> International
UPDATE 2-UN food aid funds growing, but needs growing too
Reuters: [2008-05-06 23:56:00]
(Recasts, adds additional needs, U.S. funding; adds byline)
By Missy Ryan
WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) - The World Food Program, facing an unprecedented surge in the price of food it buys for the world's hungry, has secured about 60 percent of the extra funds it needs to cover planned aid donations this year, the head of the United Nations agency said on Tuesday.
"We put out an extra appeal for $755 million and we're about 60 percent of the way there," WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said during a speech at a Washington think tank.
But the agency said it already has had to cut some of the food rations it provides, and its $755-million gap does not include new, emerging hunger needs that will require an additional $418 million to $430 million this year.
Sheeran, a former Bush administration official, said the world's food delivery system was "groaning under the strain of sky-rocketing demand, the soaring cost of inputs, depleted stocks, crop loss due to drought, floods and severe weather."
Higher global prices for basic foodstuffs such as bread, rice and milk may have brought on a crisis that could be the first truly globalized humanitarian emergency, she said.
World leaders are calling for urgent steps to ease the soaring costs, to create a larger cushion of food across harvests, and to diffuse the food panic that has triggered protests across the developing world.
"It is said that a hungry man is an angry man," Sheeran said. Global food prices jumped an annual 43 percent through March, according to the U.S. government.
The trend is believed to be deepening poverty, especially for food-importing nations like Nicaragua, pushing more people into hunger as buying power shrinks for food aid budgets.
Donor nations like Canada, Australia and Britain have stepped up pledges to help WFP cope with soaring costs. The United States, the world's largest food aid donor and WFP's top supporter, last month released 260,000 tonnes of wheat from an emergency crop trust.
Last week, President George W. Bush announced plans, which must be approved by Congress, to spend an additional $770 million on food aid and agriculture development in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
For countries where people spend up to three-quarters of their income on food, experts say time is of the essence.
The Bush administration already has requested $350 million in last-minute food aid funding for this fiscal year, a perennial addition to annual budgeted funds.
On Tuesday, Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives announced that they would try to add another $500 million for emergency food aid.
Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the money would be attached to a massive Iraq war funding bill that could be debated on the House floor on Thursday.
It was unclear if Bush would veto the spending bill if it contained too much spending that he did not call for.
The Bush administration also is seeking flexibility to buy more food overseas for aid programs, in hopes of making aid dollars go further. (Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by David Gregorio)
((missy.ryan@thomsonreuters.com; + 202-898-8376; Reuters Messaging: missy.ryan.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: USA FOODAID/WFP
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Reuters: [2008-05-06 23:55:00]
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Reuters: [2008-05-06 23:51:00]
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UPDATE 6-Tennis-Rome Masters men's singles results
Reuters: [2008-05-06 23:48:00]
May 6 (Reuters) - Rome Masters men's singles results on
Tuesday (prefix number denotes seeding, * new result)
Second round
1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Guillermo Canas (Argentina)
6-3 6-3
6-Andy Roddick (U.S.) beat Mardy Fish (U.S.) 6-1 6-4
First round
*Gilles Simon (France) beat 10-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 6-2
4-6 7-6(6)
Simone Bolelli (Italy) beat Olivier Patience (France) 6-0 6-3
Fernando Verdasco (Spain) beat 11-Carlos Moya (Spain) 6-3 6-4
Nicolas Lapentti (Ecuador) beat Filippo Volandri (Italy) 7-6(6)
2-6 6-2
Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) beat 15-Paul-Henri Mathieu (France)
7-6(4) 6-2
12-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) beat Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) 3-6
7-6(0) 7-6(6)
Mario Ancic (Croatia) beat Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 6-4 6-4
Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) beat Nicolas Kiefer (Germany)
6-7(5) 6-3 6-4
Jose Acasuso (Argentina) beat Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) 6-4 6-2
14-Tommy Robredo (Spain) beat Juan Ignacio Chela (Argentina)
6-4 6-1
(Compiled by Infostrada Sports; edited by Neil Maidment)
((neil.maidment@reuters.com; +44207 542 0856; Reuters
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UPDATE 3-Tennis-Federer settles score with Canas
Reuters: [2008-05-06 23:38:00]
(Adds later matches)
By Paul Virgo
ROME, May 6 (Reuters) - Roger Federer settled a score with his bogey player Guillermo Canas on Tuesday, easing his way into the third round of the Rome Masters with a 6-3 6-3 victory.
Canas went into the game as one of the few players on the tour to hold a winning record against the world number one, but Tuesday's result evened things up at three victories apiece.
Federer made an assured start, breaking Canas in the middle of the first set before producing two aces and a delightful drop shot to hold his serve to love at the end of it.
The Argentine came closest to breaking his opponent in the sixth game of the second set, when Federer was lucky to save a break point with a net-cord winner.
Federer, beaten finalist here in 2003 and 2006, never looked back, breaking Canas's serve twice in the last three games.
"The draw was tough with Guillermo in the second round. We've had some tough ones in the past and I knew it was going to be difficult," Federer told a news conference.
"I played well. I felt I was in the groove right away again from Monaco. It was a good match to start off the Rome campaign and I hope I can move on from here."
Federer reached the Monte Carlo Masters final in Monaco last month, losing to his main rival Spaniard Rafael Nadal.
BACK IN HIS STRIDE
Federer, a 12-times Grand Slam winner, said he was confident he was back to his best after suffering from glandular fever and losing his Australian Open title in a poor start to the season.
"I'm back in my stride again and feel like I'm playing well and nothing ever happened," he said. "It was a tough couple of months early on".
Nadal, aiming for his fourth consecutive Rome Masters title, will meet unseeded 2001 champion Juan Carlos Ferrero in a second-round match on Wednesday after his compatriot beat German Nicolas Kiefer 6-7 6-3 6-4.
Sixth seed Andy Roddick breezed into the third round with a 6-1 6-4 win over fellow American Mardy Fish.
The top U.S. player showed no signs of being rusty in his first game of the year on clay, polishing off the first set in 23 minutes.
Fish put up stiffer resistance at the start of the second, producing some thumping forehand winners before Roddick broke in the seventh game of the set.
"I feel pretty good," Roddick said. "Mardy is an attacking player and if he was going to attack my goal was to make him do it from the back of the court and I was able to do that.
Croatian wildcard Mario Ancic defeated Spain's Feliciano Lopez 6-4 6-4 and will meet fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in the second round.
Carlos Moya, the 11th seeded 2004 champion, was turfed out in the first round by his Spanish compatriot Fernando Verdasco, 6-3 6-4.
Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 10th seed, also made an early exit on his return from a knee injury, blowing three consecutive match points in a third-set tiebreak before going down 6-2 4-6 7-6 to Gilles Simon.
In the second round France's Simon will face Italy's Simone Bolelli, a surprise finalist at the Munich Open last weekend, who defeated Olivier Patience 6-0 6-3.
((Reporting by Paul Virgo, Editing by Clare Lovell) ((clare.lovell@reuters.com; +442075427933; Reuters Messaging: clare.lovell.retuers.com@retuers.net@reuters.net. For the latest Reuters Premier League and international football news see: http://football.uk.reuters.com))
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