TOKYO (AFP) – Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing posted a record first-quarter profit yesterday and kept its yearly forecast unchanged, even as business in the key market of mainland China was hit by virus restrictions.
The Japanese casualwear behemoth said better-than-expected sales and profit in the three months to December could largely be explained by the “growing diversification” of its business.
While it does not expect the spread of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant to dent overall performance in 2021-22, the company sounded a note of caution over the unpredictable impact of the pandemic.
“We expect to achieve our initial estimates, though we have difficulties involved in attempting to predict the future situation due to the global spread of COVID-19,” it said in a statement.
Net profit for the first quarter jumped 33 per cent on-year to JPY93.6 billion (USD817 million) marking its best ever first quarter, Fast Retailing said, as business in many parts of the world rebounded from virus lockdowns. However, revenue and profit declines were seen in mainland China, which is pursuing a strict “zero-Covid” strategy and has imposed tough localised restrictions in recent months.
Sales dropped in Japan, too, following strong performance the previous year and as warm autumn weather hit demand for winter outfits.
The company, one of the world’s top apparel retailers, kept its net profit forecast for the year to August 2022 unchanged at JPY175 billion – a three-per-cent increase from the previous year’s record figure.
Its results have also been boosted by the depreciation of the yen, which recently hit a five-year low against the dollar.
A Uniqlo store operated by Japan’s Fast Retailing in Tokyo. PHOTO: AFP
BARCELONA, SPAIN (AP) – Spain’s medical community has scored a victory after a court ordered that a regional government must compensate doctors up to EUR49,000 each for having to work without personal protection suits during the devastating early months of the pandemic.
The lawsuit brought by a doctor’s union is the first of its kind to be won in Spain, whose healthcare system was pushed to the brink when COVID-19 first struck.
“This ruling is groundbreaking in Spain,” Secretary General Dr Víctor Pedrera of the Doctors’ Union of Valencia CESM-CV that filed the suit, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Pedrera, a family doctor, said he got ill with COVID-19 shortly after it hit Spain in March 2020 and spent two months at home “quite badly off and with no idea of what was being done for treatment”.
The court in the eastern province of Alicante ruled late Tuesday that the region of Valencia failed to protect the health of its doctors during the first three months of the pandemic.
The judge said the lack of personal protection suits created “a serious safety and health danger for all health workers, especially for doctors, due to their direct exposure”.
A medical staff member tends to a COVID-19 patient in Spain. PHOTO: AP
The judge ordered compensation ranging from EUR5,000 to EUR49,000 to be paid to the 153 doctors in the suit. Doctors who were forced to work without proper protection but did not get infected nor were forced to isolate will receive EUR5,000.
The compensation increases to EUR15,000 for doctors forced to isolate, EUR35,000 for those infected but did not need hospital care, and to EUR49,000 for doctors who required hospitalisation.
Valencia’s government will appeal the ruling, but Regional Chief Ximo Puig issued an apology to the medical workers while saying that the initial impact of the pandemic was “completely unexpected”.
The ruling said the region’s health administration failed to meet its duty to protect the doctors “from the moment it knew of the existence of COVID-19 and, in particular after the declaration of a national state of emergency”.
Spain’s General Board of Doctors, which represents the regional unions, celebrated the decision in a statement to the AP, while “lamenting that it is not applicable to every doctor”. It said 121 doctors in Spain had lost their lives due to COVID-19.
Spain, like many countries, struggled to supply its health workers with personal protection suits and face masks during the first months of the pandemic.
The national government imposed a strict home confinement for several weeks after declaring a state of emergency in March 2020.
The ruling comes as Spain’s healthcare system is once more being strained by a new wave of infections driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant, even if deaths are now much lower thanks to the country’s high vaccination rate.
MILAN (AFP) – Alexis Sanchez said he felt like a “caged lion” after his last-gasp striker won the Italian Super Cup for Inter Milan in yesterday’s dramatic 2-1 extra-time triumph over old rivals Juventus.
With penalties looming at the San Siro Sanchez poked home from close range in the 121st minute of a gruelling contest to hand Simone Inzaghi his first trophy since arriving at Inter to replace Antonio Conte in the summer.
Chile forward Sanchez, who has started just four matches this season, was submerged by celebrating teammates as he charged to the sidelines to celebrate his winner, which came after Lautaro Martinez’s first-half penalty had levelled Weston McKennie’s opener for Juve.
