UN chief ‘deeply' regrets veto of Palestinian ex-PM as envoy

February 14, 2017

Dubai, Feb 14: UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday said he “deeply” regretted opposition to former Palestinian Premier Salam Fayyad as the organization's peace envoy to Libya, days after Washington vetoed the appointment.

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“I deeply regret this opposition and I do not see any reason for it,” Guterres said at the annual World Government Summit hosted by Dubai.

Guterres described Fayyad, a former World Bank official with a track record of fighting corruption, as “the right person for the right job at the right moment.”

“It's a loss for the Libyan peace process and the Libyan people,” he said, adding that the UN “needs to be able to act with impartiality.”

The UN leader on Wednesday had informed the Security Council of his intention to appoint Fayyad as a replacement for German Martin Kobler to conflict-torn Libya.

But US ambassador Nikki Haley vetoed the appointment, saying Washington did not support the message the move would send.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the US veto of Fayyad as counter to the “free gifts constantly given to the Palestinian side.”

Israeli media has meanwhile reported that the Jewish state could accept Fayyad's appointment if Tzipi Livni, a former Israeli foreign minister, were offered the position of UN deputy secretary general.

The head of the UN requires the unanimous support of all 15 Security Council members for appointments of special representatives to conflict areas.

Guterres also addressed the upcoming UN-sponsored peace talks on Syria, scheduled for Feb. 20 in Geneva. “There is no solution for the Syrian people without a comprehensive solution in which all Syrians feel they are properly represented,” he said. The Geneva talks “are a first step for serious progress in finding a transition that allows for a political solution in which all Syrians feel represented,” Guterres added.

Guterres also condemned North Korea's latest ballistic missile test and called for a united international response to the “further troubling violation” of UN resolutions.

His statement came ahead of an urgent UN Security Council meeting called to discuss Sunday's missile test.

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shaji
 - 
Tuesday, 14 Feb 2017

US and Isratel are two faces of Devil and live together. There will be no peace in the world unless and untill these two Devil nations are removed from UN.

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Agencies
March 29,2020

A shrimp seller at the wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan believed to be the centre of the coronavirus pandemic, may be the first person to have tested positive for the disease, a media report said on Saturday.

The report by the London-based Metro newspaper said that 57-year-old woman, named by the Wall Street Journal as Wei Guixian, was selling shrimp at the Huanan Seafood Market when she developed what she thought was a cold last December.

Chinese digital news outlet, The Paper has said that she may be epatient zero'.

Wei was told by doctors her illness was "ruthless" and other workers at the market had come to the Wuhan Union Hospital with the same symptoms, the Metro newspaper report quoted the outlet as saying.

"Every winter, I suffer from the flu, so I thought it was the flu," the woman was quoted as saying by The Paper news outlet.

The shrimp seller added that she believed she contracted the coronavirus from the shared toilet in the market.

She said the fatal disease would have killed fewer people if the government had acted sooner.

Wuhan Municipal Health Commission has confirmed that Wei was among the first 27 people to test positive for the coronavirus.

It said she was one of 24 cases with direct links to the market, the Metro newspaper reported.

Though Wei may be "patient zero", it does not mean she is the first person to have contracted the virus, added the Metro report.

Chinese researchers have claimed that the first person diagnosed with the airborne virus had no contact with the seafood market and was identified on December 1, 2019.

Wei was later quarantined when a connection was made between the bug and the market before recovering in January.

As of Saturday, the global number of coronavirus cases stood at 104,837 with 27,862 deaths, according to the latest update by the Washington-based Johns Hopkins University.

The US has the highest number of cases at 104,837, followed by Italy 86,498 and China 81,948.

Italy has recorded the highest number of fatalities with 9,134 deaths, followed by Spain and China, at 5,138 and 3,299, respectively.

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News Network
May 8,2020

New York, May 8: An Indian-American father and daughter, both doctors in New Jersey, have died due to the COVID-19, with Governor Phil Murphy describing their demise as “particularly tough" and hailed them for dedicating their lives for others.

Satyender Dev Khanna, 78, was a surgeon who served both on staff and as the head of the surgical departments for multiple hospitals across New Jersey for decades.

Priya Khanna, 43, was a double board-certified in both internal medicine and nephrology. She was Chief of Residents at Union Hospital, now part of RWJ Barnabas Health.

"Dr Satyender Dev Khanna and Dr Priya Khanna were father and daughter. They both dedicated their lives to helping others. This is a family dedicated to health and medicine. Our words cannot amply express our condolences," New Jersey Governor Murphy tweeted on Thursday.

“Both dedicated their lives to helping others and we lost both of them to COVID-19,” Murphy said during a press conference on Thursday, saying their demise is a "particularly tough one.”

Satyender passed away at the Clara Maass Medical Center where he had worked for more than 35 years.

Murphy described him as a "pioneering doctor” who was one of the first surgeons to perform laparoscopic surgery in the state. He is being remembered by colleagues as a “gentle and caring physician."

“And for a doctor, I'm not one, but I would bet, I don't think there could be a more fitting way to be remembered, or a nurse or a healthcare worker of any kind,” Murphy said, adding that the doctor had a passion for bicycling, and he often found peace from the hustle of the hospital in biking along the Jersey Shore.

Priya did all of her medical training in New Jersey and then did her fellowship in nephrology in South Jersey with the Cooper Health System. Like her father, she too worked at Clara Maass, where she died.

She was also Medical Director at two dialysis centres in Essex County and “took pride” in teaching the next generation of doctors, Murphy said, adding that the ICU physician who cared for Priya Khanna was trained and taught by her as well.

Follow live developments on the coronavirus pandemic here

“Priya will be remembered as a caring and selfless person who put others first. And even while in the hospital, fighting her own battle, she continued to check up on her mom and dad and her family,” Murphy said.

“This is a family, by the way, dedicated to health and medicine,” he said.

The governor spoke with Satyender's wife Komlish Khanna, who is a paediatrician. The couple has two more daughters - Sugandha Khanna, an emergency medicine physician and Anisha Khanna, a paediatrician.

“Unbelievable. Our words cannot amply express our condolences nor, I am sure, can they express the pain that the Khanna family is feeling. But I hope that the fact that our entire state mourns with them is some small comfort. And we mourn everyone we have lost. We commit in their memory to saving as many lives as we can,” Murphy said.

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News Network
February 21,2020

New Delhi, Feb 21: Global terror financing watchdog FATF on Friday decided continuation of Pakistan in the "Grey List" and warned the country that stern action will be taken if it fails to check flow of money to terror groups like the LeT and the JeM, sources said.

The decision has been taken at the Financial Action Task Force's plenary in Paris.

The FATF decided to continue Pakistani in the "Grey List". The FATF also warned Pakistan that if it doesn't complete a full action plan by June, it could lead to consequences on its businesses, a source said.

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