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.

The meeting comes less than two months after the Vatican's top officials for relations with Islam criticised Williams as mistaken and naive for suggesting that some aspects of Sharia law in Britain were unavoidable.

The spiritual leader for the world's 77 million Anglicans, Williams - who sparked a political storm with the Sharia comments - last held talks with the Pope in November 2006.

Ties between the two churches have been strained over the past decade over the issue of women priests and homosexual bishops in the Anglican Church, which both leaders have acknowledged as obstacles to unity.

The Vatican doesn't want to have a bishop donning the presidential sash "mixing the priesthood with politics" but it also believes that once a bishop always a bishop, since ordination is a lifelong sacarament. The Vatican is dropping signals that it wants to find a non-controversial solution, and pundits doubt it will return the "bishop of the poor" to a lay state.

But there is no modern precedent to guide the Holy See. One Italian media outlet turned back to Talleyrand, the French bishop-turned foreign minister under Napoleon, even though the case bears no resemblance to modern Paraguay. The Vatican already suspended Lugo from his priestly duties after his entry into politics, and the Vatican envoy to Paraguay Orlando Antonini was quoted by Vatican Radio saying the next move was up to the pope.

Antonini added, perhaps tellingly, that Lugo wanted to remain within the Church, even though the Paraguayan leader has been quoted saying he was willing to be reduced to the lay state. He abandoned his duties as a bishop three years ago, saying he felt powerless to help Paraguay's poor. While the Vatican is acting cautiously, other Christians have expressed their delight in Lugo's landmark election to a country where corruption and poverty are endemic.

The Vatican promptly denied any health problems and veteran vaticanisti poured cold water on the story. The same day, John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter said, "The fact that the pope is 81 cannot help but stimulate that corner of the Catholic brain given to pondering the future, even if no one seriously believes that a transition is anywhere on the horizon," he wrote. "For those looking around to see who might have the "right stuff" to be a future pope, a Vatican press conference this week regarding next October's Synod of Bishops on the Bible took on a whole new level of significance.

Among the presenters at the press conference was a man who strikes many church-watchers as a rising star: Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Parts of the Irrawaddy region were hit particularly badly, with three out of four buildings reportedly blown down in one district. Burma has declared Irrawaddy and four other regions, including the main city Rangoon, to be disaster areas. Rangoon has been without power and water, its streets full of debris.

Winds of about 190km/h (120mph) battered the Irrawaddy, Rangoon, Bago, Karen and Mon regions. The latest death toll of 351 includes at least 109 people who lived on Haing-gyi island, off the south-west coast, officials say. About 20,000 homes have been destroyed and 90,000 people made homeless on the island alone, a government official said.

The death toll is expected to rise further, as the situation in remote areas becomes clear. Cyclone Nargis has since moved towards Thailand where storm warnings have been issued. However, it appears to be lessening in force. In Rangoon, internet and phone connections have been down since the storm drew near, making it difficult to confirm the extent of the damage.

He did so by speaking frankly and forcefully of his "deep shame" during his meeting with victims of the Church's sex-abuse scandal. By demonstrating that he "gets" this most visceral of issues, the pontiff may have successfully mollified a good many alienated believers ? and in the process, NEUTRALIZED THE LAST GREAT RALLYING POINT FOR WHAT WAS ONCE A FEISTY AND OPTIMISTIC STYLE OF PROGRESSIVISM.

THE LIBERAL REBELLION IN AMERICAN CATHOLICISM has dogged Benedict and his predecessors since the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65. "Vatican II," which overhauled much of Catholic teaching and ritual, had a revolutionary impact on the Church as a whole. It enabled people to hear the Mass in their own languages; embraced the principle of religious freedom; rejected anti-semitism; and permitted Catholic scholars to grapple with modernity.

But Vatican II meant even more to a generation of devout but restless young people in the U.S. rather than a course correction. THEY DISCERNED IN THE COUNCIL A CALL TO GREATER CHURCH DEMOCRACY, AND AN ASSERTION OF INDIVIDUAL CONSCIENCE THAT COULD STAND UP TO THE AUTHORITY OF EVEN THE POPE. So, they battled the Vatican's birth-control ban, its rejection of female priests and insistence on celibacy, and its authoritarianism.

