MANILA Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) – Warnings have been raised over food security in the Philippines as the El Niño phenomenon wreaks havoc across vast agricultural areas, leaving staple crops such as rice dying in parched earth, officials say.

KABUL Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) – As the world marks International Women’s Day, ambivalence, impunity, weak law enforcement and corruption continue to undermine women’s rights in Afghanistan, despite a July 2009 law banning violence against women, rights activists say.

A North Korean colonel tells how he shopped in Europe for his country’s dictators’ lavish lifestyles, in a new book.

A ski centre sets the record for the largest number of kilted skiers and snowboarders on a slope at the same time.

BOSASSO Monday, March 08, 2010 (IRIN) – A long civil war, frequent droughts, unemployment and high food prices have led to an increase in the number of street children in Bosasso, the commercial capital of Somalia’s self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, with NGOs and government officials calling for urgent steps to resolve the problem.