More than 100 Palestinians, including children and women, were killed and dozens of others injured since dawn on Saturday as a result of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the United Nations World Food Programme for its efforts to combat hunger. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the WFP had acted "as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict". Here's what you need to know about the Rome-based organisation:
According to an official statement by the Committee, the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 has been decided to be given to the World Food Programme "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict."
United Nations leaders and agencies have welcomed the entry of a humanitarian aid convoy into Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt but noted that it is only a small beginning, still far from enough and reiterated their appeal for an immediate ceasefire.
World Food Programme executive director Josette Sheeran said the organisation is hoping to reach 108 million people in 74 countries this year with food aid, but the UN body expects to receive only $3.7 billion of the $6.7 billion needed for 2009.
In a ceremony held in Amritsar, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla along with Afghan ambassador Farid Mamundzay and World Food Program Country director Bishaw Parajuli flagged off the first convoy of 50 trucks carrying the consignment.
Due to political uncertainty following the collapse of the former government to the Taliban, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Saturday estimated that 500,000 Afghans will leave the country in the next four months.
The anti-government protesters in Sri Lanka on Sunday continued to occupy the residences of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, a day after they stormed into the premises and set on fire one of the buildings protesting over the nation's severe economic crisis even as the island nation is still in the dark about the embattled President's whereabouts.
Announcing a partnership between the UN World Food Programme and the Millenia Villages Project, WFP chief Josette Sheeran said, "Hunger is on the march and is right now the most threatening Millennium Development Goal".
WFP is calling for further support to alleviate world hunger, as the G-8 summit gathers this week in L'Aquila, Italy, to discuss the global food security crisis, UN spokeswoman, Michele Montas, told reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday.
High economic growth rates have failed to improve food security in India leaving the country facing a crisis in its rural economy, the United Nations World Food Programme warned.
The guidelines note that while there is not enough evidence yet to measure the impact of school closures on the disease transmission rates, the adverse effects of school closures on children's safety and learning are well documented. Gains made in increasing access to children's education in recent decades risk being lost and, in the worse cases, reversed completely.
India has expressed concern that foreign fighters involved in the conflict in Syria have moved to other places as mercenaries, as New Delhi underlined that it is ready to play a constructive role in the Security Council to help realise the objective of the West Asian country reclaiming its place in the comity of nations.
Six months after Nepal was devastated by a massive earthquake, relief efforts are literally running out of steam as weeks of protests against a new constitution have led to a critical shortage of fuel. Naomi Mihara reports on how NGOs are racing against time to reach aid to the people before winter sets in.
About one-third of the world's poor live in India but there are countries where 88 per cent of population is extremely poor.
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