Reviewed by KATHERINE TRAVERS

“Through Stones” by Simon Finn. Ten to One Records.

 ROME -- Whatever happened to folk music? In recent years, it has seemed that you can only be a folk musician if you are a hip twenty-something, living in London, probably signed to the label Communion.

ROME -- Bill Gates, speaking at the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Governing Council, has criticised IFAD and other international food aid organisations for "not doing as much as they should have to fight hunger and poverty” in recent years and called for large-scale reform.

 “The world’s agriculture and food system is now outdated and inefficient. Countries, food agencies and donors aren’t working together in a focused and coordinated way,” he said.

By INSIDER REPORTERS

ROME -- Navy officers aboard an Italian merchant vessel opened fire off the south coast of India killing two Indian fisherman, mistaken for pirates.

 The navy said in a statement that “the attitude of the vessel was judged clearly hostile, typical of pirates,” and that the crew followed international protocols.

 By JAN FILIPOWICZ

ROME– As Graziano Da Silva prepares for his inauguration as new Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the international peasants’ movement La Via Campesina has cautioned that the Brazilian economist’s policies at the helm of the UN agency will “encourage land grabbing” and reinforce big corporations’ control of global agriculture.