WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-04-27 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
Vienna – The United Nations (UN) secretary-general sounded a warning about rocketing food prices, saying it has developed into a “real global crisis”.
Ban Ki-moon said the UN was very concerned and so are all members of the international community.
“We must take immediate action in a concerted way all throughout the international community,” he said.
Ban spoke to reporters on Friday at Vienna’s UN offices to meet with the nation’s top leaders and hold talks on how the UN and European Union (EU) 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 Programme has made an urgent appeal for an additional $755-million (R5-billion) to “fill the missing gap” so it can carry out its humanitarian work. Ban urged leaders to sit down together on an “urgent basis” to discuss how to improve economic distribution systems and how to improve and promote agricultural production.
His comments echo those of other UN officials who have rung alarm bells in recent days over the rapidly increasing cost of food staples, which has sparked violent protests in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
Josette Sheeran, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) executive director, told reporters that the UN agency is facing a 40 percent increase in the cost of food and requests for food aid from countries unable to cope with the rising prices.
Earlier in the week, Sheeran likened it to a silent tsunami, noting that the price of rice has more than doubled since March.
On Thursday, Jacques Diouf, chief of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, said giving farmers in developing countries immediate help to grow more crops should be the focus of efforts to tackle the growing crisis.
An international meeting in Rome to be held from June 3 to June 5 would give the international community an opportunity to rethink its policies and act, he said.
The World Bank estimates that food prices have risen by 83 percent in three years.
Before the news conference, Ban participated in an inauguration ceremony for a new building at Vienna’s UN complex alongside a host of other dignitaries. –
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20080426091103807C651809