Thailand’s rice prices have nearly tripled since January - from about $380 a tonne, to more than $1,000
Despite international opposition, Thailand wants to create an Opec-style cartel to control prices and keep them high.
As Selina Downes explains - rice is Thailand’s new cash crop.
The worst drought in a century has reduced crops in New South Wales to a record low, severely affecting farmers and pushing up prices worldwide.
Al Jazeera’s David Hardaker looks at the situation in the country’s rice bowl and how the knock-on effect from a sparse yield is adding pressure on the world’s poorest.
The cost of rice, one of the world’s most basic foods, is rising fast and with it, discontent.
The World Bank has warned that 33 countries face potential social unrest because of spiralling food prices.
In terms of rice, the sky-rocketing cost comes despite record harvests.
As Paul Allen reports, farmers in Thailand are now going to extreme measures to protect their crops.
It has emerged that the Bush administration caught off-guard by the rise of Hamas, embarked on a secret plan to overthrow its democratically-elected government.
The magazine Vanity Fair reports in its April edition that President Bush and Condoleeza Rice, the US secretary of state, signed off on a plan for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to quash the Hamas authorities.
The plan involved Washington’s allies in the region channeling arms and cash to Fatah fighters, who would rise up against Hamas.
But the plan backfired spectacularly, with Hamas apparently anticipating the move and taking over in Gaza.
How and why did Washington fail in its aims? What were its true motives, and where will its policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict head now?
Sami Zeidan of Inside Story investigates.
Jendayi Frazer, US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, talks to Riz.