Opportunity to submit questions on DRC to Obama Administration

The Obama transition website has an open invitation to submit questions and vote on questions that have already been submitted. This is an opportunity to help bring the DR Congo into the administrations focus. Go here and search for questions on the Congo or submit your own.

So far the main foreign policy questions have to do with Israel and Palestine.

LRA Rebels Slaughter 45 in Church in DR Congo

More bad news for the DRC. LRA rebels have brutally slaughtered 45 people in a church in Northeastern DRC.

Two MSF Websites Worth Visiting

We have already mentioned Condition- Critical one of the best sites about the situation in Eastern DRC. MSF also has another site A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City.

This sight is the companion to a tour of an mobile education experience that provides a first hand look at what it is like to live in a refugee camp as currently some 42 million people are so doing.

See also the new video at Condition-Critical, On Both Sides of the Frontline

Two more die in DR Congo Ebola Outbreak

Two more dead from Ebola outbreak in DR Congo: MSF

KINSHASA (AFP) — Two more people have died from an Ebola outbreak in central DR Congo, bringing the tally to 11 dead from the highly contagious but rare disease, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Sunday.

Medicines Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) are at work treating the victims of this Ebola outbreak go here to visit their site and donate and learn more about their work.

DR Congo, Minerals and Proxy War

The following links are to articles about minerals exploitation in the DR Congo and also the possibility of the present war being a “proxy war”.

China’s US$9bn Hostage in the Congo War

The legitimate question is whether it is mere coincidence that Africa appears just at this time to become a new geopolitical “hot spot” or whether it has a direct link to the formal creation of AFRICOM. What is striking is the timing. No sooner had AFRICOM become operational than major new crises broke out in both the Indian Ocean-Gulf of Aden regarding spectacular incidents of alleged Somali piracy, as well as eruption of bloody new wars in Kivu Province in the Republic of Congo. The common thread connecting both is their importance, as with Darfur in southern Sudan, for China’s future strategic raw materials flow.

Rwanda and the War on Terrorism

A common flaw in U.S. foreign policy is the politicization of foreign assistance. Whether Republican or Democratic, U.S. administrations allow narrowly defined “national interests” – instead of needs, priorities, and realities in a given country – to dictate foreign assistance. As a result, foreign aid often backfires, undermining long-term U.S. interests and fueling instability, conflict, and violations of core human rights standards. Nowhere is this truer than in Central Africa’s Great Lakes Region. Today, President George W. Bush supports corrupt, illegitimate regimes that will either cooperate in the Global War on Terror, provide U.S. companies access to vital natural resources, or both. If history is any indication, this infusion of wealth and military training is likely to be disastrous for the people of Africa.

Billions of Chinese Dollars in DRC pdf. file from South Africa Resource Watch

Final report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo pdf file.

DR Congo: End Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo must act promptly on the recommendations of a Congolese parliamentary investigation that uncovered illegal natural resource exploitation and profiteering from armed conflict, said a leading group of international human rights, environmental and aid organizations today

UN asks to stop illegal mineral trade in Eastern Congo

The UN Group of Experts on the DRC calls upon the UN Member States to hold their national companies who are directly or indirectly trading the minerals with the armed groups to account and buyers. In its latest report published on December 12th 2008, the UN Group of Experts has again exposed the link between mineral trade and the financing of war activities in Eastern DRC. UN Expert Group Report pdf. file

DRC: Violent Mining Profits

Instead of being the engine for prosperity, the mining and trade in natural resources such as coltan, gold and tin are fuelling the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

IPIS Mapping Project Kivu

China in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Is an international boycott the solution?

Economic Exploitation, the Arms Trade and Human Rights Abuses Amnesty International

DRC civil society petition to congolese government and mining companies

Final report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of DR Congo HTML file

What’s Needed to Prevent the Deaths of Millions More Friends of the Congo

The central issue of the Congo has long been its enormous wealth and the nexus that exists among local sycophants seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of the people, greedy neighbors with visions of regional grandeur and the veracious appetite by Western governments and corporations to profit from the natural resources of the Congo with no regard for Congolese lives. Until this issue is squarely and honestly addressed the Congo will continue to “bleed.”

