NEW YORK, June 23 (UPI) -- Opinions vary as to how British media mogul Rupert Murdoch would run the Wall Street Journal if he succeeds in buying the venerable U.S.newspaper.

Murdoch's unsolicited $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, the Journal's parent company, gained ground after the Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones, sought assurances that a Murdoch-owned Journal would remain editorially independent.

The family Friday gave Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE:WS-A) a plan for an editorial board to act as a buffer between the Journal and Murdoch, the Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported Saturday. Many journalists consider Murdoch to be unacceptably intrusive in his journalism and media operations.

Times of London editor Robert Thomson said Murdoch does not meddle with the Times' editorial content. The Times has a written agreement with Murdoch not to interfere editorially.

Murdoch's tabloids, which include London's Sun and the New York Post, do not have a similar agreement.

Food prices surge worldwide

LONDON, June 23 (UPI) -- For the first time in generations food prices around the world are surging, it was reported Saturday.

Global soybean prices rose by more than half last year while wheat futures are trading at their highest level in a decade, the Independent reported.

Analysts call the trend "agflation," which occurs when increased demand from human consumption competes with crops being used as an energy resource, the newspaper said.

For example, the growing affluence of millions of people in China and India is creating more demand for food while the so-called bio-fuels boom is creating demand for the use of food crops as a source of energy to replace fossil fuels, the newspaper said.

The problem has revived the work of Robert Malthus, an 18th-century British thinker who predicted the growth of the world's population would outstrip its ability to produce food, leading to mass starvation.

Lester Brown from the Earth Policy Institute expressed similar concerns in a briefing to the U.S. Senate last week.

"The stage is now set for direct competition for grain between the 800 million people who own automobiles, and the world's two billion poorest people," Brown said.

Ford revives, revamps, Taurus

CHICAGO, June 23 (UPI) -- Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F)'s chief executive says he is personally and professionally invested in the revival of the Ford Taurus.

"Everything about this car is me," Alan Mulally said Friday at the launch of the 2008 Ford Taurus sedan, renamed Five Hundred because of the more than 500 engineering changes the car received in its makeover.

The Five Hundred officially launched at the Chicago Assembly Plant as union workers and company executives touted the car's top safety ratings and speculated on the possibility of a hybrid, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.

"We have a lot of technologies on internal combustion engines that are also very appealing, so we'll decide that as we go along," Mulally said.

The 2008 full-sized Taurus sedan went on sale in dealer showrooms this month with a starting price under $24,000.

It is part of a crucial line of Ford cars, including the popular Fusion, intended to transform the brand known for pickups and sport utility vehicles into one known for efficient, stylish cars as well.

Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) to bail out hedge fund

NEW YORK, June 23 (UPI) -- Investment bank Bear Stearns has pledged up to $3.2 billion to save a hedge fund that was failing because of bad loans on subprime mortgages.

It's the heftiest rescue of a hedge fund since more than a dozen lenders pooled $3.6 billion to save Long-Term Capital Management in 1998, the New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Saturday.

The crisis was caused by the slump in the housing market and the fallout from loan practices that gave money to people with weak, or subprime, credit, leaving many of them in a struggle to afford their homes.

If delinquencies and defaults on subprime loans surge again, banks, hedge funds and pension funds could be left holding billions of dollars in bonds and securities backed by loans that have lost their value, the Times reported.

Bear Stearns acted Friday after its hedge fund suffered millions in losses and investors asked for their money back. Bear Stearns agreed to buy out several banks that had lent the fund money, which managers hoped would avoid a broader sell-off, the Times reported.