“That’s what great players are like, the more we play, the better we feel,” Sanchez told Mediaset.
“I feel like a caged lion, if they let me play I’m a beast.”
The win continues Inter’s sparkling form, with eight wins from their last eight matches in Serie A, which they lead by a point from city rivals AC Milan.
For Juve, meanwhile, it was another disappointment in a season which had looked like it was getting on track in recent months after an inconsistent opening.
Inter Milan’s Alexis Sanchez holds aloft the trophy as the team celebrate the win over Juventus at the Italian Super Cup final. PHOTO: AP
Martinez could have put Inter ahead within eight minutes when, completely unmarked, he somehow didn’t meet Stefan De Vrij’s header from a corner, and seconds later flashed a first-time effort wide when laid on by Nicolo Barella.
McKennie silenced the Inter fans in the 25th minute when after Alvaro Morata collected on the edge of the area the Spain forward clipped over a cross which was deflected straight into his American teammate’s path.
However, Inter were level 10 minutes later thanks to Martinez, who rifled home a precision spot-kick after Edin Dzeko was taken out by Mattia De Sciglio.
Juve started the second half with their tails up but apart from two efforts from Federico Bernardeschi it was Inter who were the dominant team after the break.
They had the best chance to break the deadlock in normal time when Mattia Perin pushed Denzel Dumfries’ close-range header onto the bar just before the hour mark but struggled to create much more danger despite being clearly the better team.
Inter went close again five minutes into extra-time and again it was Martinez who should have done better, this time heading narrowly wide from Hakan Calhanoglu’s corner.
However, with Juve preparing to send on Leonardo Bonucci ahead of spot-kicks, Alex Sandro miscontrolled a cross, allowing Matteo Darmian to nip in and push the ball to Sanchez, who sent the Inter fans into raptures with his simple finish.
ABUJA, NIGERIA (AP) – The Nigerian government has lifted its ban on Twitter, seven months after the West African country’s more than 200 million people were shut out of the social media network.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari directed that Twitter’s operations can resume yesterday, according to the director-general of the country’s National Information Technology Development Agency. Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi said that was only after Twitter agreed to meet some conditions, including opening an office in Nigeria.
Nigeria suspended Twitter’s operation on June 4, citing “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”.
The action triggered criticisms as it came shortly after the social media network deleted a post by Buhari in which he threatened to treat separatists “in the language they will understand”.
This week’s action “is a deliberate attempt to recalibrate our relationship with Twitter to achieve the maximum mutual benefits for our nation without jeopardising the justified interests of the company. Our engagement has been very respectful, cordial, and successful”, Abdullahi said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
No violations were found nationwide during the movement restriction order from 10pm to 4am on Wednesday night, said the Ministry of Health in its daily statement yesterday.
Meanwhile, the tally of active COVID-19 cases in the Sultanate rose to 309 after 47 new COVID-19 cases were detected yesterday – 31 local cases and 16 imported cases.
With the latest COVID-19 cases, the national tally of confirmed cases is 15,797.
The new cases were detected through 4,094 laboratory tests carried out in the last 24 hours. The infection rate of positive case is 1.15 per cent.
The number of recoveries stands at 15,386, following the recovery of five cases.
One Category 4 case is under close monitoring, requiring oxygen assistance, while there are no cases in Category 5 requiring artificial ventilation at the intensive care unit.
The bed occupancy rate at isolation centres nationwide has increased to 8.4 per cent.
As of January 12, 94.6 per cent of the populace had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 93.7 per cent had received two doses. Thirty-one per cent had received the booster shots.
The COVID-19 Holding Area Mahad in Tutong District. PHOTO: BAHYIAH BAKIR
The Magistrate’s Court yesterday ordered an Indonesian man to settle a BND6,200 fine for possessing smuggled cigarettes.
Antarmy Scorpio, 44, would have to serve six months’ jail in default of payment of the fine.
The court heard from the Customs prosecutor that the defendant was arrested by Customs preventive officers upon discovering that he had brought along with him nine cartons and 10 packets of cigarettes upon arrival at the Brunei International Airport on April 4, 2021.
Senior Magistrate Hajah Ervy Sufitriana binti Haji Abdul Rahman, presiding in the Kuala Belait court house, ordered the cigarettes to be destroyed.
