AN end to a “business as usual” approach to fighting world hunger was sought by Ireland at the UN World Food Summit in Rome yesterday.

MORE than eight years after a pledge to halve the number of the world’s hungry by 2015, that number has hardly budged - with one child dying of hunger every five seconds - a UN agency said yesterday.

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.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe skirted a EU travel ban to attend the UN World Food Summit in Rome today despite complaints that his policies are worsening the food crisis in the country.