A leading US church agency has renewed its call for action on urgent health services for the 1.5 million people displaced by ongoing battles between the Pakistan military and Taliban insurgents in the country’s North West region.

Church World Service says that Cambodians have been significantly reducing incidences of typhoid and diarrhoea by drinking water filtered through bio-sand water filter devices in the home or office.

The most severe drought in a decade is fuelling a food crisis in Afghanistan that threatens millions with food shortages and possible starvation, says global humanitarian agency Church World Service.

The head of a church agency providing aid to the Palestinian community will speak on the current crisis during Ecumenical Advocacy Days, the USA's largest annual gathering of Christian peace and justice activists.

Without immediate, massive intervention and assistance, starvation in Kenya will become a deadly reality, according to a new assessment report from global humanitarian agency Church World Service.

Humanitarian church, aid and refugee groups have called on President Bush, US leaders, the UN, and Israeli and Egyptian ambassadors to uphold the rights of protection for the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.

International development agency Church World Service is calling for concerted and urgent action by world bodies, governments and aid agencies to attack hunger, malnutrition and the continued toll of high food prices.

While the world looks elsewhere, the humanitarian and political problems in Burma continue. But global church and development agencies are continuing to work on the short- and long-term development issues facing the country.

Interfaith leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean have met with officials from three major global multilateral financial bodies to discuss ways of advancing the struggle for the MDGs and against poverty and inequality.

In response to massive human suffering in Iraq, the US ecumenical relief and development agency Church World Service is mounting a two-pronged effort aimed at providing essential services for vulnerable children.