EU report focuses on hardships of EU's Roma population

A report issued by a European Union agency says that about 80 percent of almost 34,000 Roma, or Gypsies, surveyed in nine EU nations live below the poverty level.

The report also says that every third Roma child goes to bed hungry at least once a month, while 50 percent between 6 and 24 do not attend school.

The European Union has emphasized bettering Roma lives after centuries of discrimination, climaxing in the Holocaust that led to death of about half a million Roma.

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights report notes some improvement since the last survey in 2011. But Tuesday's report warns of continuing "widespread deprivation ... destroying Roma lives" in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Hungary, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia. [AP]