The Ministry of Health (MoH) intends to make the private sector involved in the medical examination of expatriate workers as a long-term solution to overcrowding in the existing medical examination centers, reports Al-Rai daily quoting sources from the health sector.

Chances of scattered rain accompanied by thunderstorms in some areas and reduced horizontal visibility expected starting from Tuesday due to dust, reports Al-Rai daily. The Kuwait Meteorological Department announced that Al-Wafra station recorded 5 mm of rain in the early hours of Sunday and the weather forecast observer at the Meteorological Department, Abdulaziz Al-Qarawi, said that the country was affected by a weak extension of Sudan’s seasonal depression, coinciding with the presence of a depression in the upper atmosphere, which led to the proliferation of low and medium clouds interspersed w

However, the chances of rain will have receded but on Tuesday, rainfall is expected in varying quantities and intensity between light and medium, humid weather and the possibility of fog forming over some areas of the country. The observer at the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation, Meteorology Department Dhirar Al-Ali told Kuwait News Agency that from Tuesday until the end of the week, there are chances of scattered rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms in some areas, and dust laden winds that may lead to a decrease in horizontal visibility. Al-Ali stated that the maximum temperatures will range between 28 and 30 degrees Celsius; the weather will be moderate to hot during the day and moderate to cold during the night, especially in the open areas, and the lowest temperatures are expected to range between 16 and 20 degrees Celsius.

 The list of the employees in the oil sector who have applied to sell their leave days includes both Kuwaiti citizens and expatriates, reports Al-Rai daily quoting informed sources. They said, “The number of workers in the oil sector who benefit from the sale of leave days ranges between 13,000 and 14,000. They include permanent workers – Kuwaitis and expatriates – who meet the conditions stipulated in the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Board decision No. 22/2022 dated May 30, 2022.

Any amendment to this decision for depriving expatriates will require a new decision from the KPC Board of Directors. Depriving expatriates may raise legal controversy, given that rights and legal positions were created and preserved through the council’s first decision No. 22/2022. The budget of the oil sector is independent, and the budget for the leave days of oil workers’ is included in the cumulative end-of-service benefits of these workers, which are included in the leave. The total value of the sale of vacations ranges between KD 135 million and 140 million. The sector is ready for disbursement and is awaiting a green light from the government.

A lunar eclipse will occur on November 8. “The eclipse will be visible from all places in India at the time of the moon rise. However, the beginning of the partial and total phases of the eclipse will not be visible from any places of India as the phenomena will be in progress before the moonrise. Ending of both the total and the partial phases will be visible from the eastern parts of the country. Only the ending of the partial phase will be visible from the rest of the country,” the Ministry of Earth Science said.

The eclipse will begin at 2.39 p.m. and the total eclipse will start at 3.46 p.m.

According to the Ministry, the ending time of totality is 5.12 p.m. and the ending time of partial phase is 6.19 p.m.

“A fortnight after the partial solar eclipse of October 25, there will be a lunar eclipse on November 8. This eclipse is total but a large part of India will witness the eclipse as partial only. The North-Eastern parts of India will witness the totality phase also,” said R.C. Kapoor, former professor with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

The next lunar eclipse which will be visible from India will be on October 28, 2023.

Lunar eclipses occur on a full moon day when the Earth comes in between the Sun and the Moon and when all the three objects are aligned. A total lunar eclipse will occur when the whole Moon comes under the umbral shadow of the Earth and the partial lunar eclipse occurs only when a part of the Moon comes under shadow of the Earth,” the Ministry said.

Accenture’s India unit has fired employees found to have used fake documents and experience letters to obtain jobs at the firm. It is unclear how many employees were impacted.

According to Twitter conversations, the firm may have let go of ‘thousands’ of employees on this count.

To a query from  The Hindu, Accenture India said in a statement: “We have discovered an effort to use documentation and experience letters from fraudulent companies to obtain offers of employment from Accenture in India... We have exited people who we confirmed took advantage of this scheme. We have taken action to ensure that there will be no impact on our ability to serve our clients.”

Accenture further said it operated under a ‘strict Code of Business Ethics and mainted zero tolerance for any non-adherence’. “We are continuing to hire, and honour existing job offers for qualified candidates,” it added.

The pandemic brought in an avalanche of opportunities for tech firms and they were forced to rapidly onboard thousands of people to be deployed on projects, as per sources in the recruitment industry.

A surge in orders during the pandemic led to hurried recruitment for the industry, said B.S. Murthy, CEO, Leadership Capital.

“Most HROs are busy working on credential checks of... COVID recruits now,” he added.

According to an Arab daily, the Ministry of Electricity and Water will receive applications on 2 December for the supply of electric vehicle chargers, as well as the installation of chargers by individuals and entities.

