Food Stamps: More Americans Relying on Uncle Sam to Eat

Just in case we needed more evidence of the hardship inflicted by the country’s devastating economic crisis, earlier this month we got it: more Americans than ever are receiving food stamps. The Department of Agriculture reported that 35.1 million people relied on government help to buy groceries in June — 713,000 more than in the previous month and a 22% jump from the previous year’s figure

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Opposition official’s trial on hold in Zimbabwe

A Zimbabwean court postponed the trial of key opposition figure Roy Bennett on Saturday to allow his lawyers time to prepare their case. Bennett, the Movement for Democratic Change’s nominee for the deputy agriculture minister post, faces charges of possessing weapons for sabotage, banditry and terrorism

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Tsvangirai’s party boycotting Zimbabwe government

Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change — the party of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai — is boycotting the country’s unity government, the party’s leader said Friday. “This is a constitutional crisis,” said Tsvangirai as he railed against President Robert Mugabe’s party.

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More than 1 billion going hungry, U.N. says

The global economic crisis has caused a spike in world hunger that has left more than a billion undernourished, United Nations agencies said in a new report. “It is unacceptable in the 21st century that almost one in six of the world’s population is now going hungry,” said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme.

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