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Eating more insects could help fight world hunger, according to a new UN report.

Wasps, beetles and other insects are currently "underutilised" as food for people and livestock, the report says. Insect farming is "one of the many ways to address food and feed security".

"Insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly, and they have high growth and feed conversion rates and a low environmental footprint," according to the report.

The authors point out that insects are nutritious, with high protein, fat and mineral content.

They are "particularly important as a food supplement for undernourished children".

Insects are also "extremely efficient" in converting feed into edible meat. Crickets, for example, need 12 times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein, according to the report.

Most insects are are likely to produce fewer environmentally harmful greenhouse gases than other livestock.

The ammonia emissions associated with insect-rearing are far lower than those linked to conventional livestock such as pigs, says the report.

Insects are regularly eaten by many of the world's population, but the thought may seem shocking to many Westerners.

The report suggests that the food industry could help in "raising the status of insects" by including them in new recipes and adding them to restaurant menus.

It goes on to note that in some places, certain insects are considered delicacies.

For example some caterpillars in southern Africa are seen as luxuries and command high prices.

Most edible insects are gathered in forests and serve niche markets, the report states.

It calls for improved regulation and production for using insects as feed.

"The use of insects on a large scale as a feed ingredient is technically feasible, and established companies in various parts of the world are already leading the way," it adds.

Editor’s note: Ilyse Hogue is president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

As a nation, we can’t afford to miss the critically important lessons of this case. And when I saw the anti-abortion movement twisting those lessons for their own political agenda, angling for policies that would put even more women in danger, I had to speak up.

Gosnell will be sentenced for the murder of three infants and homicide of a patient through lethal doses of painkillers. Let’s be clear: Murder is illegal in all 50 states, and his sentencing should reflect the gravity of these crimes.

Gosnell also ignored the standards of care and safety recognized as best practices by medical professionals who provide abortion care. That he was allowed to operate for so long — despite multiple complaints — was a failure of the authorities to enforce the laws on the books.

His willful neglect of the law and of the women who went to him for help is egregious and is exactly the kind of crime that the pro-choice movement has sought to end by bringing abortion care above ground since Roe v. Wade was adjudicated in 1973.

Why is this so important? Because anti-abortion activists would have the public believe the exact opposite.

They are exploiting the Gosnell case to boost their 40-year-old agenda to ban abortion altogether. These opportunists are shamelessly using the case of these victimized women to take even more control away from our ability to make private decisions about how, when, and with whom we have families.

In NARAL Pro-Choice America’s annual evaluation of reproductive rights in the 50 states, Pennsylvania received an “F” because of the obstacles and roadblocks politicians have put in front of women seeking safe and legal abortion care. Pennsylvania, along with 32 other states and the District of Columbia, blocks abortion care for low-income women who receive their care from the state’s Medicaid program.

Denying women this care until they can raise the money to pay out of pocket can force them to seek abortion later in their pregnancies and drive them into the clutches of back-alley providers such as Gosnell, who offer them substandard care.

More tellingly, Pennsylvania has also pushed Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers laws, which are on the front lines of efforts to end abortion care once and for all.

These TRAP laws, always proposed by anti-choice extremists, zero in on clinics that provide abortion and hit them with a series of expensive, medically unnecessary and nit-picking rules designed to push them out of business, while ignoring clinics that provide other medical services with much higher risks of complication. TRAP laws often come with ridiculous rules for such things as the height of the grass, the number of parking spaces and awning widths at abortion clinics.

NARAL Pro-Choice America members, along with most Americans, support the fair implementation of regulations among all medical providers that are carefully designed to keep patients safe. However, the motivation behind TRAP laws is clear: to shut down abortion clinics. And what’s disturbing is, they’re working.

Over the years, there has been a significant decline in the number of abortion providers in Pennsylvania and across this country.

In Mississippi, Alabama and South Dakota, runaway restrictions have driven out all but one provider in each state. When these clinics are driven out of business, it is the most economically vulnerable women who pay the price. These women are the ones who lose access to critical medical services such as cancer-screening, check-ups and even prenatal care also provided at these clinics. Let’s remember Gosnell is also a symptom of how hard it is for low-income women to get quality health care, period.

TRAP laws are just the beginning for anti-choice extremists, who have made no secret that they will stop at nothing to ban abortion completely. Earlier this year, Arkansas became the first state to ban the procedure at 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Not to be outdone, North Dakota enacted a six-week ban on abortion — that’s before most women even know they are pregnant. If TRAP laws are a back-door ban to abortion, these near-total bans are your anti-choice neighbors barging uninvited through your front door.

