Australia, one of the best-performing advanced economies, faced looming economic turbulence from the subprime lending meltdown in the United States, Prime Minister John Howard warned on Sunday.
More than half of Africa is now in need of urgent food assistance.
Across America, the picture is critically clear - the nation's freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst.
At least 30 people have died and 100 been injured in flooding in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials have said.
Biofuels are any kind of fuel made from living things, or from the waste they produce.
The EU target of ensuring 10% of petrol and diesel comes from renewable sources by 2020 is not an effective way to curb carbon emissions, researchers say.
It is one of the most hotly debated environmental topics of the year - whether the drive to produce alternative so-called green fuels will take food from the mouths of the hungry.
A United Nations expert has condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels as a replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity.
The price of gold rocketed Friday to the highest level since the start of 1980, as the precious metal won support from the weak dollar and record high crude oil prices, traders said.
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said on Thursday he expected the dollar to weaken further, adding that South Korean stocks offered better value than other world markets.
Thousands of evacuees have returned to parts of California devastated by wildfires - some finding their homes no more than smouldering heaps.
Schoolgirls in England will be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer from September 2008, ministers are set to announce.
The median price of US houses has crashed from a peak of $262,600 in March to $211,700 in September. This is an 18pc drop nationwide.
Nearly one in four young adults took drugs last year in spite of an overall fall in the amount of misuse, Home Office figures revealed today.
One of the larger fires in Southern California was deliberately started by someone with apparent knowledge of arson, a fire official said Thursday.