Asia

Rice farmers here are staying awake in shifts at night to guard their fields from thieves. In Peru, shortages of wheat flour are prompting the military to make bread with potato flour, a native crop. In Egypt, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso food riots have broken out in the past week.

He said the new 'Silk Road' between Asia and the Middle East is an example of sustainable growth in emerging markets, validating the strategic economic partnerships with China and India. Trade in the China-Middle East region (CHIME) has been rising steadily, with the UAE as China's 5th largest trade partner, registering a surplus of US$ 7.6 billion in the first half of 2007.

Despite consistent Kremlin claims that Moscow isn’t trying to resurrect the Cold War, a landslide of Soviet-style actions over the last few weeks is doing a pretty darn good job of indicating the exact opposite. One of the frostiest events was President Vladimir Putin’s announcement a little over a week ago that Russia’s nuclear bombers were resuming regular long-range patrols on a “permanent basis” after a 15-year hiatus. In fact, British Tornado and Norwegian F-16 fighters had already escorted the newly-started Russian flights off their coasts going back to mid-July - and the Americans launched to meet the Russians en route U.S. bases on Guam earlier this month.