Then, the movement received a monstrous reprieve. The priest sex abuse scandal implicated not only the predators, but the superiors who shielded them. John Paul remained mostly silent. A new reform group, Voice of the Faithful, arose; the old anger returned, crystallizing around the battle-cry "THEY JUST DON'T GET IT."

BENEDICT'S VISIT, HOWEVER, CHANGED THE DYNAMIC. And that's a problem for progressives. Says Fr. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center whom Benedict famously removed from his previous job as editor of America, "REFORM MOVEMENTS NEED AN ENEMY TO ORGANIZE AGAINST. As most bishops have gotten their acts together on sex abuse, they have looked less like the enemy and more like part of the solution. ENTHUSIASM FOR REFORM DECLINED. WITH THE POPE'S FORTHRIGHT RESPONSE, IT WILL DECLINE EVEN MORE."

And so, unless Benedict contradicts in Rome what he said in New York, THE CHURCH MAY HAVE REACHED A TIPPING POINT.

BRITISH DEFENCE GIANT BAE SYSTEMS IS CREATING A SERIES OF TINY ELECTRONIC SPIDERS, INSECTS AND SNAKES THAT COULD BECOME THE EYES AND EARS OF SOLDIERS ON THE BATTLEFIELD, helping to save thousands of lives. Prototypes could be on the front line by the end of the year, scuttling into potential danger areas such as booby-trapped buildings or enemy hideouts to relay images back to troops safely positioned nearby. THEN THEY WOULD SWARM INTO THE BUILDING AND RELAY IMAGES BACK TO THE SOLDIERS' HAND-HELD OR WRIST-MOUNTED COMPUTERS, WARNING THEM OF ANY THREATS INSIDE.

BAE Systems has just signed a £19million contract to develop the robots for the US Army. Plans for a creature that can crawl like a spider are said to be well developed, and researchers eventually hope to be able to create creatures that can slither like a snake or fly like a dragonfly. While some of the creatures will be fitted with small cameras, others will be equipped with sensors that will be able to detect the presence of chemical, biological or radioactive weapons.

"The five-year programme has just started but we could have them with soldiers within six months, and then continue to develop the concept as the project goes along." Despite the high-tech gadgetry involved, BAE Systems insists once production is in full swing, EACH BUG WILL COST NO MORE THAN £100 TO PRODUCE.

But a brighter world, it is becoming increasingly clear, has its drawbacks. A study released last month finding that breast cancer is nearly twice as common in brightly lit communities as in dark ones only added to a growing body of evidence that artificial light threatens not just stargazing but also public health, wildlife, and possibly even safety.

Those findings are all the more troubling considering that an estimated 30 percent of outdoor lighting ?plus even some indoor lighting ? is wasted. ILL-CONCEIVED, INEFFECTIVE, AND INEFFICIENT LIGHTING COSTS THE NATION ABOUT $10.4 BILLION A YEAR, according to Bob Gent of the International Dark-Sky Association, a nonprofit organisation that aims to curtail light pollution, and it generates 38 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

People who are working while others are stargazing may face the greatest risks. Hormonal disturbances triggered by night time exposure to white or bluish light can disrupt circadian rhythms and fuel the growth of tumors, experiments show. Two decades of research indicate that women who work night shifts have unusually high rates of breast cancer, and some data suggest a parallel effect on male workers' prostate cancer rates. Last December, a unit of the World Health Organization deemed shift work a probable human carcinogen.

Yet light and cancer may be even more fundamentally linked. In last month's study, a team that included Richard Stevens, the University of Connecticut Health Center epidemiologist who first proposed the connection, compared satellite images of Israel at night with maps showing where cancers are most common. Its analysis suggests that 73 percent more breast cancers occur in the country's brightest communities than in its darkest.

SINCE THE MID-1980S, THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, in an attempt to reduce the environmental fallout from large-scale farming, HAS BEEN PAYING FARMERS TO SET ASIDE LESS-THAN-IDEAL LAND FOR CONSERVATION. The results have been overwhelmingly positive: Soil erosion has been reduced; chemical and fertilizer runoff has eased; habitats for game birds and endangered species have been created and enlarged. The pushback to climate change has been equally noteworthy: In 2007, the lands trapped 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, making the Conservation Reserve Program the most effective government-funded defense against greenhouse gases on private lands.

