A public opinion poll released this week in Argentina gave a positive image rating of only 19.4% to the administration of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, while 55.8% of respondents took a negative view.
Noting that the time for talk was over and that action was urgently needed, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf appealed to world leaders for 30 billion US dollars a year to re-launch agriculture and avert future threats of conflicts over food.

Argentine farmers begin Monday a new chapter of their 84 day conflict with the government over agriculture and taxing policies: beginning at ten in the morning they have invited workers, businessmen, professionals, students and anybody who supports their claims to strike until mid day.
Bolivia continued Monday with its nationalizing policy taking over all assets belonging to the gas pipeline company Transredes which is half owned by Royal Dutch Shell and Ashmore Energy International.
The United States has lost its final appeal in a billion US dollar trade dispute with Brazil over subsidies to US cotton growers. A World Trade Organisation appeal panel upheld on Monday a ruling from December that found the US had breached trade rules over its subsidies to cotton farmers.
Leaders from the Chilean coalition that has ruled since the return of democracy in 1990 warned that a setback in the coming municipal elections of next October could clear the way for a possible conservative victory in the 2009 presidential election.

The 38th General Assembly of the Organization of American States, OAS, opened this weekend in Colombia and although the motive of the meeting is Youth and democratic values, more pressing issues will have to be addressed by the gathering.
Chile's Defence Ministry will be deciding in the coming days the acquisition of a satellite, dual purpose, military and civilian which is estimated would cost in the range of 70 million US dollars, according to military sources in Santiago.
Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency which controls commercial flights policy in the country announced it will authorize discounts of up to 80% on plane tickets to destinations within South America.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the 1.2 billion US dollars in funding from the World Bank to help tackle the global food crisis that has emerged in recent months.