Here is the Friday May 30th, 2008 edition of interesting reads from around the world.

The Rome Summit, Part IV
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 Part IV, the series looks at the rising demand for meat in China and its impact.

In 1980, when the population was still under one billion, the average Chinese person ate 20kg (44lbs) of meat; last year, with an extra 300 million people, it was 54kg. The country as a whole now chomps through more than 60m tonnes of meat a year, roughly equivalent to 240 million cows, or 600 million pigs, or 24 billion chickens. It is a worldwide trend that is taking grain away from the world’s poor. The consumption of meat in developing countries is rising by more than 5% a year.

Sarko & Sarko
Two quick stories from Fistfulofeuros on France’s President Nicholas Sarkozy. The first, Sarko the Euro-Populist covers Sarkozy’s plan to put a cap on the VAT as it applies to fuel; the second, Sarko Tlits at the Trente-Cinq, looks at Sarkozy’s not so clear plans for France’s 35-hour work week.

The Unwinnable War in Afghanistan
Forty nations are embroiled in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Anyone who travels through the country with Western troops soon realizes that NATO forces would have to be increased tenfold for peace to be even a remote possibility. More on this from Der Spiegel.

Forgotten Northeast India Stirs
It’s is one of the most remote corners of the world and one of the poorest. India’s remote northeast region has been both blessed and cursed by its geography. The region is rich in natural resources but is landlocked and surrounded by China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan, leaving it impoverished. The eight-state region may finally get a chance to start living up to its economic potential with several projects to enhance connections with Southeast Asia and to increase outlets for such commodities as organic foods, orchids, tea, coal and oil. The Los Angeles Times has coverage.

Clashes in Kathmandu
The BBC reports that demonstrators celebrating the abolition of the centuries-old monarchy in Nepal have clashed with police near the royal palace in the capital, Kathmandu.

Mass Evictions in Myanmar
The New York Times reports that Myanmar’s junta started evicting destitute families from government-run cyclone relief centers on Friday, apparently out of concern the ‘tented villages’ might become permanent. This is not the first time that Myanmar’s generals force thousands from their homes. More from Reuters.

TICAD
A record 40 African heads of state and government, almost twice as big the 2003 number, are in Japan attending the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) which is now wrapping up. Here is some assessments on the event: Kigali’s New Times urges that African parliaments have a greater say in the distribution of aid (Rwanda’s Parliament is made up more of women than men); the Associated Press reports that African leaders, Japan and development organizations agreed Friday that there is an urgent need to boost agricultural productivity in Africa and pledged to tackle the widespread impact of soaring food prices; and Monsters and Critics finds that the attendees of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) agreed for the continent to aim to double rice production in a decade and to expand irrigated land by 20 per cent in five years with assistance from Japan.