Meat and fish registered the biggest price increases in the survey, compiled on behalf of the BBC by leading retail analysts Verdict Research. The figures come amid growing concern about the high cost of food, which is exceeding the official inflation rate. The figures show price rises of nearly 50% for some food items. The index, which Verdict has been compiling since January this year, is designed to track the cost of a typical trolley of UK food items.

It divides household supermarket purchases into 13 categories, including frozen foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, ready meals and dairy goods. The index showed that during the eight months from January to August, meat and fish prices went up by 22.9%, making them the fastest-rising category. General store-cupboard items, such as tinned foods, were the next most inflation-busting sector, registering a 15% increase, while fresh fruit and vegetables went up by 14.7%. Seven items in the survey were found to have gone up in price by more than 40%.

The figures produced for the BBC are in line with other recently-published research showing the impact of food price rises on UK household budgets. On Wednesday, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said that food price inflation over the past year amounted to 10% - more than twice the official Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation rate of 4.4%.

The bulk of activity was in the United States, where sovereign funds pumped in $15.8 billion in eight transactions, 62 percent of their global total and almost five times more than 2007's figure of $3.45 billion. Sovereign funds, which are estimated to hold assets worth as much as $3 trillion, have ballooned in recent years as large Asian exporting countries such as China, and oil-rich nations such as Abu Dhabi and Russia, started putting part of their currency reserves into investment vehicles.

Some countries where the funds invest, such as THE UNITED STATES, ARE WORRIED THAT ACQUISITIONS BY THE HIGHLY-SECRETIVE FUNDS COULD OPEN KEY DOMESTIC COMPANIES TO FOREIGN CONTROL, and that they could destabilize international markets with their large-scale investments.

Mr Sarkozy is on a two-day trip to Damascus, also aimed at CEMENTING REVIVED TIES BETWEEN FRANCE AND SYRIA. France, which currently holds the EU presidency, hopes to help mediation efforts in the Middle East. Syria's president said the "Summit for Stability" would lay the basis for possible direct talks with Israel. "The summit seeks to draft a declaration of principles that would form a basis for direct peace talks between Syria and Israel," Bashar al-Assad said.

At the session was Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country has mediated four rounds of indirect Israeli-Syrian talks since May. The fourth corner of the table was taken by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and his prime minister, Hamad bin Jasim al-Thani, who helped broker an internal peace deal in Lebanon, also in May.

Mr Assad said Syria had been waiting for "a fifth crucial round of talks… to determine the evolution of these negotiations", but the process had been put on hold because of political changes in Israel. Scandal-hit Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced his resignation and his Kadima party is holding elections on 17 September for a new leader, who could become prime minister.

Syria acknowledges the importance of the US in supporting Middle East peace initiatives, but says direct talks with Israel can only take place after John McCain or Barack Obama is installed in the White House next year.

"Due to the unprecedented demand for American Eagle gold one-ounce bullion coins, our inventories have been depleted. We are therefore temporarily suspending all sales of these coins," the US Mint told authorized coin dealers in a memorandum dated on Friday.

It didn't stop here with the gold eagle coins: Rand Refinery Ltd, the world's largest gold refinery, ran out of South African Krugerrands after an "unusually large" order from a buyer in Switzerland. The order was for 5,000 ounces and it will take until Mid-September for inventories to be replenished, said Johan Botha, a spokesman for Rand Refinery in Germiston, east of Johannesburg. He declined to identify the buyer.

Current annual growth in M3 is running at levels exceeding 15%. The unfolding banking crisis will only accelerate the surging money growth (bail out failing banks that are too big too fail) which in turn will fuel higher inflation. So the banking crisis caused federal spending to spike while at the same time tax revenues are on the wane due to the economic slow-down. This is of course all very dollar negative.

A GOVERNMENT DESTROYING ITS OWN CURRENCY PAVES THE WAY FOR INFLATION TAKING OFF. Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe knows exactly what I'm trying to say here since he tried to do the very same thing: printing money to prop up the economy. The result? Well, sure enough inflation took off (11 million percent) despite a complete economic halt.

Current reading of FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DEBT STANDS AT $9.6 TRILLION which is an increase of more than $4 trillion over the last 6 years. Now if the $9.6T federal debt wasn't already bad enough, the picture only worsens when looking at TOTAL US DEBT WHICH CLOCKED AN ALARMING $53 TRILLION LAST YEAR.

AS YOU CAN SEE HERE TOTAL US DEBT IS GROWING FASTER THAN ITS NATIONAL INCOME. Ever tried to run a business in which its debt grows faster than its income? Well, needless to say you would be heading straight into bankruptcy. And that's exactly what's happening with the US, they're heading straight into bankruptcy.

