Headlines
As Europe counts the human and economic costs of the coronavirus lockdowns, Hungary appears to have gotten off lightly. It has nearly 2,100 reported cases and 213 deaths so far, compared to tens of thousands in the worst-hit countries. Nevertheless, economists predict the country’s GDP will shrink by close to 10 percent. As Henry Ridgwell reports, many workers are having to adapt quickly to the dramatically changing labor market in the nation of nearly 10 million people
Health experts had warned of a possible surge in cases if millions of people travel to their home villages. Indonesia has more than 6,700 confirmed coronavirus cases with about 600 deaths
Many families around the world are now separated by quarantines and closed airports as the world reacts to the coronavirus. But for families from war-torn countries, that separation is sometimes the least of their problems. VOA’s Heather Murdock has this report from her home in Istanbul
The monks of Pa Book temple in Lamphun, Thailand observe Earth Day every morning by collecting alms through methods that minimize waste. They’ve transformed the village of Pa Book into a model for zero-waste living
United Nations Security Council members hold an open video conference in connection with the Protection of civilians in armed conflict, with a focus on protecting civilians from conflict induced hunger
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) appealed to the Myanmar government and the military to allow U.N. investigators access to the crime scene for an independent probe of the crime
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said 135 million people around the world were suffering from severe hunger. But authors of the report warn the pandemic will more than double that number by the end of the year if swift, vigorous action is not taken.
Amnesty’s figures do not include China, where the number of executions, believed to be in the thousands, remains classified. Other major executing countries, including Iran, North Korea and Viet Nam, continued to hide the full extent of their use of the death penalty by restricting access to death penalty information
Another novelty of 2020: these four countries, ruled by single communist parties, are joined in the “black zone” of the RSF Ranking by a fifth regime which has passed the lead in terms of absolute information control: Singapore. With its Orwellian law supposed to combat “false information”, the city-state loses seven places from one year to the next (158th)
Both Abdullah and Ghani held oath taking ceremonies in capital Kabul on 9th of March, further fueling political tensions amid ongoing efforts to find a negotiated political settlement to ongoing violence