At around 5 p.m. on April 2, local police and officers from the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation descended on a four-story warehouse in suburban Manila. They were acting on a tip-off about possible illicit activity. But the agents weren't searching for drugs or knockoff Rolexes. They were looking for rice.

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

The Philippines' population has grown over two percent each year since 2000, the government said on Thursday, but experts said Asia's biggest Catholic nation was unlikely to change policies to slow the increase. The country has one of the highest population growth rates in the region, with at least three babies born every minute. Its population reached 88.57 million at a census in August last year, up from 76.5 million in 2000, the government said on Thursday.

DENILIQUIN, Australia: Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of this dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. "It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety," he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, "and now it has stopped." The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to satisfy the daily needs of 20 million people. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia's rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December.

THE World Bank has issued an urgent call to rich nations to help stem rising food prices, warning that social unrest in poor countries is spreading and that 100 million people are at risk of being plunged deeper into poverty. "We have to put our money where our mouth is now, so that we can put food into hungry mouths. It is as stark as that," said World Bank president Robert Zoellick, as he called for more contributions to the $500 million World Food Program.

The Philippines is mounting an ambitious bid to achieve self-sufficiency in rice within three years as a policy of relying on imports to cover production shortfalls unravels amid tightening global supply and soaring world prices. The government is hoping the Philippines, the world's biggest rice importer, will be able to halt imports by 2010 thanks to a spending spree on irrigation and farm support aimed at boosting production. The country's 2m rice farmers produced only 90 per cent of its requirements during the past seven years, necessitating imports averaging 1.2m tonnes a year.

Brazil Troops Start Anti-Dengue Foot Patrols BRAZIL: April 9, 2008 RIO DE JANEIRO - Hundreds of Brazilian soldiers swapped ammunition packs for yellow bags of mosquito larvicide on Tuesday, taking the battle against a deadly dengue fever epidemic to the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease has killed 68 people in the state of Rio, most of them in its capital -- a major tourism destination.

Philippines To Import Ethanol From Brazil, Thailand INDIA: April 3, 2008 MUMBAI - The Philippines plans to import about 170 million litres of ethanol from Brazil and Thailand in 2009, Archie Amarra, executive director of Philippines Sugar Millers Association Inc, said on Wednesday. The Philippine government had passed a biofuel act in 2007 that made it mandatory to mix 5 percent of ethanol in gasoline from February 2009, he said. "It will translate into 200 million litres of ethanol a year," Amarra told Reuters on the sidelines of a sugar conference in Mumbai.

power of the big Banana: A court of appeals in the Philippines recently sided with the banana growers and exporters of the country and allowed the continuation of aerial spraying of pesticides. The

Philippine fast-food chains are to begin offering half servings of rice in a move to help the government ease demand for the staple and avert a possible shortage with global rice inventories sitting at 25-year lows. Jollibee Foods, the country's biggest restaurant chain, with more than 600 stores, said its operations managers were planning how to implement the plan.Its Chinese fast-food unit, Chowking, is set to offer half portions of rice from April 1. McDonald's is also considering serving half portions in more than 250 stores.