UN's World Health Organization

World Blood Donor Day this year once again will be held on June 14, but in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was established in 2004 to raise awareness of the need for safe blood, and to thank donors for their life-saving gift.

Global homicide rates have plunged 16 percent since the beginning of the century, but nearly half a million people were still murdered worldwide in 2012, a UN report said Dec. 10.