Students are heading back to school starting today after a four-month hiatus following the second COVID-19 outbreak in the Sultanate last August.
In a recent statement, the Ministry of Education (MoE) announced that the learning and teaching session for the first phase of the Endemic Stage would begin on January 3 for Years 10-13 students, with physical classes to be held five times a week. Meanwhile, Years 7 – 9 students will commence in-person classes on January 17, in the second phase of the Endemic Stage.
For both stages, only fully vaccinated students will be allowed to attend physical classes. For unvaccinated 12- to 17-year-old students and Year 7 students under 12 years, lessons will continue online or via the home learning pack (HLP).
The Bulletin learnt that teachers had informed parents and guardians on the new school term through circulars and letters. Years 7-9 students will have online classes with links to various platforms to be shared with the students. Attendance will also be recorded.
Year 6 students waiting for the School Assessed Marks (SAM) can commence their Year 7 education tomorrow, after registering at a new secondary school in their catchment area.
The MoE said the provision of antigen rapid test (ART) kits, rooms for ART testing and isolation, as well as a sick bay are in place for the re-opening of the new school term.
A working parent of three told the Bulletin, “It has been a tough few months and difficult period for students as they have had to cope with zero physical classes. Some families faced difficulties in monitoring their children’s online learning, and some students became demotivated or lost interest with distant supervision.
“For children below 12 who are yet to resume face-to-face classes, there is not much we can do as they are unvaccinated. Hopefully, the rolling out of vaccine for this category in the coming months will bring a sigh of relief,” he said.
SYDNEY (AP) – The United States (US) beat Canada and defending champion Russia defeated France at the ATP Cup yesterday, with the the Americans taking a much easier route.
John Isner and Taylor Fritz beat their Canadian singles opponents and then clinched the match in doubles for a 3-0 win.
Isner beat Brayden Schnur 6-1, 6-4 in 66 minutes to give the Americans the early lead.
Schnur was a late replacement for Denis Shapovalov, who withdrew from the opening singles match yesterday due to fatigue. The Canadian is recovering from having contracted COVID-19 at a recent tournament in the Middle East.
Fritz then came from a set down to beat No. 11-ranked Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-4 and clinch the match before the Americans won the doubles 6-4, 6-4 over Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov.
Taylor Fritz. PHOTO: AP
Russia, meanwhile, needed the deciding doubles match to clinch victory over France.
Roman Safiullin beat Arthur Rinderknech of France 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 before number 35-ranked Ugo Humbert evened the match with an upset 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (2) win over number two Daniil Medvedev.
But Medvedev and Safiullin came back to beat two fresh opponents in the doubles – Fabrice Martin and Edouard Roger-Vasselin – 6-4, 6-4.
Both night matches went to the deciding doubles after Britain and Italy took early leads.
Daniel Evans beat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-1, 6-2 while Italy’s Jannik Sinner defeated Australia’s Max Purcell 6-1, 6-3.
But world number 3 Alexander Zverev of Germany beat Cameron Norris 7-6 (2), 6-1 and Australia’s Alex de Minaur defeated Italy’s Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 7-6 (4) to send both matches to a doubles decider.
Isner saved the only break point he faced against his Canadian opponent. “I surprised myself with how well I played out here,” Isner said in his on-court interview. “You always work hard in the offseason, but you never really know what could happen in that first match of the year.”
Isner broke twice in the first set and used his strong serve to capitalize on the advantage. The American hit 10 aces and won 46 per cent of his return points.
“I actually really like this court. It’s not too fast, which I prefer. It gives me a little time to swing out on my shots being so big. That helps me out a lot,” Isner said.
On the opening day on Saturday, Argentina and Spain both cruised to 3-0 victories over Georgia and Chile, respectively. Serbia, despite playing without number one Novak Djokovic, beat Norway 2-1 and Poland took advantage of Stefanos Tsitsipas’ injury-enforced absence in singles to beat Greece 2-1.
The 16 teams are divided into four groups, with the winners of each group advancing to the semifinals on January 7 and 8. The final is scheduled for January 9.
