3 September 2012 (BBC) – Typhoon Bolaven has killed 48 people in North Korea and left more than 50 others injured or missing, state-run KCNA news agency reports. The typhoon “brought big damage” to North Korea and displaced more than 20,000 people, it said. Hundreds of trees were felled and power cut. The North was […]
By Larry Elliott, www.guardian.co.uk2 September 2012 The last decade saw the end of cheap oil, the magic growth ingredient for the global economy after the second world war. This summer’s increase in maize, wheat and soya bean prices – the third spike in the past five years – suggests the era of cheap food is […]
By P.J. Huffstutter; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz2 September 2012 CHICAGO (Reuters) – For more than half a century, the Shew family has harvested mountains of popcorn kernels to be buttered, salted and munched by movie fans. But as a crippling Midwestern drought sends commodity soybean and grain prices soaring, the family’s farmland in west-central Indiana […]
By Alister Doyle; editing by Tim Pearce31 August 2012 OSLO (Reuters) – The vital tasks carried out by tiny “engineers” like earthworms that recycle waste and bees that pollinate crops are under threat because one fifth of the world’s spineless creatures may be at risk of extinction, a study showed on Friday. The rising human […]
By Glenn Ashton28 August 2012 Food prices are rapidly heading toward new record territory, with far more at play than a simple drought in the US Midwest. There are serious implications, especially for nations with high rates of inequality and poverty. We will almost certainly face a potentially catastrophic, global scale famine in the next […]
By Larry Elliott, www.guardian.co.uk30 August 2012 The World Bank issued a global hunger warning last night after severe droughts in the US and eastern Europe sent food prices to a record high. Damage to crop harvests from exceptionally dry weather this year raised sharply the Bank’s food price index taking it above its peak in […]
By JEAN H. LEE, with additional reporting by Foster Klug30 August 2012 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Twin typhoons renewed fears of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea, where poor drainage, widespread deforestation and crumbling infrastructure can turn even a routine rainstorm into a catastrophic flood. Typhoon Bolaven struck the North on Tuesday and Wednesday, […]
Jilin Province, China, 29 August 2012 (CCTV/CNN) – Gales and downpours brought by Typhoon Bolaven swept through northeast China’s Jilin Province since Tuesday, flooding downtown areas and damaging farmlands. The tropical storm affected Changchun, the provincial capital, with rainfall exceeding 10 centimeters from 8 a.m. Tuesday to 8 a.m. Wednesday. The maximum precipitation reached 120.6 […]
By SAM KIM with additional reporting by Associated Press writers Hye Soo Nah, Foster Klug, and Hyung-jin Kim SEOUL, South Korea August 29, 2012 (AP) – The Korean Peninsula cleaned up Wednesday after one powerful typhoon and girded itself for another that could be particularly damaging to North Korea, which is still recovering from earlier […]
By HYUNG-JIN KIM, with additional reporting by Associated Press writers Hye Soo Nah, Foster Klug and Sam Kim in Seoul, and Annie Huang in Taipei, Taiwan28 August 2012 SEOUL, South Korea – A powerful typhoon pounded South Korea with strong winds and heavy rain Tuesday, killing nine and churning up rough seas that smashed two […]
