More than 200 organisations including charities, councils, businesses and schools have signed up to an initiative that emphasises the importance of global education in tackling the world’s problems.

The US government's plans to give every State a veto over a crucial arms trade treaty must be rejected by the British government, Oxfam and Amnesty International UK have said.

The global development and aid agency Oxfam says that today's budget is a step forward on climate change, good news on the government's aid promises, but a missed opportunity as far as tackling UK poverty is concerned.

A hard-hitting report has today warned that things will get much worse for the fifth of the population already living in poverty, and for millions more whose livelihoods are threatened by the recession.