After submitting a license request through the ministry's website, it was reported that it would be approved electronically, and that the ministry would check if the request adhered to the approved standard specifications and controls for importation and installation. Moreover, requests in compliance with the standards will be approved immediately for the suppliers to import the chargers, but suppliers will have to submit their requests to the ministry regarding customer specifications, where the suitability of the chargers for home use will be discussed before granting permission for installation and licensing.

Additionally, the report mentions that installing any charger in homes without a license is a violation that will result in a judicial seizure for the violating homeowner or company.

Kuwait Meteorological Department observer Dirar Al-Ali said scattered rains are expected this week.

On Sunday afternoon, rain will continue to be a possibility and gradually decrease by evening. Until Monday, it will continue to be cloudy.

On Tuesday, until the end of the week, the country may see scattered rain with thunderstorms in some areas, along with active winds that may reduce horizontal visibility.

He said temperatures range from 28 to 30 degrees Celsius.

Kuwait Meteorological Department's Wafra station recorded 5mm of rain on Sunday morning.

The Kuwait Competition Protection Agency has referred 14 cooperative societies to the disciplinary board for the unjustified increase in the price of eggs, reports Al-Rai daily. The agency revealed that these cooperatives obstructed competition between local companies supplying eggs, especially the small and medium companies; thereby, decreasing the supply and increasing prices.

Meanwhile, sources told the daily that the agency conducted an investigation based on the complaints submitted by egg supply and poultry breeding companies in accordance with the Competition Protection Law. Sources revealed that the way some cooperative societies deal with local egg supply companies contributed to the increase in the prices of this commodity by about 25 percent.

In its report, the agency stated thei 14 cooperatives are not the reason for the rise in egg prices per se, but their violation of the fair competition principle that harmed other suppliers. It is worth mentioning that the current price of eggs in some cooperatives ranges from KD1.1 to KD1.350 per tray depending on the size.

Minister of Information and Culture and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Abdul Rahman Al-Mutairi has issued 3 decisions regarding the regulation of commercial advertisements in the ministry’s publications and TV and radio advertisements, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The most prominent of what is stated in the decisions is that the price of advertising in the Ministry of Information publications, the Kuwait Magazine and its publications about national products and industries and small projects by will get a discount of 50%, and Gulf products and industries 25% of the applicable prices.

The decision exempted awareness advertisements for ministries, public authorities and institutions, public benefit associations and civil society organizations from the commercial advertisement fees specified under this resolution if the following conditions are met — the advertisement does not include any commercial purposes or references to sponsors; the advertisement does not aim to achieve any material profit; the advertisement shall be submitted by the concerned authority directly to the competent department without intermediaries, companies or advertising agencies.

Technical team recommended the government to increase electricity and water tariffs with the start of the new financial year in April next year, reports Kuwait Times.

“Since expats are considered the largest consumers, being twice the population of Kuwaiti nationals, they should not pay 10 times less for utilities,” quoting sources, local daily Kuwait Times reported.

The recommendation aims to increase tariffs by 50-100 percent, while prices for citizens will remain the same for their first house.

The latest statistics released by the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) revealed that Asians outnumbered Kuwaitis by the middle of this year – 1,670,013 compared to 1,502,138 citizens, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

Arabs ranked third with 1,217,014; North Americans ranked fourth with 755, followed by Europeans in fifth place with 617, non-Arab Africans ranked sixth with 104, Australians ranked seventh with 43, and South Americans in the last place with 40.

According to an official source in the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM), PAM has started working on listing the top professions in which expatriate workers are recruited with the aim of determining a smart mechanism to test them in their countries in partnership with the Kuwaiti embassies abroad, reports Al-Qabas daily. The source explained that, “This step aims to implement a recruitment mechanism based on testing new expatriate workers.

The tests will be conducted in the countries that send their workers. The tests will be for the targeted professions, and will be held in two parts – practical and theoretical. The practical section will be conducted in Kuwait and the theoretical in the countries of recruitment”.

The source revealed that the first phase will target about 20 professions. In addition, the Kuwait Society of Engineers has prepared a center for professional tests to be conducted on 71 different professions in support of workers in the engineering sector.

 The organizers of the Winter Wonderland entertainment project announced it will receive applications from retail stores, restaurants and cafes to set up business at the entertainment project, which is expected to open doors next December, reports Al-Qabas daily. The official account of the project on Instagram stated that applications are not limited to owners of small and medium enterprises. 

The account clarified that to register, it is not required that the applicant be funded by the National Fund to Support Small and Medium Enterprises, as the projects are divided into two sections — the first is the main opportunities section, and the other is the small and medium projects opportunities section. According to the account information, registration in the main opportunities does not require the applicant to be registered in the national registry of the National Fund to Support Small and Medium Enterprises, unlike registration in the Small and Medium Enterprises Opportunities Department, which requires that the applicant be registered in the national registry.

