Tony Blair has called for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan's Darfur region to stop the "terrible suffering" of millions of people.

U.S. lawmakers have focused on two situations in Africa as they wind down their business in the 109th Congress .

The withdrawal from Abéché in eastern Chad of non essential United Nations staff, including those working for the World Health Organization (WHO), has left refugee and displaced populations and local communities facing a potential health crisis, WHO said today.

Officials from Somalia's Islamist movement report heavy clashes between their militias and Ethiopian forces who back Somalia's interim government.

Five years ago, World Vision and other humanitarian organizations urged diamond wholesalers and retailers to stop the sale of so-called "conflict diamonds" - stones mined illegally and sold to fuel wars in Africa.

"With weak surveillance and grinding poverty, Africa is being declared the new frontier in the fight against bird flu, but some of its states should be able to control the disease," a top animal health expert said.

Exchanges among African countries of experiences on the two-year old Treatment Acceleration Project (TAP) was at the pinnacle of the World Bank's two-week long activities in observance of HIV and AIDS, which started on November 27 and will conclude tomorrow, December 7.

World Vision's expert on the illegal diamond trade, lauding Edward Zwick's new movie, "Blood Diamond," contends that, while Sierra Leone's war is over, diamonds continue to fund conflicts in Africa, and that the diamond industry and governments must do more to protect the legitimate diamond trade.

South African singer, Yvonne Chaka Chaka - the woman known as the Princess of Africa - today called on African nations to ensure funds to fight malaria aren't stolen or siphoned off.

The U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), announced today that it is providing $100,000 to the Kenyan Red Cross Society to support emergency relief assistance to hard-hit flood victims in affected areas of Kenya.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most dangerous region in the world for a baby to be born - with 1.16 million babies dying each year in the first 28 days of life - but six low-income African countries, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania, have made significant progress in reducing deaths among newborn babies, according to a new report published today.

Africa is the continent that will suffer most under global warming. Past history gives us lessons on the likely effects of future climate change. Of greatest concern are the 'large infrequent disturbances' to the climate as these will have the most devastating effects.