Mineral Wealth of the Congo

Minerals in Conflict

Vital Ore Funds Congo’s War

UN Panel on Congo Exploitation Calls for Embargo Against Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda

The Looting of Congo

From the depredations of Belgian colonial rule through the cold-war kleptocracy of Mobutu Sese Seko, the vast Central African nation now called Congo has been ransacked by foreigners and their African collaborators. Africans and non-Africans alike have extracted diamonds, gold, copper, timber, elephant tusks and other resources in a lawless commercial culture. As both Secretary of State Colin Powell and members of the United Nations Security Council have crisscrossed Africa in recent days to encourage the withdrawal of foreign troops from Congo, a disturbing U.N. report offers fresh evidence of the degree to which Congo’s nearly three-year-old civil war serves the economic interests of some of the West’s staunchest African allies and an array of foreign businesses.

Blog from Goma, Eastern DRC

There is a blog currently from Goma in the Eastern DRC.

Stop the War in North Kivu is available in several languages and is very much worth checking out.

Here are some links to articles at that blog:

A ghost report

About the exploitation of minerals in North Kivu

Forced recrutement in Rutshuru continues

Yesterday was a day of fear in Rutshuru. Again, there were trucks carrying youngsters forced to join CNDP. Again, soldiers visited many houses in total impunity.

Christmas rumours

High quality data on mineral trading in North Kivu

Excellent article dans Libération

Bad connections

To preserve US and German strategic interests

The report also lucidly talks about the deal announced by the Government of Congo and China on September 17, 2007, arguably the trigger of the chain of events that has finally submurged North Kivu in the current humanitarian crisis.

Talison´s mine shuts: black clouds over the horizon

Talison Minerals announced last November 26th that it is suspending mining at the world’s largest tantalum operation at Wodgina, Western Australia, from early December 2008.

These are obviously magnificent news for some people in North Kivu: warlords, murderers, war criminals, genociders, corrupt politicians, bribed douane clerks and the myriad of businnessemen without scruples profiting from coltan trade. As a result of Talison´s move, they will all earn more money. So they will all feel very much encouraged to keep on running the business as usual mafia trend this war has taken in recent years.

Ebola Outbreak in the DR Congo

The very rare disease Ebola has broken out again in the DRC.

Ebola epidemic kills nine in central DR Congo: report

KINSHASA (AFP) — A deadly Ebola outbreak in the central Democratic Republic of Congo has killed nine and infected 21, the UN-sponsored radio Okapi quoted the health minister as saying Thursday.

DR Congo News Roundup

Rebels kill 40+ DRC civilians

Kampala – Ugandan rebels the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), currently facing a regional military offensive in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, killed 43 civilians and abducted others in deadly attacks around Christmas, military officials said on Saturday.

UN slams DRC rebel rights abuse

Kinshasa – The UN accused rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday of rights violations including kidnapping and forced displacements of local civilians in territories under their control.

‘Alarming’ poverty in DRC

Kinshasa – Nearly half the population in the Democratic Republic of Congo may not live to 40 years of age, the UN Development Programme said on Wednesday in a report on poverty in the country.

“Alarming” figures compiled by the UNDP highlighted the paradox of a country so rich in mineral resources having such high levels of poverty.

Rebels harass refugees in DRC

Kinshasa – Rebels are harassing refugees holed up in camps in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and recruiting young men to prevent them from seeking safety, the UN refugee agency said on Thursday.

Uganda aiding Rwanda allies in DRC war

A recent United Nations report cites testimony and allegations that Uganda is aiding Rwanda’s allies in the calamitous fighting taking place in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Source says ‘individuals’ in UPDF giving uniforms to Nkunda

Uganda says those involved in the shipping of uniforms to Gen Laurent Nkunda’s rebels in eastern Congo are individuals in the military and do not represent government policy.

Army or rebels, the difference in DRC is only in the name

Eighteen-year old Adele Nychzie is fed up and tired. A week ago she arrived at a camp for people who had to flee their homes following the renewed outbreak of fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

“I had to leave my home in Rutshuru because there was fighting between rebels and the army. It took me two days to walk here and now I want to rest and think about my life.”

