The hunger crises in Ethiopia and drought-stricken Somalia will escalate unless we invest more in addressing root causes, United Nations food agency chiefs say, Speaking at the conclusion of a four-day visit to Ethiopia the heads of the United Nations food agencies made a joint call for greater investment in long-term activities that strengthen people’s resilience to drought and the impacts of climate shocks. Back-to-back droughts have left at least 8.5 million people in Ethiopia in need of food aid. In...

There has been concern over a number of years over the amount of pesticides and other toxins used in our fruit and veg production. Now an official investigation has found that 84 per cent of fruit and veg given out to school kids have tested positive for toxic chemicals. The tests found traces of pesticide in apples, bananas, carrots, pears, satsumas, tomatoes and raisins destined for four to six-year-olds. Two million kids get free fruit every year as part of...

The 'Royal Family' has fallen on hard times, after the boss of one of Britain's lookalike modelling companies revealed nobody wants to hire Prince Charles or Camilla - or even the Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Charles and Camilla have plunged down the pecking order of royal lookalikes since Kate and Wills burst into the public eye, and have not been booked for a public appearance at all this year. And nobody has bothered booking a Prince Philip spit at all...

A real-life 'hobbit house' is set to go under the hammer. The straw bale shepherds' hut, which is built into a hillside, is located in just over an acre of land and resembles a glamping pod. The home, which offers picturesque views of Holme Valley, West Yorks., was originally built by hobby farmers as somewhere for them and their sheep to shelter. The design is based on a medieval round house and the owners had help from one of the...

It doesn’t seem five minutes since the weather reporters were getting almost excited at the prospect of warmer weather arriving to the UK for the summer; the smell of freshly cut grass, along with the busy humming of many a pollinating insect filling the air. Now, as we enter the ninth month of the calendar year, the temperature will soon plummet and the nights will begin to draw in. This is not a time to be down, quite the opposite....

Swans are being rescued using big blue IKEA bags after hundreds were donated to a refuge for suffering animals. The Secret World Wildlife Rescue centre appealed for the trademark Frakta bags on Facebook to help them carry the majestic birds. Swans rescued by Secret World in Somerset - with the help of some Ikea bags. Staff at the IKEA Reading store spotted their post and sent over 300, attaching a heart-warming letter. "It's been talked about, made into dog-ponchos, used...

Back in November 2016, as England prepared to face India in a tough test series, much had been anticipated about their new opener, Haseeb Hameed. The young Lancashire opener, who was just 19 when he made his debut, had showed a lot of promise at county level, scoring 1,129 runs, averaging 52 in the County Championship Division One that summer, meaning a lot was to be expected when he made is Test debut And he didn’t disappoint - scoring a...

We’re at Broen Studio in Bergen. Øystein Braut, Njål Clementsen, Anders Bjelland and Øyvind Hegg-Lunde have locked into a groove that never seems to stop. Their bodies are swaying in time with the music, their heads are eagerly shaking to the song that’s pumping out of the room, and it seems like they’ll never get out of it. Maybe they don’t want to get out? It’s a little more than one year since Electric Eye released their second album, 'Different...

Film studies, media studies and drama have been ranked among the most "pointless degrees" according to new research. The study found acting was the top waste of time, followed by outdoor adventure and environment and office skills. One in four graduates now regret having gone to university, the research shows. The most common reasons to rue time spent in further education are paying too much for their degree, wasting their time and making bad choices such as not choosing subject...