As world leaders gather for make or break talks about halving extreme global poverty, development agencies, including Britain's Christian Aid, warn that progress is being hampered by the activities of rich countries and big business.

The UK-based international development agency Christian Aid has welcomed the announcement yesterday that the UK government is to give Bangladesh £75 million to adapt to climate change, but urges much more to be done.

The UK-based international development agency Christian Aid is among those urging Caribbean heads of government to refuse to sign a new trade deal that the European Union (EU) is attempting to force onto the region.

The United Nations is warning that more than half a million people are in need of emergency assistance after storms Fay, Gustav and Hanna battered the island of Haiti. Church and development groups are responding with urgent aid.

The UK-based development agency Christian Aid has launched an emergency appeal in response to the devastating floods in Bihar, India. More than 2.5 million people have been affected and it's feared that thousands have died.

A number of key African civil society organisations have come together with church development campaigners at the close of the United Nations climate change talks, to demand billions in compensation for the impacts of global warming.

People in Britain rate committed campaigners such as Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King far more highly than celebrities such as Sir Bob Geldof and Angelina Jolie, a recent YouGov poll commissioned by Christian Aid shows.

The United Kingdom rates committed campaigners such as Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King far more highly than celebrities and more than one in ten would be prepared to break the law to campaign for a cause they believed in.

Christian Aid says the blame for the collapse of the latest Doha Development Round talks in Geneva lies squarely with major agricultural exporting countries putting self-interest above other considerations.

Daleep Mukarji, the director of UK-based international development agency Christian Aid, has been awarded the OBE in recognition of a long career dedicated to working for the elimination of poverty worldwide. Visit Christian Aid's Present Aid site here