World News - "The world is sitting on a "powder keg" of social unrest, which risks exploding as human rights are eroded by the global economic slowdown, Amnesty International warned Thursday.

But its annual report ...said the global meltdown also offers a chance to rebuild an economic framework putting human rights at its heart. ...As well as national and regional problems, Amnesty also highlighted wider global problems, including food shortages which leave one billion people hungry or malnourished.

Growing unemployment, as the global economic suddenly contracts after a prolonged boom in many of the richest countries in the world, only adds to the crisis. ...But the Amnesty report's conclusions are not all gloomy: from the wreckage of the global economy, it may be possible to rebuild something better, its authors suggest. ..." [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

FT notes that "...Peaceful demonstrations over rising food prices and poor economic conditions have been met by tough responses from authorities in many countries, and this trend is likely to accelerate in the rest of 2009, the human rights pressure group states in its annual report, published today. ...

The report lists examples of how state authorities are colluding with big businesses to deprive people of land and natural resources. ...It also notes repeated examples of media censorship. ..." [The Financial Times (UK)/Factiva]

AP reports that "...While world attention has been fixed on the collapse of financial service titans, those at the very bottom of the economic pyramid are suffering the worst, Amnesty's Secretary General Irene Khan said in an interview.

'There is a kind of domino effect ... here, and those at the most vulnerable end of the chain are feeling the brunt,' Khan said. She added that the intense focus on fixing the world's troubled financial system was undermining discussions about inequality, insecurity and oppression. ..." [The Associated Press/Factiva]