SUPERIOR (AFP) – Three people are missing after a wildfire tore through several Colorado towns, quickly destroying nearly 1,000 homes as part of the latest in a string of United States (US) natural disasters.
“We’re very fortunate that we don’t have a list of 100 missing. But unfortunately we do have three confirmed missing people,” Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle told a press conference.
At least 991 homes are thought to have been destroyed as the blaze raced through the towns of Superior and Louisville on Thursday, just outside the state’s biggest city Denver, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee with little notice.
Shocking aerial footage showed whole streets as little more than piles of smoking ash, destruction that appeared almost total but somehow left a few homes oddly untouched.
Pelle said the search for the missing had been hampered by the destruction and snow.
“The structures where these folks would be are completely destroyed and covered with about 20 centimetres of snow right now.”
Viliam Klein picks through the ashes on his property in Superior, Colorado. PHOTO: AP
Investigators found no credible evidence to back earlier reports that downed power lines may have caused the fire, with Pelle stating that some residents may have been confused by downed telecom lines.
However, investigators have “executed a search warrant in one particular location” as part of an ongoing investigation that Pelle described as “very active” and comprising federal and state partners.
The fire, which was sparked in a tinder-dry landscape, was then fanned by winds gusting at more than 160 kilometres an hour on Thursday.
“This was a disaster in fast motion… over the course of half a day. Many families having minutes to get whatever they could – their pets, their kids – into the car and leave,” Governor Jared Polis said, “just as in the blink of an eye.”
At least 33,000 people in Superior and Louisville were told to flee, many doing so with little more than the clothes on their backs.
Pelle said he spoke to the granddaughter of one of the missing on Saturday morning. “They’re trying to find grandma. And we’re trying to find grandma for her,” he said. “But the conditions right now don’t make that possible to do quickly.”
While snowfall had helped extinguish the fire, it was a “hard thing for crime scenes, and recovery efforts and damage assessments,” Pelle said.
The fire, which occurred just before the New Year’s holiday, follows mid-December tornadoes in the state of Kentucky that left dozens dead and thousands of families in crisis mode ahead of December 25, 2021.
Although fires are a natural part of the climate cycle and help to clear dead brush, their scale and intensity are increasing.
MATARÓ, SPAIN (AFP) – For Neil Harbisson, a self-described “cyborg” artist living near Barcelona, colour is quite literally music to his ears thanks to an antenna he designed to overcome colour blindness.
Well-known in Spain and with an international following that enabled him to meet the likes of Leonardo di Caprio and Tom Cruise, Harbisson is now testing out a new device designed to feel physically the passing of time. Where once the term cyborg conjured up images of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, technology today is expanding human capacities through prostheses and implants.
Born in Northern Ireland with achromatopsia, a rare condition meaning he can only see in greyscale, Harbisson moved to Barcelona as a child and grew up obsessed with colour and things he couldn’t sense.
It was an obsession that saw the now 39-year-old Briton eventually go under the surgeon’s knife to transform his identity and his life.
While at music college in England, he developed the slim metal rod that arches over his head and vibrates according to colours it detects.
At first glance it looks like wearable technology, but it’s as much a part of his body as his nose or his ears, giving him the ability to “hear” the colour his eyes cannot see.
Spanish-born British-Irish cyborg artist and activist Neil Harbisson in Mataro near Barcelona. PHOTO: AFP
“Being a cyborg means technology is part of your identity,” he told AFP.
“It allows me to sense colours from infrared to ultra-violet through vibrations in my head that then become sound, so I can actually hear colour.”
In 2004, he managed to persuade a surgeon – who remains anonymous – to drill it into his skull, the technology becoming part of his body as the bone grew around it.
The sensor picks up the frequency of colours and translates them into sounds that he perceives through bone conduction.
Humans normally hear using air conduction with sound waves passing through the outer and middle ears and causing the inner eardrum to vibrate.
But with bone conduction, the vibrations are transmitted through the skull or jawbone directly to the inner ear.
The colour-sound association also means he senses colours when listening to music or even speeches, with every syllable having a frequency that relates to colour.
