Kuwait’s imports of perfumes and its preparations amounted to 219.6 million dinars, an increase of 21%, with a value of 37.969 million dinars during 2021, compared to 191.367 million dinars in the year 2020, reports Al-Anba daily. A recent statistics show that Kuwait’s imports of essential oils, extracts of resinous materials, perfumes, decoctions or cosmetics (toilet) amounted to 53.34 million dinars during the first quarter of last year, and 54.22 million dinars in the second quarter and 52.8 million dinars in the third quarter, and 59.25 million dinars in the fourth quarter of the year./AT

The Ministry of Health called upon returning pilgrims from Holy Land to conduct a PCR test within 3 days from the date of arrival at examination centers affiliated with the Ministry of Health.

The Jaber bridge examination center is open from 5 pm to 10 pm, Jaber Al Ahmad Hospital is open from 8 am to 12 am or visit any of the private approved centers.

The follow up of the results of PCR test will be displayed on the Immune app. If any symptoms of infection of COVID to seek medical attention within 10 days of returning back to the country. /AT

A French court on Tuesday sentenced a former Rwandan official to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of complicity in the 1994 genocide in the African country.

The Paris Assize Court held Laurent Bucyibaruta, 78, the former prefect of Gikongoro province, guilty of acts of genocide and complicity in genocide 28 years after the horrific events that led to the massacre of nearly 800,000 Tutsis. He is the highest-ranking Rwandan official to have faced trial in France over the mass killings.

"I was never on the side of the killers," Bucyibaruta said in court at the end of the trial, according to a report by France24 news. At least 115 witnesses and experts testified in the case, including survivors of the Marie Merci School massacre.

The trial against Bucyibaruta, who was the main administrator of Gikongoro, involved claims he attended “planning” meetings in Murambi, Cyanika, Kaduha and Kibeho before the mass killings of Tutsis began. He was accused of persuading thousands of people to take refuge in Murambi Technical School and Marie Merci School in Kibeho, in which at least 82 Tutsi students were killed.

According to Rwanda’s leading daily The New Times, Bucyibaruta was nicknamed the “‘Butcher of Gikongoro” as over 50,000 Tutsis were killed on his command in Murambi, 25,000 in Cyanika, 47,311 in Kaduha and 28,937 in Kibeho.

After the genocide, Bucyibaruta escaped to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and later reached France, where he has been living since 1997.

Rwanda had sought his extradition, but the trial was launched in France after the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) referred the case to the French judiciary in 2007./aa

Firefighters battling a massive blaze that has threatened ancient giant sequoias in the state of California have made progress against the wildfire, containing roughly one-fifth of the blaze, according to data released Tuesday.

In all, 22% of the Washburn fire in Yosemite National Park has been contained, the Inciweb federal fire tracking website says. A total of 3,221 acres have been torched since the fire was first detected July 7.

Hundreds of firefighters have been trying to protect Yosemite's Mariposa Grove, which is home to 500 towering sequoias, some estimated to be 3,000 years old. A sprinkler system has been established around the 209-foot tall Grizzly Giant sequoia and other at-risk trees.

Other measures have included firefighters starting smaller fires known as controller burns to help prevent the Washburn fire from being able to reach the protected area, and clearing debris from the forest floor.

The wildfire is beginning to move away from the Mariposa Grove, after originating to the north and east. The inferno is heading east away from the protected area.

Matt Ahearn, Operations Section Chief with California Interagency Incident Management Team 13, told a community meeting late Monday that efforts are "working very well currently," and the fire is not currently expected to enter the grove.

He said the fire is now moving slowly but is creating intense spot fires, CNN reported.

"If you look at our progression maps, this fire is not moving quickly at all," he said. "What it's doing is producing extreme heat and just sitting there and billowing and just pumping smoke out of it, which is producing the large smoke columns you are seeing from many miles away."/agencies

NASA released a batch of new images Tuesday from its James Webb Space Telescope, offering more glimpses into previously unseen corners of the universe. 

The striking photos, including four that were released after President Joe Biden unveiled the first on Monday, chronicle several interstellar phenomena, from a dying star's last hoorah to the sweeping vistas of orange "cosmic cliffs" reaching into the bright blue of space as stars are birthed in the Carina Nebula.

