Surging costs hit food security

Surging costs hit food security

Families from Pakistan to Argentina to Congo are being battered by surging food prices that are dragging more people into poverty, fueling political tensions and forcing some to give up eating meat, fruit and even tomatoes.

Scraping to afford the next meal is still a grim daily reality in the developing world even though the global food crisis that dominated headlines in 2008 quickly faded in the U.S. and other rich countries.

With food costing up to 70 percent of family income in the poorest countries, rising prices are squeezing household budgets and threatening to worsen malnutrition, while inflation stays moderate in the United States and Europe. Compounding the problem in many countries: prices hardly fell from their peaks in 2008, when global food prices jumped in part due to a smaller U.S. wheat harvest and demand for crops to use in biofuels.

Australia launches probe of Google

sydney

Australia announced a police investigation Sunday into whether Google illegally collected private information from wireless networks, becoming at least the second country to probe the Internet giant’s “Street View” mapping service.

The Australian criminal investigation comes as more regulators and consumers watchdogs around the world are complaining that Google doesn’t take people’s privacy seriously enough. Google maintains that its users’ privacy is one of the company’s highest priorities.

Last month, Google acknowledged it had mistakenly collected fragments of data over public Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries while it was taking pictures of neighborhoods for the Street View feature. Google said it discovered the problem after German regulators launched an inquiry into the matter.

Foxconn to give a raise in China

taipei, taiwan

Foxconn workers in China will get another pay raise in coming months, on top of an increase that just took effect in response to recent worker suicides, the company said Sunday.

Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group said salaries would be raised in October to $293 for workers at its plant in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Workers elsewhere in China will get raises in July adjusted for local conditions, the statement said.

Less than a week ago, the maker of iPads, iPhones and other electronic gadgets for international companies had raised workers’ pay by 30 percent at its plants across China.

The basic salary at Foxconn’s China plants was about $130 per month before the 30 percent raise, and new recruits are paid $176 per month.

Vote looms for Swiss-US deal

geneva

The Swiss government is hoping to rid itself of a long-running headache over banking secrecy Tuesday when lawmakers are expected to approve a treaty to hand files on thousands of suspected tax cheats to U.S. authorities.

A standoff among lawmakers, courts and the government has held up ratification of the deal that Swiss and U.S. authorities signed in August to lift the threat of U.S. prosecution from Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS AG.

The hoped-for resolution may yet be stalled as members of the nationalist Swiss People’s Party and the left-of-center Social Democrats demand concessions in return for their consent.

The debate in Switzerland’s lower house — or National Council — starts today.

Associated Press