A PLANE carrying emergency food and equipment took off for Sudan today where thousands remain in the grip of a humanitarian crisis.

Liberian rebels shattered a day-old pledge to cease-fire, lobbing mortars at neighbourhoods crowded with refugees and briefly capturing a key bridge in the war-ruined capital desperately short of food and water.

The first International Red Cross convoy carrying medical supplies today reached Basra, the charity said.

The average European dairy cow has a higher income than half of the world’s population, according to a leading charity.

Aid agencies are warning of a humanitarian disaster in the Democratic Republic of Congo after an erupting volcano forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

Protesters were arriving in the Italian city of Genoa today to find it transformed into a fortress.