Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday celebrated 50 years as the home of Pakistan cricket despite questions remaining over its viability to host international action stalled over security fears.

A UN summit on the plight of the planet's one billion hungry opens here Monday, with activists warning it risks being a waste of time as leaders of the world's wealthiest nations are to be conspicuous by their absence.

A UN summit on the plight of the planet's one billion hungry opens here Monday, with activists warning it risks being a waste of time as leaders of the world's wealthiest nations are to be conspicuous by their absence.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened a UN food security summit on Monday calling for a "single global vision" to address the plight of the world's billion hungry people.

ROME (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in Rome for a U.N. food summit, spent several hours in the company of 200 Italian women recruited by an agency and tried to convert them to Islam, Italian media reported Monday.

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi gave a speech to 100 young Italian women recruited by a model agency and urged them to convert to Islam, newspapers reported on Monday.

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi on Monday warned against the rise of "new feudal lords" in Africa where foreign companies are acquiring vast tracts of farmland.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened a UN food security summit on Monday calling for a "single global vision" to address the plight of the world's billion hungry people.

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi on Monday warned against the rise of "new feudal lords" in Africa where foreign companies are acquiring vast tracts of farmland.

The UN Hunger Summit on Monday vowed "urgent action" to combat food shortages but drew fire for failing to pledge new funds or set a timetable to beat the scourge affecting more than one billion people.

ROME (Reuters) - Libya's Muammar Gaddafi called for an end to the purchase of African farmland by food-importing nations at a U.N. hunger summit on Monday, describing it as "new feudalism" which could spread to Latin America as well.

ROME (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in Rome for a U.N. food summit, spent several hours in the company of 200 Italian women recruited by an agency and tried to convert them to Islam, Italian media reported on Monday.

Libya's Gadhafi tries to convert 200 young Italian women, paid by modeling agency, to Islam. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi hosted a soiree in Rome for some 200 young Italian women, but instead of the party they expected the women were given a lecture on Islam and copies of the Quran, a news report said Monday.

ROME (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Monday that agreeing a climate change deal in Copenhagen next month is crucial to fighting global hunger, which Brazil's president described as "the most devastating weapon of mass destruction."

ROME (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Monday that agreeing a climate change deal in Copenhagen next month is crucial to fighting global hunger, which Brazil's president described as "the most devastating weapon of mass destruction."

A UN summit on world hunger drew fire on Monday, even from the head of the UN food agency, for failing to pledge new funds or set a timetable to beat the scourge affecting more than one billion people.

The UN Hunger Summit on Monday vowed "urgent action" to combat food shortages but drew fire for failing to pledge new funds or set a timetable to beat the scourge affecting more than one billion people.

Flamboyant Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi has hired 200 young Italian women for another evening of political and religious discussion on the margins of the UN food summit, reports said Tuesday.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai left Thursday for North Africa, where analysts said he would meet Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to maintain political pressure on President Robert Mugabe to honor their power-sharing accord.

Leaders representing over 60 African and South American countries backed a new regional financial system Sunday for the two continents to gain more clout and boost development.