Friday, November 21, 2008   10:43 GMT    
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AGRICULTURE: Swazi Input Trade Fairs Falling Short
By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE - Mary Ntshangase sits under a big umbrella -- a packet of beans in one hand and a packet of peanuts in the other -- wooing customers to her stall.
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ENVIRONMENT-CHINA: Coal Far Costlier Than Thought - Study
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - Often criticised for its massive coal-based industries that jeopardise international efforts to combat global warming, China is undoubtedly the biggest victim of its voracious coal consumption.
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EGYPT: Food For The People
By Aya Batrawy
CAIRO - Caught between low wages and rising prices, many Egyptians have had to replace meat and vegetables with cheaper food.
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TRADE: Cotton Subsidies Remain Big Hurdle in WTO Doha Round
Analysis by Ravi Kanth Devarakonda*
GENEVA - The Doha Round was launched in 2001 in Doha, Qatar, to provide a developmental dimension to global trade by enabling developing and least developed countries to secure enhanced access for their products in rich country markets. However, there is a pronounced shift in the negotiations in the last seven years -- from developmental issues to the purely market-driven concerns of the dominant players.
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WORLD FOOD-DAY-PAKISTAN: Hunger, Poverty Initiatives Suspect
By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI - As Pakistan’s food crisis deepens, with an estimated 60 million people facing food insecurity, the GCAP (Global Call to Action Against Poverty) plans to hold rallies through the weekend demanding ‘’public accountability’’ even for hunger and poverty alleviation initiatives.
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DEVELOPMENT: Turning South-South Rhetoric into Action
By Indranil Banerjie
NEW DELHI - While leaders of developing countries have long talked about strengthening cooperation amongst themselves, some say little has been done to translate this into action. At a meeting of the third India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Business Summit in New Delhi, however, discussions were all about turning intent into enterprise.
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DEVELOPMENT: Challenging the Bio-fuel-Hunger Paradigm
By Indranil Banerjie
NEW DELHI - Participants at The Third India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Business Forum 2008 came together here to debunk the belief that development of bio-fuels would invariably exacerbate global hunger. Conventional wisdom has it that increased production of bio-fuel -- particularly ethanol -- will invariably result in decreasing acreage for food grain production, rising food prices and a surge in hunger and malnutrition. Participants at the Forum -- held in New Delhi during the lead-up to the third IBSA Summit -- declared that this was not necessarily true.
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ENVIRONMENT-US: Florida Hopes Energy Farm Will Be First of Many
By Mark Weisenmiller
TAMPA, Florida - If an experiment to plant sweet sorghum in rural Florida and convert it to fuel ethanol pans out, it could herald a fundamental change in how the U.S. and other countries create and use renewable bio-energy, researchers say.
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OBAMA: "Subsidising Big Oil Makes No Sense"
Bankole Thompson interviews BARACK OBAMA
GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan - Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama sat down with IPS correspondent Bankole Thompson again on Thursday for a one-on-one interview in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where over 15,000 enthusiastic Obama supporters turned out to hear his message of change at downtown's Calder Plaza.
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U.S.: Great Place for the Oil Business
By Stephen Leahy
UXBRIDGE, Canada - Why do U.S. oil companies -- some of the most profitable corporations on the planet -- receive 20 to 40 billion dollars a year in subsidies from the U.S. government?
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AFGHANISTAN: Subsidised Fuel Trail Winds Back to Pakistan
By Anand Gopal*
KABUL - In a teeming petrol market on the outskirts of Kabul, black market traders sell fuel to everyone from individual customers to large business groups. Although much of this petrol comes from Iran or the Central Asian countries, a good amount also hails from Pakistan, where government subsidies have made the fuel much cheaper than in Afghanistan.
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PAKISTAN: Tax Payers Pay for Subsidised Fuel to Afghanistan
By Ashfaq Yusufzai*
PESHAWAR - Petrol pumps in Pakistan’s border regions do brisk business. Jerry cans of fuel are carried both clandestinely and openly across the porous frontier for sale in neighbouring Afghanistan.
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MALAYSIA: Murum Dam - Public Funds for Corporate Profit?
By Anil Netto*
PENANG, Malaysia - Who will foot the bill for the Murum resettlement? ''Is it Sarawak Energy or will it be passed on directly to the state government and hence the tax payer,'' asked one Sarawak-based activist, who declined to be identified.
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Subsidies - Who Really Benefits? - RSS Why Do Subsidies Matter?
Subsidies -- transfers of public money to private interests -- have profound and long-lasting effects on the economy, the distribution of income in society, and the environment. Holding governments to account for how they allocate resources is important to citizens, not least because the bill goes to the taxpayers. At a global level, the impacts of subsidies are felt across borders, often most acutely in developing countries.