These plans include:-
- Control over the UK's assets
- More control over the military
- More control over Britain's borders
- Control over emergency law enforcement units
- Control over civil protection operations
- Foreign criminal friendly policies
- Expanded propaganda activities
- Using climate change to expand its foreign policy powers
- More green stealth taxes
- More control over energy policy
- Control over beauty products

Each time the anti-democratic EU legislative process passes a law, a new cost is added onto British businesses. And the legal ratchet of EU membership becomes even tighter as another area of law making becomes occupied by the EU, meaning that our own Parliament loses the right to legislate in that area. AND AS MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION THERE IS NOTHING THAT OUR OWN DEMOCRATIC PROCESS CAN DO TO OVERTURN THOSE DECISIONS.

It was a close shave, but NEW ORLEANS just managed to escape Hurricane Gustav's onslaught on Monday. But the stark truth is that the city's days are numbered. Its fate was sealed in 1717, when French explorer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville chose a sharp bend in the Mississippi River to found "Nouvelle-Orleans", in the teeth of opposition from his chief engineer, who warned him of flooding ahead. But at least New Orleans has a network of flood defences.

MIAMI is far more vulnerable and in 1926 was totally swamped by a hurricane storm surge, although it was then only a small town. And many other large cities around the world face other appalling natural disasters.

ISTANBUL (population c 12 million) - The question is not will a big earthquake strike Istanbul but when. Fifteen large earthquakes have hit the city since the 4th century, the last in 1894, and the next one is due.

PHOENIX (more than one million) -The Arizona city could become the first in the United States to run out of water. It is built in a desert, with a yearly rainfall of only around 20cm (8in), and much of its water supply is taken from the Colorado River, which is running out of water as seven states also tap its water.

BOMBAY (more than 18 million) - Rain is killing India's most populous city. On July 26, 2005, record-breaking monsoon rains devastated Bombay and killed more than 400 people. The city's decrepit drainage system, built in the 19th century, could not cope with the deluge, and Bombay has little open space to soak up heavy rains.

SHANGHAI (more than 18 million) - The first major world city to sink under its own weight could be Shanghai. Each year it sinks around 1 centimetre (half an inch) from subsidence after too much water extraction from the ground, and from the sheer weight of skyscrapers on the soft ground it is built on.

NAPLES (At least three million live in the shadow of Vesuvius) - The volcano last erupted in 1944 and vulcanologists report that Vesuvius is in a 50-year cycle between eruptions, so it is overdue another explosion.

The continued rise in food bills, including a surge in the cost of cooking fats and oils, has raised overall shop prices by up to 3.8 per cent in the year to August, up from 3.2 per cent in July. This is the highest figure recorded by the BRC, which began its series in 2006. The consortium said that rising grain prices were behind the jump in pork prices because farmers were forced to pass on their additional feed costs to retailers.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee will announce its decision on interest rates at midday today after what is likely to have been a tricky meeting. The committee is trying to balance the twin threats of rising inflation and a stagnant economy. Inflation reached a 16-year high of 4.4 per cent last month and is expected to peak at 5 per cent before the end of the year.

The latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center, issued at 11 p.m. ET, increased Ike's maximum sustained winds to 135 mph, with higher gusts. Hurricane-force winds extended 35 miles from the storm's center of circulation. The hurricane center's official forecast puts Ike on a path toward the south Florida coast sometime early next week, though the storm's path and strength can change without warning.

Other storms in the Atlantic, have become less of a threat. Hanna, once a hurricane, weakened into a tropical storm near the Bahamas, and is forecast to strike the south eastern U.S. as a Category 1 hurricane by the end of the week. Beyond Ike in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Josephine had winds of 50 mph at 11 p.m., but appeared headed northwest into open seas, where it would weaken in the coming days.

Asked in an interview with the Financial Times whether it was feasible that US combat forces could leave Baghdad by July, he said: "Conditions permitting, yeah." His comments come as the US and Iraq hammer out the final details of a long-term security agreement that reportedly outlines A POTENTIAL TIMELINE FOR US COMBAT TROOPS TO LEAVE IRAQI CITIES BY NEXT SUMMER, AND THE COUNTRY BY 2011.

While declining to comment on the details of the security agreement, Gen Petraeus said US combat forces had already pulled back from cities in 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces. The sight of US soldiers exiting Baghdad would be highly symbolic given the scale of violence that gripped the city in 2006 and 2007.

Gen Petraeus leaves Iraq later this month to become head of Central Command, which oversees US operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa. Before his departure, the four-star general will give President George W. Bush his final recommendation for troop levels as commander in Iraq. He will continue to help shape policy on Iraq in his new role.

