Even with bigger crops, soaring food prices that have sparked unrest across the globe are likely to persist, threatening millions of people worldwide, a U.N. agency said Friday.

Prices of bread, rice, milk, cooking oil and other basic foodstuffs have sharply increased in the past months in many developing countries, according to a report by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization. Prices of wheat and rice have doubled compared to last year, while those of corn are more than a third higher.

Grain prices have risen as a result of steady demand, especially from China and India, supply shortages and new export restrictions, FAO said.

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Wall Street stumbled Friday after a disappointing first-quarter report from General Electric Co. surprised the market and stoked concern about the health of both corporate profits and the wider economy. The major indexes fell more than 2 percent, with the Dow Jones industrials giving up more than 250 points.

A weaker-than-expected reading showing consumer confidence at a 26-year low subdued any positive sentiment.

GE, which is regarded as a bellwether of big business, said its financial-services divisions have been challenged by the slowing U.S. economy and difficult capital markets. The company, whose orbit extends into entertainment, consumer and industrial manufacturing, finance and health care, also lowered its projections for the entire year.

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Big Wall Street investment companies are pulling back slightly on their borrowing from the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending program.

A central bank report Thursday said they averaged $32.6 billion in daily borrowing over the past week. That compares with $38.1 billion in the previous week and $32.9 billion before that.

T.J. Marta, a fixed-income strategist at RBC Capital Markets, viewed the pullback as a positive sign. “Conditions in this particular part of the financial markets are easing up somewhat,” he said.

The program, which began March 17, is part of the Fed’s effort to aid the troubled financial system, whose problems threaten the nation’s economic health. In the program’s first week, investment firms borrowed $13.4 billion.

The Fed has agreed, for the first time, to let big investment houses temporarily get emergency loans right from the central bank. This mechanism, similar to one available for commercial banks for years, will continue for at least six months. It was the broadest use of the Fed’s lending authority since the 1930s.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues started the program as policymakers raced to deal with the sudden crash of the venerable Wall Street firm Bear Stearns Cos., which was on the brink of bankruptcy.

The Fed feared that other investment houses could be in jeopardy given the intense fear that gripped the markets at that time. So the Fed acted to give them a place to go for overnight cash loans.

The program is seen as similar to one the Fed has for commercial banks, where the Fed acts as a lender of last resort. Commercial banks and investment companies pay 2.5 percent in interest for overnight loans from the Fed.

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The Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese and the Illinois-shaped corn flake appear to have new competition for webbies’ fascination: Dick Cheney’s mysterious sunglasses.

An undated photo of the vice president on the White House Web site has caused a stir on the Internet, causing some people to wonder if he’s in eyeshot of an unclad female.

The White House says it’s just someone holding an innocuous fishing rod (the veep — allegedly — is fly fishing in Idaho).

Click here to see the White House photo essay containing the photo.

“Clearly the picture shows a hand casting a rod,” Cheney spokeswoman Meagan Mitchell said, according to the McClatchy newspapers.

By punching in “Cheney” and “sunglasses” into a Web browser, FOXNews.com viewed these headlines, among many:

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A Hispanic woman who won the Miss California USA contest only to have her crown yanked days later sued the pageant Thursday for half a million dollars, alleging rigging and racial bias.

The pageant director rejected the claims, saying winners during his tenure have been some of the pageant’s most racially diverse ever.

Christina Silva, 24, was crowned Miss California USA on Nov. 25. Three days later, the pageant’s executive director, Keith Lewis, told her “there has been a mistake and you are not the winner,” according to the lawsuit filed in Superior Court.

Raquel Beezley, 21, was subsequently crowned.

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Police are searching for a Houston stripper who stole the identity of a disabled Wisconsin woman to buy a BMW and a Maserati, according to officials and reports.

Stacy Marie Oberley, 28, is wanted on a warrant for giving a false statement to obtain credit, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Houston.

Oberley, a dancer at Houston area men’s clubs, allegedly stole the Social Security number of an autistic woman in her 20s and used it to buy a 2006 BMW as well as a 2005 Maserati, police told the Houston Chronicle. Both cars are valued at more than $113,000.

The dancer was already on probation for narcotics trafficking, but that probation is being revoked, the paper said.

Oberley is described as 5-foot-8 and 115 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477 or the Harris County Sheriff’s Office at 713-755-6055.

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A diet of baked beans helped Neil King to lose 140 pounds in nine months. In fact, since June 2007, he’s eaten more than half a ton of them, about 1,500 cans.

Prior to dieting, King ate a full English breakfast, which at its heart consists of bacon and eggs and may include sausage, toast, and stewed tomatoes, for lunch, and drank eight pints of lager in the pub after tea.

King, from Halstead in Essex, England, made the switch from boozing to beans after being told he was at risk for bowel cancer.

And his high fiber diet has been gas-free since he stopped having toast with his beans, it is reported. The diet helped King go from 420 pounds to 280 pounds.

Speaking to Britain’s Mirror, King said, “Some people think I’m mad but I love the taste and the weight has been dropping off.”

King apparently eats six cans of beans each day, and has them with rice for lunch and with potato for his afternoon tea.

His wife Cheryl told the Mirror, “He’s like a new man.”

Baked beans contain little fat and are full of fiber, although it is best to go for a low-salt variety.

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A couple can’t agree on which gang their 4-year-old toddler should join.

A fight about the decision led to a public disturbance with the father’s arrest. Joseph Manzanares went to the video store where his girlfriend worked, threatened to kill her and knocked over several video displays, police told KMGH Denver.

Police arrested Manzanares at his home, Commerce City police Sgt. Joe Sandoval told KMGH Denver.

The girlfriend told authorities they were fighting over which gang their son should join. The girlfriend, who is black, is a member of the Crips while Manzanares, who is Hispanic, belongs to the Westside Ballers.

“They have different ideas on how the baby should be raised,” Sandoval said. “Basically, she said they cannot agree on which gang the baby would ‘claim.’

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President Bush and his wife paid $221,635 in federal taxes on an adjusted gross income of $923,807 for the year 2007.

The income total includes a $150,000 advance received by Laura Bush for the children’s book she co-authored with her daughter, Jenna.

Last year, the president and Mrs. Bush paid $186,378 in federal taxes on their income of $765,801.

Bush’s salary as president is about $400,000.

Also Friday, the White House reported that Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, had an adjusted gross income of $3.04 million in 2007.

The Cheneys owed $602,651 in federal taxes on that income. They have paid $466,165 through withholdings and estimated tax payments, and will pay the remaining $136,486 upon filing their tax return.

The Cheneys’ income includes the vice president’s salary and a pension he gets as a former director of Union Pacific Corp. It also includes Lynne Cheney’s book royalty income, a salary from her work at the American Enterprise Institute and a pension she gets as a former director of Reader’s Digest.

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Barack Obama got personal Friday, saying Hillary Clinton’s former chief strategist Mark Penn, who was demoted earlier this week, deserved what he got.

In Indianapolis, reporters asked Obama about Penn, who left his campaign post Sunday after being harshly criticized for meeting with Colombian officials to discuss advocating a free-trade deal that Clinton vehemently opposes. Penn is the CEO of a public relations firm that represents Colombia on this issue.

“I think it was surprising to me that a high-ranking, if not the highest-ranking, member of Senator Clinton’s team would be engaged in business activities and lobbying that was directly contrary to the position Senator Clinton had taken,” Obama said Friday.

“Let me put it this way: I’m not surprised that Senator Clinton found herself in an uncomfortable position as a consequence. And I know that if staff of mine were putting me in that kind of position, I would get rid of them.”

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