World Bank: Food prices near dangerous levels

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/165804.html

The World Bank says the global hike in food prices have reached dangerous levels, pushing some 44 million more people into poverty in just over six months.

"Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world," AFP quoted World Bank chief Robert Zoellick as saying in a recent statement.

"The price hike is already pushing millions of people into poverty, and putting stress on the most vulnerable, who spend more than half of their income on food," he went on to say.

According to the latest edition of the bank's Food Price Watch, prices rose by 15 percent between October 2010 and January 2011.

According to reports, 100 million people became prone to extreme poverty in the 2008 food crisis. The World Bank defines “extreme poverty” as living on less than $1.25 a day.

The bank's food-price index rose 15 percent between October and January, led by wheat, sugar and edible oil. The level is only three percent below the 2008 peak, when surging costs sparked riots in more than a dozen countries.

Corn has surged 86 percent in the past year, and wheat is up 69 percent after drought and floods damaged crops from Russia to Argentina. The Food and Agriculture Organization's World Food Price Index reached a record high in January for a second consecutive month

Russian wheat export ban executed

Record drought accompanied by wildfires in Russia
has prompted Russian ‎government to place a temporary
ban on grain exports until the end of ‎the year.


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=138742§ionid=3510213


A ban on exports of wheat and other grains has come into force in Russia, after a severe drought and a spate of wildfires devastated crops in the country.

The ban which will be valid until the end of the year, follows a hike in the price of grains since June when Russia started feeling the effects of a heatwave that has destroyed one-third of the country's harvest.

Russian prime minister's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this month that exports of wheat, corn, barley, rye, and other grain products would be halted from August 15 until December 31.

Data released recently by Russian Agriculture Ministry has revealed that this year's crop is unlikely to meet even domestic demand.

The world's third largest wheat exporter expects to harvest 60-65 million tones of grain this year after two bumper crops of 97 million tones in 2009 and 108 million in 2008.

Experts say the country is temporarily prohibiting grain exports as it seeks to keep domestic food prices under control.

The ban comes as wildfires and drought across western and central Russia have destroyed 10 million hectares of crop.

The ban announcement has sent wheat prices soaring on US exchanges and caused double-digit gains in Europe.

Drought-hit Russia bans grain exports

Crops burn near Voronezh, 300 miles south of Moscow,
after weeks of searing heat and no rain, file photo



Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=137646§ionid=351020602


Record drought in Russia has prompted the country's prime minister to place a temporary ban on grain exports until the end of the year.

"In connection with the unusually high temperatures and the drought, I consider it right to impose a temporary ban on the export from Russia of grain and other products produced from grain," Vladimir Putin told a government meeting on Thursday.

The ban comes as wildfires and drought across western and central Russia have destroyed 10 million hectares of crop.

The world's third largest wheat exporter has reportedly lowered its annual 90 million tons of forecast to a range of 70 to 75 million tons this year.

From August 15 until December 31 exports of wheat, corn, barley, rye, and other grain products will be halted, the prime minister's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

The Kremlin also seeks to ask fellow members of a tripartite customs union -- Belarus and Kazakhstan -- to make a similar move.

The Economic Development Ministry has been instructed to submit a proposal to the relevant commission, a governmental press release said.

The announcement has sent wheat prices soaring on US exchanges and caused double-digit gains in Europe.

West Africa on brink of starvation

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=131333&sectionid=351020506



Aid agencies have appealed for donations to stop an alarming food crisis in West Africa, as more than 10 million people face severe hunger and malnutrition.

The two aid organizations Oxfam and Save the Children asked for a total of $21 million in a bid to deal with the problem, AFP reported on Monday.

"We are witnessing an unfolding disaster which can be averted if we act quickly," said Mamadou Biteye, the head of Oxfam in West Africa, who explained that the severe shortage was caused by drought and crop failure.

Oxfam said that Niger is at the epicenter of the crisis with more than seven million people facing food shortages.

The organization warned that the people of Chad, Mali, Mauritania, parts of Burkina Faso and northern Nigeria face the same problem.

Save the Children said that up to 380,000 children under five in Niger were at risk of starving to death. The aid agencies described the response from governments around the world as "woefully inadequate."

Israeli raid strikes Gaza tunnel

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/03/201032273430123550.html


Israeli fighter jets have struck southern part of the Gaza Strip in an overnight raid, targeting what the Israeli military said was an arms smuggling tunnel.
The aircraft attacked a tunnel on the Rafah sector on the border with Egypt, but no one was injured, witnesses said on Monday.