  Read our free newsletters:
Issue Fifteen: U.S. Economic Crisis
Issue Fourteen: Reforming Subsidies
Issue Thirteen: Oil and Climate Change
Issue Twelve: Nuclear Power
Issue Eleven: Fertiliser Subsidies
Issue Ten: Irrigation Subsidies
Issue Nine: Global Farm Trade
Issue Eight: Fisheries Subsidies - EU
Issue Seven: India's Development Race
Issue Six: Services Sector Subsidies
Issue Five: Energy Subsidies
Issue Four: Investment Incentives
Issue Three: WTO Farm Subsidy
Issue Two: Investigating Subsidies
Issue One: Biofuels
Subsidies Newsletter - Sign up for the free GSI-IPS monthly newsletter, addressed to journalists and experts.
Partnership with the
GSI
Global Subsidies Initiative
Understanding the complexity of subsidies -- the jargon, rhetoric and figures -- and the effects they have on people, the environment and economies is a challenge for journalists. IPS is an independent media partner of the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), in a collaborative effort to raise the capacity of journalists to investigate the hidden impacts of government subsidies. The GSI, a programme of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), is a research-driven organisation that aims to put a spotlight on subsidies and the ways they can undermine efforts to put the world on a path toward sustainable development. The International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ) is another GSI media and communications partner.
News in RSS
SUBSIDIES DRIVE US CORN ETHANOL BOOM DESPITE MAJOR DRAWBACKS
by Mark Sommer
The fuel source the United States has chosen to start replacing petroleum, corn-based ethanol, is expensive, inefficient, and both environmentally and economically destructive, writes Mark Sommer, who hosts the award-winning, internationally-syndicated radio programme, ''A World of Possibilities''.


BIOFUELS: NO SILVER BULLET AGAINST FOSSIL FUELS
by Vicente Paolo Yu III
While increasing the proportion of biofuels in the fuel mix for motor vehicles is a step in the right direction, it is not the ''silver bullet'' that will break the world's dependence on fossil fuels, writes Vicente Paolo Yu III, coordinator of the Global Governance for Development Programme at the South Centre.


BIOFUELS: MORE BENEFITS THAN JUST ENERGY
by Supachai Panitchpakdi
Many economic, social, and environmental goals could be fulfilled by increased production, use, and international trade of biofuels, writes Supachai Panitchpakdi Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).


AFRICA, LATIN AMERICA AND THE BIOFUEL REVOLUTION
by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Biofuels should be at the centre of a planetary strategy to preserve the environment and spur sustainable development, writes Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil.


BUSH ALLIANCE WITH BRAZIL FOR CONTROL OF WORLD BIOFUEL MARKET
by Leonardo Boff
Anyone who thinks that President Bush's current tour of Latin America, and especially to Brazil, was inspired by the urgent warnings in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is dead wrong, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian liberation theologian and member of the International Committee of the Earth Charter.


THE SINISTER NEW BIOFUEL ALLIANCE
by Joao Pedro Stedile
The Landless Movement of Brazil and the international organisation Via Campesina condemn the new initiative of President George W. Bush, who in his upcoming trip to Latin America hopes to seduce and co-opt the countries of the region into becoming major producers of biofuels for export to the United States, writes Joao Pedro Stedile, leader of the Landless Movement of Brazil (MST) and Via Campesina Brazil.