WATCH PRESS TV NEWS HEADLINES

Here is a brief look at Press TV newsroom's headlines from 18:00 GMT, February 20, 2017 to 08:00 GMT, February 21, 2017.

Syria UN call

The Syrian Foreign Ministry has written a letter to the United Nations, urging the world body to condemn the terror attacks targeting Damascus and its countryside. The letter states that the terrorists who carry out mortar attacks from Eastern Ghouta are supported by Western officials. The ministry says the officials are complicit in the crimes as they deny the Syrian government the right to defend itself. In the latest round of attacks on Tuesday, the militants launched over 150 mortars from Eastern Ghouta, killing at least 13 civilians and injuring several others. Meanwhile, a UK-based monitoring group says at least 250 people have been killed in Eastern Ghouta since Sunday, as Damascus continues to pound the area. The Syrian government says its operation is in response to the mortar attacks launched from the area. Damascus also says the terrorists in Eastern Ghouta are using civilians as human shields.

US Russia probe

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged a lawyer with making false statements to his investigators. Alex van der Zwaan pleaded guilty in US District Court in Washington DC to a charge of lying to the Special Counsel's office. The case involves work that van der Zwaan, performed in 2012 about Ukraine for Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, senior officials in Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign. Mueller’s team had previously accused Manafort and Gates of secretly funneling four million dollars through offshore accounts to pay for a report regarding Ukraine. Experts say the new charge will put more pressure on Manafort and Gates to cooperate with Mueller in his probe into Russia’s alleged meddling in the US 2016 presidential election.

Vatican abuse scandal

The Vatican's sex abuse investigator has begun a series of meetings with abuse victims in Chile. Maltese Archbishop Charles Sicluna will also talk to a delegation of lay Catholics and priests during four days of meetings. Sicluna is to gather information on Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused of witnessing and ignoring the abuse of young parishioners by removed pedophile priest, Reverend Fernando Karadima. Sicluna will also look into the alleged role that several other bishops as well as Chilean Cardinals Francisco Javier Errazuriz and Ricardo Ezzati played in the cover-up. The cardinals have all publicly denied any wrongdoing, and Barros has also denied seeing or knowing of any abuse. Barros has been a bishop since 1995, but his 2015 appointment to diocese of Osorno by Pope Francis caused outrage.

Slamming Israeli settlements

The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process has strongly denounced the expansion of Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories. Nickolay Mladenov criticized the demolition and seizure of Palestinian structures particularly the destruction of donor-funded classrooms for Palestinian children. He warned that 44 Palestinian schools in the occupied West Bank are at risk of collapse. The top UN official also raised the alarm over the unsustainable humanitarian situation in Gaza, urging Israel to allow the advancement of a temporary reconstruction mechanism for the besieged territory.

US gun control laws

Following increasing pressure on the US president amid a recent school shooting in Florida, Donald Trump has ordered a minor change to the country’s gun law. Trump expected the new regulations to be finalized very soon. Meanwhile, a new poll conducted in the US has shown that 66 percent of Americans support stricter gun laws. According to Quinnipiac University's national poll, the figure is one of the highest levels on record since it began surveys on the question in 2008. It also found that the majority of gun owners back stricter gun regulations. The recent school shooting in Parkland that left 17 people dead prompted US students to launch campaigns to reduce gun violence in the country.

US airstrikes kill civilians in Syria

The US-led coalition has launched an airstrike on eastern Syria, leaving over a dozen people dead. The attack targeted a village near the city of Bukamal in Dayr al-Zawr province. At least 16 civilians, including nine women, lost their lives in the bombing. Dozens of people have also been injured. Officials say the death toll is likely to rise as some of the wounded are in critical conditions. The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes in Syria and Iraq since 2014 without a UN mandate. Airwars, a UK-based non-profit monitoring group, says at least 5,400 civilians have lost their lives in such attacks.

Abbas attacks Israel

The Palestinian president has called for the establishment of a multilateral international mechanism to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Speaking at a United Nations Security Council meeting, Mahmoud Abbas expressed Palestine’s commitment to a political, diplomatic and legal path through dialog for peace. Abbas blasted Israel for repeated violations of UN resolutions and undermining all previous accords with the Palestinians. He also condemned the US president’s one-state solution which was exposed by his decision to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as the capital of Israel. The Palestinian president walked out of the council when the Israeli ambassador to the UN wanted to deliver his speech. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Abbas of running away from peace after the Palestinian leader called for an international conference in mid-2018 to launch a new and wider peace process.

Iran plane crash  

Search teams are struggling to find more bodies from the wreckage of a plane that smashed into a mountain in west-central Iran. 80 more rescuers are now making their way up to the crash site located near a peak of the Zagros mountain range at a height of around 4,500 meters. A number of bodies have so far been recovered and transferred to a makeshift camp on the slope of the mountain. A painstaking search is underway to recover other victims and the airliner’s black box amid a howling blizzard. The wreckage of the ATR 72 was spotted on Tuesday two days after the crash. The aircraft was flying from Tehran to Yasuj city when it went down near its destination, killing all 66 onboard. A team of French experts are in Iran to investigate the cause of the incident.

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