News archive of April 2022

At 16, Payzee Mahmod was coerced by her Iraqi-Kurdish family in London into marrying a man around twice her age.

Two years later her elder sister Banaz, who had left a marriage she was forced into aged 17, was murdered by members of her family in a so-called honour killing.

China reported 13,000 Covid cases on Sunday, the most since the peak of the first pandemic wave over two years ago, as health officials said they have found a suspected new subtype of the Omicron variant in the Shanghai area.

China's "zero-Covid" strategy is under extreme pressure as the virus whips across the country.

China reported 13,000 Covid cases on Sunday, the most since the peak of the first pandemic wave over two years ago, as health officials said they have found a suspected new subtype of the Omicron variant in the Shanghai area.

China's "zero-Covid" strategy is under extreme pressure as the virus whips across the country.

Air strikes rocked Ukraine's strategic Black Sea port Odessa early Sunday morning, according to an interior ministry official, after Kyiv had warned that Russia was trying to consolidate its troops in the south.

"Odessa was attacked from the air," Anton Herashchenko, adviser to the interior minister, wrote on his Telegram account.

Ljubljana – One week into the election campaign, Slovenia’s political arena, as mapped by opinion polls, is split into several parts, with Janez Janša’s Democrats (SDS) and Robert Golob’s Freedom Movement farthest ahead in the election race, the newspaper Večer says in Saturday’s commentary, headlined Two Horses and the Other Rides of Fate.

Ljubljana – In its Saturday front-page commentary, the newspaper Delo criticises the government for trying to strike a fisheries agreement with Croatia shortly before the election and the state’s attitude to fishermen in general.

Vrhnika – Prime Minister Janez Janša has announced that the government will continue to intervene as long as necessary to contain high electricity prices. The main problem, in his view, is the European formula to calculate electricity prices that takes into account gas prices, but the formula is about to change.

Ljubljana – Slovenia logged 2,358 new coronavirus cases on Friday, almost a fifth fewer than a week ago as the decline continues for the ninth day running, data from the National Institute of Public Health shows. The 7-day average is now at 2,453, down by 76 from the day before, and the 14-day notification rate per 100,000 of the population declined by an additional 39 to 1,770.

Ljubljana – The centre-left opposition failed to muster support for a series of resolutions they proposed in response to what they see as political pressure on editorial independence and autonomy of the public broadcaster, as the relevant parliamentary committee discussed the situation at RTV Slovenija for four hours on Friday.

Ljubljana – The main building of the UKC Ljubljana medical centre called Hospital will be renovated in an investment valued at EUR 37 million. The government has included the project in the plan of development programmes in the 2022-2025 period.