* Ahead of Davos meeting, forum warns of "lost" generation

* Widening wealth gap ranked as top global risk in 2014

* Extreme weather next most likely cause of major shocks

* Threat of fiscal crises significant, but danger receding

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A chronic gap between rich and poor is yawning wider, posing the biggest single risk to the world in 2014, even as economies in many countries start to recover, the World Economic Forum said on Thursday.

Syrian Crisis Threatens Development in Arab World

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17 2014 (IPS) - The widespread sectarian violence and ongoing military conflicts in several political hotspots, including Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, have not only claimed thousands of human lives and devastated fragile economies but also undermined the U.N.’s longstanding plans to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty worldwide.

Almost twice as many obese people in poor countries than in rich ones as fat and sugar consumption rises, warns ODI
• A weighty problem that must not be ignored

LAST month, as I was driving down a backbreaking road between Goma, a provincial capital in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kibumba, a little market town about 20 miles away, I came upon the body of a Congolese soldier. He was on his back, half hidden in the bushes, his legs crumpled beneath him, his fly-covered face looking up at the sun.