The largest image from the space observatory details Stephan’s Quintet, capturing a view of five galaxies via Webb's advanced Near-Infrared Camera and Mid-Infrared Instrument. The image contains more than 150 million pixels and is a composite of over 1,000 separate images.

Another image includes what is known as a transmission spectrum, which documents the atmospheric details of a hot gas giant exoplanet known as WASP 96-B. The image indicates there is water vapor on the planet, and NASA said its image offers "the most detailed infrared exoplanet transmission spectrum ever collected."

“Today, we present humanity with a groundbreaking new view of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope – a view the world has never seen before,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.

“These images, including the deepest infrared view of our universe that has ever been taken, show us how Webb will help to uncover the answers to questions we don’t even yet know to ask; questions that will help us better understand our universe and humanity’s place within it," he added.

The US launched the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, a joint project that included the Canadian and European space agencies, in December. The sophisticated 6.2-ton space observatory is expected to explore the deepest reaches of the cosmos for at least five years, sending never-before-seen images of the universe back to Earth./agencies

Washington has provided Ukraine with an additional $1.7 billion for health and humanitarian assistance, a statement from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said Tuesday.  

The new package went through USAID in coordination with the Treasury Department to provide Kyiv with direct budgetary aid.

"This contribution was made possible with generous bipartisan support from Congress," it said.

"The additional resources provided by the United States, through the World Bank, will alleviate the acute budget deficit caused by Putin’s brutal war of aggression and ensure the Ukrainian government can continue operating and responding to critical needs, including delivery of essential services such as healthcare by paying the salaries of healthcare workers," it added.

So far, USAID has given Ukraine $4 billion in direct budgetary support.

"These resources have helped the Ukrainian government continue carrying out core functions – for example, keeping gas and electricity flowing to hospitals, schools, and other critical infrastructure, supporting the provision of humanitarian supplies to citizens, and continuing to pay the salaries of civil servants and teachers," said the statement. "The United States remains committed to supporting Ukraine and its people in the wake of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war.”

Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal earlier confirmed the transaction in a tweet, writing: "1.7 billion dollars of grant aid came to the Ukrainian budget from the Trust Fund of the @WorldBank and @USAID. This is the second US grant in the last two weeks, the total amount of aid is to 3 billion dollars. Grateful to & @POTUS for incredible support.”

Nearly 4,900 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the war on Feb. 24, according to UN figures.

More than 15 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including over 8.7 million that have fled to other countries./agencies

The head of the World Health Organization said Tuesday that he is concerned coronavirus cases and deaths are climbing, stretching health systems while monkeypox is also rising with 9,200 cases reported in 63 countries. 

"I am concerned about the increasing trend in COVID-19 deaths – putting further pressure on stretched health systems and health workers.

"The Emergency Committee on COVID-19 met on Friday last week and concluded that the virus remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern," Tedros Ghebreyesus said at a media webinar and noted it was at the WHO's highest alert level.

Tedros said the Committee noted its concern that sub-variants of omicron, like BA.4 and BA.5, continue to drive waves of cases, hospitalization and death worldwide.

"Surveillance has reduced significantly --including testing and sequencing -- making it increasingly difficult to assess the impact of variants on transmission, disease characteristics, and the effectiveness of countermeasures," he said.

In addition, diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines are not deployed effectively, he said.  

Running freely

"The virus is running freely, and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity, in terms of both hospitalization for acute cases and the expanding number of people with the post-COVID-19 condition -- often referred to as ‘long-COVID.’"

Globally, the WHO's new weekly cases increased for a fourth consecutive week after declining since the last peak in March.

During the week of June 27 to July 3, more than 4.6 million cases were reported to WHO, similar to the previous week with 8,100 fatalities.

As of July 3, more than 546 million confirmed virus cases and over 6.3 million deaths had been reported globally.

Regarding monkeypox, Tedros said: "The Emergency Committee for monkeypox will reconvene next week and look at trends, how effective the countermeasures are, and make recommendations for what countries and communities should do to tackle the outbreak.”

"(The) WHO is working closely with civil society and LGBTIQ+ community, especially to tackle the stigma around the virus and spread information so people can stay safe," he said.

Additionally, the WHO said it continues to work with countries and vaccine manufacturers to coordinate the sharing of vaccines, which are currently scarce, and work with countries and experts to drive research and development./agencies