The Ministry of Health seeks to invest in the reduced pressure on the health system following the improvement of general indicators and the decline in cases infections with the Corona virus for some time in general, in specialized centers and public hospitals, the elimination of some phenomena and observations, reports Al-Qabas daily. The Ministry of Health is preparing to implement during the next phase the Kuwait Poison Treatment Center, as part of one of the projects.

The poison treatment centers idea was floated about 4 years ago, before the outbreak of the Corona crisis in February 2020, but its implementation faltered relatively as the toxicology field is one of the modern fields in the region, for dealing with cases of chemical and radiological cases, including chemical and biological weapons, as well as cases of poisoning and overdose among adults and children, especially the due to consumption of adulterated and counterfeit alcohol.

Awareness
The awareness of toxicology needs to be highlighted, whether by specialized medical staff or the media, especially since the establishment of a poison center in Kuwait will contribute to counting the number of people infected with chemical, radiological and biological injuries if they occur, in addition to those who consume toxic substances, such as methanol, ethylene glycol, and Isopropyl Alcohol, — a colorless, flammable organic compound with a strong alcoholic odor — and then deal with them and help them. Toxicology, according to health sources, is one of the subspecialties that focus on the diagnosis, management and prevention of poisoning, and other harmful effects of drugs, chemicals and toxicities in the environment, in the field of work and biological risks, indicating that it is a very important specialty, especially with the vicissitudes of modern life and what It is witnessing changes and events, related to the consumption of toxic substances for various purposes. The sources referred to previous medical conferences during which specialists were briefed on the latest designs of several poison centers around the world; with the aim of choosing the best design that suits the health system and the size and type of injuries in the country.

Influx
The sources told the daily an influx of cases with symptoms of alcohol poisoning was monitored in the emergency departments of hospitals from time to time, as a result of the abuse of locally made adulterated liquor containing toxic substances such as methanol and ethylene, two of the substances unfit for human use, due to its impact on human body organs.

The sources stated that methanol is among the most dangerous of these substances, and it is quickly absorbed by the digestive system, and causes great damage to the nervous system, which may lead to gradual and possibly permanent blindness if the abuser is not treated in a timely manner. It also leads to brain damage and circulatory failure as a result of high acid levels in the blood, leading to kidney failure if the patient is not treated within 3 to 4 hours at the latest.

The sources indicated that the Kuwait Poison Center will be based in the Amiri Hospital immediately after its inauguration, and it is likely that it will be opened after completing all the requirements of the center next October at the latest, as it is scheduled to be a “call center” to deal with all related reports — poisoning with toxic substances from various public hospitals, and then giving the medical and nursing staff the necessary directions and recommendations to deal with cases in an emergency manner by specialists.

 The official spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Ahmad Al-Wahida, confirmed that what is being circulated on social media regarding the return to remote learning system is incorrect, reports Al-Qabas daily. Al-Wahida said in a press statement, Tuesday, that the ministry is working to activate its educational platform periodically by conducting workshops for new teachers to train them on how to use the program and to develop teachers’ abilities in general to use the platform and perform periodic maintenance for it, so as to keep it ready in anticipation of any emergency.

He reiterated the ministry’s keenness on the safety and health of its male and female students, with the importance of ensuring a distinguished and continuous educational level in order to implement the desired goals to achieve quality education. The schools in the country had returned to the attendance system for male and female students in the last academic year, amid strict precautionary measures, after an 18-month interruption in which the study continued remotely, and the current academic year 2022-2023 began with the attendance system.

In a new scene in the series of violations of medical clinics, drug stores and fictitious doctors, the inspection teams of the Manpower Authority and the Ministry of Health seized, last Sunday, a huge drug store in one of the cooperative societies in Farwaniya Governorate, reports Al-Qabas daily. Last Saturday, the “tripartite committee”, with the participation of the Ministry of Health, arrested a Lebanese expatriate who impersonated a doctor and claimed that he “cures all pain.” An official source confirmed to Al-Qabas that the campaigns led by the “manpower”, under the direct supervision of its general manager, Dr. Mubarak Al-Azmi, in cooperation with the Drug Inspection Department in the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Commerce, and the participation of the Consumer Protection Association, come with the aim of preserving consumers and the materials used, in addition to controlling the labor market and violations carried out by business owners and marginal workers.

Tripartite
The source stated that the tripartite committee received a report from a citizen that there is a drug store on the roof of one of the cooperative societies in the Farwaniya governorate, not prepared for storage and in violation of all requirements and did not obtain any license, and it was built on the roof of the society as air-conditioned rooms only, with a subcontract with the management of the society and far from Oversight of the Ministry of Affairs.