"We use this program for everything," said John Johnson, a U.S. Department of Agriculture deputy administrator. "We protect New York City's drinking water with it. We preserve groundwater with it. We protect the salmon habitat in the Pacific Northwest with it. It's a wonderful program."

BUT WITH CROP PRICES SO HIGH - CORN, FOR INSTANCE, CLOSED AT $5.56 A BUSHEL ON WEDNESDAY, COMPARED WITH $2.20 IN 2006 - THE STAKES ARE GETTING HIGHER. Most farmers in the program are committed to 10-or-15-year contracts; when their contracts expire, they can renew or opt out. So if crop prices stay high - as estimates suggest - the lure of productive land will be something with which each wave of farmers in the program will be grappling.

Bush was expected soon to sign the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which lawmakers and advocates called "the first major civil rights act of the 21st century." Federal law already bans discrimination by race and gender. "Your skin color, your gender, all of those are part of your DNA," said Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute. "Shouldn't the rest of your DNA also fall under that protective umbrella?"

Researchers supported the bill because Americans have been refusing to take genetic tests or have been using false names and paying cash because they didn't want the information used against them by their employer or insurance company, Collins said. THE BILL WOULD PROHIBIT HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES FROM USING GENETIC INFORMATION TO SET PREMIUMS OR DETERMINE ENROLLMENT ELIGIBILITY. Similarly, employers could not use genetic information in hiring, firing or promotion decisions.

According to National Human Genome Research Institute, 41 states already have enacted legislation related to genetic discrimination in health insurance and 31 states adopted laws regarding genetic discrimination in the workplace.

The rest of the country was both appalled and fascinated after Texas authorities raided the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) ranch in Eldorado, Texas, on April 3, gawking at the sight of women seemingly dressed for Little House on the Prairie, whose modest appearance was jarring with their sexually aberrant lifestyle.

First came the jokes, then some hard realities sank in. HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN WERE BEING SEPARATED FROM THE ONLY FAMILIES THEY EVER KNEW. Shuttled from one temporary facility to another, they are now being dispersed throughout Texas' already overtaxed foster-care system, from the Panhandle all the way to Houston. Why? Because an anonymous call from inside the ranch alleged that the kids were in danger of physical and emotional abuse, given the ranch culture of young girls, older men and arranged marriages.

This is the latest scene in a long saga. In the late 19th century, the U.S. government told the Latter-Day Saints that the price of admission to a rich American future was the renunciation of polygamy. The official church and the vast majority of Mormons were happy to come along, but not these few. All these years later, words fail. MODERNITY COMES SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS, OF THE DIGNITY AND SELF-DETERMINATION OF CHILDREN, OF LIMITS ON THE AUTHORITY OF FATHERS - AND EVEN ON THE AUTHORITY OF PROPHETS. For people who have chosen to sit the last century out, this doesn't compute. Nor does the state of Texas seem to understand, entirely, what it's dealing with.

They are insular and suspicious. Williams did manage to get that much across in his meeting with the media. "What honorable father and parent would not give their all TO PRESERVE THEIR CHILDREN FROM A TRAUMATIC, HOSTILE TO THEM, EVEN ABHORRENT SOCIETY?" he asked. "What honorable father and parent would not give their all to protect the innocence of their children?"

IN 1953 authorities tried to root out the fathers and rescue the children, but after a couple of years of costly court cases and A TIDE OF PUBLIC OPINION IN FAVOR OF KEEPING FAMILIES TOGETHER - NO MATTER HOW UNCONVENTIONAL - the two worlds essentially agreed to ignore each other.

All they desire, one site explains, is "the privilege of worshiping God as guaranteed by the Constitution." Secrets are getting out. And those alleged secrets - which range from child abuse and welfare fraud to tax evasion - have become too numerous to overlook any longer. It's hard to find a place anymore where the law will ignore you while you blatantly ignore the law.

