"In times of sorrow and pain, You are the Healer."

The UN food agency says it has started cutting rations to four million people in Zimbabwe. The World Food Programme says it has had no response at all to its $140 million appeal to feed Zimbabwe. WFP warns that food will run out entirely by January unless fresh support is provided, as it takes six weeks to reach rural areas.

Up to half the population of 10 million people could need food before the next harvest is expected in April, donors say. The agency says it has cut each person's monthly cereal ration to make current stocks last longer. WFP spokesman Richard Lee warned that the situation would become "critical" in many parts of the country in the coming months. "We're already hearing stories about families living on at most one meal a day, children going into the bush to search for wild food and wild fruit," Mr. Lee told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

The WFP fed two million people in October, the first month of a large-scale aid project, but the figure is expected to rise to 5.1 million by early 2009. Last weekend, Zimbabwe's opposition leader warned that at least one million people could starve to death in a year if political deadlock continues. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe have agreed to form a unity government to revive the economy but they cannot decide how to share out cabinet posts.

Rescue workers at a collapsed school in Haiti say they have found no more signs of life and will soon start clearing the site where at least 93 people died. No survivors have been found since four were pulled alive from the rubble of the three-storey building on Saturday, a day after it crumbled. Rescuers had started to pull down the wreckage on Sunday but stopped when locals wanted to continue the search. Rescue teams want to start moving the rubble and recovering the bodies.

The owner of the school, in a suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince, has been arrested. Officials have pledged an investigation into the construction of the school and a survey of other schools that might be at risk.

Lord, please send Your comfort and peace to the families. In times of sorrow and pain, You are the Healer.

From The WNOP
And visit: www.MoreBlessingsOnline.org