Adele has seen many things that a young woman should not have to see. As the fighting broke out around her, army soldiers raped her friends. Many villagers were hacked to death as they tried to escape the mayhem.

In Congo, rape victims are getting help

New mandate for DR Congo UN force

The UN has extended the mandate of its peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo by a year.

The resolution gives the force the authority to protect civilians not only from rebel groups but also from renegade Congolese government soldiers.

Clear evidence of war crimes in Congo: EU

GENEVA – The European Union said on Friday there was clear evidence of war crimes being committed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and called on both sides to stop the violence.

Condemning flow of illegal weapons in Democratic Republic of Congo, Security Council extends arms embargo, related sanctions on country

The Security Council, condemning the continuing illicit traffic of weapons in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, decided this morning to extend the arms embargo there and its related sanctions regime, with some modifications, until 30 November 2009.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Open Letter to the United Nations Security Council on strengthening the arms embargo on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

In this open letter Amnesty International, on behalf of non-governmental organisations representing civil society opinion from around the world, calls on the UN Security Council to take urgent steps to strengthen the design and implementation of the UN arms embargo on the DRC to help protect human rights in the eastern DRC and surrounding region.

Press conference on Democratic Republic of Congo Expert Group report

The Rwandan Government was complicit in supporting the rebel group Congrès national pour la défense du peuple (CNDP) of General Laurent Nkunda, while the Congolese Army was collaborating with the Forces démocratique de liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) and the Coalition of Congolese Patriotic Resistance (PARECO), two non-governmental armed groups operating in east Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a report by the Group of Experts on the country.

At an Headquarters press conference to discuss today’s launch of the report, Coordinator Jason Stearns explained that the Group had been created by Security Council resolution 1533 (2004) to monitor violations of the arms embargo imposed on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its five members had been appointed by the Secretary-General, were independent and reported directly to the Security Council sanctions committee.

The Congo’s blood metals

As Simon Tisdall has pointed out on Comment is Free, the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo looks intractable – and there is little appetite, in Britain or elsewhere, to send more troops there. But while the fighting is not going to stop as long as militias control the region’s natural resources, consumers in the west do have the power to limit their funds.

Just as blood diamonds fuelled the civil war in Sierra Leone, the illegal trade fuels the DRC conflict. As long as militias and politicians continue to make money from minerals, there is no real incentive to find a lasting peace. The companies involved in buying Sierra Leone’s diamonds only located their consciences when consumers started asking questions about where their gems were coming from, and profits were threatened.

No cavalry for Congo

Congo may be in the news now, but it will soon be forgotten and there is no appetite in Europe to deploy troops there

DR Congo: Preventable diseases claiming more children’s lives

The number of children under the age of five dying from disease as a direct result of war has increased notably in eastern Congo, World Vision has warned. Area hospitals have seen an influx of young patients since the fighting intensified; many of the patients are displaced and suffering from preventable diseases.

100th HUMANITARIAN WORKER KILLED THIS YEAR IN DR CONGO; VIOLENCE AGAINST CIVILIANS UNABATED

UNITED NATIONS – / MaximsNews Network / 22 December 2008 — UN blue helmets stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo have had to increase their efforts to keep noncombatants safe from militias as both aid personnel and local people are targeted. In 2008 to date, 100 people working for international organizations helping the Congolese population have become victims of the country’s instability and unrest.

Global Witness: DR Congo Related Resources

These are some articles and resources from Global Witness on the situation in the DRC.

Resource plunder still driving eastern Congo conflict

As the humanitarian crisis in eastern Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) escalates, Global Witness is calling for international peace efforts to urgently address the role the natural resource trade is playing in the conflict.

“The high level international attention to the latest events is welcome,” said Patrick Alley, Director of Global Witness. “But short-term diplomatic initiatives will not produce lasting peace unless the underlying causes of the conflict are addressed.