“At the beginning, everything was chaotic because the antenna was not telling me: blue, yellow, pink, it was giving me vibrations and I had no idea what colour I had in front of me,” Harbisson said.
“But after some time, my brain got used to it and it slowly became part of my perception and became normal,” he added.
Although it cannot be switched off, Harbisson’s antenna falls silent in darkness.
His “eureka moment” came after dreaming “in colour” and realising the colours “had been created by my brain and not by the chip”.
Although he may be the first person to “hear” colour frequencies as notes, bone conduction helped Beethoven as he started going deaf. The German composer realised he could still hear by resting a wooden stick on the piano while biting the other end as he played.
Some 200 years later, bone-anchored hearing aids work in the same way via a metal implant inserted into the skull.
In the home where Harbisson grew up and where his mother still lives, a riot of coloured canvases line the walls, the staircase lined with curious-looking “facial scores” of celebrities like di Caprio and Cruise.
These Hollywood stars let Harbisson detect the “sound” of their skin tone and lip colour, which are rendered in enigmatic charcoal lines.
But Harbisson is now turning his attention to a new project.
He’s created a device shaped like a chunky metal collar, designed to sense the passing of time, and is kicking off a year-long trial to see how it works.
“There’s a point of heat that takes 24 hours to go around my neck and allows you to feel the rotation of the planet,” he told AFP.
“Once the brain gets used to it, you can use an app to make subtle changes to the speed of the point of heat which should alter your perception of time,” he added.
“You could potentially stretch time or make it feel like time is going faster.”
For now, it’s a permanent wearable rather than an implant. A previous incarnation had to be scrapped because he was “getting burnt” at 6pm.
“This is an art that does carry some kind of risk but it’s an unknown risk because we don’t have much history of bodies and technology being merged,” he said.
The forces that have scrambled thousands of flights since December 24, 2021 could ease in January, but that’s cold comfort to the millions of flyers with New Year’s plans.
And if 2021 has taught us anything, it’s that 2022 will likely be just as unpredictable.
Here’s a look at what has mucked up flights for thousands of people this holiday season, and what could happen over the next few weeks.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Airlines weren’t spared from the spread of the Omicron variant, which knocked out flight crews at airlines that had already reduced the size of their workforces following the collapse of air travel in 2020.
The wave of Omicron infections arrived at the same time that crowds began to pack airports for holiday travel. Then the Pacific Northwest and other areas were slammed with cold and heavy snowstorms.
The convergence of all three forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights starting on December 24, 2021. As of Thursday afternoon, about 7,800 flights departing from, going to, or within the United States (US) have been scratched, according to flight-tracking firm FlightAware. More than 1,100 of those were on Thursday.
Passengers line up at the TSA security checkpoint at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. PHOTOS: APA screen shows cancelled flightsA passenger rests her head on her luggage as she awaits the results of her COVID-19 test
The US was not alone. There have been thousands of cancellations abroad. European and Australian airlines report the same logistical issues dealing with COVID-19 and flight crews. Chinese airlines have made up a large percentage of cancellations.
To put that in perspective, most flights were okay. There are nearly 70,000 flights a day, globally, said aviation data provider Cirium.
WHEN MIGHT THINGS IMPROVE?
US health officials this week halved guidance to five days of quarantine for asymptomatic Americans who catch the coronavirus. Airline industry experts say that will alleviate the staffing issues that have forced airlines to scratch flights – but the flight attendants unions say they’re wary of the change and its effect on worker health. Yet cases of Omicron, the fast-spreading variant of the COVID-19 virus, continue to rise. And that isn’t the only problem.
It could take up to a week for airlines to fully recover from lingering bad weather, said expert on airline operations at Cirium Jim Hetzel.
Getting past the holiday rush will also help. January and February are the year’s slowest travel months after the New Year’s rush, said senior flight expert at Scott’s Cheap Flights Willis Orlando. “There should be a lot more room for airline to cut routes, reassign pilots and have staff in reserve.”
Some airlines have also recognised that the confluence of the holiday rush, Omicron and bad weather make it impossible to continue with current schedules.
