ABC gets slammed for debate.

Editor & Publisher called this week’s ABC presidential debate “perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years.”Moderators George Stephanopolous and Charlie Gibson spent the first 50 minutes obsessed with distractions that only political insiders care about–gaffes, polling numbers, the stale Rev. Wright story, and the old-news Bosnia story. [...]

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[Source: War On You -

Biggest grain exporters halt foreign sales

By Javier Blas in London, Isabel Gorst in Moscow and Lindsay Whipp in Tokyo, Financial Times, 16 Apr 2008

The global food crisis intensified on Tuesday as Kazakhstan, one of the world's biggest wheat exporters halted foreign sales and rice prices shot to a record high after Indonesia stopped its farmers from selling the grain abroad.

In another sign of turmoil, a big food company in Japan, Nihon Shokuhin Kako, said high corn prices had forced it to buy cheaper genetically modified corn for the first time, breaking a social, though not legal, taboo and signalling that opposition to GM foods could weaken in the face of record food prices.

Meanwhile, fresh wheat export curbs in Kazakhstan, the world's fifth largest exporter, and the rice bans in Indonesia, threaten to trigger bans in other food exporting countries, which will now face much higher demand from importing countries.

Hussein Allidina, at Morgan Stanley in New York, said pressure for export bans was likely to increase elsewhere as developing countries suffering high inflation tried to combat rising local prices by cutting back on exports of agriculture commodities.

Indonesia – which joins Vietnam, Egypt, China, Cambodia and India in banning foreign sales – was expected to export the grain this year due to a bumper crop. Corn futures prices in Chicago last week hit a record $6.16 a bushel, up 30 per cent in the past three months.

Indonesia's export ban boosted the price of rice futures in Chicago to a all-time high of $22.17 per 100 pounds, up 63 per cent since January. Wheat prices moved higher to $9.11 a bushel and traders warned prices could rise further as the Kazakhstan ban together with restrictions in Russia, Ukraine and Argentina have closed a third of the global wheat market.

Pentagon Seeks Authority to Train and Equip Foreign Militaries

WASHINGTON Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates urged Congress on Tuesday to grant the Pentagon permanent authority to train and equip foreign militaries, a task previously administered by the State Department, and to raise the annual budget for the effort to $750 million, a 250 percent increase.Mr. Gates said that rapidly building up the armed [...]

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[Source: War On You -

Unrest in Haiti

Food riots and other headaches for Haiti's government

Haiti?s prime minister lost his job on April 12th, the result of more than a week of unrest as protesters rioted in reaction to rising food prices in the hemisphere?s poorest country. Several Haitians died, and one United Nations peacekeeper was killed. The president, Rene Preval, has announced new food subsidies, and international agencies have pledged more food and financial assistance. Although relative calm has returned in recent days, the government has been weakened, and there?s a risk of renewed outbreaks of violence.

Mr Preval (who first served as president in 1996-2001) has succeeded since taking office in May 2006 in reducing the level of chronic instability and violence in Haiti, focusing on political co-operation and disarmament of street gangs. He has benefited from the strong support of the international community, including the US and regional governments. The presence of 8,000 UN peacekeepers has also helped bring greater security to the streets. ...

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