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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — Sri Lanka on Tuesday declared a state of emergency over food shortages as private banks ran out of foreign exchange to finance imports. With the country suffering a hard-hitting economic crisis, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said he ordered emergency regulations to counter the hoarding of sugar, rice and other essential foods. Rajapaksa has named a top army officer as “Commissioner General of Essential Services to coordinate the supply of paddy, rice, […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations said Friday it urgently needed funds to feed people in Myanmar amid fears that up to 6.2 million could be plunged into hunger by October. The UN’s World Food Programme said it was 70 percent short of the $86 million needed over the next six months, as the country goes through multiple crises. A major wave of Covid-19 infections is surging through Myanmar, compounding hunger, rising food and […]
by Shafiqul ALAM DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — Mohammad Masud braves Dhaka’s sweltering summer heat to pedal across the Bangladeshi capital in his rickshaw and queue at one of the last charities still feeding those left destitute by the pandemic. Nearby are hundreds of out-of-work or struggling security guards, transport workers, domestic servants and homeless children finishing their plates of rice and lentils at Mehmankhana, or the “dining place for guests”. “I have been hungry all […]
by Natsuko FUKUE TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Even under ordinary circumstances, feeding an Olympic Village is a mammoth task, with chefs preparing tens of thousands of meals a day for elite athletes from around the world. But at Tokyo 2020, there’s an added pressure: strict coronavirus rules forbid athletes from eating at local restaurants, so it’s their only chance to sample Japan’s famous cuisine. “I feel it’s a lot of responsibility for us,” admitted Tsutomu […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea is facing a food shortage of around 860,000 tonnes this year, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation forecast, warning the country could experience a “harsh lean period” as early as next month. The impoverished country, which is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, has long struggled to feed itself, suffering chronic food shortages. Last year, the coronavirus pandemic and a […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Kim Jong Un has admitted that North Korea’s food situation is “tense”, state media reported Wednesday, sounding the alarm in a country that suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s in which hundreds of thousands died. The impoverished country, which is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, has long struggled to feed itself, suffering chronic food shortages. And last year the coronavirus […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — More than 90 percent of people in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region need emergency food aid, the United Nations said Tuesday, as it appealed for over $200 million to scale up its response. The UN World Food Programme voiced alarm that the conflict had caused an increase in hunger levels which were already high in Tigray. “A total of 5.2 million people, equivalent to 91 percent of Tigray’s population, need emergency food […]
ZURICH, Switzerland (AFP) — Global food giant Nestle said Monday it was developing a new nutrition strategy after the Financial Times reported on an internal document showing that most of its food and drinks were unhealthy. An internal presentation circulated among top executives earlier this year had revealed that more than 60 percent of Nestle’s mainstream food and drinks portfolio did not meet “recognised definition of health”, the British business daily reported. The presentation, seen […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Aye Mar sits with her seven children in their Yangon kitchen and worries whether their meal of rice and stringy vegetables — all she can afford in coup-stricken Myanmar — will satisfy their hunger. The national economy and banking system have been paralyzed since a military power-grab which pushed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi out of office in February. Livelihoods have been lost after strikes and factory closures, fuel prices […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — In what might be the unlikeliest indicator of a post-pandemic recovery, a pair of premium Japanese melons have sold for $24,800 at auction, over 22 times more than last year’s virus-hit price. The 2.7 million yen price tag at the season’s first auction for the famed Yubari melons is still a snip compared to records for the prized produce. “This year’s recovery in price can be seen as a result of […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations said Tuesday that $76 million was urgently needed to help over one million people in southern Madagascar facing potentially life-threating shortages of food, water and health assistance. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA issued its so-called flash appeal after the impoverished island country in eastern Africa saw its agricultural season ruined by the worst drought in a decade. At the same time, the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic […]
(Eagle News) — The Philippine headline inflation increased to 2.5 percent in October from 2.3 percent the previous month bringing the year-to-date inflation this year at also 2.5 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). “Higher overall inflation was primarily brought about by the increase in the inflation of the heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages at 2.1 percent during the month, from 1.5 percent in September 2020,” the PSA said in its latest report. […]
