Obama meets German chancellor Angela Markel in his overseas trip

Barak Obama on his Europe trip met met German chancellor Angela Markel in Berlin today. After Berlin, the first step in the tour, Obama will also visit France and Britain. This is an effort by Obama to burnish his foreign policy credentials.

Before going for closed door meeting at the chancellery, both of them shook hands and exchanged little talk. The closed doors talk took place for an hour. Earlier in Israel Obama said that he hoped the speech will be viewed as a substantive articulation of the relationship he would like to see between the US and Europe. He also said that he is hoping to communicate across the Atlantic.

Relations between the US and Germany reached to a lowest after war under Markel's predecessor Gerhard Schroder who always opposed the US invasion in Iraq in 2003. Markel, conservative, grew up in Communist East has always worked for repairing the ties.

On her part, Markel said that she expected to discuss NATO cooperation, climate change and trade issues.

No More Food Crisis In African Nations: EU

There is a proposal of help, two-year emergency fund, of up to $1.6 billion by the European Union to poor countries to cope up with food crisis. According to the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the fund would be mainly aimed for the African nations. The money will come from the EU subsidies budget. He also said that if they did not step in and help, UN goals to halve world poverty be put at risk and it would “exacerbate tensions” between countries in Africa over resources.

Johannes Laitenberger, EU spokesman, said that if the fund is approved by the EU governments and the European Parliament then it would provide urgent funding to UN aid agencies such as World Food Program and to the international Red Cross.

Gr8 G-8 Summit opens in Japan

Leaders from economy-power countries gathered in Japan for annual summit of G-8 on Monday. This time the group will also grapple with climate change and global food crisis.

U.S. President George Bush emphasized here on Sunday the urgency of providing aid for Africa. He called wealthy nations to provide mosquito nets to prevent children dying from mosquito bites. He said, “I’m concerned about people going hungry. We’ll be very constructive in the dialogue about the environment – I care about the environment – but today there’s too much suffering in the continent of Africa.”

Three years ago aid to Africa was centerpiece of the submit in Scotland. It was called to increase aids to US$50 billion a year through 2010 of which half to reach to Africa. Also to cancel debt of heavily indebted poor nations.

Weather a Bit Responsible for Global Fuel Prices

The recent storms and floods in U.S. Midwest was a record high. It drowned the corn-growing regions and at the same time a new economic because the world has become more reliant on crops like corn and palm oil for fuel supply. The aftermath of this is that the price of ethanol has gone up by 21 percent.

Though in U.S. only 6 percent transport depend on ethanol fuel, but still the rapid rise in price is not a good sign. Experts fear filure in these future crops. At the same time the cost of filling up of vehicle tank also depend on hail in Nigeria, plant fungus in Malaysia and oil-pipeline bombings in Nigeria. Earlier Hurricanes Katrina and Rita led to worst fuel disruption in U.S. It shut down refineries for weeks.

According to Lawrence Goldstein (energy analyst at the Energy Policy Research Foundation), "Our energy policy is like playing Russian roulette with every chamber loaded."