The economic benefits of fighting a war in this region remain one of the central motives of the warring parties.” Fighting between the rebel group Congrès national pour la défense du peuple (CNDP), led by Laurent Nkunda, and the national Congolese army, the Forces armées de la République démocratique du Congo (FARDC), has escalated sharply in the last few days, as CNDP troops have advanced closer to the eastern city of Goma. The civilian population has borne the brunt of the violence, as it has done throughout more than ten years of war. The latest fighting has caused mass displacement in North Kivu province. Both the CNDP and the FARDC have carried out serious human rights abuses against unarmed civilians.

Democratic Republic of Congo related documents

Recommendations on due diligence for buyers and companies trading in minerals from eastern DRC and for their home governments

Global Witness is asking companies trading in minerals from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to ensure that any minerals they buy neither finance armed groups or military units, nor contribute to human rights abuses at any point along the supply chain. If such guarantees cannot be provided, companies should refuse to buy the minerals. Global Witness is also calling on home governments to hold to account companies registered in their country who knowingly trade in minerals benefiting the warring parties in eastern DRC or who fail to carry out careful due diligence as to the origin of their supplies.

Plea from Local Organizations in North Kivu, DR Congo, to International Leaders

Briefing for UN Arria meeting on the situation in eastern DR Congo

Act on Group of Experts’ findings on mineral trade funding Congolese armed groups, Global Witness tells governments

Governments should take strong action in response to the UN Group of Experts’ findings on natural resources as a key source of funding for Congolese armed groups, Global Witness said today.

In its final report published on 12 December 2008, the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) documents how several of the main armed groups involved in recent fighting in eastern DRC rely on the mineral trade to finance their activities.

The Times: Mass Rape Spreads in Congo

Sadly, the epidemic of violence against women in the east of the DR Congo has now spread to the capital as well according to this article in the Times.

UNICEF: New Publication: Children and AIDS: Third Stocktaking Report, 2008

UNICEF has a new publication available as a Pdf. file: Children and AIDS: Third Stocktaking Report, 2008

The Silent Tsunami

Aid agencies are calling the deepening world hunger situation the “Silent Tsunami”. A number of factors have combined to reverse the trend that had seen more and more people no longer suffering hunger each year. Now hunger is increasing.

Here are a few articles:

The Silent Tsunami

A SILENT tsunami of hunger is engulfing the world, afflicting nearly a billion people in 60 countries and killing 25,000 men, women and children every day. The global food crisis, triggered by high prices, shortages and bad weather, is deepening as the world’s economy moves into recession. Millions more people are now facing poverty, starvation, disease and death.

Countries struggling to slow increase in child hunger

Hunger is now the biggest threat to child development across the world, with global progress on eradicating malnutrition slowing, stalling, or sliding into reverse in some countries. But a new international index from Save the Children also reveals that some poor countries are making greater progress in reducing child deprivation.

Child malnutrition in Zimbabwe increasing as emergency aid pipeline falters

Acute child malnutrition in parts of Zimbabwe has increased by almost two thirds compared with last year, according to Save the Children.

Alertnet Food and Hunger Topic Index

Enough food is produced globally to feed the planet but even so roughly 923 million people go to bed hungry every night. Hunger is a leading cause of death, killing an estimated 9 million people every year – more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined

Hunger’s Global Hotspots: 24 December 2008

The Challenge of Hunger 2008 Global Hunger Index

World Food Programme

WFP Food Reaches War-torn Corner of Eastern Congo

Famine Early Warning Systems Network

Alertnet FACTSHEET: Hunger, the world’s silent killer

LONDON (AlertNet)- While acute food emergencies such as those in Niger in 2005 and Ethiopia in 1984 grab headlines, galvanising the public and donors to respond, most people who die of hunger worldwide do so out of the media spotlight.

At the end of the above article is a very telling quote: “If reporters from Mars visited earth don’t you think that their lead story would be: ‘One in six humans go hungry’? And yet that never makes headline news.” British news presenter Jon Snow

Alertnet FAMINE RESOURCE FILE: The reality of hunger

QUIZ: Five myths about famine and hunger

Life-cycle of a Famine

TALKING POINT: The global food aid controversy

Many aid professionals think food aid should be a last resort, arguing in favour of giving cash or vouchers to hungry people instead. They say food aid can disrupt local markets and make it harder for people to recover from a crisis.

