News headlines in April 2020, page 6

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 17 (IPS) - The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that now is "a defining moment for modern society. History will judge the efficacy of the response not by the actions of any single set of government actors taken in isolation, but by the degree to which the response is coordinated globally across all sectors for the benefit of our human family."

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 (IPS) - The deadly coronavirus COVID-19, which has shut down the UN secretariat in New York, along with 32 of its agencies globally, has forced over 37,500 UN staffers worldwide to work from their homes.

LONDON, Apr 17 (IPS) - Contagion is a 2011 film by US director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Che) that has proved very popular viewing during the first few weeks of the Coronavirus crisis. Set in a fictional global pandemic – modelled on the outbreak of a bat-borne Nipah virus identified in 1999 that killed around 100 people in Malaysia - the film is a tightly-written topical drama with a great castthat includes Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jennifer Ehle.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 16 (IPS) - Nearly 400 Rohingya refugees have been rescued in Bangladesh after being at sea for two months. 

SINGAPORE, Apr 16 (IPS) - COVID-19 has disrupted supply chains that are essential to assure food security in the Asia Pacific region, yet countries overall seem to have managed, so far, to keep supermarkets stocked with food and feed those who can afford it.

The Asia Pacific region is home to over 60% of humanity and also contains sub-regions with among the highest frequencies of severe weather events and some of the most challenging environments for agriculture. As a region it is characterized by diverse food systems and a multiplex of supply chains. Under normal circumstances, food security is already threatened by a multitude of factors.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 16 (IPS) - Our world today is dealing with a crisis of monumental proportions. The vicious, novel coronavirus is wreaking havoc across the globe, destroying lives and ruining livelihoods.

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Apr 15 (IPS) - Nine-year-old Mohammad Rafique used to collect vegetables from Kutupalong Bazaar and sell them at a market inside Kutupalong camp, a camp of some 600,000 Rohingyas, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 15 (IPS) - President Donald Trump's threat to abruptly cut all US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) has been described as "reckless and deadly"—particularly at a time when the Geneva-based UN agency was engaged in an uphill battle against the spreading coronavirus.

NEW YORK, Apr 15 (IPS) - The coronavirus pandemic has set off an unprecedented institutional crisis at the United Nations – funds are drying up, key meetings are cancelled and the world body is fighting for its future.

NEW DEHLI, Apr 14 (IPS) - Arti Zodpe is from the Tamasha (folk dance-drama) theatre in Sangli, in India's Maharashtra state. After evening performances, some of the singers and dancers offer sex work services to the audience.