SEOUL, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - North Korea may face a new famine next year as floods and bad weather aggravate its already chronic food shortages, a leading expert warned Thursday.

Floods and storms, followed by outbreaks of blight and damage by insects, deprived the impoverished nation of some 10 percent of its autumn harvest this year, said Kwon Tae-Jin, who is research director of the Korea Rural Economic Institute.

NOUAKCHOTT, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - Floods that have ravaged nearly half of Africa have added to the perennial food woes of the arid Islamic republic of Mauritania, the UN food agency warned on Tuesday, appealing urgently for aid.

Nearly half a million people risk food shortages in the next three months, according to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

'Floods in Mauritania are putting greater pressure on its dwindling food supplies for 470,000 people,' said WFP in a statement.

MAPUTO, Aug 9, 2007 (AFP) - More than 520,000 people need urgent food aid in Mozambique while 600,000 face famine between now and April next year, the disaster management agency said here on Thursday.

'The food shortages resulted from the joint effects of drought, Favio cyclone and floods which hit the country in the first quarter of 2007, and reduced by 30 percent agricultural production in the central and southern regions of Mozambique,' the director of the National Institute for the Management of Natural Disasters, Paulo Zucula, told AFP.

MAPUTO, Aug 9, 2007 (AFP) - More than 520.000 people need urgent food aid in Mozambique while 600,000 face famine between now and April next year, the disaster management agency said here on Thursday.

'The food shortages resulted from the joint effects of drought, Favio cyclone and floods which hit the country in the first quarter of 2007, and reduced by 30 percent agricultural production in the central and southern regions of Mozambique,' the director of the National Institute for the Management of Natural Disasters, Paulo Zucula, told AFP.