JetBlue said on Wednesday that it was reducing its schedule through mid-January in hopes of giving customers more time to make alternate plans rather than suffer last-minute cancellations – although still more cancellations remain likely.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience that these schedule changes bring,” said spokesperson Derek Dombrowski. He said crew members are volunteering to work extra hours and managers are pitching in where they’re trained to do so.
Alaska Airlines urged flyers who could to reschedule for after the weekend, as it was reducing Seattle departures and more cancellations and delays were expected this week.
Delta and United spokespeople said they could not predict when operations would normalise.
WAS THIS SPATE OF CANCELLATIONS UNUSUAL?
Inclement weather is a sporadic but constant threat to travel in winter. A 2021 rebound in travel, when airlines didn’t have enough staff to keep up with demand, led to heavy cancellations and delays earlier this year.
Southwest Airlines struggled in summer and fall because of delays and cancellations, which it blamed on computer problems, staffing shortages and bad weather. American cancelled over 1,000 flights over Halloween weekend because of staffing shortages. Delta cancelled dozens of flights around Easter this year because of staffing problems.
COULD THE AIRLINES HAVE DONE ANYTHING TO PREVENT THIS?
Omicron was a shock to the system and its speed broadsided just about everyone, airlines included.
“This is kind of an extreme circumstance,” said operations expert at Cirium Hetzel.
Some airlines were hit harder than others simply because of where they tend to operate.
Southwest and American had lower geographic exposure to the areas of the US where weather was awful, and less of its staff is based in areas where COVID-19 cases are surging, said Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth.
Labour groups, however, say more could have been done, like offering extra pay to flight attendants during the holiday earlier on. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents 50,000 workers at 17 airlines including United, Alaska, Frontier and Spirit, said Delta started offering on December 24, 2021 but should have done it sooner. The union that represents American’s flight attendants said it probably helped that the airline recalled staffers who were on leave. In a November memo, the chief operating officer at American noted that nearly 1,800 flight attendants returned from leave in November, and 800 would return in December, along with 600 new hires.
Syth, of Raymond James, did an analysis of which airlines she thought were more at risk of operational problems during the holiday season, which drives most of the fourth quarter’s profitability for airlines. She found that airlines that were conservative with scheduling were hit as well as those that were aggressive.
“This leads me to believe that this has more to do with the uniqueness of Omicron-variant and the greater impact it is having in the Northeast currently than a failure on the part of airlines to prepare,” Syth said.
The airlines were more prepared for the holidays than they were for hail and thunderstorms that snarled travel earlier this year, said president and founder of the consumer advocacy group Travelers United Charles Leocha.
“It’s a far cry from the episodes we were facing in the summer and autumn when we had airlines that were out of whack for two or three days,” Loecha said. “It’s been a really good effort. The airlines have paid more money to keep people on reserve and they’re paying more money to keep people flying.’’
Airlines have been hiring. The US Department of Transportation says that as of October, US passenger airlines employed more than 400,000 full-time workers, but that’s about nine per cent fewer than they employed two years ago.
Even critics say airlines this year were at the mercy of the pandemic.
“Airlines should have planned better and the (Transportation Department) should have monitored airline capacity and required ready reserves of equipment and personnel given the large federal subsidies since 2020,” said president of the advocacy group FlyersRights.org Paul Hudson. “But the Omicron variant high infection rate is primarily to blame in the holiday season disruptions.”
WHAT SHOULD TRAVELERS DO IF AIRLINES CANCEL THEIR FLIGHTS?
If your flight is cancelled, most airlines will put you on the next available plane to your destination free of charge. “They will figure a way to get you there. You don’t have to pay anything extra,” Leocha said.
If you cancel your trip instead of taking an alternative flight, you are entitled to your money back, even if you had non-refundable tickets. When they cancel flights, airlines tend to push customers toward vouchers for future flights instead of offering a full refund. Orlando, of Scott’s Cheap Flights, urged travellers to remember their right to get their money back.
“Airlines make it very easy to allow them to keep your money,” he said.
You also can ask the airline to transfer your ticket to another airline, but it is not obligated to do so. Likewise, airlines are not required to reimburse you for hotel rooms, cabs or other expenses.
