RAJAB 3, 1442 AH MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2021 16 Pages Max 28º Min 10º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18361 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Ministry sets prices at fish Blaze destroys hundreds of fuel Egypt unearths ‘world’s oldest’ West Brom draw damages 4 market after auctions halted 5 tankers on Afghan-Iran border 12 mass-production brewery 16 Manchester United title bid Kuwait COVID death toll tops 1,000 after 5 more fatalities Govt to attend session on coronavirus • Calls to scrap institutional quarantine By B Izzak Marzouq Al-Ghanem said he was informed by mier. He said that he will not attend the ses- HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al- sion unless the new Cabinet is formed. A simi- KUWAIT: The health ministry yesterday Khaled Al-Sabah, who is still forming the new lar position was expressed by MPs Saud Al- registered 798 COVID-19 cases over a 24- Cabinet, that the outgoing government will Mutairi, Hamdan Al-Azemi, Fares Al-Otaibi hour period, taking the total number of infec- attend the special session called by MPs. and Mohammad Al-Mutair. tions to 177,701, while five fatalities were MP Osama Al-Munawer and a group of Two lawmakers also called on the govern- recorded, raising the death toll to 1,003. lawmakers submitted a motion last week to ment to review its decision on forcing arrivals Active cases amounted to 10,679 with 133 hold a special session to debate the new to be placed in institutional quarantine for patients in intensive care units, Spokesman Dr strain of the coronavirus and recent gov- seven days at their cost. MP Shuaib Al- Abdullah Al-Sanad told KUNA during the ernment closures, in addition to the popula- Muwaizri said this decision is not acceptable, ministry’s 104th regular press conference. tion structure. Ghanem said he has invited and if it is imposed, the health minister will be Health authorities conducted 7,514 swab MPs and the government to convene the held responsible. MP Mohammad Al- tests to take the total to 1,667,920, which session tomorrow and asked MPs to take a Rasheedi also called on the government to means 10.6 percent of swab tests performed coronavirus test to be allowed to attend the withdraw the decision, especially for students, in the past 24 hours were positive, Sanad session. because airfares have become too expensive. revealed. He urged everyone in Kuwait to But a number of leading opposition MPs A package for a stay of six nights and sev- adhere to precautionary measures against the said they will not sit with a caretaker Cabinet en days with breakfast and airport transfers virus and maintain social distancing. Earlier, and announced they will boycott the session. will cost KD 270 for a single room and KD the ministry confirmed 765 new recovery Other MPs called on the prime minister to 330 for a double room at five-star hotels, with cases, taking total recoveries to 166,019. speed up the formation of the new Cabinet. each meal (lunch or dinner) costing KD 10 Meanwhile, the caretaker government has MP Abdulkarim Al-Kandari strongly criticized KD; KD 180 for a single room and KD 240 for agreed to attend a special National Assembly the prime minister for accepting to attend a a double room at four-star hotels, with each session to debate measures to face the coron- special session while boycotting regular ses- meal costing KD 8; and KD 120 for a single avirus pandemic and procedures to rebalance sions, saying this is a reconfirmation that the room and KD 180 for a double room at three- the population structure. Assembly Speaker Assembly should not cooperate with the pre- star hotels, with each meal costing KD 6. Maktoum, UAE prime minister and UAE probe Dubai’s ruler, shared the colored image on Twitter. “The first picture of Mars captured by the first-ever Arab probe in Trump acquitted sends first history,” he wrote. The mission is designed to reveal the secrets of Martian weather, but the again by Senate Mars image UAE also wants it to serve as an inspi- DUBAI: The UAE’s “Hope” probe sent ration for the region’s youth. Hope WASHINGTON: Donald Trump was acquitted back its first image of Mars, the national became the first of three spacecraft to Saturday on charges of inciting an insurrection space agency said yesterday, days after arrive at the Red Planet this month at the US Capitol, after a majority of Senate the spacecraft successfully entered the after China and the US also launched Republicans closed ranks and refused to punish Red Planet’s orbit. The picture “cap- missions in July, taking advantage of a the former president in his historic second tured the largest volcano in the solar period when the Earth and Mars are impeachment trial. The five-day trial saw system, Olympus Mons, emerging into nearest. Democratic prosecutors argue - bolstered by the early morning sunlight,” it said in a The UAE’s venture