
The way out of the global food crisis, which has plunged at least 75 million more humans into hunger and poverty, lies in increased agricultural production, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf told Italy's Parliament on Wednesday.

Chinese and US delegations at the 19th meeting of China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) reached this week several agreements on boosting trade ties at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library near Los Angeles, reports Xinhua the official Chinese news agency.

The European Commission has announced a full review of the EU Common Fisheries Policy, saying the current regime fails to protect fish stocks. EC says that fishermen who obey the fishing rules are being penalized by the irresponsible behavior of others who flout them.

Oil prices lost five US dollars ending Monday below 100 US dollars a barrel for the first time in six months, spurred by concerns about the global economy. With banking giant Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy protection, US light sweet crude closed Monday in New York at 95.71 and London Brent 92.38 US dollars a barrel.
Leading Asian markets plunged in the aftermath of the collapse of one of the US top investment banks, Lehman Brothers. Shares in Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan were down by 4 to 6%, having been shut on Monday for a bank holiday.

The global financial crisis is not over and more banks could close, possibly leading to the disappearance of independent investment houses, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn told reporters in Cairo.

The crisis now gripping world financial markets should be less serious than that of 1929, Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz said on Monday because new monetary and fiscal instruments could prevent a Great Depression.

A Boeing 737 passenger jet has crashed near the Russian city of Perm in the central Ural mountains killing all 88 people on board, Russian news agencies reported.
The impact of Spain's housing market crash has a new chapter: construction company Sacyr Vallehermoso SA is considering selling its 20% stake in oil major Repsol-YPF, as it struggles with a sinking property market and soaring financial costs, according to an announcement released Friday by Spain's Markets Commission, CNMV.
European Union lawmakers voted this week to cut in half an ambitious target for using crop-based bio-fuels for 10% of its road transport needs by 2020. The vote by the European Parliament's industry committee deals a blow to climate change goals agreed by EU leaders last year to try to cut carbon dioxide emissions.