Two of the country’s longest serving overseas development agencies have joined forces to fight hunger in Africa under a merger that will make them the biggest organisation of their kind in Ireland or Britain.

Representatives of key donor nations were gathering today for a summit to raise money for quake-devastated Pakistan, as international relief officials warned that only weeks remained to reach hundreds of thousands of people before the winter snow cuts them off in remote Himalayan villages.

A British woman driving a car with Canadian diplomatic plates was detained near the Gaza Strip after Israeli officials said traces of explosives were found in the boot.