry to urge those authorities to pay.

In contrast to the low collection of the insurance value from government agencies, the health insurance revenues collected from expatriates during the previous fiscal year were the second highest revenues in the history of the ministry at a value of 1.2 million dinars, after recording more than 107 million dinars in the fiscal year 2019-2020.

The figures showed that the Ministry of Health collected about 490.6 million dinars for health insurance services during the past 5 years. On the other hand, the Director of the Nursing Services Department at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health, Dr. Iman Al-Awadi, affirmed the Ministry’s keenness to exchange experiences with the Jordanian side, due to its distinguished nursing competencies of a good and varied level that deserve praise, appreciation and contracting with it. This came in a statement made by Al-Awadi, after her meeting with Kuwaiti Ambassador Aziz Al-Daihani, where he headed a health committee visiting Jordan, to select about 120 male and female nurses to work in the Ministry of Health.

Al-Awadi explained that those with expertise who will be selected in filling part of the deficit in the nursing cadre in Kuwait, their experience and competencies are being verified, through personal interviews and written exams for applicants, to fill these positions. She pointed out that the interviews that the committee conducts with qualified persons include areas required by the Kuwaiti health sector, including specialization in dialysis, operations, intensive care, internal diseases and cancer. For his part, Ambassador Al-Daihani said that the Ministry of Health is keen to benefit from Arab expertise and cadres. He indicated that the number of Jordanians in Kuwait is estimated at 62,000 Jordanians

One of the most common methods used by hackers to gain financial information is 'Congratulations, you have won a prize'. But since many people in Kuwait are by now aware of such fraudulent pop-ups on their computers and mobile phones, hackers have of late begun to improvise and find new ways to attract the attention of victims and steal their confidential information.

It is easy for those with average financial literacy to provide their financial and other confidential information to hackers through several methods of financial fraud. A new scam employed by hackers to target Kuwait is through fake emails and messages that are sent in the name of the Ministry of Communication, or other government authorities, to pry information from victims.

Unlike the lure of a prize, which usually attracts a small number of people, and even fewer people fall for the scam, an official message or email from a ministry of communication or interior usually attracts a much broader response. According to a recent fake email from the Ministry of Communications, recipients are asked to transfer a nominal fee for delivery or service. However, once your bank information is entered, everything in your account is wiped clean.

A number of Kuwaiti bank accounts have been reported to have been accessed by this type of fraud in recent weeks. Hackers have developed sophisticated tools to swiftly extract all the money from the accounts of their victims. Since the perpetrators of such hacks are usually in countries outside Kuwait, such as African and Asian nations, it becomes difficult to trace these hackers and bring them to justice.

The Kuwaiti population places several orders from abroad today, making it easy to fall into the hackers' trap especially when the fee is low. Added to that, in order to pay this nominal fee the victim would provide their bank details. This is when the hacker achieves control of the victim’s bank accounts, and in seconds performs withdrawals of large amounts. Besides targeting the funds of individuals, these hackers also attack and seize control of the databases of private corporations and public sector entities, and then demand that a ransom be paid for the return of the database and its control to the concerned company or government entity.

In Kuwait, another common scam is the offer of discounted services from beauty and health parlors that do not exist. They lure the consumer with a direct call and use the name of a well-known entity. When the victim agrees to an appointment or offer, the fraudster sends them a link with a small reservation fee. Unfortunately, once the payment process is completed, not only is the agreed amount deducted but several large transactions will follow even before the victim gets a chance to suspend the account.

Asked about the possibility of recovering the stolen amounts, bank officials explained that there are two types of bank cards - the 'KNET' card, a regular debit card that allows direct withdrawals. This means that the debit from a person’s account is immediate, which limits the ability of banks to intervene and stop the payment quickly.

Visa and Mastercard are two types of credit card available in Kuwait. A customer who owns the credit card and uses it to buy something, a merchant selling a product or service, a bank that holds the buyer's account, and an intermediary bank that is usually located outside Kuwait are involved in withdrawing from these credit cards.

As the payment process involves four parties, it takes about a week to complete, allowing the buyer to stop the completion of the transaction by asking the banks involved not to transfer the amounts.

Kuwaiti banks estimate that credit card transactions have an 80 percent chance of being recovered, whereas KNET debit card transactions have only a 10% chance. If the withdrawals were made through either Visa or MasterCard, it could take between a week and 45 days for the funds to be returned to the buyer's account. While banks in Kuwait are striving to strengthen their defenses against hacking, it is also worth noting that hackers are constantly evolving their offensive hacking tactics.

To prevent financial fraud and keep accounts safe from hackers and other illegal actors, keep in mind that bank account information should be kept confidential and never shared with strangers through emails or social media messages. It must not be given to any party, even if the sender of an online message claims to be a ministry or even your own bank. The request for personal data from bank accounts, even if required, is never done by telephone, e-mail or messages.

The OTP (one-time password) sent by your bank must never be shared with anyone, even if you fall prey and enter your personal account data.

Disclosing the OTP to another individual would be the equivalent of handing your house key to a thief, who will then have complete control over taking anything in your house at that point in time. The OTP is the key that allows hackers to easily steal from a victim’s account, and hence it must never be shared with any other person, no matter how persuasive or motivating the message asking for the OTP might be.

The Central Bank of Kuwait along with local banks and many government agencies have been frequently sending out messages through online and offline media to raise the level of public awareness about hacking and other online fraudulent activities.

While these proactive steps have helped tackle and reduce fraud operations to a large extent in Kuwait, we need to remember that it is also our individual responsibility to take the necessary precautions to prevent falling victim to such scams.

Starting on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health will launch a vaccination campaign through 17 primary health care centers, as well as hold a training session on Tuesday for the health workers who will administer the vaccine. According to Al Rai newspaper, the Public Health Department addressed a letter to the director of the Primary Health Care Department under the title “Training on Giving the Moderna Bivalent Covid 19 Vaccine.”

It included the specific centers that will provide the service, namely Sheikha Fotouh Salman Al-Sabah Health Centers in Shamiya, Jassim Al-Wazzan Health Center in Mansouriyah, Jaber Al-Ahmad Health Center 1 in the Capital Health District, while in the Hawally Health District, it included Salwa Specialized Health Centers, Mahmoud Haji Haider Health Center, and Rumaithiya Specialist Center, as well as the allocation of Al-Omariya centers, Abdullah Al-Mubarak and Al-Andalus in the Farwaniya area, Fintas and Fahaheel Specialized Health Centers in the Ahmadi area, and Al-Adan Specialized Center in Mubarak Al-Kabeer area.

Meanwhile, Al Naeem, Al Oyoun, and Saad Al Abdullah Health Center - Block 10 in Jahra Area and Abdulrahman Al Zaid Health Center in West Mishref have been designated as the vaccination center for booster doses for ages 12 to under 18, as well as the first and second doses for ages 5 and above.

A temporary license was granted to a citizen who wishes to train one of his close relatives by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmed Al-Nawaf.

Al-Rai daily reports that the decision stipulated that anyone applying for a "temporary" driving license permit must hold a valid private driving license issued for at least five years.