None of these efforts — TRAP laws or outright bans — will reduce the number of abortion procedures.

A Guttmacher Institute study found similar abortion rates in countries where abortion is illegal and where it is legal. But the study showed that when countries limit legal access, more women die.

That brings us back to Gosnell. His clinic operated in violation of basic health and safety standards; his practices were abhorrent. If we allow political extremists to exploit this case to impose more TRAP laws and abortion bans, the remaining safe and legal abortion providers could be forced to shut their doors.

No one cares more about the safety of women more than the members of the pro-choice movement. In fact, it was the stories — daily stories — of horrors women faced from unregulated, unsafe, unsanitary procedures that shocked a nation into action back in the days when abortion was illegal.

Women, regardless of their background, deserve access to high-quality health care. Women deserve the opportunity to determine if and when they want to have families. Women deserve the dignity of controlling their own lives and, without a doubt, women deserve a lot better than the likes of Kermit Gosnell.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ilyse Hogue.

The landlocked West African country of Mali – one of the poorest in the world – experienced rapid economic growth after the 1990s, coupled with a flourishing democracy and relative social stability.

The core of ancient empires going back to the fourth century, Mali was conquered by the French in the middle of the 19th century.

After a brief experiment in federation with Senegal, Mali became independent in 1960.

Although swathes of Mali are barren, the country is self-sufficient in food thanks to the fertile Niger river basin in the south and east.

It is one of Africa's major cotton producers, and has lobbied against subsidies to cotton farmers in richer countries, particularly the US.

A chronic foreign trade deficit makes it nonetheless heavily dependent on foreign aid and remittances from Malians working abroad.

In the early 1990s the nomadic Tuareg of the north began an insurgency over land and cultural rights that persists to this day, despite central government attempts at military and negotiated solutions.

The insurgency gathered pace in 2007, and was exacerbated by an influx of arms from the 2011 Libyan civil war.

The Saharan branch of al-Qaeda was quick to move into this increasingly lawless area, and seized control of the Tuareg north after the March 2012 military coup, effectively seceding from the rest of Mali and establishing a harsh form of Islamic law.

The West African regional grouping Ecowas agreed to launch a coordinated military expedition to recapture the north at a meeting in Nigeria in November, with UN backing.

But with preparations expected to take several months, the Islamists took the initiative and began to advance towards the government heartland in the south-west.

Alarmed at the captured of the town of Konna, the government in Bamako asked France to intervene militarily. French troops rapidly overran Islamist strongholds in the north.

Despite its political travails, Mali is renowned worldwide for having produced some of the stars of African music, most notably Salif Keita. The annual Festival in the Desert has traditionally celebrated this talent.

Bahrain technology companies’ society – BTECH called for vast participation in the Innovation in Technology Conference, which is going to be held for the first time in the kingdom of Bahrain as a gathering for innovators, and ICT experts next July.

President of BTECH Mr. Ubaydli Ubaydli identified innovation as the key-pass for success, especially for the projects related to information and communication technology.

“In the time of easy knowledge, amateurs can develop technological solutions; developing is not anymore a victory, but coming up with an innovative idea, or developing an excitant idea with an innovative way is a victory,” he said, pointing on the role of innovation.

Providing an example with Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, who worth today $13.3bn because of an idea, he mentioned, “Largest ICT companies are competing to hire innovators and buy their projects with high prices.”

The conference will put innovation in the ICT prospective, it will focus on innovation styles and strategies, and the speakers will introduce pioneer innovative examples in the region.

“The conference is a golden opportunity to link innovators and decision makers,” said Mr. Ubaydli inviting ICT students, professionals and decision makers to join the conference.

“I invite any individual related to innovation, or wants to know about innovation to take this chance and try to get a tunable result from this gathering,” he added.

He also invited all ICT firms to work together toward making Bahrain a regional center for innovation. Developing the products and services of local technology companies is one of the main BTECH goals, and therefore they are participating as a strategic partner in organizing the event.

It is worth to note that innovation in technology conference is going to be held alongside with the Innovation in technology competition ‘eShabab 2013′.

WorkSmart for events management has organized the nationwide event in 2009 and 2010. The third edition is proceeding this year with the conference and full day workshops.

Editor’s note: Michael Macleod-Ball is chief of staff at the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office. Gabe Rottman is a legislative counsel/policy adviser in the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office.

It also shows how all Americans, from the most liberal to the most conservative, should closely guard their First Amendment rights, and why giving the government too much power to limit political speech will inevitably result in selective enforcement against unpopular groups.

