Children in England are currently measured at the ages of five and 10, but parents are informed of the results only if they request them. The new plan may see parents getting results automatically. The Department of Health said ministers were prepared to go further and faster in the fight against childhood obesity, but no firm decisions had been made.

Between a quarter and a third of children are thought to be overweight, and doctors fear there will be an epidemic of poor health related to obesity in coming decades. An obese person dies on average nine years earlier than somebody of normal weight, while a very obese person's life is cut short by an average of 13 years.

Under the proposals being considered, information obtained under the measurement programme could be given automatically to parents, and involvement may become compulsory unless people choose to opt out of the measurement scheme. A recent report by the Foresight Programme argued that dramatic and comprehensive action was required to stop the majority of us becoming obese by 2050.

Its authors predicted that if current trends continue, in that year, 60% of men and half of women will be obese and cases of type 2 diabetes will rise by 70%. The report also suggested that cases of stroke will rise by 30% by the middle of the century and cases of coronary heart disease will rise by 20%.

President Hu Jintao won a second term as party and army chief, while four new faces joined the party's top body, the Politburo Standing Committee. They included two men seen as potential successors to Mr Hu in 2012 - Shanghai party chief Xi Jinping and the head of Liaoning province, Li Keqiang. Mr Xi ranked above Mr Li, suggesting he might be ahead in the succession race.

They walked out onto the stage in order of rank, with Xi Jinping at the head of the new appointees. Chinese Communist tradition dictates that the first new face of the new generation becomes the heir apparent, says the BBC's James Reynolds in Beijing. As things stand, Xi Jinping can expect to take over from Hu Jintao in 2012, our correspondent says.

Analysts say President Hu has solidified his grip on power as a result of the eight-day conference. The departure of Zeng Qinghong, an ally of 81-year-old former President Jiang Zemin, is seen as a boost to Mr Hu.

The new appointees to the Standing Committee now sway the balance of power away from those loyal to Mr Jiang, GIVING MR HU MORE ROOM TO PROCEED WITH HIS AGENDA OF ECONOMIC REFORM. The party's decision to enshrine HIS "SCIENTIFIC OUTLOOK ON DEVELOPMENT" into its constitution is also seen as a victory for the president.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in seven counties, with 35,000 acres (14,000 hectares) burnt from Santa Barbara to San Diego. In Malibu, a large blaze forced stars including film director James Cameron and Olivia Newton-John to flee. Officials say the ground is tinder dry after a record summer heatwave.

"The wildfires have caused the loss of human life and serious injuries," Mr Schwarzenegger's office said. And with forecasters predicting hurricane-force winds to continue until later in the week, thousands more homes could be at risk, says the BBC's David Willis in California.

During a long heatwave in July, wildfires scorched thousands of acres across California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, South Dakota, Washington, New Mexico, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. More than 1,500 firefighters are battling the blazes, including one in the town of Potrero, near San Diego. That fire killed one person and injured four firefighters and at least 10 other people, said Matt Streck, a spokesman for California's Department of Forestry.

It burned more than 14,000 acres (5,700 hectares) just north of the Mexican border town of Tecate, Mr Streck said. All 36,000 residents of Ramona, north-east of San Diego, were ordered to leave their homes as another blaze razed more than 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares), said San Diego sheriff's office spokesman Phillip Brust. "I can't ever remember doing this," Mr Brust said. "This fire is crazy."

In seaside Malibu, several buildings were destroyed and thousands of local residents evacuated as flames swept across the hills overlooking the ocean. Fanned by winds of up to 80mph (130km/h), the wildfire around Malibu had burnt about 1,250 acres (505 hectares) by mid-afternoon on Sunday (2200 GMT Sunday), officials said.

"Religions must never become vehicles for hatred," the Pope told the leaders attending a peace summit in Naples. The Catholic Church, said the Pope, would continue to seek dialogue to bridge the gap between cultures.

Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Zoroastrians are attending the event organised by the Sant'Egidio Community, a Catholic lay organisation. The three-day conference - entitled For a World Without Violence: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue - gathers scholars and religious leaders.

They include Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Israel's chief rabbi Yona Metzger and the imam of the United Arab Emirates, Ibrahim Ezzeddin. "In a world wounded by conflicts, where violence is justified in God's name, it's important to repeat that religion can never become a vehicle of hatred, it can never be used in God's name to justify violence," the Pope told the gathering.

"On the contrary, religions can and must offer precious resources to build a peaceful humanity, because they speak about peace in the heart of man. With respect for the differences between different religions, we are all called to work for peace and an effective effort to promote reconciliation between peoples."

