Sinéad Burke is attending Davos as Ireland’s only female delegate.

Red Cross chief Peter Maurer has launched a mercy mission in Syria to seek greater protection for civilians, as opposition activists said rebel-held areas of second city Aleppo faced severe food shortages under a government offensive.

Government warplanes bombed a town in northern Syria today, killing at least 18 people, activists said, while the new UN envoy to the country acknowledged that brokering an end to the nation’s civil war will be a “very, very difficult” task.