Producers warn the price of snails - one of France's more exotic foodstuffs - is about to soar, because of economic development in eastern Europe.
France consumes more than 14,000 tonnes of snails every year but practically none of them are actually French. With the most prized species now under protection, the industry relies on central and east European imports.
But economic progress in countries like Poland and Bulgaria means less appetite for the hard work of snail-gathering. Until now, every year rural families there could earn a decent wage from collecting the animals in the fields and woods.
So the companies which buy the snails are putting up their salaries in order to keep their employees, which means they are going to have to put up their prices in order to stay solvent.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7491890.stm
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If elected, Obama says, he would immediately withdraw thousands of ground troops from Iraq and send them to Afghanistan to help undermanned US forces defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
McCain, a former fighter pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, says Iraq, not Afghanistan, is the "central front" in the war on terrorism. He believes that NATO and Pakistan must do more in Afghanistan until the United States can draw down its commitment in Iraq - a position which tracks Bush administration strategy.
Source: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/06/obama_mccain_split_over_afghan_strategy/
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In a staggering spate of holiday violence, seven people were shot in Boston, two fatally, in four separate shootings during an eight-hour stretch from Friday evening to early yesterday morning.
Police said they had promising leads in all three homicides and were confident arrests would be made soon. Both the neighborhood shootings appeared to be targeted retaliations by rival gangs, police said.
Source: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/06/holiday_violence_leaves_city_on_edge/
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