To the agency’s credit, Lois Lerner, a senior official at the IRS, apologized on Friday for these unconstitutional practices, which are as unseemly as the Bush administration’s targeting of the NAACP and the House of Representatives’ defunding of Planned Parenthood on purely political grounds.

Lerner said that career IRS staff who were reviewing applicants for tax-exempt status took a harder look at applications with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names. She stressed that the added scrutiny was done as a “shortcut,” not out of “political bias.” But her admission calls into question earlier claims by the agency that IRS scrutiny wasn’t politically motivated, and it comes in the face of repeated complaints by right-wing groups that they have been treated unfairly.

Collins says IRS revelations will fuel distrust in government

Before addressing the obvious constitutional concerns with the selective use of the tax code against political opponents, here’s some background.

Certain public interest groups, like charities and nonprofit athletic organizations, do not have to pay federal income tax on their donations or dues. These tax-exempt groups include 501(c)(4) organizations (named for the relevant section of the code). To qualify, a group must be “operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare.” The definition of “social welfare” is broad, and applies to all points of view. The ACLU’s lobbying arm, for which we work, is a 501(c)(4). So is the National Right to Life Committee.

These social welfare groups are forbidden from engaging in too much partisan political activity. How much is too much, however, is controversial and remains uncertain. An organization that crosses over the fuzzy line will be denied tax-exempt status.

Crucially, 501(c)(4) organizations, in most cases, need not publicly disclose their donors. That policy is driven by the same concerns that prompted the Supreme Court in a civil rights-era case, NAACP v. Alabama, to prohibit that state from forcing the NAACP to out its members as a condition of operating. The court reasoned, rightly, that such disclosure could lead to violence against existing members and would dissuade potential members from joining at all.

Now, during the past couple of elections there has been a surge in applications for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status. Some argue that these new groups are being created specifically to help elect or defeat candidates, which would otherwise prompt full donor disclosure to the Federal Election Commission.

Opponents claim these groups are abusively claiming tax-exempt status to keep their donor lists secret. Some further claim that these groups then allow wealthy individuals, corporations, and unions to anonymously funnel large amounts of money into ads supporting or attacking political candidates.

As a consequence, the IRS has been under enormous pressure to speed up and aggressively investigate applications for tax-exempt status — both reasonable demands, if carried out impartially. But much of this outside pressure has come from the left and has been directed at conservative groups, who have an advantage in this “dark” political money.

It sounds as though the events surrounding the IRS announcement can be partly attributed to this growth in applications and the pressure to uncover “sham” 501(c)(4) groups.

Although the IRS claims this was an honest mistake, these revelations are troubling on many levels. For instance, there are several proposals circulating in Washington right now that would make it much easier for the IRS and other regulators to force political groups to disclose their donors. These disclosure requirements would apply even when the group is advocating purely on an issue of public interest, from clean air to abortion, and would apply to groups of all political persuasions and not just to groups supporting or opposing candidates for office.

The ACLU has expressed concern with these disclosure requirements precisely because they open the door to selective enforcement. Such concerns are often dismissed as speculative and overly pessimistic, but the IRS apology shows that concerns over selective enforcement are prescient. Those in power will always be tempted to use political speech restrictions against opposing candidates or causes.

The IRS announcement demonstrates that we should carefully consider any new policy that allows the government to restrict or chill political speech, including broader donor disclosure requirements. Congress and the administration should also act immediately to create ironclad checks on the IRS to prevent this from ever happening again.

It shouldn’t need to be said: Even the tea party deserves First Amendment protection.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors.

For the first time, scientists measured an average concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide of 400 parts per million in Mauna Loa, Hawaii, where the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observatory is located, on Thursday.

“Most experts that really study CO2 amounts estimate that we haven’t seen that amount of CO2 in our atmosphere in about 3 million years,” said J. Marshall Shepherd, climate change expert and professor at the University of Georgia. In other words, modern humans have never seen carbon dioxide in these proportions before.

Scientists say it’s apparent that human activity — namely burning coal, oil and natural gas — has been driving a rapid rise of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide changes climate and drives acidification of the ocean.

“Once emitted, it remains for the ocean atmosphere system for thousands of years, warming the planet. It changes climate and is driving ocean acidification all that time,” said Jim Butler, a senior scientist at NOAA.

Among the many risks of rising temperatures, agriculture, forestry, ecosystems and human health are all expected to suffer as a result of trends in climate change.

Turbulence ahead as climate changes

The amount of carbon dioxide varies daily somewhat and has cycled historically in accordance with changes in the Earth’s orbit, a phenomenon known as Milankovitch cycles. But the exponential rise in carbon dioxide levels since the Industrial Revolution is far out of the ordinary, experts say.

