LONDON — Rising prices for food have led the United Nations programme fighting famine in Africa and other regions to warn that it can no longer afford to feed the 90m people it has helped for each of the past five years on its budget. The World Food Programme feeds people in countries including Chad, Uganda and Ethiopia, but reaches a fraction of the 850m people it estimates suffers from hunger. It spent about $600m buying food in 2006. So far, the WFP has not cut its reach because of high commodities prices, but now says it could be forced to do so unless donor countries provide extra funds. Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director, said in an interview with the Financial Times: ‘In a world where our contributions are holding fairly steady, this [cost increase] means we are able to reach far less people.’ She said policymakers were becoming more concerned about the impact of biofuel demand on food prices and how the world would continue to feed its expanding population. The warning could re-ignite the debate on food versus fuel amid concerns biofuel production will sustain food inflation and hit the world’s poorest people. […]
With the United States military fighting a protracted war in Iraq and a wide-open presidential campaign already making headlines daily, Americans of all ages are interested in current affairs and are consuming news like never before, right? Not so, especially not teenagers and young adults, according to a report released last week by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. In fact, most teenagers and adults 30 and younger are not following the news closely at all, the report, titled ‘Young People and News,’ concluded. It is based on a national sample of 1,800 Americans that included teenagers, young adults aged 18 to 30 and older adults. Thomas Patterson, a professor of government and the press at Harvard who conducted the survey, said that young people today do not make an appointment with news every day the way older adults do. ‘We found that most young adults don’t have an ingrained news habit,’ he said. ‘Most children today, when watching television, are not watching the same TV set that their parents are watching. So even if their parents are watching the news […]
BAGHDAD — The dress code at the Blue Star restaurant inside Baghdad’s Green Zone now calls for vest and hat. Flak vest and Kevlar helmet, to be precise. And it’s a good thing. At least four mortar rounds hit inside the Green Zone about 1:30 p.m. Saturday, killing two Iraqi civilians, according to a U.S. soldier who could not speak for attribution because he’s not authorized to talk to reporters. Meanwhile, a State Department official, after initially denying that State had ordered its 1,000 Baghdad personnel to wear protective gear, said that a copy of the order obtained by McClatchy was an undiscussable security breach. Saturday’s attack followed a barrage of up to 35 mortars and rockets that slammed into the Green Zone _ considered the safest place in Baghdad _ on Wednesday. The embassy issued its memo later that day. ‘As a result of the recent increase of indirect fire attacks on the International Zone, outdoor movement is restricted to a minimum,’ it states. ‘Remain within a hardened structure to the maximum extent possible and strictly avoid congregating outdoors. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is mandatory until further notice. ‘Public places that are […]
LOS ANGELES — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will settle its clergy abuse cases for at least $600 million, by far the largest payout in the church’s sexual abuse scandal, The Associated Press learned Saturday. Attorneys for the archdiocese and alleged victims are expected to announce the deal Monday, the day the first of more than 500 clergy abuse cases was scheduled for jury selection, according to two people with knowledge of the agreement. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the settlement had not been made public. The archdiocese and its insurers will pay between $600 million and $650 million to about 500 plaintiffs-an average of $1.2 to $1.3 million per person. The settlement also calls for the release of confidential priest personnel files after review by a judge assigned to oversee the litigation, the sources said. It wasn’t immediately clear how the payout would be split between the insurers, the archdiocese and several Roman Catholic religious orders. A judge must sign off on the agreement, and final details were being ironed out over the weekend. Tod Tamberg, an archdiocese spokesman, did not immediately return a call for comment. The settlement […]
A team of Korean researchers has developed a cutting-edge solar cell that might help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. The discovery could make Korea a leader in the alternative energy industry as the research team plans to double the cell’s efficiency and commercialize the technology by 2012. The team’s leader, Lee Kwang-hee of the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, said on Thursday, ‘Together with Prof. Alan Heeger at the University of California Santa Barbara, we have developed a plastic solar cell with 6.5 percent efficiency. That level of efficiency is sufficiently high for commercial products.’ The discovery was explained in the July 13 issue of Science, one of the world’s most prestigious academic journals. Existing solar cells that use silicon semiconductors cost US$2.30 to generate one watt of electricity, which is three to 10 times higher than the production cost of thermal or hydro power. The new plastic solar cell costs just ten cents per watt. ‘The efficiency of converting solar power to electricity should be at least seven percent for commercialization. Many foreign researchers even failed to develop solar cells with more than five percent efficiency,’ Prof. Lee said. ‘We’re going […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
