The World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday the world has now seen seven consecutive weeks of rising COVID-19 infections and four consecutive weeks of increasing numbers of deaths after starting the year with six weeks of declining numbers.   At the agency’s Monday briefing from its headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the fourth-highest number of cases in a single week since the pandemic began occurred last week. This, after the world has delivered more than 780 million doses of vaccine.   The WHO chief blamed …

Tobacco farmers in Zimbabwe, Africa’s largest tobacco producer, are pinning their economic hopes on the addictive plant. Despite anti-smoking campaigns ahead of the World Health Organization’s No Tobacco Day on May 31, farmers say the crop is one of their biggest sources of income. After quitting journalism at a government-controlled company four years ago, 39-year-old Itai Mazire went into farming. This year, he expects to sell at least 9,000 kilograms of tobacco from his eight-hectare plot, about 150 kilometers east of Harare. Mazire says delayed selling seasons, due to the coronavirus pandemic, …

The Mekong is one of the world’s great rivers — a 5,000-kilometer waterway threading from China through Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.  However, dams have subverted the ecosystem, bringing drought during the monsoon season and high waters when it should be dry. That has forever changed the lives of those who depend on the river for food and work in northeastern Thailand, a poor region bordering Laos and Cambodia. Vijitra Duangdee reports for VOA news, from Nong Khai, Thailand.Camera: Black Squirrel Productions   …

When plotted on a graph, the curve of Bhutan’s COVID-19 vaccination drive shoots upwards from the very first day, crossing Israel, United States, Bahrain and other countries known for vaccinating people rapidly. Those countries took months to reach where they are, painstakingly strengthening their vaccination campaigns in the face of rising coronavirus cases. But the story of Bhutan’s vaccination campaign is nearly finished — just 16 days after it began. The tiny Himalayan kingdom wedged between India and China has vaccinated nearly 93% of its adult population since March 27. …