The number 400 parts per million is symbolic of what many scientists believe to be the inevitable growth of this gas in our atmosphere, Shepherd said. Getting to this number was to be expected.

“It also is kind of a warning sign or red flag that hey, we really need to tackle this problem,” he said. “It’s happening right before our eyes.”

In about eight to 10 years, levels will not go under 400 parts per million, Butler said. And in terms of reaching new carbon dioxide highs, 450 will come even faster than than the change from 350 to 400, given observed trends, Shepherd said. For comparison, the last time annual CO2 was 350 parts per million was in the 1980s.

Butler likens the phenomenon to an electric blanket. When you turn the dial, it takes a little while to warm up. It’s as if humans have turned the dial on Earth’s blanket, and we’ll feel the heat only in a matter of time.

“Even if we stopped emitting CO2, temperatures would still rise for at least a decade or two because the system has to catch up with it,” Butler said.

Most carbon dioxide is in the Northern Hemisphere, because most people on the planet live in these parts, Butler said.

In 2012, monitoring stations in the Arctic measured 400 parts per million, but this is a new high at Mauna Loa. The global average will catch up in a year or two, he said.

Since scientists began measuring at Mauna Loa in 1958, the concentration of carbon dioxide has been increasing every year, NOAA said. The rate of this rise has been accelerating, from 0.7 ppm per year in the late 1950s to 2.1 ppm per year over the last decade.

Before the 19th-century Industrial Revolution, the average carbon dioxide concentration worldwide was about 280 parts per million. Over the course of the past 800,000 years, says NOAA, these levels bounced between 180 and 280 parts per million.

NOAA: Watch history of carbon dioxide levels

You might be wondering how the planet could be warming if this past winter has been relatively cool.

Shepherd explains that weather is akin to mood, but climate is analogous to personality. Weather changes a lot, but climate is something more fundamental, causing overall patterns.

Study: Climate change may contribute to civil wars

It may appear that, in the grand scheme of things, there’s not a lot of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere to begin with. The most abundant gas is nitrogen, at 78%, followed by oxygen at 21%. Having a tiny amount of carbon dioxide is essential for our survival; without it, the planet would be too cold.

Opinion: How to fight climate change

But too much carbon dioxide, which leads to too much overall warming, is bad.

While it’s impossible to say that any particular event was “caused by global warming,” says Shepherd, climate change loads the deck, making extreme events such as last year’s Superstorm Sandy more likely.

These storms also become more disastrous with rising sea levels. The sea level near New York City was about 10 inches higher in 2012 than in 1900, Shepherd said.

The Mauna Loa station is the oldest in the world to measure carbon dioxide.

“It’s an alarming marker that we’ve passed,” Butler said. “Mauna Loa, the iconic site for CO2, has reached 400 for the first time over a day. That’s big.”

More science and space news from CNN Light Years

Editor’s note: Margaret Hoover is the author of “American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party.”

Ever the centrist, my beloved husband John questions whether the hearings are an earnest search for the truth or a hyperpartisan GOP political witch hunt aimed at embarrassing the Obama administration while derailing Hillary Clinton’s potential 2016 presidential bid. Dean and I duke it out from opposite perspectives, and we all agree on a surprising point at the end.

Then, on to a discussion of the dramatic fractures within the GOP on immigration reform — a split between former Sen. Jim DeMint’s Heritage Foundation and his protégé Sen. Marco Rubio — which give Dean cause for celebration. But I’m not sure he will ultimately like the outcome of these GOP growing pains, which I suspect reveal a realignment of Republican reformers from old guard thinking.

Cracks in what had been GOP monolithic thinking on issues ranging from immigration to gun control to gay rights — in a week where Delaware became the 11th state to pass marriage equality with a genuine bipartisan majority — could reinvigorate the GOP brand and lead to a more competitive party nationally.

John thinks renewal and competition in any party orthodoxy is healthy for America, but Dean is clearly rooting for DeMint’s success, even if it means the end of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act. To be fair, Dean’s a comedian, so maybe his partisanship is good for laughs, but it will give way to a desire for good policy to win the day — even if the Republicans get some credit. We’ll let you decide.

Finally, was Gov. Chris Christie’s lap band surgery motivated by political ambition or personal health? One of us thinks Americans are too obsessed with weight to elect an obese president. Another worries that the act of losing weight will obscure Christie’s record in New Jersey if he decides to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2016. Is it possible for aspiring elected officials to make decisions independent of their political future?

We hope you have as much fun hearing us analyze these issues as we had laughing it out over them.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Margaret Hoover.