A US study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found higher rates of cancer among patients prescribed Inegy. The pill combines a widely-used statin called simvastatin, which blocks cholesterol in the liver, with another drug, ezetimibe. The study found higher rates of cancer among those using the drug compared to patients taking a placebo.

Around 300,000 prescriptions for Inegy have been dispensed in the last two years in Britain. But the British Heart Foundation sought to reassure those taking the drug, saying regulators would act quickly if hard evidence of risk emerged.

Dr Mike Knapton, director of prevention and care at the British Heart Foundation, said patients who were concerned about the risk should speak to their GPs. He pointed to research by Oxford University academics which combined three studies of the drug and found there was no increased risk of cancer. And he called for closer study of patients using the combination drug.

IN SOME MEMBER STATES DEFENDANTS ARE FREQUENTLY TRIED IN THEIR ABSENCE. But this is banned in other member states, thus posing problems for the mutual recognition of such judicial decisions. For example, there is a problem if a country wants to use a European Arrest Warrant to get hold of a person who that country has tried in their absence. At present, the executing member state has a degree of discretion and does not have to automatically execute a European Arrest Warrant (i.e. extradite someone) if the country making the request has tried that person in their absence.

But the conditions which need to be fulfilled to hand over someone to another member state after they have been tried in their absence would be very weak. Crucially, under the proposal, it is no longer up to the executing country to decide whether the conditions are met. The country issuing the arrest warrant simply fills in the relevant section of the form. IF THE RIGHT BOX IS TICKED, THE PERSON MUST BE HANDED OVER.

Pieter Cleppe, a European lawyer working at Open Europe, said: "We believe that mutual recognition instruments, such as the European Arrest Warrant, must not be allowed to undermine long established traditions of fundamental rights. THIS PROPOSAL COULD OPEN THE DOOR TO SERIOUS MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE AND MINISTERS SHOULD NOT BE SUPPORTING IT."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in January meat and milk from cloned cattle, swine and goats and their offspring were as safe as products from traditional animals. Before then, farmers and ranchers had followed a voluntary moratorium on the sale of clones and their offspring.

While the FDA evaluated the safety of food from clones and their offspring, the U.S. Agriculture Department was in charge of managing the transition of these animals into the food supply. Proponents, including the Biotechnology Industry Organization, say cloning is a way to create more disease-resistant animals that produce more milk and better meat. The cloning industry and THE FDA SAY CLONED ANIMALS AND THEIR OFFSPRING ARE AS SAFE AS THEIR TRADITIONAL COUNTERPARTS.

Critics contend not enough is known about the technology to ensure it is safe, and they also say the FDA needs to address concerns over animal cruelty and ethical issues. "IT WORRIES ME THAT THIS TECHNOLOGY IS OUT OF CONTROL IN SO MANY WAYS," said Charles Margulis, a spokesman with the Center for Environmental Health. The possibility of offspring being in the food supply "is just another element of that," he said.

Hurricane experts say all the weather ingredients, which normally fluctuate, are set on boil for the formation of storms. And it's going to stay that way for a while, they said. Four named storms at the same time is a bit odd, but not unprecedented, meteorologists said. In 1995 five named storms lived simultaneously. And in 1998 there were four hurricanes at the same.

The peak of hurricane season isn't until Sept. 10 and this season already has 10 named storms, which is the long-term average for an entire season. "Normally in an active season, there are bunches of hurricanes and lulls. It just doesn't seem like there's been bunches of lulls. I sure hope we're not talking (hurricanes) Christmas Eve," said meteorology professor Hugh Willoughby at Florida International University.

However, they did agree to "postpone" partnership and co-operation talks with Russia unless it respected the terms of the ceasefire with Georgia. Unarmed EU civilian observers are to be sent to Georgia to ensure that Russia is abiding by its ceasefire agreement.

The European Commission also pledged an extra 6m euros in aid to Georgia, on top of the 9m euros already awarded by individual member states, prompting Commission President José Manuel Barroso to say that the EU's commitment to the troubled country is not merely "rhetoric". However, a recent report from the International Crisis Group noted that the EU's commitment of aid to Georgia is "dwarfed" by the $420 million pledged by Russia to South Ossetia.

Former UK Ambassador to the US, Christopher Meyer, argues in the Times that EUROPE NEEDS TO BE DIVIDED INTO DEFINED SPHERES OF INFLUENCE in the style of the 1815 Vienna settlement: "This may sound shocking and anachronistic to the modern sensibility. But, there is no other way to remove the scope for miscalculation, the mother of far too many wars."