Press TV's news headlines

Here is the latest top stories from Press TV on February 24, 2021. 

Iran slamming support for terror 

The head of Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights says US sanctions have grossly violated the absolute rights of Iranian people to have access to humanitarian aid. Ali Baqeri Kani was speaking at a high-level session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. He noted that sanctions have even deprived Iran of purchasing medicines for children suffering from butterfly disease. Baqeri Kani said the so-called maximum pressure campaign launched by the former US administration has led to the maximum violation of the rights of Iranians. He slammed as politically motivated the claims of human rights violations made by some western countries against Iran. Further in his remarks, Baqeri Kani lashed out at the US and Israel for assassinating the country’s top general Qassim Soleimani and nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. He said such murders show that Iran pays the price for fighting terrorism. 

Israel 'extrajudicial' killing

A new forensic report has questioned an Israeli narrative of last year’s shooting death of a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, calling it an extrajudicial execution.Ahmed Erekat was shot at a checkpoint in the city of Bethlehem in June 2020. Israeli forces then claimed that Erekat was shot after he attempted to ram his vehicle into a soldier. But Forensic Architecture, a London-based group specializing in the investigation of violations of human rights says the 27-year-old posed no threat to Israeli soldiers, or to any property. The report by the group says the victim was also not given any first aid treatment and was left to bleed to death for more than an hour. Erekat’s family has now appealed to the international community to help secure the release of his body, which remains with Israel.

Covid-19 vaccine rollout

The World Health Organization has delivered the Covid-19 vaccine shipment to Ghana, making it the first country in the world to receive shots under the Organization's COVAX scheme. A flight carrying 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine produced by an Indian firm landed in Ghana’s capital, Accra. Local representatives of the WHO and the United Nations children's agency have described the vaccines' arrival as "momentous occasion". They also called the move a critical step in bringing the pandemic to an end. The UN-backed COVAX initiative, which was launched eight months ago, aims to ensure a fairer distribution of vaccines between rich and poor nations. Under the COVAX program, the UN health agency is expected to deliver some two billion doses of Covid vaccines to member states by the end of the year.

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