The leaderless Middle East uprisings can inspire freedom movements as Latin America did before

Mielenkiintoista taustatietoa Pohjois-Afrikan tilanteesta

Commodity prices have spiked in recent weeks on harsh weather that has hit various parts of the world. Sugar prices last week surged to a three-decade high because of supply constraints stemming from cyclones and floods that have recently hit Australia, the world’s third-largest sugar producer behind Brazil and Thailand.

China will spend $1 billion to alleviate its worst drought in six decades — a long dry spell in the world’s largest wheat-growing region that threatens further jumps in the commodity’s global price. … China has claimed success with cloud seeding techniques. Silver iodide fired from canons and missiles caused a light smattering of snow in Henan and Shandong provinces, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

If the world has a poor harvest this year, food prices will rise to previously unimaginable levels. Food riots will multiply, political unrest will spread, and governments will fall. The world is now one poor harvest away from chaos in world grain markets.

Dr. Sherif Omar, a young man in a bloodstained white coat (“Look at me, I look like a butcher”), who had been at a mobile first-aid station all night, moving back and forth according to the shifting front line, described pro-Mubarak supporters throwing Molotov cocktails from the roofs of buildings and from the highway overpass opposite the square. “They were fewer, but they had the elevated positions,” he said. He described how the anti-Mubarak demonstrators had beat them back with a hail of stones, only to have the Mubarak people—“those mercenaries; we treated some and found crisp hundred-pound notes and police I.D.s in their pockets”—return with machine guns: “All the deaths were bullet wounds.”

Banks, junctions and important buildings previously guarded by the police and state security were left abandoned on Saturday and civilians have quickly stepped in to fill the void.

“The community is working together to stop this and protect ourselves.”

Eli 47% ei ole varmoja kannattavatko he nykyistä edustuksellista demokratiaa. Monikohan suomalaisista kannattaisi suoraa demokratiaa?

Hiilikaivosteollisuus opettelee sisäistämään tuotannon kustannuksia - Flooded open-pit coal mines and washed out rail lines in Queensland state have seen global miners including Anglo American and Rio Tinto declare force majeure and reduce coal exports to a trickle.

Food inflation in many Asian countries, including China and India, is already in double digits, raising fears that the price pressures could spread more broadly to other sectors and pose a threat to both economic and social stability as millions of Asians live in poverty. Food prices hit a record high last month, moving beyond the levels that prompted riots in 2008 in countries as far afield as Egypt, Cameroon and Haiti.

to 18.32 percent