Enlarge View   an international research team has provided the first scientific evidence that deadly emerging diseases have risen steeply across the world,

Food scientists are meeting in Cusco, Peru, this week to find ways of boosting world potato production to ease the strain of surging cereal prices on the world's poorest countries. Potato production already reached a record high last year as cereal prices rose, partly as a consequence of grain producers - such as the US - switching to bio-fuel crops. The impact of more expensive cereals has been harshest on developing countries that are dependent on imports.

In Africa, hard-hit by HIV, the proportion of TB drug-resistance is no less alarming. In former Soviet Union, almost half of all TB cases are resistant to at least one anti-TB drug -Bobby Ramakant

Sir, It is appalling that in 2008 you still publish articles such as "Africa's greatest challenge is to reduce fertility' (March 14) by John May and Jean-Pierre Guengant.

China's growing influence in Africa is inimical to democracy in the region, according to Reporters Without Borders. The Paris-based media watchdog's annual report notes that China must take part of

plague cases are on the rise and are afflicting countries more frequently than before. A who report says there were around 1,900 cases worldwide in 2002, which increased to 2,100 cases in 2003. In