World News
Poor will suffer from Southeast Asia’s Covid-19 denial
March 24, 2020 · By Michael Sainsbury for www.ucanews.com
The governments of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations are at last waking up and have become very concerned about the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. Many have been in denial and very slow in their responses. The poor will bear the brunt of this governmental incompetence. Myanmar, Laos and Timor-Leste still have no official cases of […]
Read More...Philippine police break up soup kitchen amid Covid-19 crisis
March 24, 2020 · By Joseph Peter Calleja, Manila for www.ucanews.com
Philippine police and local authorities prevented beggars and street children from attending a feeding program at a Catholic foundation in Manila for not observing social distancing protocols under enhanced community quarantine regulations. The incident on March 19 came as fears grow over how the poor and homeless will survive while the country’s main island Luzon […]
Read More...Coronavirus: Asian nations face second wave of imported cases
March 23, 2020 · By BBC News for www.bbc.com
South Korea, China and Singapore are among the Asian countries facing a second coronavirus wave, fuelled by people importing it from outside. China, where the virus first emerged, confirmed it had no new domestic cases on Wednesday for the first time since the outbreak began, a major milestone. But it reported 34 new cases among […]
Read More...New Zealand passes law decriminalising abortion
March 23, 2020 · By BBC News for www.bbc.com
New Zealand’s parliament has passed a bill decriminalising abortion and allowing women to choose a termination up to 20 weeks into a pregnancy. Voting to remove the procedure from the country’s Crimes Act changes a law that has been in force since 1977. Previously, two doctors were required to approve an abortion – and this […]
Read More...Coronavirus protest in Brazil sees millions bang pots from balconies
March 23, 2020 · By BBC News for www.bbc.com
People in Brazil have expressed anger at President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic by banging pots and pans together on balconies. Millions of protesters in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro appeared at windows on Wednesday evening calling for the president to step down. It was the biggest protest against […]
Read More...Nirbhaya case: Four Indian men executed for 2012 Delhi bus rape and murder
March 23, 2020 · By BBC News for www.bbc.com
Four Indian men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a student in Delhi in 2012 have been hanged. Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh were sentenced to death by a trial court in 2013. The four were hanged in the capital’s high-security Tihar prison in the first executions in India […]
Read More...China-US retaliatory actions choke media freedom
March 20, 2020 · By Richard Fang, Hong Kong for www.ucanews.com
In an escalation of its showdown with the United States, China has effectively expelled journalists attached to three leading US newspapers in the latest tit-for-tat actions that started last month. On March 18, China’s foreign ministry ordered the reporters of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post to return media passes, which expire this year, within 10 days. Beijing said its […]
Read More...Welsh government plans to ban single-use plastics from next year
March 19, 2020 · By PA Media for www.theguardian.com
Plastic straws, cutlery and polystyrene food and drink containers look set to be banned in Wales under proposals from the Welsh government. It said the ban would be part of wider measures to make Wales the world’s top recycling nation. The plastics affected include straws, stirrers, cotton buds, balloon sticks, plates and cutlery, food and drinks […]
Read More...Study: global banks ‘failing miserably’ on climate crisis by funneling trillions into fossil fuels
March 19, 2020 · By Patrick Greenfield and Kalyeena Makortoff for www.theguardian.com
The world’s largest investment banks have funnelled more than £2.2tn ($2.66tn) into fossil fuels since the Paris agreement, new figures show, prompting warnings they are failing to respond to the climate crisis. The US bank JP Morgan Chase, whose economists warned that the climate crisis threatens the survival of humanity last month, has been the largest financier […]
Read More...Pope goes on Roman walkabout, prays for end to pandemic
March 19, 2020 · By FRANCES D'EMILIO for apnews.com
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis left the Vatican to make a surprise visit Sunday to two churches in Rome to pray for the end of the coronavirus pandemic — a move that came even as Italian health authorities insisted people stay home as much as possible to limit contagion in the heart of Europe’s […]
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