AP – New Mexico search and rescue crews used ropes and helicopters on Saturday to rescue 21 people who were stranded overnight in two tram cars after an iced-over cable caused the cars to get stuck high up in the Sandia Mountains overlooking Albuquerque.
Lieutenant Robert Arguellas a Bernalillo County Fire Department spokesperson, said early Saturday afternoon that crews first rescued 20 people stranded in one car and several hours later rescued a 21st person stranded by themselves in a second car.
All the people on the two cars were employees of the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway or a mountaintop restaurant, and the 20 in one car were being ferried down to the base of the mountains at the end of their workdays, Arguellas said.
The other employee had been heading up the mountain to provide overnight security when the tram system shut down on Friday night due to icing, Arguellas said.
There were no reported injuries among those stranded, Arguellas said. “More just pretty frustrated.”
A rescue helicopter works to help passengers who were stuck overnight on a Sandia Peak Tramway in Albuquerque, New Mexico. PHOTO: AP
To rescue the 20 people in the one car, operators were able to move it to a nearby support tower more than halfway up the mountain, and search and rescue personnel early on Saturday morning hiked to the area and climbed the tower to deliver blankets and other supplies to those inside the heated car, Arguellas said.
Search and rescue personnel over several hours used ropes and other equipment to lower the stranded employees about 26 metres to the ground before escorting them to a nearby landing zone in the steep and rocky terrain where the tower was located, Arguellas
said.
The 20 people were then ferried by helicopter several at a time to the base of the mountains, he said.
Arguellas said the second car with the one employee aboard was higher up the mountain and at location where the car was too high above the ground to lower people by ropes.
But the tram system was able to inch the second car down the cable to the rescue site at the support tower, and rescuers then used ropes to lower the 21st person as was done with the others, Arguellas said.
Tramway system manager Brian Coon said there was an unusually fast accumulation of ice on one of the cables that made it droop below the tram, making it dangerous to keep going, KOB-TV reported.
CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority said the key waterway netted record revenues last year, despite the Coronavirus pandemic and a six-day blockage by giant cargo ship the Ever Given.
Connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the canal accounts for roughly 10 per cent of global maritime trade and is a source of much-needed foreign currency for Egypt.
In 2021, some 1.27 billion tonnes of cargo were shipped through the canal, earning USD6.3 billion in transit fees, 13 per cent more than the previous year and the highest figures ever recorded, Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chief Osama Rabie said.
The number of ships using the canal rose from 18,830 in 2020 to 20,694 in 2021, or more than 56 ships per day, the SCA said in a statement.
In March, the Ever Given super tanker – a – behemoth with deadweight tonnage of 199,000 – got stuck diagonally across the canal during a sandstorm.
A round-the-clock salvage operation took six days to dislodge it, and one employee of the SCA died during the rescue operation. Egypt lost some USD12 million to USD15 million each day during the canal closure, according to the SCA.
The Ever Given safely returned back through the canal without a hitch in August.
In November, the SCA said it will hike transit tolls by six per cent starting in 2022, but tourist vessels and liquefied natural gas carriers are be exempted.
The Ever Given super tanker got stuck diagonally across the canal during a sandstorm in March 2021. FILE PHOTO: AP
Several offences were recorded in a series of joint roadblock operations in the Belait District on Saturday.
The roadblocks at Jalan Tengah in Panaga and Seria Highway Bypass saw the involvement of Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF), Traffic Control and Investigation Department (JSKLL), Royal Customs and Excise Department (RCED) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
Among the offences included 19 fines issued by the RBPF for expired road tax, driving licences and illegal modification of vehicles.
RCED recorded four offences for the possession of contraband cigarettes and liquor.
Enforcement officers detected multiple offences during two roadblocks in the Belait District on the first day of the new year, with offences ranging from illegal car modifications to possession of contraband items. Photo shows personnel inspecting motorists along the Seria Bypass Highway.ABOVE & BELOW: Photos above show the roadblock at Seria Highway Bypass. PHOTOS: RBPF
Enforcement personnel at the roadblock at Jalan Tengah, Panaga
MOUNT MAUNGANUI, New Zealand (AP) – Bangladesh had one of its best days on tour in recent years yesterday when it won all three sessions on the second day of the first cricket test against New Zealand.