People who subscribe to this view say hunger rarely exists because there’s no food in the area – it’s just that the food is too expensive for people to buy during a crisis.

Meanwhile, aid workers often argue that the current food aid system puts the interests of donor countries above the needs of hungry people.

African hunger

More than 210 million people do not have enough to eat in Africa. The reasons for this are varied and complex. The causes of malnutrition in one country might be quite different in the next. Even regions within individual countries can be subject to variations in politics, climate, society or economy that can affect the prevalence of hunger in quite different ways.

Decades of progress wiped out’ as hunger spreads

The food and financial crises have wiped out nearly 30 years of progress on reducing hunger, warns ActionAid, reacting to new figures from the Food and Agriculture Organization, which show that the number of hungry rose to 963 million in 2008.

Nicholas Kristof: Raising the World’s IQ

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has an excellent op-ed piece about how to raise the world’s IQ– Iodized salt. Read his column here.

Resource:Center for Global Development

The Center for Global Development has issued two interesting reports.

What’s Behind the Recent Declines in U.S. Foreign Assistance?

In this CGD Note, senior fellow Steve Radelet and research assistants Paolo Abarcar and Rebecca Schutte offer a close look at the decline in the latest U.S. foreign assistance numbers. Bottom line: while America’s aid has increased by more than 80 percent in real terms since 2000 (with new money going mostly to Iraq, Afghanistan, and HIV/AIDS funding through bilateral channels), total U.S. development assistance has fallen 22 percent since 2005 from $27.9 billion to $21.8 billion in 2007. In real terms, this was the smallest amount since 2002, excluding assistance to Iraq, Afghanistan, and HIV/AIDS programs.

U.S. Ranks Poorly on 2008 Commitment to Development Index

As President-elect Barack Obama seeks ways to restore the United States’ international reputation in the midst of a global financial crisis with roots in New York and Washington, an annual assessment of rich countries’ policies to build prosperity around the world finds that the United States ranks 17th out of 22 high-income countries.

Resource: Stealth Conflicts

The author of the Stealth Conflicts blog and book recently placed a comment on this blog which alerted me to his blog and theory.  The blog has some very good articles on the situation in the DR Congo. The DR Congo is one of his “stealth conflicts”. I like his reasoning that the DRC is not forgotten it was never the focus of any attention in the first place.

I must admit. that although I try to follow international news, I was only vaguely aware of the situation in the DRC until rather recently. I was indeed quite shocked to see that the death tolls were so high and yet there was no media attention.

Please read the introduction to his book which is available online here as a Pdf. file. It is extremely insightful and his book certainly looks intriguing to say the list. I’ll have to see if the local library can order it in.

Here are some links from his blog on the DRC.

Ben Affleck and Gimme Shelter

What’s death got to do with it?

Conflict Death Tolls

He also has two articles online at the Journal of Humanitarian Assistance.

The Price of Inaction: The Media and Humanitarian Intervention

Stealth Conflicts: Africa’s World War in the DRC and International Consciousness

Some related articles by other authors at the Journal of Humanitarian Assistance are:

Humanitarian Assistance and Conflict in Africa

Assessing the Opportunity For Sexual Violence Against Women and Children in Refugee Camps

No war, no peace: a protection crisis continues in the DRC

Hell on Earth – Systematic Rape in Eastern Congo

Parade Article: Who Gets US Foreign Aid

There is a very interesting article in Parade Magazine, Who Gets US Foreign Aid?

Interestingly much of the aid to the top countries is military aid. How sad.

One Campaign: From Vision to Action: Obama Transition Briefing

The One Campaign has issued a PDF document From Vision to Action: Realizing the Potential for Development in an Obama Administration. The executive summary is here.

The One Obama Transition Page is here and a blog article here.

Unfortunately, the blog article is accomapnied by comments from people who can’t see past themselves. That really disturbs me. Things are bad here and many people are suffering, but we still have much to give and so many around the world are dying from crushing poverty.

