Fungi that attack wheat are growing as a threat to the hungry inhabitants of poor countries. At a conference this week in Aleppo, Syria, scientists will be planning a counteroffensive.

The strong image of this remarkable revolutionary explosion in Tunisia, which remains embedded in people's minds, is the image of a man brandishing a loaf to claim democracy. This means that the revolution against social injustice is inevitably a political revolution for democracy. This is what the democratic social movement has been saying: there can be no real development that benefits the whole population without political democracy, without freely elected institutions, without freedom of expression.

19 December 10 - Few are aware that close to one billion people in over 100 different countries are suffering from or severely threatened by intense desertification.

Taking steps to control global temperatures is a key issue at the UN talks on climate change in Cancun.

IRIN News - Within the next four decades maize prices could rise by up to 131 percent, there could be 17 million more undernourished children in the poorest countries, and some African farmers might have to give up agriculture if the planet keeps getting hotter, new studies show.