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Childhood and teenage obesity is spreading across the world at an alarming rate 鈥� and this week the first evidence of the extent of the crisis has been published. Experts at the World Health Organization and Imperial College, London analysed data from more than 2000 studies, involving 128 million children and adolescents worldwide. If this trend continues, there will be more overweight children than underweight in five years鈥� time.

If you saw someone with a sign on the street saying 鈥渇ree listening here鈥�, would you pull up and chair, sit down and tell them all of your problems? In Oakland, California, passers-by are doing just that 鈥� thanks to the 鈥渁ctive listening鈥� of Sidewalk Talks volunteers. Those involved say it鈥檚 life-changing.

Babies aren鈥檛 born with a sense of empathy 鈥� it鈥檚 something which develops over years. But a British psychologist says he believes an experiment he鈥檚 carried out on four-month old babies shows the foundations of empathy are evident early in life. When babies were shown a video of a brush stroking someone else鈥檚 hand at the same time as their own hand was tickled 鈥� the patterns of electrical activity in the 鈥渢ouch鈥� areas of their brains were altered.

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