A warning from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the possible consequences of the rise in global food prices, together with the plight of the world's poorest nations, dominated the start of a major U.N. trade conference Sunday in Ghana's capital. "If not handled properly, this food crisis could trigger a cascade of others and develop into a multiple crisis, becoming a multi-dimensional problem affecting economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world,' Ban warned delegates.

Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) yesterday demanded introducing rationing system and effective steps against hoarders and syndicates responsible for price hike of essentials, says a press release. CPB Dhaka Committee observed a five-hour token hunger strike at the party's central office at Paltan in the city protesting police intervention in the human chain programme on April 17.

Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury has urged the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to immediately establish a high level Task Force to address the acute global food crisis. He made the appeal while chairing a ministerial meeting of LDCs on the eve of the inaugural of UNCTAD-XII in the Ghana's capital on Saturday. Iftekhar proposed that the task force, comprising eminent persons, should address long-term food security issues including those of agricultural productivity, grains trade, land utilisation and diversion for bio-fuels.

Sending warning signals to the UPA Government, the Left and UNPA leaders on Saturday came together to attack it on the issue of price rise. They also courted arrest. The leaders, including CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, RSP's Abani Roy, Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh, were arrested while marching towards the Prime Minister's Office to hand over a memorandum. Making it clear that the issue of price rise would be effectively used to float a common policy platform, the Left and UNPA leaders threatened to intensify their agitation.

Soaring food prices have hampered Asia's fight against poverty and some countries may need foreign aid to feed their hungry millions, the Asian Development Bank president said on Friday.

The Finance Minister Mr P. Chidambaram's utterance in Washington last week that he is prepared to sacrifice revenue to tame inflation by fiscal measures and the repetition of the same point during his intervention in the discussion on price rise in the Lok Sabha on April 16, 2008 have unwittingly been used to wrest more import duty cuts. The latest to join the bandwagon is the Petroleum Ministry, which is seeking a scrapping of 5 per cent customs duty on imported crude oil.

No need for alarm; but some Chinese ring bells anyway

Global food shortages have taken everyone by surprise. What is to be done? Reuters SAMAKE BAKARY sells rice from wooden basins at Abobote market in the northern suburbs of Abidjan in C

Food prices are causing misery and strife around the world. Radical solutions are needed PICTURES of hunger usually show passive eyes and swollen bellies. The harvest fails because of war or strife; the onset of crisis is sudden and localised. Its burden falls on those already at the margin.

China on Thursday announced new duties on fertiliser exports in a bid to boost farming output, after Premier Wen Jiaobao said greater efforts were needed to tackle soaring food prices. Wen said more must be done to help the nation's agriculture sector after data was released on Wednesday showing food prices in China surged 21.0 per cent in the first quarter, driving inflation to 8.0 per cent. "The most prominent problem in the domestic economy is that prices are still running at high levels,' Wen said in comments published in various Chinese media outlets on Thursday.