The Government is providing €2.75m for vulnerable populations in the world, including the migrants who are trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.

Facebook is stepping up its efforts to fight ebola by adding a button designed to make it easier for its users to donate to charities battling the disease.

Cork is among four cities worldwide chosen for a unique project set up by the International Red Cross to look at using emerging technology, including robots and drones, to ease flood risks.

Rescuers are digging through mud and debris to retrieve more bodies strewn across a farming valley in the southern Philippines by a powerful typhoon, as the death toll from the storm passed 500.

A powerful typhoon that swept away emergency shelters, a military camp and possibly entire families in the southern Philippines has killed around 350 people with nearly 400 missing.

Twin typhoons are renewing fears of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea, where poor drainage, widespread deforestation and crumbling infrastructure can turn even a routine rainstorm into a catastrophic flood.

MORE than 80 tonnes of government aid including blankets, water tanks and tents have arrived in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The Irish Red Cross announced today that it is deploying two experts to Port-au-Prince in response to the devastating earthquake which struck Haiti a week ago.

More than €450,000 has been raised by the Irish Red Cross in its Haiti Appeal it was announced today.

The global fight against HIV/Aids needs smart money, not more money, the world’s largest humanitarian agency claimed today.

UN helicopters fanned out across Burma’s devastated Irrawaddy Delta for the first time today, ferrying critical supplies to villages which have been struggling to survive since the May 2-3 cyclone, an official said.

Foreign aid workers were today poised to reach the more than a million Burma cyclone victims still waiting for their first assistance, providing the military government gives them permission.

Lack of clean water will be the biggest killer in cyclone-hit Burma in the coming days, the international Red Cross warned today.

Ordinary Burmese are increasingly stepping in to help the country’s cyclone victims in the face of the chaotic efforts of their government.

China issued a rare public appeal for rescue equipment today as it struggled to cope with the aftermath of this week’s earthquake.

International aid agencies mustered everything from anti-snake venom kits to plastic roofing today, warning that a second wave of deaths would follow the Burma cyclone disaster unless the military regime let in more aid quickly.

The United Nations said today another cyclone was forming near Burma, less than two weeks after it was devastated by a killer storm.

The United States was launching its first relief airlift to cyclone-hit Burma today after prolonged negotiations with the country’s military rulers.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says a cargo ship carrying relief supplies for more than 1,000 cyclone victims in Burma has sunk.

AID agencies appealed for funds Friday to tackle floods that have swept across at least 18 African countries, killing close to 300 already and heightening the risks of disease outbreaks.

Torrential rains in North Korea have forced thousands of families from their homes and left at least 200 people dead, an aid official said.

The Government will donate €500,000 in emergency aid for flood victims in Asia.

Typhoon Prapiroon roared towards southern China today packing winds of up to 80 mph.

THE United Nations almost doubled its emergency aid request for quake-stricken Pakistan to $550 million (€455 million) yesterday as aid workers warned thousands of survivors face death from exposure and disease.

A POWERFUL earthquake hit a mountainous region of south-east Iran yesterday, killing at least 420 people, injuring hundreds and destroying villages, officials said.

Survivors frantically searched for loved ones in sub zero temperatures tonight after a powerful earthquake flattened villages in the mountains of central Iran, killing at least 420 people and injuring more than 900.

The international Red Cross said today it was winding down its appeal for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami because it has raised enough money.

Aid workers in one of history’s largest relief efforts today struggled to get food, water and medicine to survivors of the massive quake and tsunamis that the Red Cross says likely killed more than 100,000 people across Asia and Africa.

THE United Nations last night began to mobilise what it called the biggest relief operation in its history to cope with the disaster caused by one of the worst tsunamis in history.

THE death toll from the tsunami disaster doubled again yesterday, soaring towards the 100,000 mark.

AID agencies Trócaire and Concern will between them donate €2 million towards victims of the tsunami disaster, matching the Government's contribution.

The International Red Cross raised to 68,000 the death toll from Sunday’s earthquake and tsunamis in the Indian Ocean today but a UN expert said 80,000 people could have died in one Indonesian province alone.

THE world’s biggest aid operation geared up yesterday to help Asian countries stricken by tsunamis that smashed coastal towns and left misery and the risk of disease in their wake.

THE sea and wreckage of coastal towns around the Indian Ocean yielded up tens of thousands of bodies yesterday pushing the toll from Sunday's tsunami above 60,000.

AID agencies and governments were yesterday coming to terms with the long-term consequences of the devastating tidal waves which have killed thousands in Asia.

The death toll from the tsunamis that struck nine Indian Ocean countries risen to 23,700 tonight, the international Red Cross said.

THE international Red Cross said yesterday it needs €150 million to fund its aid work worldwide next year.

HIV/Aids is threatening the international Red Cross, with thousands of aid workers hit by the disease, the organisation said in Geneva today.

The international Red Cross today appealed for £850,000 (€1.34m) to help 150,000 people forced from their homes in Bangladesh by monsoon floods.

The world’s largest humanitarian network, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, is collaborating with the renowned US-based Fritz Institute in the design of a state-of-the-art, web-based humanitarian logistics software.

The death toll from the earthquake that rocked southern Peru on June 23 has been lowered from 115 people to 77.

Police are hunting the killers of Fiji's Red Cross chief, who played a major role in aiding hostages during last year's nationalist coup.