BUT HE ALSO MADE IT CLEAR THAT HE WILL NEVER BUDGE ON TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC TEACHING, THAT CATHOLICISM ALONE IS THE ONE TRUE FAITH, reports the BBC's David Willey from Naples.

"We have not yet completed our own forecasts, so I turn to experts' views, according to which inflation could be about 10 percent," Kudrin told reporters. With the State Duma and presidential elections looming on the horizon, rising consumer costs and spiraling inflation are emerging as political hot potatoes.

Higher food prices were a dominant theme in President Vladimir Putin's televised call-in show Thursday, as several pensioners quizzed him on what he proposed to do about it. Putin announced that the government had started to sell grain from national reserves to ease domestic prices, a measure that comes on top of cuts in import tariffs on milk and other dairy products earlier this week. Putin also backed calls for a crackdown on local monopolies in the country's food markets.

Over the last year, milk prices have risen 16.5 percent, butter has risen 20.3 percent, vegetable oil 17.1 percent and meat 7.4 percent, Russian Newsweek reported Monday. State television this week has shown footage of Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov checking food prices in stores, a visible sign to voters that the government is taking the hikes in food prices seriously.

This county once had more orange and grapefruit trees than almost any other place in Florida, the nation's largest citrus producer. Now it's one of the fastest-growing counties in one of America's fastest-growing states, and that land is fast giving way to housing tracts.

The same is happening in varying degrees across Florida's citrus belt. It has been for years, but the slow slide has suddenly quickened. FARMERS ARE REPLANTING FEWER TREES THAN ANY POINT SINCE THE 1970S, AND CROPLAND IS RAPIDLY DISAPPEARING. High land prices, diseases such as citrus canker and greening, and even the rising cost of trees are hurting farmers and driving orange juice prices to record levels, up more than a third since 2002.

"It's a very, very expensive process to get back into the business, even though you have land sitting there fallow," said Doug Bournique, head of the Indian River Citrus League. "It's not a dollar a tree like it was 20 years ago, just to pop them into the ground." It can now cost $10 a tree.

Florida lost 127,182 acres (17 percent of its total) in the 2006 crop census - the second-worst drop in history behind only a January 1986 freeze. The net loss was higher than the previous eight years combined. THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM IS THAT IT KEEPS COSTING MORE TO GROW. Canker and greening bacteria have forced farmers into tedious and expensive procedures to decontaminate workers and find infected trees.

CANKER, which makes fruit unusable, is spread by the wind and contaminated clothes and equipment. The disease has made three waves in Florida, the most recent starting in 1995. It quickly infected not only groves but also nurseries, leaving replacement trees in scarce supply. Previously, any tree within 1,900 feet of one tested positive for canker had to be destroyed. THE STATE ABANDONED THAT PROGRAM AFTER HURRICANES SPREAD THE DISEASE SO FAR IT COULDN'T BE CONTAINED.

GREENING kills trees and is spread by an Asian insect accidentally brought to Florida. Neither disease harms humans.

To protect trees, citrus nurseries now grow in greenhouses, and many are relocating away from commercial citrus territory. The changes have sent tree prices soaring. New stock won't be available until spring 2009 for Leroy Smith Inc., said Trey Smith, vice president of marketing.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran said this in an interview published today by the French Catholic daily La Croix, in which he commented on the letter sent last week. The text was addressed to Benedict XVI and the heads of Christian churches, and proposed that the two faiths cooperate IN ESTABLISHING PEACE AND UNDERSTANDING IN THE WORLD.

The 138 signatories of the letter offered an open invitation to Christians to unite with Muslims over what is most essential to their respective faiths -- the commandment of love. The appeal was welcomed by Anglican, Lutheran and evangelical leaders and the World Council of Churches.

Cardinal Tauran called the letter a "positive initiative, insofar as the text proposes co-operation based on common values: acknowledgement of one God, love of God for all mankind and the necessity to love one's neighbour. One aspect that struck me in a particular way is that, perhaps for the first time, the text signed by the Muslims presented Jesus of the Gospel with citations from the New Testament, and not from citations of the Koran."

The president of the dicastery said, however, that theological dialogue with Muslims would be difficult: "Muslims do not accept that one can question the Quran, because it was written, they say, by dictation from God. With such an absolute interpretation, it is difficult to discuss the contents of faith."

Cardinal Tauran commented on the 21st International Encounter of Peoples and Religions, which will take place Sunday. Benedict XVI will preside over the meeting's opening Mass in Naples' Piazza del Plebiscito. This year's meeting has the theme "Toward a World Without Violence: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue." The international encounters were inspired by the WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR PEACE convened by Pope John Paul II in Assisi in October 1986.

