AN ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the world was probably on the verge of a new world war and the risks of a nuclear confrontation were rising. "The world is sick and quite probably is on the verge of a new world war," Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Putin's powerful security council, told a conference in Moscow. He said such a new world war was not inevitable but the risks of a nuclear confrontation were growing and more serious than concerns about climate change. Putin says the world faces the most dangerous decade since World War Two. He casts…