1 hour, 4 minutes ago - UN secretary-general calls food price rise a global crisis

[Snowy Owl]

UN secretary-general calls food price rise a global crisis​

All thanks to Yahoo

VIENNA, Austria

A sharp rise in food prices has developed into a global crisis, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday.

Ban said the U.N and all members of the international community are very concerned, and immediate action is needed.

He spoke to reporters at U.N. offices in Austria, where he was meeting with the nation's top leaders for talks on how the United Nations and European Union can forge closer ties.

"This steeply rising price of food ? it has developed into a real global crisis," Ban said, adding that the World Food Program has made an urgent appeal for additional $755 million.

"The United Nations is very much concerned, as all other members of the international community," Ban said.

"We must take immediate action in a concerted way all throughout the international community."

Ban urged leaders of the international community to sit down together on an "urgent basis" to discuss how to improve economic distribution systems and the production of agricultural products.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080425/ap_on_re_eu/un_food_crisis

 

[Niko]

Re: 1 hour, 4 minutes ago - UN secretary-general calls food price rise a global crisis

UN chief to host food crisis summit in Swiss capital

Agence France-Presse
GENEVA - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will host a meeting of key agencies next week in the Swiss capital Bern to discuss the growing global food crisis, the UN said Friday.

"The global food crisis and the solutions that the UN can bring to it will be at the centre of the discussions" which will take place behind closed doors on Monday and Tuesday at the offices of the Universal Postal Union, UN spokeswoman Elena Ponomareva told journalists.

Ban will be joined by the head of the World Food Programme (WFP), Josette Sheeran, as well as World Bank head Robert Zoellick and the director of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization Jacques Diouf.

He will also meet Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey in the evening, before travelling to Geneva on Tuesday to give a lecture at the UN headquarters on the Millennium Development Goals.

Rising populations, strong demand from developing countries, increased cultivation of crops for biofuels and increasing floods and droughts have sent food prices soaring across the globe.

The WFP has warned of a "silent tsunami" as an extra 100 million people who previously did not require help now cannot afford to buy food.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=116186