The tourists’ bowlers first captured New Zealand’s last five wickets for 70 runs, dismissing the home side for 328 after it had resumed at 258-8.
Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Najmul Hossain Shanto then made half centuries in a 104-run partnership for the second wicket which occupied most of the last 1 1/2 sessions and guided Bangladesh to 175-2 in its first innings at stumps.
Shanto lived up to his considerable reputation with his second half century, to go with two centuries in his 12 tests to date. He was out for 64 within sight of stumps and his innings was punctuated by several classy shots through the off side.
Joy played the innings anchor and compiled his first test 50 from 165 balls in more than 3-1/2 hours. He was 70 and had batted almost five hours by stumps when he had been joined by captain Mominul Haque, who was on eight.
Though New Zealand still leads by 153, the initiative the match has shifted to Bangladesh after its confident, deliberate approach on day two.
The Bangladesh spinners first wrapped up the New Zealand first innings in 25 overs before lunch. Joy then combined in a 43-run opening partnership with Shadman Islam which blunted the new ball and allowed the second wicket pair to strongly consolidate the innings.
Bangladesh‘s Mominul Haque. PHOTO: AP
The pitch at Bay Oval has only provided assistance for the seam bowlers in the first hour Saturday when Bangladesh captured the wicket of New Zealand captain Tom Latham and had the home side 1-1.
Devon Conway’s 122, his second century in four tests, gave New Zealand slightly the upper hand at the end of day one. But the failure of the tail, in spite of the efforts of Henry Nicholls who was the last man out for 75, tipped the balance of the match slightly in the tourists’ favor.
After Shoriful Islam removed allrounder Rachin Ravindra (4), off spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz quickly captured the wickets of Kyle Jamieson (6), Tim Southee (6) and Neil Wagner who was out for a first ball duck.
Mominul bowled only four overs of orthodox left-arm spin but captured the two big wickets of the New Zealand innings, removing Conway and Nicholls and finishing with 2-6 from 4.1 overs. Mehidy had 3-86 after being wicketless on day one and Shoriful took 3-69.
Joy and Shadman steered Bangladesh through three overs before lunch and then to drinks in the middle session when the tourists were 43 without loss. But Shadman was out to the first ball after the break for 22, undone by Neil Wagner who lured him into a false stroke and dived forward to claim a sprawling catch off his own bowling. Wagner had 2-27 from 16 overs at stumps.
Wagner was again the best of New Zealand’s bowlers, mostly bowling fuller and finding a little swing away from the right handers. But for the last two sessions Bangladesh largely defied the attack that won the World Test Championship final in June.
Kyle Jamieson, a prodigy who took 52 wickets in his first 10 tests, struggled in unrewarding conditions Sunday and finished the day with 0-35.
COX’S BAZAR, BANGLADESH (AFP) – A herd of endangered wild elephants are rampaging through a safari park in Bangladesh, with officials warning yesterday the creatures were acting aggressively and posed a serious safety threat.
The herd of at least 13 elephants knocked down a seven-foot concrete wall to break into the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park, north of the resort city of Cox’s Bazar, earlier this week.
“They are very restless, frightened and acting as if they are cornered. They are now very dangerous for other animals and our visitors,” said park official Mazharul Islam.
The reserve is home to over 1,300 animals – including Bengal tigers, hippos and other threatened species – and sees around 5,000 visitors each day in winter.
“We are worried for the park’s visitors,” Islam said. “Night patrolling is getting difficult as the elephants are very agitated and they go wild very easily.”
Fewer than 100 elephants remain in the South Asian country, where shrinking habitats and dwindling food supplies have resulted in growing conflict with humans. Another official said the elephants were frightened because of increasing encroachment on their land by farmers and the killing of a dozen members of their herd over the years.
Scarcity of food has driven elephants to invade rice fields where they were often killed by electric fences, he added.
