GROWING populations and expanding economic activity have strained the planet’s ecosystems over the past half century, destroying 60% of the world’s grasslands, forests, farmlands, rivers and lakes.

IRELAND’S commitment to the world’s poor has long been a source of national pride and international respect.

It ill-became Junior Minister Conor Lenihan, who is responsible for Development Co-operation and Human Rights, to level accusations against aid organisations on the funds they spend to advocate their causes.

THE Government is still committed to meeting its target of substantially increasing aid for the Third World, Health Minister Mary Harney said yesterday.

One in four children in Sierra Leone dies before the age of five, and one in 10 in Iraq.

Despite international efforts to reduce poverty, hunger is on the rise again after falling steadily during the first half of the 1990s, according to a report by the UN food agency.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged politicians all over the world to pass laws enforcing a Security Council resolution requiring every nation to stop providing money, support and sanctuary to terrorists.