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.

Endangered Bears Find Refuge In New Vietnam Centre VIETNAM: April 8, 2008 TAM DAO - A furry black bear cub playfully clasps a rubber pet toy between its paws and eats fruit in its new home -- Vietnam's first refuge for bears rescued from abusive traffickers of bile used in traditional medicines. The bear is one of four 50 kg (110 lb) endangered Asiatic black cubs and two adults that were smuggled either from neighbouring Laos or from southern Vietnam in the past seven months, and confiscated by the authorities.

Vietnam has started clinical trials for developing a human vaccine for the H5N1 virus, researchers said in the country that has recorded 52 deaths from bird flu. Eleven volunteers, all researchers, received their second dosage of the trial vaccine on Thursday inside spotlessly-clean medical rooms of a company run by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi. Dr Nguyen Tuyet Nga, the epidemiologist and virologist heading the trial, said experts were using the highly-pathogenic strain of H5N1 taken from humans in Vietnam and known as VN1194.

PARIS: Spare a thought for the world's poor and hungry when you tune into the next episode of U.S. recession watch this week. Sky-high food prices are prompting one country after another to curtail exports in favor of domestic supply, a trend India joined Friday hard on the heels of Vietnam with a sharp increase in export prices for rice, a national staple in both countries. Cameroon, smarting from food price riots that rights groups say left as many as 100 people dead last month, announced cutbacks in official travel abroad to help finance wage rises for state employees.

HANOI: Rising prices and a growing fear of scarcity have prompted some of the world's largest rice producers to announce drastic limits on the amount of rice they export. The price of rice, a staple in the diets of nearly half the world's population, has almost doubled on international markets in the last three months. That has pinched the budgets of millions of poor Asians and raised fears of civil unrest.

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

Ducks, rice and human beings, and not chickens are the "most significant factors' behind persistent outbreaks of bird flu, a new study has claimed.

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.