This was announced by the CEO of Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (RAF), Qatar, on Friday at a press conference.

German agricultural authorities on Sunday identified locally grown bean sprouts as the likely cause of the deadly E coli outbreak that has killed 22 people and sickened over 2,200 others in Europe.

The Lower Saxony agriculture ministry sent an alert on Sunday warning people to stop eating the sprouts, Ministry Spokesman Gert Hahne said.

The drab and dull climate meetings in Bonn finally saw some sparks of excitement on Thursday when the grouping of small island states sparred with oil producing nations led by Saudi Arabia over the need to have a scientific evaluation done on options for restricting the global rise in temperatures to within 1.5 degree from pre-industrial levels.

Rising oil prices is forcing Gulf states to invest in gas production. Some analysts estimate that the cumulative supply shortfall for the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council up to 2015 will reach at least 7,000bn cubic feet. To put the number into perspective, according to BP the UK's entire remaining proven gas reserves total just under 17,000bn cu ft. "There is a Middle East regional gas crisis brewing," says Rajnish Goswami at Wood Mackenzie, the Edinburgh-based energy consultancy.

AL-Jazeera