Billion People are Hungry

There are currently one billion people worldwide suffering from hunger, according to numbers from the United Nations. The world’s struggling economy only made matters worse, pushing the number up by 100 million people to its highest level ever according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). “It’s the first time in human history that we have so many hungry people in the world. And that’s a contradiction, because a lot of the world is very rich despite the economic crisis,” said FAO spokesman Kostas Stamoulis. In addition world’s safety could be jeopardized. “The silent hunger crisis – affecting one-sixth of all humanity – poses a serious risk for world peace and security,” Jacques Diouf, an FAO official told the BBC. “We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world and to take the necessary actions.” Most of the world’s hungry, about 642 million people, live in the Asia-Pacific region and 265 million live in sub-Saharan Africa, leaving only 15 million people in developed countries are suffering from hunger. Higher food prices, higher unemployment rates and lower pay are all factors resulting in the increased amount of hungry people. Governments worldwide should look towards increasing their respective nation’s agriculture sector as a solution, Diouf said. “Investment in agriculture must be increased because for the majority of poor countries a healthy agricultural sector is essential to overcome poverty and hunger and is a pre-requisite for overall economic growth.”
Jamaican Sprinter’s Home Burglarized

Gold medal winning Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt’s home was burglarized last week, according to police. Bolt was competing in the Czech Republic at the time of the incident, which took place during the early morning hours of last Wednesday, reports AFP. The thieves stole about $1,000 in electronics from his Kingston area home. Sadeke Bolt, Bolt’s half brother, was in the home sleeping at the time of the robbery and was the one who reported the crime to police.

Drought Pushes Kenya to Declare Emergency
A widespread drought in Kenya is causing the nation to declare a food emergency, reports the BBC. Almost 10 million people are in danger of going hungry, according to the Kenya government. “President Kibaki told the food security committee that the entire government must focus on the urgency of providing food to all Kenyans after the failed rains in the last two seasons and reduced production due to last year’s post-election challenges,” said a government statement. The government is planning to bring in 5 million bags of maize, cut the price of seeds (to encourage farming) and buy livestock in areas hit hard by the drought to help ease the crisis. Last year’s post-election violence is also playing a role in the country’s growing hunger problem. Many of the 300,000 people displaced by the violence were farmers, who have since been too scared to come back home and plant crops, reports CNN.
Cubans Can Now Operate Private Taxis
After an almost 10-year ban, Cuba is now allowing new licenses for private taxis. Under the new rules private cabs will also be allowed in rural areas, although they’ll have tighter restrictions than city cabs, reports the BBC. Many Cubans have been operating their own taxi services for years illegally but could have had their cars taken away if they were caught. Officials had originally banned the taxis because they believed they were operating a black market for fuel. Restrictions in the Communist country have lessened in the past months. Just last year the Cuban government loosened restrictions on cell phones and the Internet.

Millions of Ethiopians need food aid.

Almost 10 million Ethiopians need emergency food aid, according to a World Food Program spokesman. This number has skyrocketed from the estimated 4.6 million people just few months ago in June. The reason for the drastic rise is because some people were not accounted for in the earlier estimates, spokesman Barry Came told CNN. In the latest estimate, about 2 million people in the country’s southeastern region were included along with 3.2 million people who were covered by an emergency food plan at the time, but they are now in need of the aid. The country is suffering its worse drought since 2003.

South Africans killed their own by mistake

The mobs of South Africans that went around attacking foreigners actually ended up killing natives, the government says. Out of the 62 people who died as a result of the riots, 21 were South Africans mistaken as being from other parts of Africa . Language might have contributed to the mistaken identity; for instance, people in the northern part of the nation speak Shangan, a language also commonly spoken in Mozambique . Looks could’ve also played a role, as one native South African who was attacked by mobs told the BBC. “Maybe because of the color pigmentation, one may say I’m from Zimbabwe or Mozambique . These people, they don’t even ask where you are from or what you are doing here – they just kick you, hit you,” he told the network. “They all carry guns; they all carry slash hammers and knives. They even took our cell phones, money and luggage.”

International organizations want Haiti ’s debt forgiven
As if being the poorest country in the western hemisphere isn’t enough, Haiti has to pay out millions each year to service its debt. For this reason, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are calling for some of the world’s wealthiest countries to cancel Haiti ’s debt so the nation can focus on feeding its citizens and provide them healthcare, among other services. The NGOs, representing organizations in Canada , Europe and the United States , say that while Haitians are starving and rioting over food prices, the government is forced to pay $1 million every week to the World Bank and other organizations. They presented their plan to G-8 finance ministers before their scheduled meeting on Friday in Japan.