Irish householders could soon get a virtual-reality view of the threat flood waters pose to their properties on a year-by-year basis.

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.

Ukraine is “still in a state of war” with neighbouring Russia despite a cease-fire between Kiev’s forces and Moscow-backed rebels in the east, the country’s prime minister said shortly after a second convoy of Russian trucks rolled into Ukraine.

Dozens of Iraqi families fleeing Islamic State jihadists could be resettled in Ireland within weeks, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan.

Four Chinese oil workers employed by a British company have been freed in the southern jungles where they were kidnapped 17 months ago.

The International Red Cross has declared Syria’s 16-month bloodbath a civil war, a status with implications for potential war crimes prosecutions.

War correspondent Marie Colvin has been buried in the Long Island community of her childhood where she first decided to become a reporter.

The International Red Cross has started moving women and children from the worst-hit areas of the city Homs in Syria.

Two Western journalists killed in Syria were today identified as French photojournalist Remi Ochlik and American reporter Marie Colvin.

THE Arab League yesterday overwhelmingly approved sanctions against Syria to pressure Damascus to end its eight-month crackdown on dissent, an unprecedented move by the League against an Arab state.

The Government has announced that it is giving €100,000 to help deliver humanitarian supplies to Libya.

Doctors in Libya are seeing a dramatic rise in the number of casualties, mostly civilians, the International Red Cross says.

Colombian rebels released a fourth captive but a planned handover of two others did not occur.

The High Court has today ordered internet provider UPC Communications to disclose the identity of a blogger who posted information about the Irish Red Cross on a website.

COLOMBIAN rebels handed over a 23-year-old soldier to the International Red Cross in their first release of a captive in more than a year.

Up to a quarter of Zimbabweans urgently need food aid, the Red Cross said today.

Foreign ministers and aid groups leading the Haiti earthquake effort held their first conference today on how to channel aid into a country that has lost much of its already poor infrastructure.

The people of Haiti were tonight still reeling from the earthquake that killed thousands of them and left the fate of millions more hanging on aid supplies.

Three suspected Muslim separatist rebels have been charged in connection with the kidnapping of an Irish priest in the Philippines, the national police chief said today.

NOTING the inaccuracies in Steven King’s column on Radovan Karadzic and the Yugoslavian wars of the 1990s (October 28), I feel compelled to outline a few historical facts.

Zimbabwe has declared a national emergency over its cholera epidemic and the collapse of its health system as a result of its economic crisis.

Burma’s cyclone victims are being forced from refugee camps and dumped near their wrecked homes without aid or supplies, the UN said today.

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.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon met the leader of Burma’s ruling junta today, hoping to persuade him into allowing full international access to 2.5 million cyclone survivors.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon flew over the cyclone-ravaged landscape of Burma’s heartland today, touching down to learn from officials’ briefings and heart-to-heart chats with storm victims of the misery that he hopes more foreign assistance can alleviate.

DELEGATES at an international conference being held in Dublin have been urged to use the next fortnight to change the laws on the use of deadly cluster bombs.

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

A second storm was heading towards Burma’s devastated Irrawaddy delta region tonight.

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

UN and private aid agencies today raced to prepare aid for victims of the devastating cyclone in Burma, but were awaiting a go-ahead from the ruling junta.

PRESIDENT George W Bush recently called for the release of political prisoners held by the Cuban government. He has some neck.

Chad's president insisted today that his government had total control of the country, even as he said three-quarters of his officials had disappeared during weekend battles with rebels which left hundreds dead and prompted thousands to flee the capital.

The hundreds of thousands of people missing in Iraq are just the tip of the country’s looming humanitarian crisis, the International Red Cross warned today.

Amnesty International urged Nato nations today to halt transfers of prisoners to Afghan authorities, claiming they risked being tortured.

Five Irish people including a Buddhist nun are safe and well in Burma, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern confirmed today.

Two foreigners from the International Red Cross who had helped free South Korean captives last month have been kidnapped in Afghanistan, officials said today.

Three of Ireland’s largest humanitarian organisations were today awarded €500,000 each to respond quickly to global emergencies.

The International Red Cross denounced Burma’s military government today, saying it committed abuses against civilians and detainees that caused “immense suffering”.

Clashes between Lebanese troops and Islamic militants spread today to Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp in the south, underlining the complexities the country faces in trying to defeat al Qaida-inspired fighters who are battling a continuing army onslaught in a northern camp.

International aid trickled to survivors today after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of the Solomon Islands.

Chief executive Peter Kenyon wants Chelsea to be the number one club in the world inside the next seven years.

RED CROSS officials who approached the Government with a request to inspect conditions in Irish prisons were told they should be looking at the plight of Irish prisoners held in British prisons instead.

DISASTERS killed 100,000 people throughout the world last year and much of it came about through severe neglect.

THE Irish Red Cross worker who was kidnapped in Ethiopia said he could not have been mistaken for an oil worker.