Under mounting pressure Hamid Karzai is being urged to prosecute 15 senior appointees in his cabinet. This comes after numerous allegations of corruption and international efforts to clean up the Afghan government. Suspicions of embezzlement and bribery may hurt efforts to stabilize the region.

In the wake of the devastation brought by successive typhoons to the Philippines, Filipinos face the greater task of rehabilitating the hardest-hit areas of the country.

Today World Food Program appealed to all news reporters and blogger to use their power to call on their readers to help the flood victims in Philippines.

The United Nations is appealing for more than $500 million to assist nearly 2 million Pakistanis displaced by fighting between army troops and Taliban militants in Swat Valley. The United Nations says the scale and speed of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Pakistan is extraordinary.

The pro-Hamas activists sailing on "The Dignity" relief boat were rammed by an Israeli ship. They did not heed the warnings by the Israelis to turn back away from the war zone. The former Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney is reported to be in the boat. Our calls to the Green Party did not result in any extra information. The person who picked up the phone said the press officer is out of the country.

United Nations aid agencies say they have been able to reach about one million survivors of Cyclone Nargis in Burma, also known as Myanmar, with aid. That is slightly more than 40 percent of those affected by the devastating storm, which killed nearly 80,000 people, with 56,000 still missing. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

With the devastating earthquake rendering millions of people homeless apart from leaving over 51,000 dead, China on Thursday appealed to international community to urgently dispatch 3.3 million tents to the areas battered by the 8.0 magnitude temblor.

The international community is offering aid to military-ruled Burma as the death toll from Saturday's cyclone has risen to nearly 22,500.

The United Nations food agency has sounded a fresh alarm that fast rising food prices across the globe are eroding its capacity to serve millions of people already dependent on it. The U.N. secretary-general says the steeply rising price of food has developed into a global crisis, urges immediate action.

The World Bank's chief Zoellick outlines plan to advance development in Africa in face of market turmoil, high food and energy prices.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is experiencing serious financial problems due to rising food prices. The head of the United Nations food aid agency, Josette Sheeran, says nearly 340 million euros is needed just to finance operations already in the pipeline.

South Korea has announced a multi-million dollar aid package for North Korea, where hundreds of thousands of people are suffering because of floods. The United States has also pledged to send help. VOA's Kurt Achin has more from Seoul.