Large swathes of the planet will be plunged into misery by climate change in the next 50 years, with many millions ravaged by hunger, water shortages and flooding, according to new evidence.

The startling findings are the result of billions of calculations made by the world's biggest super-computer, installed at the Hadley Center in Berkshire. The latest figures show the earth is heating up fast, with 1998 the hottest year since reliable records began 140 years ago.

Among the findings are:

• Land temperatures will go up 6 degrees C by the end of the next century.
• The number of people on the coast subject to flooding each year will rise from 5 million now to 100 million by 2050 and 200 million by 2080. The rise in global sea level will be 21 cm. by 2050. The coasts of the southern Mediterranean, Egypt, west and east Africa, south and southeast Asia are most vulnerable. The islands of the Caribbean, Indian and Pacific Oceans, some only a few feet above sea level, are at risk of being overwhelmed during storms.
• Another 30 million people will be hungry in 50 years because it will be too dry to grow crops in large parts of Africa.
• An extra 170 million people will live in countries with extreme water shortages.
• Malaria, one of the world's most dread diseases, will threaten much larger areas of the world--including Europe--by 2050. Increased warmth leads to a dramatic rise in the number of malaria cases where the disease is already endemic. It is already spreading north--Italy had an outbreak last year. The problem for doctors is that in 60 percent of the world where malaria is currently unknown, populations have little or no immunity to the disease and an epidemic could cause high death rates in adults and children.

Earth's average temperature in 1998 was projected to be the highest since record keeping began in 1860, AP reported the U.N. weather agency as saying .

The global average for the year was 1 degree above the long-term average of 59 degrees, said the World Meteorological Association. It will be the 20th consecutive year during which the earth's surface temperature has been above normal.

The head of the United Nations World Food Programme, Catherine Bertini, has warned that Sierra Leone will face a serious food situation next year if peace is not restored.

In an interview with Reuters news agency after a three-day visit to Sierra Leone, she said the prospects for this year's harvest looked good, but there would be problems if it is disrupted by the conflict. Correspondents say many people who work the land have been forced to flee their villages to escape attacks by supporters of the previous military government which was ousted by a Nigerian-led intervention force ten months ago.

Two Russian governors who fear winter food shortages in their territories are defying federal law by banning food shipments to other areas of the country, a newspaper reported Saturday. The governors of Krasnoyarsk and Kemerovo in Siberia will impose the restrictions next week, the English-language Moscow Times said.

Krasnoyarsk Gov. Alexander Lebed signed an order Wednesday making it virtually impossible to take dairy products, meat, poultry, fish and vegetables out of the region after next Tuesday, the report said. Aman Tuleyev of Kemerovo was expected to sign an order on Monday banning meat shipments. The paper said neither man expected Moscow to take action to block their decrees. The paper said the moves were a sign of the growing power and independence of local governors, the report said.

The beginning of winter has been the driest in Israel in more than 58 years, with some parts of the country only receiving 0.3 inches (10 mm) of rainfall since April, according to the Tel Aviv weather bureau. The Sea of Galilee, the country's main reservoir, is dangerously low and only has two month's water supply left. Officials are considering stringent water rationing measures if significant rainfall does not occur soon. Temperatures have also been higher than the seasonal average, with a maximum of 83 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius) recorded in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

The United Nations food agency reported that food crises are on the rise around the world. In the lead-up to World Food Day, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said that compared to one year ago, many more people in the world were suffering from malnutrition and hunger.

WFP has had to greatly increase its food aid to millions of people due to the increase in natural disasters, economic emergencies and manmade catastrophes, said Catherine Bertini, the Executive Director of WFP. Ms. Bertini said that this year's crises were an indication that people could be thrown into a "hunger trap" in a moment's notice, whether by the usual culprits of war and weather, or by the seemingly less probable problems of economic recession and instability.