Dairy farmers yesterday blocked cheese factories in France and staged demonstrations in Germany and Belgium in a campaign for a return to fixed prices, regulation and subsidies.

Senior doctors today published a report warning that climate change is the biggest threat to global health of the 21st century. Rising global temperatures would have a catastrophic effect on human health, the doctors said, and patterns of infection would change, with insect-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever spreading more easily.

Special report with outbreak map

National public health bodies are co-ordinating their work to prevent the spread of a new swine flu virus, the World Health Organisation says.

Infection control experts are scrambling to respond to outbreaks of swine flu in Mexico and the US, and suspected cases elsewhere.

Mexican authorities have taken drastic measures to contain a new strain of the swine flu virus that has killed 81 and prompted fears of a global pandemic.

Germany is to ban the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) maize - the only GM crop widely grown in Europe.

It has taken a quarter of a century, but US researchers say their work has finally enabled them to determine to what extent city air pollution impacts on average life expectancy.

Dr Williams, formerly a GP in North-East England, has since transformed a tiny and very basic health centre on the edge of the Impenetrable Forest into an efficient community hospital.

Farmers in developing countries are struggling despite recent rises in the price of commodities they produce, the Fairtrade Foundation says in a new report.

A growing population and climate change is going to make it difficult to meet the demand for food in the coming years, says German MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis. In this week's Green Room, he argues that we must embrace the solutions offered by biotechnology if we are going to feed the planet.