Here is the Wednesday, May 28th 2008 edition of interesting reads from around the world.

The Rome Summit, Part II
In advance of next week’s Summit in Rome of world leaders at the headquarters of the FAO, the UK Guardian is exploring the global food crisis. In the second piece of the series, Guardian reporter Jonathan Watts writes from the Philippines, where poor farmers are struggling to feed their families as the cost of rice soars. In steep rice terraces of Banaue of northern Luzon, a world heritage site, Watts finds population growth is taxing the residents. He writes:

The main problem is population growth. The average couple here has five or six children. Tayaban is one of eight siblings as well as being a father of three sons and three daughters. Despite migration to the cities, Banaue’s population is steadily rising. Fifteen years ago it was 18,000. Today it is 21,500.

British PM Gordon Brown on the World Energy Crisis
British Prime Mininster Gordon Brown has an op-ed in today’s UK Guardian addressing the price of oil and the global energy crisis. The by-line reads “The oil crisis is a global problem requiring global solutions. And the OPEC Cartel has to play its part.”

A Turkish Divide: A Secular State or An Islamic One
The religious-secular divide has been thrown into dramatic relief as Turkey’s highest court weighs a case brought against the ruling Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish initials AKP, which has its roots in political Islam. The country’s chief prosecutor is seeking to dissolve the party and ban dozens of senior officials, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, from participating in politics for five years. The prosecutor’s 162-page brief alleges that the governing party is a “hub of anti-secular activities,” promoting an agenda at odds with the republic’s founding principles. The full story from the Los Angeles Times.

Japan To Increase African Aid
Japan unveiled a package of steps to help boost growth in Africa on Wednesday, vowing to double its aid and business investment, as it seeks closer ties with the resource-rich continent. In an opening speech for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), to which Japan has attracted more than 40 African leaders, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda also said Japan would set up a new $2.5 billion facility to help Japanese firms to invest more in Africa. Reuters has full coverage from Tokyo. In a related story, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda pledged assistance Wednesday to help Africa double rice production over the next 10 years to ease the burden of soaring food prices. The full story from Agence France Presse.

Canada’s Bernier Affair
Toronto’s Global & Mail covers the continuing fallout over the resignation of Canada’s Foreign Minister, Maxime Bernier, over a security breach. Questions about how secret government documents went missing for five weeks without alarms being raised dogged Stephen Harper’s government the day after Maxime Bernier was forced out as foreign affairs minister over the security breach. Prime Minister Harper, in Paris on a European tour essentially declared the affair over – insisting that a Foreign Affairs Department review of the incident is enough, and rejecting an expanded probe. Canadians seem to demanding a full probe.

Electric Vehicles–Poised to Go Mainstream
The Financial Times looks at the market electric cars and finds that the industry is on the cusp of greater importance. If oil prices continue to rise and battery prices fall, electric vehicles could come to account for more than 25% of the European market and 10% globally. The estimate does not include hybrids, which have combustion engines but are powered partly by batteries that recharge from energy released by the car. If so, it would mark one of the biggest technological shifts in a century of automotive history. Hybrids today account for a tiny portion of total automotive sales – less than 10 per cent even for Toyota, which is by far the market leader. Pure electric cars are rarer still, seldom sighted outside California.

Fascism Returns to Italy Under Berlusconi
Fistfulofeuros asks the question what’s going on in Italy. The answers is not very settling. It is time to remind Rome of its European commitments.

Lula da Silva On A State Visit to Haiti
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is coming to Haiti amid mounting pressure for him to serve as a moderating force in the Caribbean nation’s political impasse. Brazil provides the largest contigent of United Nations Peackeeping Forces in Haiti and President Lula da Siilva has been passionate advocate of Haitian democracy. It is also a sign of a more dynamic Brazilian foreign policy. The Miami Herald covers the story.