Politicians, schoolchildren, religious and community groups will come together today for a major ceremony to mark the United Nations Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Church leaders today appealed to Afghan asylum seekers to end their five-day hunger strike in a historic Dublin cathedral.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission has offered to act as an intermediary to resolve the hunger strike 40 Afghans embarked on in a Dublin cathedral over the state’s refusal to grant them asylum, it emerged tonight.

Two more of the Afghan hunger strikers in Dublin's St Patricks Cathedral have been taken to hospital for dehydration.