For the cardinal, inter-religious meetings such as the one in Naples "allow the 'spirit of Assisi' to survive." HE ADDED THAT THE GATHERINGS ARE ALSO REMINDERS OF THE GOAL OF PEACE, AND THAT RELIGION SHOULD BE A FACTOR IN THAT PROCESS. "If believers were consistent with their faith," he said, "maybe the world would be different. Because it is not religion that makes war, but men. In the end, religions are accused because of those who use religion for terrorist activities. Religion created fear because it was perverted by terrorism."

Ministers will announce that the unpopular hosepipe ban will go even further from next spring. In the event of shortages, householders will be banned from using water for a long list of activities from cleaning boats to jet-washing patios. A range of everyday uses of water will be deemed "luxuries", including washing the windows of a house.

Phil Woolas, the environment minister, said: "The plain fact is we can no longer use drinking water for luxuries at times of crisis. These new measures may seem harsh to some but future droughts, especially in southern England, are inevitable and we have to act."

Under the new rules, referred to as a "discretionary use ban", water companies will be able to restrict or prohibit the use of hosepipes or similar apparatus to wash private cars, to water gardens, lawns and landscaped areas; to operate ornamental fountains; to wash caravans and boats; to clean garden ornaments; to clean the exteriors, including windows, of domestic buildings and to fill domestic ponds, other than fish ponds. They will also be able to ban the filling of domestic swimming pools, paddling pools, hot tubs and similar facilities "whether by hosepipe or by permanent plumbing".

Jacob Tompkins, of the water protection agency Waterwise, said the actions of some householders during recent droughts had left the Government no choice. "During the last drought we saw some people, a small minority, still washing their patios," he said. "People have to realise that pressure washers and sprinklers are not toys. I know that a lot of people will feel resentful so we need to get more information to the public to explain why. It is quite obvious that more droughts are going to be inevitable, so taking action now to tighten up legislation restricting people from using pressure washers when there is an emergency is vital."

On Sunday, however, Benedict will be centre stage at the most lavish, and well-attended inter-religious ceremony of his papacy, organized by the same Sant'Egidio community that helped launch Assisi. What has changed? Why is Benedict marking 21 years since "the spirit of Assisi" was uncorked, after skipping out on the 20th anniversary?

A letter earlier this month addressed to the Pope and other Christian leaders, signed by 138 prominent Muslim clerics and scholars, is seen as a potential breakthrough in relations between Islam and Christianity. Of course, inter-faith dialogue for Catholics is hardly limited to Muslims. Perhaps highest of the priorities is finding unity with other Christian denominations. Benedict has also made clear his desire to reinforce John Paul's good relations with Jews. But both those dialogues have suffered some nasty hiccoughs.

The new Pope delivered his provocative lecture on faith, reason and violence that set off widespread criticism in the Muslim world, punctuated by acts of violence, including the burning of churches and the killing of a nun in Somalia. In July, the Pope allowed for expanded use of the old-rite Latin Mass, WHICH CONTAINS A GOOD FRIDAY PRAYER THAT OFFENDS SOME JEWS. A few days later, the Vatican's doctrinal office reiterated Benedict's stance - first stated when he was cardinal - THAT NON-CATHOLIC DENOMINATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY, EXCEPTING THE ORTHODOX, ARE NOT TRUE CHURCHES BECAUSE THEY CANNOT TRACE THEIR HIERACHIES BACK TO THE APOSTLES. (The Orthodox, however, are a reduced Church because they do not recognize the primacy of the Apostle Peter's successor, the Pope.)

IT IS AS CLEAR AS EVER THAT BENEDICT WILL NOT MINCE WORDS IN LAYING OUT HIS VISION OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE CATHOLIC, EVEN IF IT RISKS OFFENDING BOTH THOSE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE HIS OWN CHURCH.

Still, to mark 21 years since the Assisi gathering - to be held in the southern city of Naples - Benedict made sure to offer not only his written words, but his physical presence. Indeed, the Pope's positive RSVP means that some of the most influential leaders of other faiths will arrive as well, including ORTHODOX PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW I OF CONSTANTINOPLE, THE ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, ROWAN WILLIAMS, ISRAEL'S CHIEF RABBI, YONA METZGER, AND THE RECTOR OF THE AL-AZHAR UNIVERSITY IN EGYPT, AHMAD AL-TAYYEB.

