SEVEN million people in South Sudan face a critical lack of food according to the Government and the United Nations.

The report said more than 60% of the population (right) face this issue, with more than two million people at risk of starvation, nine months after a tentative peace deal ended a five-year civil war. The report by the UN just stops short of declaring a famine in the country.

The deteriorating situation has been attributed to food shortages exacerbated by delayed rainfall in the region, South Sudan’s economic crisis and years of strain from the civil conflict that killed almost 400,000 people. Breaking the disastrous cycle hinges on whether the fragile peace deal signed in September will hold. While fighting has subsided, clashes still continue in the Central Equatoria state between the Government and rebels who did not sign the deal.

MEANWHILE a section of a road bridge in Southern China has plunged into a river, sending two cars into the water and leaving two people missing.

The 390ft section (left) collapsed early Friday as dramatic footage showed a third of the bridge falling within seconds and without any apparent warning. The cause of the collapse is under investigation by Chinese officials. Southern China has been hit with heavy rainfall and flooding, but it is not clear if swelling riverbeds were a factor in the collapse.

ELSEWHERE New York is set to eliminate a religious exemption to vaccine requirements in the face of its worst measles outbreak in thw state in more than 27 years.

The bill would not change an existing state exemption given to children who cannot have vaccines for medical reasons, such as a weakened immune system. Once signed the law will take immediate effect, however it will give unvaccinated students up to 30 days after they enter a school to show they have had the first dose of each required immunisation (left).

Supporters of the bill say religious beliefs about vaccines should not eclipse scientific evidence saying they work, noting the Supreme Court ruling of 1905, which says states have the right to enforce compulsory vaccination laws.

AND FINALLY, women across Switzerland are going on strike, burning bras amongst other demonstrations to demand fair pay, equality and the end to sexual harassment and violence.

It’s the first protest of its kind in the Alpine country in 28 years, as women are encouraged leave their work at 3:24pm, a time organisers calculated when women should stop working in order to earn as much as men proportionately by average hourly wage. Discontent over sexism and workplace inequality in the country underpins the women’s strike.