AS Irish people make record amounts of donations to the Haitian earthquake disaster, efforts to get emergency aid to victims is being described as “random, chaotic and minimal”.

DONATIONS for earthquake-stricken Haiti flooded into Irish charities yesterday as rescue workers on the ground struggled to help survivors and deliver much-needed aid to the country.

AS many as 100,000 people are thought to have died in the devastating earthquake which shook the capital of Haiti.

HOPES of greatly increasing the number of children attending school in poorer countries within the next six years are on target thanks in part to Irish donations.

The writing was on the wall for world hunger today as former United Nations chief Kofi Annan was announced as the key speaker at a major global conference on the crisis.

THE prospect of cutbacks in foreign aid given to poor countries has not been ruled out by Overseas Development Minister Peter Power.

The Government has announced almost €3m in humanitarian aid for Iraq.

Overseas Development Minister Peter Power will launch a new Irish development agency today focusing on eradicating poverty in Africa.

The Government today allocated €10m in grants for projects run by Irish and international humanitarian groups in Africa, Asia and Central and South America.

The Minister for Overseas Development has voiced concerns that Irish aid being sent to Burma might not reach the correct people.

The Government today pledged almost €2m towards clearing deadly landmines from three war-torn countries in Africa and central Asia.

The Vietnamese prime minister will today sign a tax pact with the Irish Government during a two-day official visit.

The Government wants more recruits for its international disaster response unit.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will attend the EU-Africa Summit in Portugal today.

IRELAND’S commitment to helping to reduce hunger in developing countries will be reiterated today.

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

US President George Bush today seemed resigned to the possibility that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz could lose his job over conflict-of-interest charges involving his girlfriend.

Governments across the world must tackle the HIV/Aids pandemic which has now reached a new high of more than 40 million people with the disease, charities demanded today as they marked World Aids Day.