NEW YORK (IRIN) The humanitarian community is to urge the G8 leaders to fully fund immediate emergency aid and to invest in longer-term agricultural development in poorer nations to tackle the global food crisis.

BAGHDAD (IRIN) - Despite the Iraqi premier’s order to relax security measures in two Baghdad suburbs which have seen fierce clashes since 25 March, doctors and medical staff in one of these suburbs are still unable to operate normally, according to the head of a local hospital.

PHNOM PENH, 15 January 2008 (IRIN) - Cambodia could be facing another severe dengue fever outbreak, according to health workers. “This was the most serious dengue epidemic I have experienced in nearly 30 years of working in the area,” Chang told IRIN. “And the death rate in Cambodia’s outbreak of reported cases was extraordinarily high,” he said.

NAIROBI (IRIN) - Kenya is in the throes of a humanitarian “national disaster” amid post-election violence that has left scores dead, tens of thousands displaced beyond reach of immediate assistance and many more destined to be dependent on aid for several months to come, according to the Red Cross.

NDJAMENA, (IRIN) - A UN programme to demobilise hundreds of child soldiers in Chad has been on hold since November following the resurgence of fighting between the army and rebel groups in the east.