MANILA, Mar 16 (NNN-PNA) – The COVID-19 pandemic pushed 4.7 million people in Southeast Asia into extreme poverty in 2021, as 9.3 million jobs disappeared, compared with a baseline no-COVID scenario, said an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report, released today.

According to the Manila-based bank, the region is beginning to recover from the two-year pandemic, forecast to pick up to 5.1 percent this year, as almost 60 percent of its population become fully vaccinated, enabling many economies to reopen.

16 March 2022; MEMO: The Arab League called on Tuesday for the UN Security Council and other international bodies to assume their responsibilities and provide protection for the Palestinian people. The organisation's statement was issued hours after Israeli occupation forces killed three Palestinians, two in the occupied West Bank and the third in the Arab town of Rahat inside Israel itself.

LONDON (AP) — After dropping nearly all coronavirus restrictions last month, Britain is now ending some of its most widespread COVID-19 testing and monitoring programs, a move some scientists fear will complicate efforts to track the virus and detect worrisome new variants.

Officials have largely dismissed those concerns, despite a recent uptick in cases across Europe, insisting that high immunization rates will help dampen future waves of disease.

MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/: Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 36,519 over the past day to 17,449,438, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Wednesday.

In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.21%.

As many as 5,945 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 18.3% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients decreased in 64 regions. A day earlier, 7,273 people were rushed to hospitals.

KHARKIV, Ukraine, March 16 (Reuters) - In Kharkiv's regional infectious diseases hospital, doctors escort those COVID-19 patients they can down to the bomb shelter in the basement when the air raid sirens sound.

But the most seriously ill, needing constant oxygen supply, cannot be moved, even if this means leaving them vulnerable to Russian bombardment.

"The ones in critical condition remain in their rooms. If we bring them down here they will simply die," said Pavlo Nartov, the hospital's director.

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.