International

• Friday, May 23rd 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  FAO forecasts higher harvest volumes but still insufficient

  

  High food prices have particularly hit vulnerable populations in many countries that spend a substantial part of their income on food, according to a report released Thursday by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome.

• Friday, May 23rd 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Extinction threat for 21 shark and 11 ray species

  The first study to determine the global status of 21 species of oceanic pelagic sharks and rays reveals that 11 of them are threatened with extinction, says IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) on International Biodiversity Day.

• Friday, May 23rd 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Conservatives take their first by-election since 1982

  

  Britain's Conservative leader David Cameron says their first by-election gain since 1982 marks “the end of New Labour”. Mr Cameron told cheering supporters in Crewe and Nantwich that Labour had run a negative, xenophobic and class war campaign that “completely backfired”.

• Thursday, May 22nd 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Commodities hedging and weak dollar spur record oil prices

  

  Oil prices jumped on Wednesday to a new record high, 134 US dollars a barrel, on concerns about low US crude stockpiles, the weak dollar, supply constraints and increasing demand.

• Thursday, May 22nd 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Oil market has gone “crazy” says OPEC secretary

  OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah El-Badri maintained on Thursday that the oil market has gone “crazy” and blamed the situation on geopolitical tensions, speculation and the weak US dollar. “We want moderate prices”.

• Thursday, May 22nd 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  UN warns about devastation of animal species

  The extinction of animal species, as well as the reliance on a narrow range of crops, is a major threat to the planet's development and security, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday in a statement to mark the International Day for Biological Diversity.

• Wednesday, May 21st 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  World trade talks boosted by new “negotiating texts”

  World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy said on Tuesday that the negotiating documents put forward this week on agriculture and industrial goods trade proved a platform for intensified work in the coming weeks.

• Wednesday, May 21st 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  French aid package to fishermen striking over fuel prices

  The French government has offered the fishing industry 110 million Euros after days of protests by fishermen over rising fuel costs. The president of the national fishing committee has called on crews to return to work.

• Monday, May 19th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Heart diseases and strokes, world's largest killers

  Chronic conditions such as heart disease and stroke have taken over from infectious diseases as diarrhea, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis as the leading causes of death around the globe, the United Nations World Health Organization, WHO, says in a new report.

• Monday, May 19th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Soros forecasts “severe” slowdown in real economy

  US, UK citizen, Hungarian born billionaire investor George Soros has given his gloomiest assessment of the state of the US and world economies in an interview with the BBC business editor Robert Peston