It’s been two years since the onset of COVID-19 and measures have been implemented to ward off the threats. According to the Global COVID-19 Index (GCI), Brunei Darussalam is ranked 14th globally and third regionally after Singapore and Malaysia out of 180 countries in terms of pandemic efforts.
The success of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme has been instrumental in achieving a recovery rating of four with a recovery index of 78.68.
China ranks first with a recovery rating of five and with a recovery index of 91.23, followed by Japan and Singapore.
The GCI was developed with input from various international bodies and the World Health Organization (WHO). Its methodology tracks recovery and historical severity using data since January 2020.
As of January 12, Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar said Brunei recorded 15,750 COVID-19 cases and 15,381 patients had recovered.
The COVID-19 situation in the Sultanate is less severe than that of other countries.
The Universiti Brunei Darussalam COVID-19 Vaccination Centre. PHOTO: BAHYIAH BAKIR
Nevertheless, people in the country must continue to comply with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) including wearing face masks, scanning BruHealth code for tracing purposes, practising physical distancing, sanitising and washing hands regularly as well as avoiding crowded areas, said the minister.
The Sultanate first detected the virus in March 2020. Soon after, it detected no locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 for 457 days. On August 7, 2021, the nation saw the re-emergence of cases, which set off the second wave of the pandemic in the country.
Currently, the vaccination programme is still being carried out at several centres nationwide. As of January 12, 94.6 per cent of the populace had received the first dose of vaccine, while 93.7 per cent had received two doses and 30.1 per cent had received the third dose.
Delta and Omicron variants have put the nation in a remarkably different situation from the previous year as these variants are highly transmissible, although Omicron causes milder symptoms.
According to medical experts, vaccinations have been scientifically proven to be safe and effective against the coronavirus, and constitute the best way to combat the pandemic, through enhancing immunity, minimising risks of infection and reducing hospitalisations.
The government announced the National COVID-19 Recovery Plan Framework on October 25, 2021, which holds the objective of ensuring a safe transition and a stable situation with minimal disruption to the daily activities of the community, as was the case during the Influenza H1N1 outbreak in 2009.
Aside from that, the framework could also help revitalise the economy and businesses, alongside safeguarding the security, peace and the well-being of COVID-affected citizens and residents.
The stay-at-home directive which has been in place since early October last year, is an additional measure in curbing the spread of COVID-19, through instructing people to remain in their homes.
The Early Endemic Phase under the National COVID-19 Recovery Plan Framework will be extended for another month starting tomorrow until February 14, said Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance and Economy II Dato Seri Setia Dr Awang Haji Mohd Amin Liew bin Abdullah on January 10, adding that the stay-at-home directive will be shortened – from midnight to 4am.
“This extension of the Early Endemic Phase is made in consideration of the recent rise in COVID-19 infections,” said the minister.
He said the government will continue to monitor the spread of the virus, and will ensure that appropriate measures are taken in the interest of the citizens and residents.
He added that the extension will also allow more time for the government to ensure that COVID-19 cases as well as bed occupancy rates at isolation centres remain low, along with increasing coverage of vaccine booster doses, and subsequently, the provision of vaccinations for children aged five to 11.
“The government is also grateful to the public for their receptiveness to the booster programme,” said the minister, adding that this is made possible with the cooperation of all parties, especially citizens and residents of Brunei who have been complying with health guidelines and continuing to support the government’s efforts by jointly shouldering responsibilities.
“The government once again extends its appreciation to all for their collective efforts during the second wave of the COVID-19 in the country,” said the minister.
He also warned the public against complacency and to continue to adhere to SOPs, such as physical distancing, respecting venue capacity limits, wearing face masks, maintaining cleanliness, and mandatory use of the BruHealth app, adding that the use of antigen rapid test (ART) prior to entering premises is highly encouraged.
UPPER DARBY, PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Federal investigators pored over the wreckage of a medical helicopter a day after it crash-landed without loss of life next to a church in a residential area of suburban Philadelphia, somehow avoiding a web of power lines and buildings.
Senior safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board Brian Rayner told reporters on Wednesday investigators hoped to be able to remove the wreckage from the scene at Drexel Hill United Methodist Church in Upper Darby later in the day for more detailed examination off-site.
Rayner said investigators were trying to document the wreckage as found, characterising it as “data gathering” that “won’t become information until we get it all together in one place and compare, see how things relate and see how things conflict”.
Rayner said he was very grateful that the occupants were “relatively unhurt” in the 1pm crash on Tuesday.
