Last month's earthquake in Sichuan, China, has caused some 6 billion US dollars in damage to the province's agricultural sector, severely affecting over 30 million people in rural communities, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday.
Global stock markets have suffered a sell-off sparked by concerns about the global economy and crude oil prices which have hit a new record. New York's Dow Jones closed down 0.93%, or 106.9 points, at 11,346.51 as the cost of oil rose to a fresh high above $142 a barrel.
Oil futures shot above 140 US dollars a barrel on Thursday after OPEC's president said crude prices could rise well above 150 US dollars a barrel this year and Libya said it may cut oil production.
The International Whaling Commission voted down Thursday a request by indigenous Greenland fishermen to kill 10 humpback whales a year. IWC is holding its annual assembly for the first time in Santiago de Chile.
The world's major industrialized nations must take the lead in efforts to tackle the three interrelated crises of global food insecurity, climate change and development in poor countries, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on the eve of an official trip that will include his participation in next month's G-8 summit in Japan.
Heathrow is vital to the well-being of Britain, an air chief will tell a conference in London.
Former Chilean president and currently UN Climate Change special envoy Ricardo Lagos said that industrialized countries would be imposing green barriers as a future strategy to combat climate change, basically taxing imports according to the contamination generated by the production of the goods involved.
The European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said that the ECB remains in full alert because of the continued inflation in the Euro zone and suggested that a rate hike, next July 3 is possible. However he emphasised that this would not signal the first step for a ladder of rate hikes.
World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy called on Wednesday for a group of ministers from thirty main countries to meet from July 21 to push the Doha round of global free trade talks toward conclusion, diplomats said.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that he will focus his attention on raising the issue of food security at the G8 summit of major industrialized nations in Japan early next month, as well as the challenges of climate change and the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).