Ireland is doubling its financial aid to the disaster-struck Philippines.

Around 100 tonnes of emergency supplies from Ireland is arriving today in the Philippines as part of an international relief effort in the devastated country.

AT THE United Nations in New York today, Trócaire director Justin Kilcullen will leave the international stage. In a few weeks he will retire after 20 years leading and 30 years working for Trócaire.

Germany has said it is suspending planned budget aid to Rwanda following allegations that the country supported eastern Congo’s latest rebellion.

THE EU is appointing a special representative for the Horn of Africa, focusing firstly on Somalia, the country plagued by famine and war.

It is understood that Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will offer to resign in the next hour or so.

Ireland will provide emergency aid valued at €300,000 for thousands of earthquake victims in Turkey, it was announced tonight.

TRADE and Development Minister Jan O’Sullivan has asked Health Minister James Reilly to get the HSE to rearrange its budget to retain 25 beds at the Limerick’s main hospital that are due to be taken out of use this week.

INTERNATIONAL governments have collectively failed to act to prevent the famine declared yesterday in two regions of Somalia, according to the head of Oxfam Ireland.

Spain placed striking air traffic controllers under military authority today and threatened them with jail terms in an unprecedented emergency order to get planes back in the skies and clear chaotic airports clogged with irate travellers.

Spain’s air traffic controllers’ planned strike will not be before August 16, they said today.

Holidaymakers could face air chaos later this month if Spanish air traffic controllers vote for a strike today over what they call excessive working hours.

Overseas development minister Peter Power will this week get first-hand accounts of Irish efforts to rebuild earthquake-hit Haiti, the Government said today.

Spanish officials have blamed summer solstice partygoers for crossing the tracks into the path of an express train that crashed into and killed at least 13 people

A GOVERNMENT-leased plane leaves for Haiti today with 80,000 tonnes of aid for the victims of the earthquake, one of the largest consignments of humanitarian supplies ever provided directly by the state.

Sting operations to target off-licenses selling alcohol to underage drinkers are being authorised in the North, it was announced today.

The future of the Canadian Grand Prix continues to hang in the balance.

The airline involved in last week’s plane disaster in Madrid had considered switching aircraft at the last minute because of a mechanical problem, a government minister said today.

THE European Union yesterday backed the deployment of peacekeeping monitors to Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia to supervise a ceasefire between Russia and Georgia after days of heavy fighting.

Stormont Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie was today warned that her credibility would be damaged if she lets a deadline slip for loyalist paramilitaries to disarm.

The G8 leaders pledged today to lift Africa out of poverty and proposed a $60bn plan to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

Belfast tonight took another major step towards normality with the removal of the final security barriers within the city centre.

Former overseas development minister Liz O'Donnell today expressed concern about the Government reaching its overseas aid commitments for the next seven years.

AS the UN prepares to abandon many of the ambitious plans for tackling world poverty and injustice, an appeal was made to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to give a lead to the rest of the world on overseas aid.

THE Government yesterday signed up to a new EU timeframe aimed at delivering 0.7% of GNP for overseas development aid by 2015 - a full eight years after the original deadline.

THE Government is to withdraw €2 million in aid from Uganda over the failure of the country’s leadership to implement political reform.

THE Government last night accused the Sudanese authorities of attempting to cover up worsening atrocities in Darfur by refusing to allow journalists to travel to the region.

Almost 500 workers at a Panasonic electronics plant in Wales are being issued with redundancy notices which were threatened earlier this year, it was confirmed today.

A FORMER governor of Sudan’s stricken Darfur region yesterday appealed to the Irish Government to intervene to help solve what has become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Government pledged tonight to keep up the pressure on Sudanese authorities, vowing maximum support for refugees in the war-torn country.

AS THE humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur province deepened at the weekend, Development Minister Tom Kitt pledged an additional €3 million in aid for the troubled region.

“WE are here because they came on camels and horses and attacked us. We lost everything; the village, our home, all our things, our animals, our lives.”

GOVERNMENT officials last night rejected claims that a visit by Development Minister Tom Kitt to Sudan was a waste of time.

At least five people have been killed when a passenger train crashed into a freight train in central Spain. Twenty other people were missing feared dead, officials said.

IRELAND is one of the countries afraid the European Union will be forced to link its annual €7 billion development aid budget to a new aggressive foreign policy aimed at fighting terrorism and illegal immigrants.

IT is a measure of Bertie Ahern’s capacity to exude hypocrisy that he actually stood up before about 190 of the world’s leaders at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg and lectured them about aid to the Third World.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has criticised the United States for trying to obstruct Earth Summit plans to protect the poor and save the environment.

A rescue package to save troubled Belfast shipyard Harland and Wolff from closure today appeared to be edging towards government approval.