The official government death toll from the cyclone is 22,997, but Western diplomats in the country and others have given far higher estimates, perhaps exceeding 100,000.

At a seminar on sustainable development held Tuesday in the Portuguese capital by the Banco Espirito Santo (BES), a Lisbon-based bank, and the weekly publication Expresso, Geldof lashed out at Angola's leaders, who he said live in luxury houses in Luanda that are more expensive than the homes in the exclusive London neighbourhoods of Chelsea and Park Lane.

Pedro Sanchez -- director of tropical agriculture at the Earth Institute of the University of Columbia, in the United States -- said that in Southern Africa it was possible to turn an economy around and improve food security by investing in small-scale farmers. The threat of severe food shortages in Malawi four years ago was averted when the United Nations, at the request of government, helped these farmers to obtain fertilizer, seeds and other farming necessities.

Official reports say upwards of 30,000 people have died in the May 2 cyclone, 40,000 have gone missing and a million more rendered homeless. But more than providing relief the military government seems concerned with carrying through a referendum that will enhance its hold over the country.

Tibet figured high at a press conference -- that followed a summit meeting Wednesday -- where Hu expressed hope that recently initiated talks between Chinese officials and the representatives of the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, may prove fruitful. ‘'We hope the contacts will achieve positive results.''

Authoritative investigations conducted by the Council of Europe, the European Parliament (EP), Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as numerous journalistic reports, claim that Romanian air space was transited by flights used for extraordinary rendition by the CIA (the Central Intelligence Agency of the U.S.).

This was the common theme running through an interactive dialogue here on Friday -- ahead of World Press Freedom Day on May 3 -- organised by the United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) around the theme of freedom of expression, access and empowerment.

The ”autoservicio” (self-service) stores, as supermarkets are known in Mexico, are responsible for sales of 52 percent of food and perishable items in the country. In Mexico City the proportion rises to 70 percent.