"It is very encouraging that the Pope has decided to come," says Mario Marazziti, a spokesman for the Catholic Community of Sant'Egidio, the Rome-based group behind both the Assisi and Naples events. "At the same time we know this is a different Pope than John Paul who touched so many with the charisma of his person. This is a theologian-pope, who governs with his word." But more and more, Benedict also seems to understand that gestures - and even just showing up - are sometimes the best way to be heard.

Saturday's announcement exposed a rift over tactics with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who accepted Larijani's resignation and has taken an uncompromising approach in the nuclear standoff. Analysts say Saeed Jalili, the senior foreign ministry official replacing Larijani, is close to the president and his appointment showed that those determined to defy the West were gaining a greater influence in decision-making.

"This volume and speed of firing would continue," added Chaharbaghi, who is commander of artillery and missiles of the Guards' ground forces, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. The United States has never ruled out attacking Iran to end its defiance over the controversial Iranian nuclear programme, which the US alleges is aimed at making nuclear weapons but Iran insists is entirely peaceful.

Iran has for its part vowed never to initiate an attack but has also warned of a crushing response to any act of aggression against its soil. "If a war breaks out in the future, it will not last long because we will rub their noses in the dirt," said Chaharbaghi. "Now the enemy should ask themselves how many of their people they are ready to have sacrificed for their stupidity in attacking Iran," he said.

He said that the Guards' weapons were spread out throughout the country and so would not be affected by any isolated US strikes against military facilities. The Guards are Iran's elite ideological army and responsible for its most significant weapons such as the longer range Shahab-3 missile which has Israel and US bases in the Middle East within its range

Gordon Brown RULED OUT FURTHER EUROPEAN INTEGRATION FOR AT LEAST A DECADE yesterday as he sought to counter calls for a referendum on the latest transfer of power to Brussels.

Mr Brown left Lisbon insisting that the treaty agreed did not presage "fundamental change". HE WAS IMMEDIATELY CONTRADICTED BY ONE OF THE ARCHITECTS OF THE ORIGINAL EU CONSTITUTION, WHO SAID THAT THE NEW TREATY CONTAINED ALL OF ITS ESSENTIAL MEASURES.

Speaking at the end of the summit, Mr Brown said that he had won agreement for an EU declaration in December ruling out further institutional changes "for many years". Asked how long the moratorium would last, the Prime Minister pointed out that some of the provisions in the existing treaty did not come into effect until 2017.

"I will not support further institutional change over the next period," Mr Brown said, effectively threatening to veto any more treaties. But Jose Socrates, the Prime Minister of Portugal, said: "This treaty is not the end of the story because there is no end."

TONY BLAIR WAS PROPOSED AS THE FIRST "PRESIDENT OF EUROPE", a post created by the EU reform treaty, by President Sarkozy of France. Gordon Brown said: "Tony Blair would a great candidate for any significant international job."

This wildly rabid fiscal fuel is driving our American dollar to the cellar creating cheap goods for USA export and extraordinary values in American stores for foreigners. In reaction, other nations' currencies become stronger producing higher domestic costs for their own goods and services at home. To compete with this market aberration, those outside of the United States fired-up their own printing presses as well.

Now we have global currency storm clouds building where the collective is watering down cash in a massive global over-stimulation. It was reported Russia is printing at the rate of 50% annually and some in Asia are producing new money at rates between 12% and 20%. THIS SIMPLY CANNOT CONTINUE WITHOUT HARDCORE INFLATION FIRST, FOLLOWED BY HYPERINFLATION. Inevitably and economically, somebody(s) will crack and fall into a collapse.

Food and energy in America is well on its way to doubling in price within 12 months. Oil is straining against $90 and $4 wheat nears $10. Transportation requires millions of gallons of fuel in the U.S. to deliver goods and services. Food travels large distances to wholesale and retail distribution centres. MOST CHAIN GROCERY STORES, IF NOT CONTINUALLY REPLENISHED WOULD BE EMPTY IN 10 DAYS.

In monetary self defence, gold demand is rising exponentially and supply is falling. Miners cannot deliver fast enough to keep up with demand. Gold leasing and manipulation is nearing a crisis point where the "Big Five" short sellers are in supreme pain and close to an immediate covering debacle. With gold's price where it is today, massive SHORT COVERING BY THE COMMERCIALS COULD SKYROCKET GOLD PRICES IN HOURS.

We all hear tales of central banks dumping gold bullion under the so called mutual collaboration scheme designed to sell and smother gold by the ton. It's not working any more as the Sheiks and Chinese are overloaded with U.S. trading dollars and are only too happy to write huge checks for tons of gold trading their junky paper for real value in precious metals. As a consequence, gold is rising under building buying pressures and silver is following gold in the rally. INFLATION ADJUSTED GOLD SHOULD BE OVER $2,000 AND ITS ONLY $764 IN NOMINAL TERMS.

