Three stories catching my eye right now:

1. Rice Hoarding: As rice prices hit new highs, tripling over the course of a year in some markets, farmers across Asia are hoarding their crops and holding out for better prices. This has the potential to create an interesting struggle between rice exporter nations—Vietnam, Thailand and India—and rice importer nations, such Indonesia, Iran, Egypt, the Philippines, and Cambodia. Protests have broken out in some of these importer nations as prices of basic foodstuffs soar. And the situation, already bad enough with hoarding by stockholders and holding out by farmers, is exacerbated by rising fuel costs. The USDA predicts global rice stocks will fall to their lowest level in 25 years by autumn.

2. Macedonia’s Name: As NATO is holding its summit meeting this week, three Balkan states of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia want to join as members. But Greece, a NATO member since 1952, is threatening to veto Macedonia’s membership—over its name. A UN mediator has proposed “Republic of Macedonia (Skopje)”, yet this has infuriated both sides as Greece said this name would still be unacceptable and Macedonia thinks putting its city capital in parentheses in its international name is insulting. Hopefully this spat over Greek heritage can be solved amicably.

3. America’s Most Sinful Cities: Some fun silliness from Forbes magainze.

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