Two weeks of floods have killed 1,000 people and displaced 20 million more in Pakistan. Food and water are scarce; houses and infrastructure destroyed. In parts, flood waters continue to rise. Even where the water has abated, health crises loom. The UN says outbreaks of cholera and other water-borne diseases endemic to Pakistan could happen, as the Al Jazeera video below outlines. Over 1.5 million cases of diarrhoea are predicted. 

In the video from Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) below, a doctor outlines some of the medical problems he has already encountered - injury due to collapsing houses, infections due to overcrowding and hygiene. Between 100 and 120 patients are seen daily at this clinic in Charsadda. Another MSF video shows the distribution of relief goods to Afghani victims of the floods at Kamp Khorasan. 

Today, the EU committed another €30m in emergency funding, bringing the total in EU relief aid to €70m. More is needed, say analysts. 

Fragile peace could be broken in Lebanon if Hezbollah fails to convince of Israel's involvement in Hariri murder. By Malachy Browne in Beirut.

The Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah has implicated Israel in the 2005 assassination of then Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri. In a two hour press conference aired on television and radio last night, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah outlined details of alleged Israeli espionage in Lebanon dating to 1997. It showed aerial footage allegedly intercepted by Hezbollah from Israeli reconnaissance flights outlining the route taken by Rafik Hariri on the day he was killed. Hezbollah has previously used intercepted footage in attacks on Israeli forces.

(Pictured: Hassan Nasrallah giving a press conference last night aired on Hezbollah TV station Al-Manar)

Grass roots activists have proposed a new system to elect the EU President. The system would allow candidates outside the largest political grouping in the EU Parliament to run for the Presidency. By Brendan Kelly.

Under the rules established by the Lisbon treaty, the president of the European Parliment is selected from the largest political grouping in parliament. Inspired by the failure of the Party of European Socialists (PES) to nominate a candidate to lead the grouping in the run up to the European Parlimentary elections, a grassroots activist movement within the party has proposed that candidates for the presidency would be subject to a United States-style primary whereby members of the grouping's consituent parties would be entitled to vote for their choice of candidate.

The proposals, currently championed in Ireland by PES coordinator Desmond O'Toole, would in the opinion of those supporting lead to an increasingly democratised European Parliament.

Dunnes Stores has received a petition signed by over 6,000 people demanding that it cease stocking Israeli goods. By Eamonn Costello.

Around fifty protesters gathered with flags and banners at Dunnes Stores head office in Georges Street, Dublin at lunchtime yesterday to support the boycott.

The petition was organised by the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) following the attack by Israel on the 'Freedom Flotilla'. IPSC national chairperson, Freda Hughes said at the rally: "We are here today to support the call from consumers in Ireland for a boycott of Israeli produce, until Israel fully complies with international law, ends the siege of Gaza, ends the occupation of Palestine, and affords full and equal rights to Palestinian people."

Monday next marks the six-month anniversary of the most severe earthquake to hit Haiti in over 200 years. The magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed over 230,000 people, left a million more homeless and affected over three million Haitians. Most of the homes around the capital Port Au Prince were destroyed and the national infrastructure smashed, obstructing the relief effort. By Eamonn Costello.

The Boston Consulting Group is one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the world.

Among its former employees are Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, Mitt Romney who ran for the US presidency in 2008, Ira Magaziner, former policy adviser to President Clinton and an adviser to the IDA here, and lots of business high-flyers and lorry loads of academics. Its research work carries a lot of weight.

(Pictured: BHP Billiton, the Australian mining company. The company's anti-taxation advertising campaign placed pressure on Australian PM Kevin Rudd to resign)

The Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) held a debate on Tuesday entitled, ‘Israel: Is Boycott the Answer?’. The debate was held following Minister Michael Martin's expulsion of an Israeli official for the alleged forgery of Irish passports linked with the murder of a Hamas official in Dubai.

Israel claims it had compelling reasons for hijacking the Free Gaza ships in international waters and kidnapping their passengers; all of them are bogus. By Dr. David Morrisson.

The World Bank estimates that 80% of the imports into Gaza come via the tunnels under the Egypt/Gaza border. They are not checked for arms by the Israeli (or Egyptian) authorities. Why does Israel remain relatively relaxed about this vast quantity of goods that enter Gaza unchecked, while it insists that the small amount being carried in by the Free Gaza flotilla had to be checked?

If Israel applied the criteria to these goods that it did to those being transported by the Free Gaza ships it hijacked last Monday, then it would have to retake military control of the Egypt-Gaza border and either block goods entering Gaza via this border or check them for arms.