is also timed to dramatic video of the Jan 6 riot - that Trump statement. mark the 50th anniversary of the unifica- betrayed his oath by whipping up his supporters The image was taken from an altitude tion of the nation’s seven emirates. “Hope” will orbit the Red Planet for at into storming Congress in a last-ditch attempt of 24,700 km above the Martian surface A handout picture taken by the UAE ‘Hope’ probe shows the Olympus Mons, to cling to power. on Wednesday, a day after the probe least one Martian year, or 687 days, using three scientific instruments to mon- the highest volcano on Mars, and the Tharsis Montes, three volcanoes named It concluded as expected with a majority of entered Mars’ orbit, it said in a state- itor the Martian atmosphere. — AFP (top to bottom) Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons. — AFP Republicans declaring him not guilty, in a sign of ment. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al- the powerful grip the 74-year-old Trump con- tinues to exert on his party. But while the 57-43 correspondent said. “Hopefully this will be the start majority that voted to convict fell short of the Lebanon kicks of the end of this plague in the country,” Hassoun two-thirds needed in the Senate, seven told AFP. Republicans joined with Democrats to seek He received a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, a day Trump’s conviction, making it the most biparti- off COVID-19 after the very first 28,500 doses landed at Beirut’s san impeachment trial in US history. airport. Healthcare workers and those aged over 75 President Joe Biden said that despite the vaccinations were the first to receive Pfizer/BioNTech shots at acquittal the charges against Trump are “not in three major Beirut hospitals under the national roll- dispute” and called on Americans to defend BEIRUT: Lebanon yesterday gave its first COVID- out plan. Popular Lebanese comedian Salah Tizani, democracy. Trump, who has been secluded in his 19 vaccines dose to a doctor and an elderly actor, as 93, who is best known by his stage name Abu Salim, Florida club since leaving office on Jan 20, wel- it started an inoculation drive it hopes will keep the was second to roll up his shirt in front of the cameras. comed the verdict - denouncing the proceed- pandemic in check amid deepening economic crisis. “I’m telling everyone to come and get vaccinated and ings as “yet another phase of the greatest witch Mahmoud Hassoun, the head of the intensive care not be scared. Better to get vaccinated than to be BEIRUT: Head of the ICU at Rafiq Hariri Hospital Mahmoud hunt in the history of our country”. unit at the key Rafiq Hariri Hospital battling coron- knocked down by this deadly virus,” he told AFP. Hassoun receives the first jab of the COVID-19 Despite the stain of a second impeachment, avirus, was the first person to get the jab, an AFP Continued on Page 2 Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at the hospital yesterday. — AFP Trump hinted at a possible political future, say- ing that “our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has stand that Israeli injustice had to be ended,” she only just begun”. “We have so much work ahead Gazans look to told AFP, fighting back tears. In the summer of 2014, of us, and soon we will emerge with a vision for Israel launched what it called Operation Protective a bright, radiant, and limitless American future,” Edge with the stated aim of stopping rocket fire into he said in a statement. ICC for closure its territory by militants of Islamist movement Trump was impeached by the House of Hamas. The 50-day war in the Palestinian enclave Representatives on Jan 13, a week after the GAZA CITY: During the 2014 war in Gaza, Nevine was the third between the Jewish state and Hamas, chaotic assault that stunned the nation and pro- Barakat lost her husband and saw three of her five after those of 2008 and 2012. Around 2,250 voked widespread bipartisan outrage. children wounded in an Israeli bombardment of a Palestinians were killed in the 2014 fighting, mostly Democrats argued that Trump’s behavior was an school. Today, she hopes the International Criminal civilians, and 74 Israelis, mostly soldiers. “open and shut” case of impeachable conduct, Court (ICC) will finally bring them justice. When the On July 30, 2014, Barakat and her family, like hun- retracing how he spent two months repeating court ruled last week that it had jurisdiction in the dreds of others, were sheltering in a school run by GAZA: Muhammad Abu Jazar, who lost his legs in an the falsehood that the election was stolen, Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, opening the the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Israeli raid which claimed the lives of his wife and two of before inciting his supporters to attack way for a war crimes investigation, Barakat immedi- Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip.