Hand, foot and mouth is a common childhood illness, but the current outbreak has led to 28 fatalities in China, mostly when linked with enterovirus 71 (EV71), which can cause a severe form of the disease, characterized by high fever, paralysis and meningitis. China's official Xinhua news agency put the number of cases of hand, foot and mouth disease at 15,799, up from about 12,000 cases reported on Tuesday, though it was not clear whether the jump was due to the disease's spread or more thorough reporting.

"The situation is completely different from SARS," Zhong Nanshan, a Chinese expert on respiratory diseases, said in an article posted on the government Web site of southern Guangdong province, where SARS was discovered in 2002. "At present, the disease has already been diagnosed and there is proper prevention, so it will not evolve into a SARS-like epidemic."

Hand, foot and mouth disease is also making the rounds of other parts of Asia, with Singapore reporting a 75 percent surge in hand, food and mouth cases to 10,490 this year compared with last year, while Vietnam's health ministry said the country had about 3,000 cases in the first four months of the year, more than the total number of reported cases for 2007.

ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said COASTAL DEVELOPMENTS HAD RESULTED IN MANGROVES, WHICH ACT AS A NATURAL DEFENCE AGAINST STORMS, being lost. A study of the 2004 Asian tsunami found that areas near healthy mangroves suffered less damage and fewer deaths. Mr Surin, speaking at a high-level meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Singapore, said the combination of more people living in coastal areas and the loss of mangroves had exacerbated the tragedy. "Encroachment into MANGROVE FORESTS, WHICH USED TO SERVE AS A BUFFER BETWEEN THE RISING TIDE, BETWEEN BIG WAVES AND STORMS AND RESIDENTIAL AREAS; all those lands have been destroyed," the AFP news agency reported him as saying. "HUMAN BEINGS ARE NOW DIRECT VICTIMS OF SUCH NATURAL FORCES."

His comments follow a news conference by Burma's minister for relief and resettlement, Maung Maung Swe, who said more deaths were caused by the cyclone's storm surge rather than the winds which reached 190km/h (120mph). "The wave was up to 12ft (3.5m) high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages," the minister said. "They did not have anywhere to flee."

Mangroves have been long considered as "bio-guards" for coastal settlements. A study published in December 2005 said healthy mangrove forests helped save Sri Lankan villagers during the Asian tsunami disaster, which claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people. While TWO PEOPLE DIED IN THE SETTLEMENT WITH DENSE MANGROVE and scrub forest, UP TO 6,000 PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES IN A NEARBY VILLAGE WITHOUT SIMILAR VEGETATION.

Archbishop Rowan Williams told Vatican Radio before his encounter with the Pope today that he was expecting "a fairly informal and low-key meeting." Williams added: "I hope to bring him up to date on our plans about the Lambeth conference, perhaps to discuss with him a little what's going to be happening at the [Christian-Muslim] conference this week at Palazzola and just touch base with him about China, the initiatives we're involved in with regard to the churches in China."

The Anglican leader is in Rome this week for the 7th Building Bridges seminar with Christian and Muslim scholars, scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday. Vatican Radio noted that some people consider the current relationship between the Holy See and the Anglican Communion to be in its most difficult moment since the Second Vatican Council.

"It depends where you're looking from," Williams responded. "I think that in terms of the conflicts within the Anglican Communion then yes, it's an unprecedentedly difficult time, no two ways about that." The Anglican Communion is facing a fracture because parts of the group, notably the Episcopal Church in the United States, have approved the ordination of women and homosexuals as bishops.

However, Williams noted that partially through the work of the Anglican Center in Rome, "tremendously deep foundations have been laid" in the Anglican-Catholic relationship. The Anglican Center was founded in 1966 on the wave of ecumenical enthusiasm engendered by Vatican II and the birth of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission.

Retail gas prices edged lower, but appear poised to rise to new records of their own in coming weeks. A new Goldman Sachs prediction that oil prices could rise to $150 to $200 within two years seemed to motivate much of Tuesday's buying, although a falling dollar and increasing concerns about declining crude production in Mexico and Russia contributed, analysts say.

The Energy Department raised its oil and gasoline price forecasts, but also predicted that high prices will cut demand more than previously thought. Oil prices have nearly doubled from about $62 a barrel a year ago, which Goldman sees as a sign that the world is in the midst of a "super spike" in oil prices. Analyst Arjun Murti said in a research note released Monday that prices would ultimately force demand to fall sharply.

Not everyone shares Goldman's view. Tim Evans, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., countered Goldman's analysis with a note predicting that crude prices could as easily fall to $40 a barrel as rise to $200 over the next two years because supplies are, as Evans put it, comfortable.

Separately, in comments certain to fan rising tension between Moscow and Tbilisi, the "foreign minister" of the breakaway Black Sea region was quoted as saying it was ready to hand over military control to Russia.
"We literally have to avert war," Temur Iakobashvili, a Georgian State Minister, told reporters in Brussels.

Asked how close to such a war the situation was, he replied: "Very close, because we know Russians very well. We know what the signals are when you see propaganda waged against Georgia. We see Russian troops entering our territories on the basis of false information," he said.

Georgia, a vital energy transit route in the Caucasus region, has angered Russia, its former Soviet master with which it shares a land border, by seeking NATO membership.

The French president is understood to have changed his mind after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is thought he feels EU opposition to the former UK prime minister is too strong because he backed the Iraq war.

The role, to be created under the new EU reform treaty, would replace the six-month rotating presidencies. Sources also indicated that Mr Sarkozy felt Mr Blair was not right for the role because Britain has failed to adopt the European single currency and the Schengen zone of passport-free travel.

Det Ch Insp Mick Neville said the system was an "utter fiasco" - with only 3% of London's street robberies being solved using security cameras. Although Britain had more cameras than any other European country, he said "no thought" had gone into how to use them.

Det Ch Insp Neville heads a unit which is piloting a new database to track offenders using CCTV. Speaking at the Security Document World Conference in London, Det Ch Insp Neville, the head of the Met's Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido), said one of the problems was that criminals were not afraid of cameras.

One study suggests there may be more than 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK - the majority on private property - but until Viido was set up in September 2006 there had been no dedicated police unit to deal with the collection and dissemination of CCTV evidence. If Viido, based at Southwark Police Station, is judged to be a success it could lead to the development of specialist CCTV units across the country.

Despite still being a legal currency, many shopkeepers have been refusing to accept the worn out old notes, saying wholesale traders were also refusing to take them. The Somali shilling is valued at roughly 34,000 to the dollar - more than double what it is was a year ago - and many blame the fall in value on counterfeiters.

With an interim government focused on containing islamist insurgency, there is no one to control rampant counterfeiting of currency which is often exchanged for real dollars that are then taken out of the country. The problem has been compounded by sharply rising world food prices, leaving many in the lawless Horn of Africa nation of 10 million short of money to buy food, triggering several protests or riots in the past six months.

On Monday, thousands were on the streets of the bombed-out capital, clutching tattered old notes while shouting "Down with traders" and "We want to buy food".

Some 41,000 people were also missing, three days after Cyclone Nargis hit the country on Saturday, state radio said. The announcement came as international aid agencies pushed to launch a massive operation in the worst-affected areas of the country. Hundreds of thousands of people are said to be without clean water and shelter, with some areas still cut off. Burma's military leaders have said they will accept external help, in a move that correspondents say could reflect the scale of the disaster.

Pictures on state TV showed security services working to clear roads to allow help through, but in Rangoon and elsewhere there were complaints that the response to the disaster was weak. "Where are the soldiers and police? They were very quick and aggressive when there were protests in the streets last year," a retired government worker complained to Reuters news agency. He was referring to protests led by Buddhist monks last year that were quickly put down.

"WALL STREET IS GOING TO GO WHERE THE MONEY IS AND NOT WORRY ABOUT CONSEQUENCES," Buffett said during a news conference yesterday, a day after his Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s annual meeting. "YOU'VE GOT A LOT OF LEEWAY IN RUNNING A BANK TO NOT TELL THE TRUTH FOR QUITE A WHILE."

Buffett and investing partner Charlie Munger also lambasted credit raters, bond insurers and policymakers for two days as a record 31,000 attended the annual affair in Omaha, Nebraska. In between scoldings, Buffett told investors MORE DAMAGE LAY AHEAD and dropped hints about where Berkshire is looking for purchases abroad as the dollar falls. "THERE'S GOING TO BE MORE PAIN," said Buffett, who repeated that the U.S. is in a recession. Even after the Federal Reserve arranged JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s $2.4 billion rescue of Bear Stearns in March, "THAT DOESN'T MEAN THE LOSSES ARE OVER BY A LONG SHOT."

The world's biggest banks and securities firms ABSORBED AT LEAST $312 BILLION IN ASSET WRITEDOWNS AND CREDIT LOSSES IN THE PAST 16 MONTHS after the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, comprised of loans to people with weak credit. Buffett, 77, and Munger, 84, built Omaha-based Berkshire into a $200 billion investment and holding company, buying companies whose management they trusted and whose business models they deemed superior. Buffett owns about a third of the shares, making him the world's richest man, according to Forbes magazine.

According to the source, Israel will give an "unofficial" acceptance to agreement only after "the Palestinian factions announce that they accept the deal. After we announce the cease-fire in Cairo, the sides will be obligated to it," the official told the paper. "In addition, Israel will open the border crossings to Gaza in order to allow the transfer of commercial shipments, medicine, fuel, and food."

On Sunday, Asharq al-Awsat reported that HAMAS HAD THREATENED AN "UNPRECEDENTED ESCALATION" AGAINST ISRAEL IF IT DID NOT AGREE SOON TO THE CEASE-FIRE. Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told the paper that Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was expected to arrive in Israel on Monday to convey Hamas's offer, which was agreed upon by twelve Palestinian factions last week.

