BBC news with Roy Lamar.
President Bush has offered more than three quarters of a billion dollars in new international food aid to help ease the effects of surging world food prices, which have already sparked hunger and rioting in a wide range of developing countries with its threat of much more to come. Mr. Bush said he was asking Congress to approve his request. The United Nations special. . .
. . . agriculture Joseph Globa said biofuels were contributing to a rise in food prices. The growth in biofuels production has coincided with rising prices for corn, soybeans, soybean meal and soybean oil. While much of the increase in farmer crisis for corn and soybeans can be contributing to increase biofuel production, other factors have contributed as well.
The American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has criticized countries which failed to make promised aid payments to the Palestinian authority. Speaking on her arrival in London for meetings on the. . .
. . . (Richard) Morgan Tsvangirai won the March presidential election, but without the necessary 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off, he was speaking to journalists at the meeting in Harare with representatives of the three presidential candidates, designed to reconcile the . . . .
"Responsibility in the helping to improve the life of Palestinian people, But it's a shared responsibility. And by the way, it's a responsibility that is shared by the Palestinian leadership itself ".
Electoral Commission officials in Zimbabwe have unofficially confirmed that MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai won the March presidential election, but without the necessary 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off. They were speaking to journalists that the meeting in Harare with representatives of the three presidential candidates designed to reconcile the varying tallies of the vote. Peter Greste reports.
"According to a source in the meeting, the electoral commission said Morgan Tsvangirai won 47. 8% of the vote ahead of President Robert Mugabe, who took 43. 2%. . . "
. . . production had been shut down. Alex Last reports.
The strike had forced Exxon, one of the biggest oil producers in Nigeria to shut down almost its entire production and came just as militant attacks had forced the other main operator Shell to cut its output too, so . . .
The Australia authorities have released figure showing that more than ten thousand farming families have left their land over the past five years because of continuing draught. This amounts to 10 percent dropping in the number of farmers in that period. A BBC correspondent in Sydney says the properties in rural communities are now dotted with 'for sale' signs, as farmers try to sell-up. In answer, the farmers' draught-related problems have been compounded by interest rates which are at a 12-year high. Our correspondent says there's a vicious circle in which farmers borrow heavily to plant seeds which then yield well below average harvests, which in turn leads to bankruptcies.
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Turkey has launched more air strikes against Kurdish separatists' camps in northern Iraq. The Turkish State News Agency Anatolian said that the planes bombed the Qandil area which is a stronghold of the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK. PKK positions in northern Iraq have been targeted by Turkish planes since mid-December. In February the Turkish army conducted a week-long ground offensive in the region. But Ankara admits that more than two thousand Kurdish militants are hiding out.
The Bolivia's President Evo Morales has taken steps to increase state control of economy by ordering foreign energy and telecoms companies to cede control to the government. Observing the second anniversary of his decision to nationalize the energy industry, Mr. Morales said his government was taking a majority stake in the subsidiary of Spanish energy giant Repsol. He said he was also taking over three foreign energy companies.
"Starting today at this moment at this hour, the control of the management of these companies is in the hands of the president, control of our royal company, and of the workers. Not only the control, but also active participation in operations"
Bolivia will also replace the Italian telecom company Telecom Italia as the owner of the national telephone company.
A cameraman working for the Arabic satellite TV channel Aljazeera has been freed after 6 years of the American detention centre at Guantanamo Bay. The man, Sami al-Hajj is being flown home to his native Sudan. He was arrested by the Pakistani army on the Afghan border in December in 2001, and taken to Guantanamo Bay six months later. The US military alleged he'd been involved in funding Muslim fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s. But he was never charged. He began a hunger strike at the beginning of 2007. His lawyer said he'd been force-fed on several occasions.
BBC news.