Europe is considering plans to spend more than 5 billion pounds on a string of giant solar power stations along the Mediterranean desert shores of northern Africa and the Middle East.

There are growing problems in Africa with trafficking in materials that could be used to make a dirty bomb, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has warned.

The prospect of the United States delivering genetically modified food aid has inflamed a debate in starving southern Africa about the gene-altered foods. At stake are the lives of 13 million people in six countries in the region in desperate need of food. Without urgent assistance, their situation will deteriorate to famine in the next few months, aid agencies have warned.

Thousands of tons of U.S. emergency food aid destined for crisis-stricken Zimbabwe has been diverted to other countries, and a new shipload may be diverted within days, because the donations include genetically modified corn that the Zimbabwean government does not want to accept.

Many African scientists believe genetically modified (GM) crops offer the only hope of avoiding mass starvation on the continent.

Experts from the UK are helping African countries to develop the world's first early warning system to prevent malaria epidemics.