Member of the Board of Directors of the Kuwait National Petroleum Company’s Workers’ Syndicate, Muhammad Abdullah Al-Kandari, said the union had asked the company more than once to look into the quality of foreign technical workers in the maintenance department and had warned that unskilled workers may cause unimaginable accidents, reports Al-Qabas daily.

In this Jan. 14 photo made available on Kuwait National Petroleum Company’s Twitter account, fire fighters try to extinguish the fire at the Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery in Kuwait. A fire erupted during maintenance work at a major oil refinery in Kuwait on Friday, killing two workers and critically injuring 10 others, KNPC said. (AP)

Al-Kandari went on to say, “Unfortunately, what we had previously warned of has happened – successive explosions and fires, some of which resulted in deaths caused by less-experienced foreign labor, and contractor companies that do not have the expertise and technical manpower needed to manage such a vital sector.”

President of Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies Baddah Al-Dosari held a meeting on Tuesday with companies and institutions that supply commodities, foodstuff and consumer and basic goods to discuss food security and present the obstacles they face in marketing and providing products in the market.

Dosari told Kuwait Times that the suppliers demanded in the meeting that the union should take action to convince the ministry of commerce to allow suppliers to increase prices. “Most of the companies talked about law number 67 issued by the ministry of commerce. The union had previously formed a committee to study proposals to find solutions that benefit both sides – the consumer and suppliers – while several suggestions were made by the committee. But the dissolution of the National Assembly, elections and the formation of the government delayed studying the suggestions that were made at that time by this committee,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dosari pointed out that the demands of the suppliers and companies are clear. “They want to increase prices of products due to global inflation, the Russia-Ukraine crisis, maritime traffic, petroleum derivatives and the oil price rise in global markets,” he said, adding the union is “aware and considering their situation”.

He explained that the union listened to suppliers’ complaints and decided to send them to the ministry of commerce, especially after they warned supplies of some essential products such as high-quality baby milk could be stopped by suppliers abroad due to the fixed prices in the Kuwaiti market. They called on the union for a quick solution with the ministry of commerce.

Delhi’s air quality deteriorated once again to hit the ‘severe’ category Thursday morning with a 24-hour average AQI of 426 at 9 am. The worst air quality in the city was at Jahangirpuri and Anand Vihar where the monitoring stations recorded a 24-hour average AQI of 460, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The prominent pollutant at Jahangirpuri was PM2.5, while PM10 was found to be the most prominent pollutant at Anand Vihar.

Air Quality Index between 401 and 500 is considered to be ‘severe’. According to the CPCB, AQI in the ‘severe’ category “affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases”.

Most other parts of the National Capital Region (NCR) recorded 24-hour average AQI in the ‘very poor’ category at 9 am on Thursday. Noida recorded an AQI of 388 and Gurgaon 391. Delhi’s air quality remained the worst among the parts of the NCR that are being monitored by the CPCB.

Data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) shows that calm conditions with a wind speed of 0 kmph prevailed at 8.30 am Thursday. Calm conditions prevent the dispersion of pollutants that then accumulate in the air.

A glaring example of neglect and inaction is Al-Wattia Beach. In spite of its attractiveness, the waterfront is suffering from deteriorating facilities and waste accumulation

Beach facilities neglected, wooden benches in poor condition, a tourist site and waterfront that many countries wish to transform into a civilized outlet that attracts visitors, reports a local Arabic newspaper.

Here's what the coastal strip in Al-Wattia Beach, opposite the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Center and the Al-Salam Palace Museum, looks like, in a dire state due to neglect and mismanagement.
Al-Wattia Beach is a "mistake", which will discourage many visitors who wish to relax or enjoy the view of the sea because once the visitor enters the beach, he will be surprised to see old and worn out wood pieces. It is believed that these were chairs and huts that once provided shelter, but in reality they are just wrecks, a sign of mismanagement and neglect in maintaining and developing a public facility.

In spite of the fact that the beach has the ingredients and the capabilities to become a tourist facility frequented by people for recreation and sports such as walking, cycling, etc., the daily noticed it lacks organization, attention, and good management.

With its golden sand, the beach's hygiene situation only deteriorated, especially with waste, bags, and empty cans thrown at random, resulting from poor visitor monitoring and behavior. Additionally, the level of maintenance is not satisfactory, so the plan must be rethought in a modern and sophisticated way that includes real activities and management from the Municipality to motivate residents and citizens to visit, respect, and maintain it.

Sources from Kuwait Municipality confirmed that the municipality intends to improve Kuwait's beaches, indicating that it is preparing an integrated plan to restore and improve these beaches. The maintenance of some beaches, especially Al-Wattia Beach, has been neglected for a long time because of the lack of commitment of some companies to improve the quality of their facilities.