Food convoys are delivering emergency aid to desperate people - in Devon.

A charity that normally helps starving orphans in Romania and Bulgaria is on a relief mercy mission in Okehampton after the town's two biggest employers closed.

People queued down the street outside a food distribution centre yesterday.

Local councillor Christine Marsh said: "This is a dire emergency. Families don't have any food or money to buy food."

The town of 7,000 people was rocked when a pie factory closed suddenly a week ago with the loss of 260 jobs. Workers had not been paid since mid-January.

Days earlier a large dairy had shut, chopping 70 jobs.

Dad-of-six Karl Jansz, 47, who lost his pie factory job, said: "I worked there for 25 years. My wife also worked there. We were left in a mess."

Iraqi security forces stopped demonstrators from entering the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, sources said.

Waves of political unrest are sweeping across the Arab world in the wake of the revolution in Tunisia and the ongoing demonstrations in Egypt, which were largely peaceful Friday.

Protesters in Baghdad told the Voices of Iraq news agency that they wanted more jobs, improved social services and a less corrupt government. Many Iraqis are without jobs and electricity more than seven years after the U.S.-led invasion.

There were several protests reported by the news agency in Basra, the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala and the restive northern city of Kirkuk. Army helicopters were reported hovering over the Green Zone, the heavily fortified administrative center.

Internet providers were shut down and Facebook accounts deleted across Algeria on Saturday as thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators were arrested in violent street demonstrations.

Plastic bullets and tear gas were used to try and disperse large crowds in major cities and towns, with 30,000 riot police taking to the streets in Algiers alone.

There were also reports of journalists being targeted by state-sponsored thugs to stop reports of the disturbances being broadcast to the outside world.

But it was the government attack on the internet which was of particular significance to those calling for an end to President Abdelaziz Boutifleka's repressive regime.

Protesters mobilising through the internet were largely credited with bringing about revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.

"The government doesn't want us forming crowds through the internet," said Rachid Salem, of Co-ordination for Democratic Change in Algeria.

Washington - The top US military commander will visit Israel and Jordan Sunday and Monday to reaffirm US support following the collapse of the presidency of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen will begin his trip in Amman where he will meet with King Abdullah II and his Jordanian counterpart, Lieutenant General Meshaal Al-Zabn.

"He will discuss security issues of mutual concern and reassure both these key partners of the US military's commitment to that partnership," Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby said.

In Israel, Mullen will hold talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and the country's military leaders.

The visit comes after Mubarak stepped down Friday after 30 years, handing power to the military after more than a million people took to the streets in the culmination of an 18-day uprising in Egypt.

Ron Paul speaks with Wolf Blitzer on Egypt and the GOP nomination during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

For the second year in a row, Ron Paul won the presidential straw poll at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, earning 30 percent of the vote.

The Texas congressman, known for his libertarian views, ran for president in 2008 but was never a serious contender for the GOP nomination.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a 2008 GOP candidate who is expected to run again, came in second place with 23 percent of the vote. Romney won the previous three presidential straw polls before Paul snapped his streak last year.

Many convention-goers booed when the results were announced but the Paul supporters drowned them out with chants of "Ron Paul! Ron Paul! Ron Paul!"

Paul's consecutive victories in the straw poll have frustrated many GOP faithful who would rather see a more credible contender win. A CPAC official told Fox News that the big story is not Paul winning again but rather the strength of Romney's second-place finish.

Aden, Yemen - Around 3,000 people took to the streets across southern Yemen in a "Friday of Rage", demanding secession from the north, but heavily deployed security forces quickly stamped out protests, residents said.

The protests come in the lull after a wave of anti-government rallies spread across Yemen over the past two weeks, inspired by the revolts that ousted Tunisia's former president and the uprising in Egypt that threatens President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.

"Revolution, revolution for the South," protesters chanted in the flashpoint cities of Aden, Dalea and Zinjibar.

Yemen experts say the real danger to the three-decade rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key U.S. ally against al Qaeda, is if protesters from his political opposition join with rebel groups such as the separatists in the south and the Shi'ite insurgents he has made a shaky truce with in the north.

Egypt's army is attempting to clear protesters from Cairo's Tahrir Square - the focal point of the uprising that led to President Hosni Mubarak's departure.

Soldiers moved into the square in an attempt to squeeze the demonstrators out. But the BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says that the protesters responded with the arrival of reinforcements, leaving the army unsure of what to do.

Ever since the TSA started putting back-scatter devices into use at selected airports last fall, I've been waiting to have the chance to opt out and register a one-woman protest against the machines. (Jeff Goldberg doesn't get to have all the fun.) However, most of my recent air travel has been with a tiny traveling companion, and I've been pleasantly surprised that at six different airports, TSA agents have directed us away from the back-scatter devices and through metal detectors, simply because I had a three-month-old baby in my arms.

(I also learned that the Irish-Catholic TSA agents in Boston will eagerly carry your luggage and reassemble your stroller when they learn your daughter's name is Finoula. I warned her not to expect such special treatment everywhere.)

So I was awfully pleased when I arrived at a security checkpoint in Miami International Airport this morning and discovered that my line fed into a back-scatter device, even though metal detectors were in use for the other lines. When it was my turn, I politely said that I would like to opt out. "Seriously?" the first TSA worker asked me with a raised eyebrow. Yes, seriously.

He directed me through the nearby metal detector (the one that would have been good enough if I'd just chosen another line) and motioned for me to wait for a pat-down agent: "Female opt-out!" A female agent led me to a table where she set my bags and then skeptically asked if I knew what the pat down involved. Yes, indeedy (thanks, Jeff Goldberg!) "Do you want to do this somewhere private?" No, thank you. The agent calmly explained what she was going to do before she performed each part of the procedure, and very briskly but thoroughly went through the pat-down. The whole thing was over in a matter of minutes and was a completely professional experience.

A Catholic priest who admitted having a sexual relationship with a high school girl more than 40 years ago was removed his position, and a high-ranking official who oversaw the background checks of priests resigned.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced Friday that the Rev. Martin P. O'Loghlen, who worked at Holy Name of Mary Church in San Dimas, was removed from any priestly activities.

The archdiocese said it was reacting to inquiries from a New York Times reporter researching an article about O'Loghlen.

The 74-year-old priest is accused of having a long-term sexual relationship with the teenage girl beginning in 1960, and seeking her forgiveness later, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony separately accepted the resignation of the Archdiocesan Vicar for Clergy, Msgr. Michael Meyers. Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg told the Times that Meyers had been in charge of procedures intended to ensure that no sexual predators remained in ministry positions. He had held that position since 2009.

The archdiocese said it had not received any complaints about O'Loghlen during the two years he had been assigned to the San Dimas church.