Greenspan pumped the USA economy by throwing cash and too loose credit at consumers in 2001-2005 to avoid a recession following the Nasdaq crash. If markets had been left to their own devices at the time, a probable mild recession would have appeared. Now it's been delayed but not defeated. WHAT COMES NEXT IS INFINITELY WORSE as first the Nasdaq bubble popped, and next the American consumer bubbles of housing, credit cards and jobs are flushed down the bowl. The Greenman has traded a probable mild recession for something unquestionably much worse.

IF YOU THOUGHT THE HOUSING MESS IS NOT ANY FUN, WATCH WHAT A GAZILLION CREDIT CARD FAILURES WILL DO TO THE BANKS IN 2008. Then the next follow-on problem is failing municipalities when consumers cannot pay real estate and other local taxes. My state of Michigan is a shining example of multiple failures growing worse by the day. Michigan is technically bankrupt and several other states are not far behind.

Over $69 billion was reported last month as going out of USA paper markets in a new turn of about-face. OUR ONLY DEFENSE IS TO PRINT MORE MONEY, CREATE MORE INFLATION OR, HORROR OF ALL HORRORS, RAISE INTEREST RATES, WHICH WOULD FINISH US OFF FOR GOOD.

The magnitude of the problems is indeed historic. Some of these events are old news as the world has seen and survived them before. However, this time it is indeed different. NEVER HAS THE GLOBAL SYSTEM BEEN FORCED TO CONTEND WITH SO MANY VERY SERIOUS PROBLEMS AT ONCE.

Somewhere, somehow, somebody of importance will step on a nasty trip-wire. It remains to be seen what the outcome could be but WE THINK IT WILL NOT BE PRETTY; BUT A LEGENDARY DISASTER.

It was a fine, even noble idea in its time. It was designed to make ethnic and religious minorities feel more at home, more appreciated and respected, and therefore better able to mesh with the larger society. It affirmed their culture. It gave dignity to difference. And in many ways it achieved its aims. Britain is a more open, diverse, energising, cosmopolitan environment than it was when I was growing up.

BUT THERE HAS BEEN A PRICE TO PAY, AND IT GROWS YEAR BY YEAR. Multiculturalism has led not to integration but to segregation. It has allowed groups to live separately, with no incentive to integrate and every incentive not to. IT WAS INTENDED TO PROMOTE TOLERANCE. INSTEAD THE RESULT HAS BEEN, IN COUNTRIES WHERE IT HAS BEEN TRIED, TO MAKE SOCIETIES MORE ABRASIVE, FRACTURED AND INTOLERANT THAN THEY ONCE WERE.

A SERIES OF EVENTS THAT BEGAN IN THE 1960S FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED THE TERMS OF SOCIETY AND MORAL DEBATE. People began to see morality in terms of personal autonomy, existential choice or the will to power. But there was something else happening at the same time, of great consequence: the slow demise of morality itself, conceived as the moral bond linking individuals in the shared project of society.

IN 1961, SUICIDE CEASED TO BE A CRIME. This might seem a minor and obviously humane measure, but IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF ENGLAND AS A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY; that is, one in which Christian ethics was reflected in law. It was a prelude to other and more significant reforms. IN 1967 ABORTION WAS LEGALISED, AS WAS HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOUR.

What happens when we lose moral consensus? Morality is reduced to taste. If there is no agreed moral truth, we cannot reason together. All truth becomes subjective or relative, no more than a construction, a narrative, one way among many of telling the story. Each represents a point of view, and each point of view is the expression of a group. Those who believe in traditional marriage are heterosexist. Political correctness, created to avoid stigmatising speech, becomes the supreme example of stigmatising speech.

One example: in 1957 the Wolfenden committee, then the cutting-edge of liberalism, declared that homosexual behaviour was a sin, but should not be a crime. In 2004, Rocco Buttiglione, a minister in the Italian Government, was chosen by the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, to be its justice commissioner. During questioning, he acknowledged that, as a Catholic, he believed that homosexual behaviour is a sin but should not be a crime. He was then disqualified from taking up office as his private moral convictions were "in direct contradiction of European law". HE DESCRIBED THIS AS THE "NEW TOTALITARIANISM".

Without a national culture, there is no nation. There are merely people-in-proximity. Whether this is sufficient to generate loyalty, belonging and a sense of the common good is an open question. National cultures make nations. Global cultures may yet break them.

Sir Jonathan Sacks is the Chief Rabbi. Extracted from "The Home We Build Together: Recreating Society -(Continuum)