Another spokesman for the group, Sami Abu Zuhri, said the organization was waiting to receive an official response through Egypt in the coming days. He said Hamas was ready to deal with one of two possibilities: PACIFICATION OR ESCALATION. "All options are open. The ball is in the Israeli court," Abu Zuhri said, adding that IF ISRAEL CONTINUES ITS PROCRASTINATION, AGGRESSION AND BLOCKADE OF GAZA, "IT MAY LEAD TO UNPRECEDENTED ESCALATION."

It is certainly a storm that has hit with little warning and has plunged an extra 100 million people into poverty. The crisis has triggered riots in Haiti, Cameroon, Indonesia and Egypt and is deemed a dangerous threat to stability. IT IS NOT SO MUCH FAMINE THAT IS THE WORRY, IT IS WIDESPREAD MISERY AND MALNUTRITION. The WFP's biggest concern is for the people living on 50 cents a day who have nothing to fall back on.

SO WHY HAVE FOOD PRICES SOARED? The rises are due to a lethal combination of HIGH FUEL COSTS, BAD WEATHER IN KEY FOOD PRODUCING COUNTRIES, THE INCREASE IN LAND ALLOCATED TO BIO-FUELS, AND A SURGE IN DEMAND - MUCH OF IT FROM THE RISING MIDDLE CLASSES OF CHINA AND INDIA. The problem is that once the price of rice or wheat has risen, other factors kick in which make things worse. THERE IS PANIC AND PEOPLE START HOARDING, SPECULATORS BUY UP SUPPLY, and food producing countries impose export controls to try and preserve food for their own people. This then means less is available to be exported to countries which rely on food imports.

WFP head Josette Sheeran said it was not going to be a quick fix. She used the example of KENYA'S RIFT VALLEY WHERE FARMERS EVEN NOW ARE PLANTING A THIRD LESS OF THE LAND THAN LAST YEAR. THIS IS BECAUSE FERTILISER HAS MORE THAN DOUBLED IN PRICE.

Corn up 31%. Rice up 74%. Soya up 87%. Wheat up 130%.

Rising oil prices and fears over climate change have seen a massive rise in the use of maize to make bio-fuels, pushing up food prices. In the last 3 years Ethanol production has risen from 11 billion litres to 36 billion litres.

There will be billions more mouths to feed by 2050, making an increased demand for food a long-term trend. World population is rising: 1952 - 2.5bn, 1975 - 4.1bn, 2000 - 6.1bn, 2025 - 8bn, 2050 - 9.2bn.

Changing eating habits - meat consumption in China per capita: 1980 - 20kg, 2007 - 50kg.

Pressure on resources: it takes 1000-2000 litres of water to produce 1kg of wheat. It takes 10,000-13,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef.

The Unesco study recommends better safeguards to protect resources and more sustainable farming practices, SUCH AS PRODUCING FOOD LOCALLY. MORE NATURAL AND ECOLOGICAL FARMING TECHNIQUES SHOULD BE USED, IT SAYS. A group of 400 EXPERTS SPENT THREE YEARS RESEARCHING the report, which was unveiled on Tuesday at Unesco in Paris.

The authors found that progress in agriculture has reaped very unequal benefits and has come at a high social and environmental cost. Food producers should TRY USING "NATURAL PROCESSES" LIKE CROP ROTATION AND USE OF ORGANIC FERTILISERS. The distance between the produce and consumer should also be reduced

The BBC's Nick Miles says that with food prices at the top of the international political agenda, this is effectively a blueprint for the future of global agriculture. The report said rising oil prices had made transport and farm production more expensive and had led to more crops being grown to make biofuels for vehicles. IT ALSO WARNED LARGE SWATHS OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN ASIA AND AFRICA WERE RUNNING OUT OF WATER. Farming was responsible for more than A THIRD OF THE WORLD'S MOST DEGRADED LAND, it said.

THE WORLD BANK SAYS THAT 100 MILLION MORE PEOPLE ARE FACING SEVERE HUNGER. Yet some of the world's richest food companies are making record profits. MONSANTO last month reported that its net income for the three months up to the end of February this year had more than doubled over the same period in 2007, from $543m to $1.12bn. ITS PROFITS INCREASED FROM $1.44BN TO $2.22BN.

Cargill's net earnings soared by 86 per cent FROM $553M TO $1.030BN over the same three months. And Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world's largest agricultural processors of soy, corn and wheat, increased its net earnings by 42 per cent in the first three months of this year FROM $363M TO $517M. The operating profit of its grains merchandising and handling operations jumped 16-fold FROM $21M TO $341M.

Similarly, the Mosaic Company, one of the world's largest fertiliser companies, saw its income for the three months ending 29 February RISE MORE THAN 12-FOLD, FROM $42.2M TO $520.8M, on the back of a shortage of fertiliser. The revelations are bound to increase outrage over multinational companies following last week's disclosure that SHELL AND BP BETWEEN THEM RECORDED PROFITS OF £14BN in the first three months of the year

World leaders are to meet next month at a special summit on the food crisis, and it will be high on the agenda of the G8 summit of the world's richest countries in Hokkaido, Japan, in July.