JAMADA ALTHANI 25, 1442 AH SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2021

16 Pages Max 23º Min 12º 150 Fils Established 1961

ISSUE NO: 18354 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net

Kuwait reports 1,786 COVID Path clears for Okonjo-Iweala Old but gold: Tokyo’s retro car Egypt’s Ahly propelled by ‘home’ 2 cases over the weekend 8 as first woman WTO chief 12 owners revel in modern classics 14 advantage at Club World Cup

Govt to ‘reconsider’ closures as business owners protest

COVID vaccination approved at 15 centers • Health law violators to be punished

By B Izzak ing malls. It also decided to totally shut down salons, barbershops and health KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker clubs. Ghanem called on the Cabinet to Marzouq Al-Ghanem yesterday said immediately cease the implementation the prime minister has agreed to recon- of the measures which have hit the sider measures imposed by the govern- business sector very hard and left high- ment on businesses to contain the ly-damaging social, financial and eco- spread of the coronavirus. “I just spoke nomic impacts. with Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al- The speaker’s call came after dozens Khaled Al-Sabah and he agreed to of owners of salons, barbershops and reconsider” a series of decisions taken health clubs yesterday held a protest by the government at an extraordinary outside the lawyers’ association to urge meeting on Wednesday, Ghanem said. authorities to call off the implementa- The speaker said the premier agreed tion of the measures. Security men pre- that a meeting will take place today vented the gathering from taking place between the ministerial emergency outside the National Assembly, but committee and representatives of own- protesters then moved to the Kuwait ers of small businesses. Ghanem said he Lawyers Society, calling on MPs to held a meeting with representatives of support their cause and prevent their small businesses who explained the businesses from going bankrupt. losses they have sustained because of Meanwhile, some 15 health centers the earlier closures and the potential across Kuwait have been given the go- losses they are expecting to incur ahead to administer COVID-19 vac- because of the new closures, which are cines to nationals and residents, a scheduled to start today. health ministry spokesman said yester- KUWAIT: Salon owners protest yesterday against the indefinite closure of salons and barbershops from today as part of the govern- The Cabinet decided to close all day. Kuwait’s five health regions have ment’s measures to fight the spread of COVID-19. — Photo by Fouad Al-Shaikh businesses from 8 pm to 5 am, includ- Continued on Page 2

Netanyahu denounced the ICC as a News in brief ICC paves way “political body” while the United States said it had “serious concerns” Move to end terror designation over the decision. The Palestinians for Israeli war called it a “victory for justice”. The WASHINGTON: The US has moved to delist ICC said in a statement that judges Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a terrorist organization, crimes probe had “decided, by majority, that the removing a block that humanitarian groups said Court’s territorial jurisdiction in the THE HAGUE: jeopardized crucial aid as the country’s warring The International Situation in Palestine... extends to the Criminal Court ruled Friday that it had territories occupied by Israel since sides cautiously welcomed a push for peace by jurisdiction over the situation in the 1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, President Joe Biden. The move, which will take occupied Palestinian territories, paving including East Jerusalem.” effect shortly, comes a day after Biden the way for the tribunal to open a war Palestine is a state party to the announced an end to US support for the Saudi- crimes investigation. ICC Prosecutor court, having joined in 2015, but Israel led offensive operations in Yemen. — AFP Fatou Bensouda had asked the court is not a member. The court added that for its legal opinion on whether its its decision was not a ruling on reach extended to areas occupied by Palestinian “statehood”, but that it fol- Egypt frees Jazeera journalist Israel, after announcing in Dec 2019 lowed from Palestine’s position as a that she wanted to start a full probe. state party, under the ICC’s founding GAZA: In this file photo taken on July 29, 2014, two Palestinians injured in Israeli CAIRO: Egypt has freed a journalist for Qatar’s Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Continued on Page 2 air strikes wait outside the Khan Younis hospital in the southern Gaza Strip. — AFP Al Jazeera, a security source said Friday, after four years in jail without trial following the end last month of a rift between the two Arab states. leaders from Libya’s west, east and south by Fayez Al-Sarraj. Mahmoud Hussein was released on Thursday now face the task of unifying a nation torn Libya has been mired in violent turmoil night, the Egyptian security source said. The 54- New transition apart by two rival administrations and with divisions between the GNA in Tripoli year-old was detained in Cairo when he returned countless militias. and a rival administration backed by mili- for a family holiday, and was accused of incite- phase for Libya Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, a 61-year-old tary strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east. ment against state institutions and spreading engineer, was selected Friday as interim Acting UN envoy Stephanie Williams, who false news. — AFP TRIPOLI: Libya embarked yesterday on prime minister by 75 Libyan delegates at facilitated the week-long talks in a new phase of its post-Gaddafi transition UN-led talks outside Geneva, the culmina- Switzerland, called it a “historic moment”. China probe sends image of Mars after a unity government was selected to tion of a process of dialogue launched in UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lead the country until December elections November. It marked the start of a new said “I do believe it is a breakthrough”.

following a decade of chaos. In a potential chapter for Libya after the failure of a In the center of the capital Tripoli, citi- BEIJING: China’s Tianwen-1 probe has sent back turning point accord widely welcomed by 2015 UN-brokered deal that established a zens guardedly welcomed the news. its first image of Mars, the national space agency the international community, four new Government of National Accord headed Continued on Page 2 Abdul Hamid Dbeibah said, as the mission prepares to touch down on the Red Planet later this year. The spacecraft is expected to enter Mars’ orbit around Feb 10. The interview. A joint expedition in 2012 of German and black-and-white photo released late Friday by the World’s tiniest Malagasy scientists did not know whether the two China National Space Administration showed geo- specimens collected - one female and one male - were logical features including the Schiaparelli crater adults until much later, he explained. “We found out that and the Valles Marineris, a vast stretch of canyons found the female had eggs in her body, and that the male had on the Martian surface. — AFP large genitals, so it was clear that they were adults.” in Madagascar Exceptionally large genitals, it turned out, accounting for nearly 20 percent of its body size, Glaw and col- PARIS: Scientists have identified Earth’s smallest leagues reported in the journal Scientific Reports. The known reptile, warning at the same time that sustained male’s body - about the size of a peanut - was 13.5 mm destruction of forests in northern Madagascar threatens long (half an inch), with the tail adding another nine mil- its survival. Tiny enough to perch comfortably on a fin- limeters. By contrast, the female measured 29 mm from gertip, the ultra-compact - dubbed its nose to the tip of its tail. The pair remains the only nana - has the same proportions and world- specimens of the species ever found. weary expression as its larger cousins around the world. Islands connected long ago to neighboring conti- “We discovered it in the mountains of northern of nents are known for miniaturized versions of Madagascar,” Frank Glaw, curator of at the that crossed ephemeral land bridges, a phenomenon The chameleon “Brookesia nana”, identified as Earth’s Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, told AFP in an known as “island dwarfism”. — AFP smallest known reptile, is seen in Madagascar. -— AFP