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28 Sep 2021; MEMO: The year 2020 was the worst for the Palestinian Authority (PA) since its establishment in 1994 due to the Israeli occupation and the coronavirus pandemic, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said yesterday.

UNCTAD said in its annual report that the PA's economic decline in 2020 was a continuation of its already bad economic conditions in 2019.

It blamed the COVID-19 and measures taken by the Israeli occupation for the economic downturn across the occupied Palestinian territories.

United Nations, Sep 27 (PTI) Afghanistan and Myanmar will not address the UN General Assembly's high-level General Debate on Monday as both the countries are not listed as speakers to address the 76th session of the world body.

According to the latest list of speakers for the last day of the General Debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, Afghanistan and Myanmar are not listed as speakers to address the session.

NEW YORK (AP) — For years, decades even, allegations swirled that R&B superstar R. Kelly was abusing young women and girls, with seeming impunity.

They were mostly young Black women. And Black girls.

And that, say accusers and others who have called for him to face accountability, is part of what took the wheels of the criminal justice system so long to turn, finally leading to his conviction Monday in his sex trafficking trial. That it did at all, they say, is also due to the efforts of Black women, unwilling to be forgotten.

NEW YORK, Sep 26 (APP): Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said in an interview with The New York Times published Sunday that the Afghanistan’s ambassador in the United Nations from Afghanistan’s toppled regime had no standing and that the war-torn country’s seat at the U.N. should remain vacant for now.

Ghulam Isaczai, who so far remains the officially recognized envoy of Afghanistan at the U.N., is listed to speak in the General Assembly on Monday when the 193-member body concludes its high-level debate.

THE UNITED NATIONS, September 27. / TASS /: Permanent Representatives to the UN, Ghulam Isaczai of Afghanistan and Kyaw Moe Tun of Myanmar have refused to speak at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, Spokesperson for the UN General Assembly’s President Monica Grayley told TASS on Monday.

"They have refused [to speak]," Grayley stated.

Earlier, a source in the UN told TASS that Afghanistan’s envoy would not speak at the General Assembly.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27 (NNN-XINHUA) — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, declaring that nuclear weapons must be
eliminated from the world and a new era of dialogue, trust and peace must begin.

  Addressing the threat of nuclear weapons “has been central to the work of the United Nations since its inception,” said the top UN official.

NEW YORK, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday that Iran had crossed "all red lines" in its nuclear program and vowed that Israel would not allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon.

In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Bennett said Iran sought to dominate the Middle East under a "nuclear umbrella" and urged a more concerted international effort to halt Iran's nuclear activities.

But he also hinted at the potential for Israel to act on its own against Iran, something it has repeatedly threatened in the past.

NEW YORK (AP) — Come visit the Maldives, its president entreated the world at this year’s United Nations General Assembly, moments before switching to an impassioned plea for help combating climate change. The adjacent appeals illustrated a central dilemma for many small island developing states: their livelihoods, or their lives?

The United Nations recognizes 38 member states, scattered across the world’s waters, as small island developing states grouped together because they face “unique social, economic and environmental challenges.”

27 Sep 2021; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met senior ministers from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in New York yesterday, his office said, ahead of an address to the United Nations in which he is expected to urge action against Iran's nuclear programme, Reuters reported.

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 26 (APP): Saima Saleem, a visually impaired Pakistani diplomat, has become the first to speak using Braille in the United Nations General Assembly hall.

On Friday, Ms. Saleem, a counselor at the Pakistan Mission to the UN, took the floor to respond to an Indian delegate who made critical remarks after Prime Minister Imran Khan’s strong advocacy of the Kashmiri people’s UN-pledged right of self-determination.