The government calls it a matter of child welfare; the sect calls it religious persecution. Caught in the middle is Texas judge Barbara Walther, who was asked to weigh requests from the parents to hold twice-daily prayer meetings with the children and to reunite nursing mothers with the 77 kids who are under age 2. For the nursing mothers, THE JUDGE OFFERED A LESSON IN CONTEMPORARY FEMINISM: "Every day in this country there are thousands of mothers who, after six weeks' maternity leave, must go back to work - and they deal with this issue."

WRECKAGE FROM THIS COLLISION WON'T BE TIDIED UP ANYTIME SOON. Until investigators determine what did take place on the ranch, the judge will be left in the same troubled place where she began: with a lot of mothers who love their babies, and children who miss their homes, ALL CAUGHT BETWEEN A WORLD THEY FEAR AND A WORLD THAT IS UNRAVELLING.

The fields in the US corn belt look much like they do every year, but something is missing from the picture this year. Bad weather in the Midwest has kept farmers out of the fields. PLANTING ACROSS MUCH OF THE REGION IS AT A STANDSTILL, and the clock is ticking.

A MAY BLIZZARD shuts down parts of S. Dakota. The mayor of Rapid City, S.D., Friday pleaded with residents to stay off the roads until the weather clears. The wind is still gusting to 50 mph with heavy snow," said Mayor Alan Hanks.

VIOLENT STORMS UNLEASHED TORNADOES, HIGH WINDS AND HAIL in four central states and killed seven people in Arkansas, including a teenager who died when a tree fell into her bedroom as she slept. The storms late Thursday and early Friday ripped off roofs and toppled train cars near Kansas City, Mo.; pelted parts of Oklahoma with hail; and knocked over tents at a popular open-air market in east Texas. Severe thunderstorms were moving into Kentucky and could make for a wet Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

The eruption of the Chaiten volcano caught local authorities by surprise, as experts say it has been dormant for at least 450 years. But on Friday morning, it blew a thick cloud of ash high into the air. This prompted the evacuation of sick and elderly people from the town of Chaiten, just six miles away.

Residents have been told not to drink the water, because the reservoirs in the area are covered in a layer of ash. Emergency workers are handing out face masks to help people breathe more easily. The eruption also dumped a layer of ash in neighbouring Argentina, forcing the closure of schools and a regional airport.

Chile is one of the most volcanic countries on Earth, with more than 100 active volcanoes. Of those, experts say about 20 are in danger of erupting at any time.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez immediately declared a commercial fishery disaster, opening the door for Congress to appropriate money for anyone who will be economically harmed. The closure of commercial and recreational fishing for chinook salmon in the ocean off California and most of Oregon was announced by the National Marine Fishery Service.

It followed the recommendation last month of the Pacific Fishery Management Council after the catastrophic disappearance of California's fabled fall run of the pink fish popularly known as king salmon. It is the first total closure since commercial fishing started in the Bay Area in 1848.

State water officials reported Thursday that the Sierra Nevada snowpack, the source of a huge portion of California's water supply, was only 67 percent of normal, due in part to historically low rainfall in March and April. WITH MANY RESERVOIRS AT WELL-BELOW-AVERAGE LEVELS FROM THE PREVIOUS WINTER and a federal ruling limiting water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the new data added a dimension to a crisis already complicated by crumbling infrastructure, surging population and environmental concerns.

"We're in a dry spell if not a drought," said California Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman. "We're in the second year, and if we're looking at a third year, we're talking about a serious problem." NO INDUSTRY FACES BIGGER CHANGES THAN AGRICULTURE, WHICH USES ABOUT 80 PERCENT OF CALIFORNIA'S AVAILABLE WATER; the remainder goes to urban areas. Some experts say they believe the balance could shift toward urban areas.

Already, some farmers are switching to crops requiring less water and letting fields go fallow. One water agency official recently talked to a Southern California avocado grower who cut his trees back to stumps and won't begin growing again until water supplies recover. SOME FARMERS ARE ALREADY SELLING THEIR WATER TO URBAN DISTRICTS. But there is no easy system for transporting that water, and the infrastructure required would be extremely costly.