The warning by the world's largest trader of agricultural commodities comes ahead of next Monday's UN World Summit on Food Security in Rome, the first since 2002. The summit was prompted by the surge in the price of staples such as rice and wheat, which last year hit record highs, sparking food riots in countries from Bangladesh to Haiti."

The normally conservative International Energy Agency is now saying that we must act faster to prevent climate change. Not only to prevent catastrophe, but also because the longer we wait, the more difficult and expensive it becomes to achieve the greater and greater cuts that are necessary to keep worldwide temperature rise to 2 degrees Centigrade or a 3.8 degrees Fahrenheit global average. "

That would be the country that spent $US1 trillion on the invasion and occupation, but also on training and equipping Iraqi security forces, and on ambitious reconstruction projects in every province aimed at rebuilding the country and restarting the economy.

Saudi Arabia is a Persian Gulf Arab state, awash in vast amounts of oil, with high levels of oil production and massive oil reserves yet under its desert sands—that is the popular wisdom. However, the truth may be completely different.

The oil bubble appeared to have burst, with prices crashing to well below $50 a barrel from their historic highs, while the demand outlook seemed bleak as the world's economies nose-dived into recession. Yet 11 months on, Mr Falih cuts a relaxed figure - and with good reason.

The price of oil will remain manageable, US consumers will begin looking for ever more powerful SUVs, and governments can afford to ignore fossil fuels in formulating policy.

The greenback's decline this year has been lauded as good for America as it benefits earnings, stimulates exports and helps rebalance the U.S. economy. But runaway oil prices could be the Achilles' heel to the thesis that sees only a benign impact of a weak dollar.

The battery-powered Cadillac will be based on the Converj concept GM showed off in January and would become the second extended-range plug-in vehicle in GM's line-up after the Volt, which is set to launch at the end of 2010.

The number of options contracts to buy oil at $100 by March almost quadrupled in October and increased another 5.9 percent so far this month. As traders piled in, OPEC boosted production 4 percent, or 1.1 million barrels a day, since March amid the worst global recession since World War II.

ConocoPhillips has disclosed plans to cut capital spending next year to $11 billion from $12.5 billion this year and $14-15 billion in earlier years and to sell properties in 2010-11 worth $10 billion.

So the whole world economy is going to drop by that kind of percentage.

The world's largest publicly traded company by market capitalization said last week it has acquired about 2 million acres of coalbed-methane resources in Germany, its first foray into the exploration of gas trapped in coal seams in Europe.

Asian buyers, led by Chinese trading companies, have bought 45 cargoes of crude oil from Nigeria, Angola and other West African producers for loading in November, down slightly from 46 cargoes in October and 52-53 cargoes in August and September.

Javier Targhetta, president of Eurometaux, said the industry was concerned over high and unpredictable power costs, the added cost of a new emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2013 and a new registry of chemicals, amongst other issues.