More than 5,000 additional healthcare workers are needed to fight Ebola in the three most affected countries in West Africa, the president of the World Bank has said.

Thousands of Palestinian residents of the northern Gaza Strip fled their homes and sought safety in United Nations shelters.

The Israeli military continues to strike Palestinian targets across the Gaza Strip amidst threats of a broad ground offensive.

The UN Security Council will meet tomorrow to vote on a resolution on the Ukraine crisis but permanent member Russia is virtually certain to veto it.

Children in Syria have been tortured, maimed and sexually abused by president Bashar Assad’s forces and recruited for combat by the rebels fighting to topple him, a new United Nations report said.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has deplored the use of chemical weapons in Syria and demanded that those responsible are held accountable.

Joyous, singing South Africans gathered in the rain today to honour Nelson Mandela at a massive memorial service that is expected to draw some 100 heads of state and other luminaries, united in tribute to a global symbol of reconciliation.

The US, Britain and France have said they believe that the Assad regime was responsible for a chemical weapons attack in Damascus last month.

The United Nations yesterday demanded Syria give its chemical weapons experts immediate access to rebel-held Damascus suburbs where poison gas appears to have killed hundreds just a few miles from the UN team’s hotel.

The death toll from attacks on volunteers vaccinating children in Pakistan against polio rose to nine today, officials said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend the summit of the Nonaligned Movement of mainly developing countries in Tehran next week despite strong opposition from Israel and Jewish groups outraged at Iran’s calls for the destruction of Israel, the UN announced today.

Arab nations have said they will go to the UN General Assembly and seek approval of a new resolution on Syria.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned that Syria is “clearly on the edge” of a descent into deeper violence following the latest massacre in the country.

Syrian troops shelled a rebel-held area of Homs and sent reinforcements to border areas today.

An all-encompassing climate deal “may be beyond our reach for now,” UN leader Ban Ki-moon admitted today.

European leaders hailed it as a victory, Libyan exiles celebrated in the streets and the mother of one of Muammar Gaddafi’s many victims said she was treating herself to an expensive bottle of champagne.

LIBYAN rebels have taken over the eastern oil hub of Brega, in their most significant advance in months against forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

NATIONS yesterday agreed to launch a UN-led investigation of Syria’s bloody crackdown on its uprising, demanding that its government immediately stop the violence, release political prisoners and lift restrictions on the news media and access to the internet.

Anger over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a church in the US has fuelled a second day of deadly violence in Afghanistan, where demonstrators set cars and shops on fire in a riot which left nine protesters dead.

Muammar Gaddafi today said the UN resolution authorising international military intervention in Libya was “invalid”.

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama yesterday branded Libya's crackdown and orders to shoot protesters as “outrageous” and called on the world to speak as one to hold the government accountable.

Six Kenyan leaders were today accused of being behind organised violence following the country's 2007 election that left more than 1,000 people dead.

The burnt bodies of two male civilians have been found on an island attacked by North Korea, South Korean officials said.

GLOBAL leaders have condemned North Korea for provoking an exchange of artillery fire with the South yesterday.

About 20,000 refugees headed home to Burma today after fleeing to Thailand as fighting followed a general election that is certain to keep the ruling military and its allies in power.

HURRICANE Tomas flooded the earthquake- shattered remains of a Haitian town yesterday, forcing families who had already lost their homes in one disaster to flee another.

Pakistan thanked the world for coming to its aid and said more than 20 million flood victims now knew that nations and people around the globe were standing with them during the worst disaster the country has ever faced.

Britain's International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has said the world's response to the floods in Pakistan has been "woefully inadequate".

Angry flood survivors in Pakistan today blocked a road to protest against the slow delivery of aid, as a forecast of more flooding increased the urgency of the massive international relief effort.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in flood-ravaged Pakistan today to boost relief efforts as the 20 million people made homeless grew increasingly desperate.

A case of the deadly waterborne disease cholera has been confirmed in Pakistan’s flood-ravaged northwest, and aid workers expect there to be more, the UN said today.

THE site of the world’s worst atomic bomb attack echoed with choirs and Buddhist prayers as Hiroshima prepared to mark its biggest memorial yet and the first to be attended by the US and other major nuclear powers.

The Taliban has today denounced this week's international conference on Afghanistan's future, saying the "vague and terrible agenda" showed that the US and its allies intended to abandon the country and blame their ultimate defeat on the Afghan government.

British troops are to pull out of Afghanistan by 2014 according to a secret document mapping out a blueprint for the withdrawal of coalition forces, it was reported today.

Thai troops clashed with protesters for a third day in Bangkok today, as streets in the centre of the city became battlegrounds and authorities struggled to contain Red Shirt demonstrators demanding the prime minister's resignation.

Security forces and agitated protesters faced off at a major intersection after bloody grenade attacks rattled Thailand’s chaotic capital – a scene of tense, weeks-long confrontations between die-hard demonstrators and a wavering government.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promised Haitians that the world has not forgotten the quake-torn nation as it suffers from a shortage of shelter and growing violence in teeming camps for the homeless.

Hollywood actor Sean Penn is helping out with earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.

DRUMBEATS called the faithful to a Sunday Mass praising God amid a scene resembling the Apocalypse – a collapsed cathedral in a city cloaked with the smell of death, where aid is slow to reach survivors and rescue crews battle to pry anever-smaller number of the living from the ruins.

Rescuers pulled a dehydrated but otherwise uninjured woman from the ruins of a luxury hotel in the Haitian capital early today, an event greeted with applause from onlookers witnessing rare good news in a city otherwise filled with corpses, rubble and desperation.

Charles J Hanley reports from Copenhagen that the outcome of the conference will ultimately be shaped by the United States and China

A showdown between the world’s two largest polluters loomed over the Copenhagen climate talks talks today as China accused the United States and other rich nations of backtracking on a deal to fight global warming.

Stevie Wonder broke down in tears during a recent TV tribute to Michael Jackson.

A leading member of a powerful political clan was arrested today accused of leading the Philippines election massacre.