News headlines in 2021, page 87

NEW DELHI, India, Sep 24 (IPS) - For the first time in decades, Jordan’s economy contracted in 2020. COVID-19 took a heavy toll on the economy, and it was concerning for the country, particularly because Jordan had managed to grow at an average rate of 2%, despite regional and international shocks to its economy amounting to 44% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the past decade.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister on Thursday evening called for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and warned that without it, “massive waves of migrants will hit the road” in search of healthcare and relief from the pandemic’s economic fallout.

A decade of war in Syria has left more 350,200 people dead, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet told the Human Rights Council on Friday, noting that this total was an “under-count of the actual number of killings”.

After a month-long political crisis, Lebanon has embarked on a new phase that will “hopefully mark a promising step on the path of recovery”, the country’s President old the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on Friday.

Ensuring all Afghan girls can be educated must be “a zero condition” for the Taliban, before international recognition of their de facto authority, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said on Friday.

The President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas on Friday called on the UN Secretary-General to convene an international peace conference and said that to ensure that this initiative is not open-ended, Israel must withdraw from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem within one year. 

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades told UN Member States on Friday that he is determined “to set the negotiation process” with Turkey “back on track”, on the basis of the UN framework and the agreement reached in 2019.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday that she continues to be alarmed by “persistent allegations” of “widespread and systematic torture” of protesters in Belarus. 

The Regeneron antibody drug cocktail – casirivimab and imdevimab – has been added to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of treatments for COVID-19 patients, the UN agency said on Friday, before underscoring the need for lower prices and equitable distribution. 

DOMINICA, Sep 24 (IPS) - On September 10^th, on a sweltering summer afternoon, three fishers drove a van around the residential community of Castle Comfort in Dominica, blowing forcefully into their conch shells – the traditional call that there is fresh fish for sale in the area.