Zimbabwe is on the brink of having 100,000 infections of cholera, a preventable disease that has already killed 4,283 people there and remains a serious threat, the Zimbabwean Red Cross and its partners said on Tuesday.

Washington defended its plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions as among the most ambitious in the world Tuesday as major economies meeting in Paris rallied around a Mexican plan to raise cash to fight climate change.

Only a short time ago, African farmland seemed of little interest to outsiders. But last year's food crisis and water scarcity in many countries has changed foreigners' appetite with the result being that fertile soil in Africa is now sought by international investors to the tune of hundreds of thousands of hectares.

The number of people displaced by conflict and natural disaster in Central and East Africa is now more than 11 million, the United Nations said on Monday.

The Water and Sanitation Extension Programme (WASEP), an initiative of Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan (AKPBS, P), was declared as one of the twelve winners of the Dubai International Award for Best Practices (DIABP).

Poor countries already suffering from the impact of climate change urgently need up to $2 billion to help adjust and cope, a new report submitted to the United Nations said on Thursday.

The funds are needed to help the most vulnerable countries, mostly in Africa and small island states, the Stockholm-based Commission on Climate Change and Development (CCCD) said.

The world faces disputes over the seabed from the South China Sea to the North Pole at a May 13 UN deadline for claims meant as a milestone towards the final fixing of maritime boundaries.

Somalia's worst drought in a decade is pushing growing numbers of children into near-famine conditions and deepening the humanitarian crisis caused by political violence, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.

Some 3.2 million Somalis are among an estimated 19 million people in the Horn of Africa in urgent need of life-saving food assistance, top UN aid officials said.