We also have a responsibility, as does Europe, for much of the current problems in Africa. These are the  result of western colonialism and the scramble for Africa and the Cold War Proxy Wars in Africa, and also World Bank and IMF Structural Adjustments etc. But even disregarding the above reasons, for those who are Christians we have a moral responsibility  to love our neighbors and to give till it hurts and even beyond that. And the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches that our neighbor is not just fellow Christians and in any event there may now be more Christians in Africa than in the US.

WFP: Background Hunger Articles

Here are some background articles from the WFP World Food Programme on Hunger.

What is Hunger?

What Causes Hunger?

Who are the Hungry?

Some brief quotes from the articles:

Hunger and malnutrition are still the number one risks to health worldwide.

In the final quarter of the 20th century, humanity was winning the war on its oldest enemy. From 1970-1997, the number of hungry people dropped from 959 million to 791 million — mainly the result of dramatic progress in reducing the number of undernourished in China and India.

In the second half of the 1990s, however, the number of chronically hungry in developing countries started to increase at a rate of almost four million per year. By 2001-2003, the total number of undernourished people worldwide had risen to 854 million and the latest figure is 923 million.

Ten million people die every year of hunger and hunger-related diseases. Only eight percent are the victims of high-profile earthquakes, floods, droughts and wars. The rest are often forgotten. Who are they?

Ask about the hungry and most people will talk about the victims of Ethiopia’s famine in 1984-85, homeless families marooned by Bangladeshi floods or refugees fleeing war in Darfur, Sudan.

They probably won’t know that in total there are 907 million hungry people in developing countries who don’t make the headlines — more than the combined populations of the United States, Canada and the European Union.

BBC Hunger Quiz

Ten Questions to test your knowledge of world hunger.

Quote from WEA General Assembly on Poverty

The WEA World Evangelical Alliance recently concluded it’s general assembly in Pattaya Thailand recently. There they issued 6 major resolutions.  The resolution on the Millenium Development Goals includes these statements:

“In coping with the financial crisis of 2008, governments and international institutions have shown how quickly and effectively they can move to mobilise massive resources in the face of serious threats to our global, common economic well being.

“Yet one child dying of preventable causes every three seconds and 2.7 billion people barely sustained on an income of less than two dollars per day has yet to evoke a similar level of urgent response.

“We believe this to be an affront to God, a shame to governments and civil society, and a massive challenge to the witness and mission of the followers of Christ.”

AMEN!

ONE Blog: BLoomberg explores causes of the food crisis

The One Blog has an article Bloomberg explores causes of the food crisis.

A quote from the article:

Policies in the developed world can have serious impacts on the livelihood and wellbeing of developing communities. Among other policy topics, the series highlights the U.S. mandate that most of U.S. food aid be supplied and shipped from the United States. The result is that food aid can be delayed in reaching already-malnourished people in countries like Ethiopia. Similar food aid programs in Canada and the European Union allow the purchase of food near where it is to be distributed, where possible. Not only does this practice ensure that food is delivered in a more in a timely manner, but it supports local and regional economies in the developing world.

The series also examines the potential role of speculation in commodities markets, and of the possibility of fertilizer companies colluding to raise prices, in exacerbating the food crisis. From August to November, the price for potash, a particular kind of fertilizer, rose by 20 percent. This meant that farmers could not afford to apply fertilizer to their fields, leaving some unfarmed, and others producing smaller yields. When grain prices dropped earlier in the year, fertilizer prices remained high, further squeezing farmers in the developing world. The series also examines the topic of biofuels and how biofuel production can drive up commodity prices.

The articles are:

Dead Children Linked to Aid Policy in Africa Favoring Americans

How Famine Lurked Behind Vienna Toast Where Joe Cocker Crooned

World Bank’s ‘Wrong Advice’ Left Silos Empty in Poor Countries

Government Bribes in Cameroon Divert Funds From Food Amid Riots

Wasting Enough Rice to Feed 184 Million Is Habit Only Rats Love

Corn Futures Spark Riots as Speculators Take Trading to Limit

Eating Isn’t Option When Minnesota Corn Burns in Houston Cars