MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/: The Project 11442M heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Admiral Nakhimov set to become the Russian Navy’s most powerful surface ship after its repairs and upgrade at the Sevmash Shipyard is being prepared for its handover," the Shipyard’s press office reported on Thursday.

15 March 2022; MEMO: Israel's Yesha Council yesterday confiscated vegetables and fruits from Palestinian farmers' stalls in the occupied northern Jordan Valley, a week after they were demolished.

Rights activist, Fares Fuqaha, told Safa that the Israeli forces had confiscated "five vegetable and fruit kiosks owned by Palestinian families," adding that the stalls were demolished "six days ago".

BOGOTA, March 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Colombia’s President Ivan Duque inaugurated the world’s largest genetic library for beans, cassava and tropical forages for feeding livestock, which will provide long-term crop conservation and could help shock-proof global food systems.

Increasing demand for food and falling crop output amid climate change mean researchers must breed new plant varieties to withstand the twin impacts of rising temperature and extreme weather events, according to the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

DUBAI, March 16 (Reuters) - The United Nations received only $1.3 billion in pledges on Wednesday towards a $4.27 billion aid plan this year for war-torn Yemen, where a humanitarian drive had seen funding dry up even before global attention turned to the conflict in Ukraine.

"We hoped for more and it is a disappointment we didn't get pledges from some we thought we might hear from," U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told a one-day pledging event co-hosted by Sweden and Switzerland.

BEIJING, March 16 (APP): Pakistan is importing silk worth 67 billion rupees. If we produce more silk in our country, it will provide employment to 600,000 people, most of whom will be of rural women, said Muhammad Farooq Bhatti, Deputy Director, Sericulture Punjab, Forest Department, Lahore.

But lack of Mulberry trees has been restricting Pakistan to fully tap its potential.
“In the 1990s, the area of mulberry trees shrank, leading to a decline of the sericulture industry, now we are trying to bring it back,” he told China Economic Net (CEN).

16 March 2022; MEMO: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) yesterday condemned Israel's "crimes of field execution" of Palestinians, Quds Press reported.

In a statement, the OIC said that the killing of 20 Palestinians since the start of the year "is a dangerous escalation of Israeli crimes and aggression on the Palestinians."

Adding that the Israeli occupation held "full responsibility for the repercussions of this escalation."

GENEVA (AP) — The number of new coronavirus deaths reported worldwide fell by 17% in the last week while COVID-19 infections rose, reversing a decline in cases that first began in January, according to the World Health Organization.

In the U.N. health agency’s weekly report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday, WHO said there were more than 11 million new COVID-19 infections last week - about an 8% rise - and 43,000 new deaths. The number of COVID-19 deaths globally has been dropping for the past three weeks.

LISBON, March 16 (Reuters) - Portugal will implement all sanctions decided at EU level against Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich but is not able to ban him from entering the country because he is a citizen, Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Council President Charles Michel discussed the Ukrainian situation during a phone conversation on Tuesday, the Kremlin said in a statement.

The leaders exchanged views on Russia's special military operation in Ukraine and measures to evacuate civilians, said the statement.

Putin outlined his assessments of the ongoing negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations on a possible settlement of the crisis, it said.

PUTNA, Romania, March 16 (Reuters) - When 75-year-old Svetlana and her family from the city of Krivoy Rog in central Ukraine reached the snow-covered Putna Monastery in the rolling hills of northeastern Romania, they had been on the road for four days.

The monks living at the remote 15th century Romanian Orthodox monastery, a pilgrimage site that sits in a valley covered in dense forest, have opened its doors to people like Svetlana who have fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries in their millions since Russia began its invasion on Feb. 24.

16 March 2022; MEMO: The United Kingdom is investing $19 million in the multi-year United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) programme on family planning in Iraq, the UN agency announced yesterday.

The statement said the new partnership will improve national policies and regulations on access to family planning with a focus on young people and vulnerable groups.

Puri, Mar 16 (PTI) A servitor of the Jagannath temple in Puri was shot dead on Wednesday morning, leading to tension in the temple town, police said.

Krushna Chandra Pratihari, a former member of the temple Managing Committee, was shot dead near his house at Barabati Jagaghar in Town police station area, they said.

Two persons came on a bike and opened fire at Pratihari before fleeing from the spot, police said.

He was taken to the district hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead, they said.