The pilot’s injuries were most significant but the other two adults and the infant girl were “miraculously unhurt”, he said. The aircraft had significant damage but in terms of evidence was “in very good shape”. he said.
A crashed medical helicopter in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby. PHOTO: AP
“I have a great deal of confidence that when we’re done we’ll be able to explain this accident,” Rayner said. He characterised the probe as “strictly a safety investigation” currently, adding that “all the evidence we have to this point supports an accident”.
Rayner said late Wednesday afternoon he had spoken with the pilot briefly but due to his injuries investigators would have to wait to speak with him in depth.
The helicopter has no flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder, but investigators hope to harvest components with “valuable data”, primarily on engine performance, he said.
The investigation would also look into the pilot’s history and training, and aspects of the environment such as weather and terrain conditions, air traffic and communications, he said.
Chief Derrick Sawyer of the Upper Darby Township fire department confirmed that there were children in a day care associated with the church at the time of the crash.
Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy M Bernhardt repeated his belief that it was a “miracle” that there were no life-threatening injuries.
CHICAGO (AP) – Kevin Durant knew the rest of the league had to be watching, curious to see just how good the Brooklyn Nets can be when they have all their superstars playing.
Well, here’s the answer.
Durant scored 27 points, James Harden added 25 points and a season-high 16 assists, and Brooklyn rolled to an easy win over Chicago, beating the Bulls 138-112 yesterday in a matchup between the Eastern Conference’s top two teams.
Durant had 17 points in the third to help Brooklyn break open a game that was tied at 71-all early in the quarter. The second-place Nets silenced a raucous crowd and came away with the win with all three superstars in the lineup for just the second time.
“We’re trying to make no statements to the league,” Durant said. “I mean, who cares what they think. We know what we bring to the table, and it’s all about us. But I’m sure people were watching the game tonight.”
Kyrie Irving scored nine in his third game. The seven-time All-Star has refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine and is barred from suiting up in New York due to the city’s mandate.
Brooklyn Nets’ James Harden drives on Chicago Bulls’ Ayo Dosunmu during the game. PHOTO: AP
But Durant dominated over 30 minutes and finished with nine assists. Harden hit five three-pointers. Patty Mills scored 21 and nailed of six of eight from beyond the arc, helping Brooklyn come out on top after losing five of seven.
The Nets also avoided a three-game sweep by the Bulls. More than anything, they showed how dangerous they can be when they have all their best players available.
That hasn’t happened often the past two years.
“We’re that good,” Harden said. “We have a chance to be that good. We just haven’t had enough of it.”
Zach LaVine scored 22, DeMar DeRozan added 19 points. But Chicago lost for the second time in three games after winning nine straight to match their best run since the end of the 2010-11 regular season. The Bulls also had their nine-game home win streak snapped.
“I think you own it,” coach Billy Donovan said. “I think our guys have worked hard up to this point to be where we are in the standings, and with that there’s a greater responsibility.”
The Nets outscored the Bulls 39-19 in the third to turn a two-point halftime lead into a 101-79 advantage.
Durant had 10 in about a two-minute span, including a three to make it 99-79 before Irving drove for a layup in the closing minute.
By then, the Nets were well on their way. They took control midway through the third with an 18-4 run to break open a game that was tied at 71, a three-pointer by Mills making it 89-75.
AP – Delta Air Lines lost USD408 million in the final quarter of 2021, dragged down by a COVID-19 surge that rocked the airline in December, and the carrier predicted yesterday that it will suffer one more quarterly loss before travel perks up in spring and summer.
CEO Ed Bastian said 8,000 employees have contracted COVID-19 over the last four weeks.
Sick workers and winter storms have led to more than 2,200 cancelled flights since December 24.
Cancellations have dropped sharply in the past few days, but the spate of spiked flights cost the airline USD75 million and the latest outbreak, caused by the Omicron variant of the virus, is expected to push the industry’s recovery back by two months.
“I don’t think we’re going to see a pickup in bookings or travel during January and probably the first part of February,” Bastian said in an interview. “It’s always the weakest part of the year, and it’s going to be that much weaker because of Omicron. We need confidence in travel returning once the virus recedes.”
Delta expects Omicron infections to peak over the next few days and then decline rapidly as it has in South Africa and – more slowly – in the United Kingdom.
A passenger waits in a socially-distanced area for a Delta Airlines flight at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. PHOTO: AP