A military spokesman confirmed the raid, saying it had come in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian side.

One rocket was fired into southern Israel late on Sunday from the Gaza Strip, though it landed without causing any injuries or damage, the Israeli army said earlier.
The raid on the Gaza Strip comes in the wake of a visit by Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, to the Hamas-controlled territory.

'Unacceptable suffering'

Ban condemned the Israeli blockade of the territory, which he said had caused "unacceptable suffering".
The blockade has been imposed for about three years and, because it denies Gazans access to many goods, the so-called tunnel economy has thrived as Gazans seek to bring in materials from outside the Strip.

The raid also follows a series of deaths in the West Bank, which is is controlled by Hamas's rival, Fatah.
Two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops near an army checkpoint close to the town of Nablus on Sunday.

Another two Palestinians died after apparently being shot by Israeli troops during violent protests in the city itself.
Israel has denied its troops used live ammunition, but medical workers say the dead were clearly hit by live ammunition.
An X-ray of one of the boys shows what appears to be a bullet lodged in his head.

EU delegation to assess Gaza damage

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/01/20101147594774661.html


Fifty parliamentarians from across Europe are on their way to the Gaza Strip to assess conditions in the Palestinian enclave following the Israeli offensive a year ago, sources say.

That military assault left hundreds dead and damaged millions of dollars worth of infrastructure.

The delegation, organised by the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG), is due to arrive in Egypt on Thursday, from where they will cross into Gaza.

The delegation, headed by Sir Gerald Kaufman, a veteran British MP, is the biggest in years to visit Gaza.

The parliamentarians represent 12 European countries and include Lord Ahmed, Jeremy Corbyn, Baroness Tonge and Clare Short, a former UK international development secretary.

Israeli siege

The delegation will meet Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, as well as other Egyptian officials, to discuss the humanitarian condition in Gaza, in light of the continued siege imposed by Israel.

The organisation has already sent a number of boats carrying humanitarian aid for the besieged population.

Hamas, the group that controls the Palestinian territory, estimates that 1,600 people were killed during the war.

Other estimates put the death toll closer to 1,400, the majority of whom were civilians, including around 400 children.

Thirteen Israelis were also killed during the war.

A UN-sponsored report, known as the Goldstone report, called on both Israel and Hamas to investigate accusations of human-rights violations committed during the conflict.

Most of the criticism in the report was directed towards Israel.

It concluded that Israel had used disproportionate force and had deliberately targeted Gaza civilians, using them as human shields, while destroying civilian infrastructure.

US offers support for anti-Palestinian steel walls

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116039&sectionid=3510203


The United States has offered its full-fledged support for the building of a wall by Egypt to disrupt the Gaza Strip's lifeline that moves basic items underground past the Israeli-imposed blockade.

The construction of the steel tunnel-impervious wall, believed to have started some time in November, comes in line with Israeli and Egyptian accusations that Palestinians resistance fighters use the tunnels for procuring and storing weapons for use against the Israelis.

Washington, the chief Israeli baker, echoed the allegations on Tuesday and voiced support for installing the steel walls, which are reported to be designed by the US army engineers.

"We believe that weapon-smuggling should stop and that measures taken to stop that weapon-smuggling should be, could be carried out, yes," said State Department Spokesman Gordon Duguid.

The US support and even financing of numerous Israeli walls to further suppress the Palestinians come despite their repeated boasting of having rejected the Soviet-era Berlin wall, which served a similar purpose.

The Palestinian tunnel network across the Gaza Strip border with Egypt has become an economic lifeline for the 1.5 million people in the impoverished territory who face starvation due to the crippling Israeli siege that has been imposed since 2007.

The tunnels, described as 'food tubes' by the Palestinians, regularly come under Israeli air strikes while the Egyptian government make attempts to flood them with water and gas.

The Cairo government announced a ban on aid convoys bound for the Gaza Strip via its soil in the past weekend, after anti-wall protesters clashed with Egyptian border police.

"Egypt will no longer allow convoys, regardless of their origin or who is organizing them, from crossing its territory," said Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also announced plans to build a surface wall along the Egyptian border. He said the decision was aimed at blocking entry into Israel in order to secure "Israel's Jewish character."