Worries grow over humanitarian impacts of 'strongest El Nino'

The strongest El Nino on record is likely to increase the threat of hunger and disease for tens of millions of people in 2016 aid agencies say. The weather phenomenon is set to exacerbate droughts in some areas while increasing flooding in others. Some of the worst impacts are likely in Africa with food shortages expected to peak in February. Regions including the Caribbean, Central and South America will also be hit in the next six months. This periodic weather event, which tends to drive up global temperatures and disturb weather patterns, has helped push 2015 into the record books as the world's warmest year. Image copyright WFP Image caption Lula Derar lives Gurgur village in Ethiopia and says this is a very challenging time "By some measures this has already been the strongest El Nino on record, it depends on exactly how you measure it," said Dr Nick Klingaman from the University of Reading. "In a lot of tropical countries we are seeing big reductions in rainfall of the order of 20-30%. Indonesia has experienced a bad drought, the Indian monsoon was about 15% below normal and the forecasts for Brazil and Australia are for reduced monsoons." As both droughts and floods continue, the scale of the potential impacts is worrying aid agencies. Around 31m people are said be facing food insecurity across Africa, a significant increase over the last year. Around a third of these people live in Ethiopia where 10.2m are projected to require humanitarian assistance in 2016. The UK's Department for International Development says it is providing emergency support for 2.6m people and 120,000 malnourished children. They say they will provide 8m people with food or cash support from January 2016.

Why Africans in the UK pay so much to send relatives' bodies home

"My father's dream was for him to be buried in his birthplace and have the call to prayer resonate over his grave," says Nadia Elbhiri, whose father passed away last year in London. Ms Elbhiri, who was born and raised in west London, fulfilled her father's dream when she repatriated his body to Morocco last year, where he was laid to rest in Larache, a small fishing village in the north of the country. "London was always his home but Morocco was always in his heart," she says. This desire to be buried in the place you were born is strong for many first generation African migrants in the UK. The demand is so huge among the British Moroccan community that, according to embassy officials, at least 95% of first generation migrants are buried in Morocco. Advertisement A system is now in place to cover repatriation costs. Image caption Londoner Nadia Elbhiri fulfilled her father's wish for his body to be sent from the UK to Morocco when he died "There are three Moroccan banks which provide free repatriation and a free plane ticket for a relative to assist the transportation of the body back to Morocco," says Souad Talsi from the Council for the Moroccan Community Abroad. She says that if the deceased person is not registered with a Moroccan bank, his or her next of kin can go to the Moroccan embassy and the government will take care of the repatriation charges which can cost around £7,000 ($10,500).

Leicester 0-0 Man City

Leicester City missed the chance to return to the top of the Premier League as they played out a goalless draw with Manchester City at the King Power Stadium. Claudio Ranieri's side can take great heart, however, from a highly impressive response to only their second league defeat of the season at Liverpool on Boxing Day - but Arsenal stay top on goal difference. Leicester and Manchester City both had chances in an entertaining encounter, with goalkeepers Kasper Schmeichel and Joe Hart excelling with a succession of saves. Man of the moment Jamie Vardy missed Leicester's best chance when he shot over the top after racing clear in the first half while the normally lethal Sergio Aguero was off target from inside the six-yard box as both sides pushed for the win. Relive the action as Leicester frustrated Manchester C

Over one million reach Europe by sea

More than one million refugees and migrants have reached Europe by sea since the start of 2015, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) says. More than 80% of the 1,000,573 people arrived in Greece, with the majority landing on Lesbos island, it said. About 844,000 travelled to Greece from nearby Turkey. Most of the others - over 150,000 - crossed the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy. The migrant crisis is Europe's worst since World War Two. Migration to Europe in graphics Migrants offered 'bad weather discounts' The migrants reaching Europe by land The number of sea arrivals has increased vastly since 2014, when it was recorded at slightly more than 216,000. "Increasing numbers of refugees and migrants take their chances aboard unseaworthy boats and dinghies in a desperate bid to reach Europe," the UNHCR said on its website. "The vast majority of those attempting this dangerous crossing are in need of international protection, fleeing war, violence and persecution in their country of origin." About 49% of those crossing the Mediterranean Sea are from Syria, with 21% coming from Afghanistan, it added. The number of those dead or missing at sea is now at 3,735.  Paul Adams in Lesbos says that while the island feels less overwhelmed than usual, thousands more people are still waiting to be registered so they can travel further into Europe.

Urban Ladder expects $200 million in revenue by mid next year

Online furniture retailer Urban Ladder expects to break even on an operational basis when its revenue reaches $200 million, which may happen by the middle of next year. "Once we get to a $150-200-million net revenue range by middle of next year, we will focus on getting our contribution margin to the 25% zone," said Ashish Goel, CEO of Urban Ladder. Contribution margin is the selling price per unit minus the variable cost per unit. Goel said that contribution margin has to be at least 10 percentage points over marketing costs for most ecommerce businesses to make money or drive profitability. "For the first 18 months of our business, our contribution margins were over our marketing, since we have been pressing on growth (recently). So our marketing spend has increased, but we have that differential under control," said ,Goel.

Unlock OnePlus X invites with Twitter's 'Flock to Unlock'

All those looking for OnePlus X invites, here's an easier way to get one. OnePlus has announced a new campaign with Twitter which uses micloblogging platform's 'Flock to Unlock' tool to unlock invites for OnePlus X. Wonder how it will work? All OnePlus Twitter fans need to do is visit OnePlus' exclusive online partner, Amazon India's official twitter handle @amazonIN and tweet or retweet the following message: "Tweet to us using #UnlockOnePlusX for a chance to get your hands on a OnePlus X invite. 5000 invites up for grabs!" The campaign starts at 11:00am today and will run until 5:00pm. Amazon India will 'unlock' 5,000 OnePlus X invites, once the set number of tweets/retweets is reached. Karan Sarin, head of marketing, India, OnePlus said, "There is a certain pride in owning a OnePlus device and our fans love to share their experiences on social media. Twitter's 'Flock to Unlock' is an exciting way for the OnePlus community to engage in the campaign and to rally together to unlock invites."

Airtel launches website to allow users to track Project Leap

Bharti Airtel, the country's No 1 carrier, has launched a special website which will allow customers to know everything about how Project Leap, the 60,000-crore network transformation programme, is progressing in their respective localities. Customers will also be able to get a transparent view of coverage of voice and high speed broadband services. They will also be able to see sites planned in their localities, seek help on hosting sites and share site upgradation plans for every site. Customers will also be able to see sites that have been forcibly shut down in their locality. "With the launch of Project Leap, Airtel is investing companywide resources in ramping up our network infrastructure towards this modernisation drive and improving the service experience delivered to every customer," said Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO, Bharti Airtel (India and South Asia).