Leading figures from the United Nations met in Switzerland on Monday to chart a solution to dramatic food price increases that have caused hunger, riots and hoarding in poor countries around the world. Vietnam acted to quell panic over rice supplies on Monday, banning speculation in the market after a "chaotic" buying binge in the Southeast Asian nation highlighted growing global fears about food security.

Can the agricultural miracle last?

Washington: Some stores have begun rationing rice, the price of wheat flour has gone through the roof, there's no butter on store shelves, and petrol at the pump is at an all-time high. The usual developing country woes from Asia, Africa and Latin America? Try again. These are stories from the US and Japan, the world's most advanced nations that stand for prosperity and plenitude. Astonishing accounts of panic buying and rationing are surfacing from Tokyo to New York as world leaders are breaking out in cold sweat over tightening food supply chain.

Indian harvest brings cheer to world Washington: The announcement from New Delhi that India would produce a bounteous harvest of wheat (and rice) this coming summer has beaten back wheat prices to a six-month low in the US market. With the US acreage under wheat also improving under good weather conditions, the International Grains Council has forecast a 7% increase in global wheat production.

The Asian Development Bank on Tuesday criticised rice export bans, saying governments should instead resort to fiscal measures to help the poor, as prices of the staple continued to climb. While Indonesia promised more support to its farmers to encourage them to sell their produce to the government, signs China may extend rice exports this year came as a relief for the market scrambling for cargoes after bans by India and Vietnam.

Biologists have identified a soft-shell giant turtle of cultural significance in northern Vietnam that was believed to be extinct in the wild, researchers said on Thursday. After three years of searching, Asian turtle experts found, photographed and identified the turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), the only known living such specimen, in a lake west of the capital, Hanoi. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in the United States, which sponsored the research, made the announcement in a statement.

Researchers from Cleveland metroparks zoo have discovered a rare giant turtle in northern Vietnam. Swinhoe's soft-shell turtle was previously thought to be extinct in the wild. Three other turtles of the species are in captivity, said experts from the zoo. "This is one of those mythical species that people always talked about but no one ever saw,' said Geoff Hall, zoo general curator.

The collapse of Australia's rice production is one of several factors contributing to a doubling of rice prices in the last three months - increases that have led the world's largest exporters to restrict exports severely, spurred panicked hoarding in Hong Kong and the Philippines, and set off protests in countries including Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Yemen, the New York Times reported yesterday.

Surging prices for agricultural commodities - and the fear of shortages at home - have prompted some countries to impose restrictions on exports. But their moves threaten to prolong the current global food crisis - and even exacerbate it. Countries such as Argentina, Kazakhstan, India and Vietnam have stopped their farmers selling crops abroad or taxed exports heavily in an effort to keep local markets well-supplied and local prices for those crops low.