It reports that, several "leading EU politicians digress from the thesis that the Lisbon Treaty is necessary for the effective functioning of the enlarged EU. The new message is that, without the Lisbon Treaty, the EU would be as capable of acting as hitherto."

Maria Asenius is quoted saying, "We cannot wait forever for a decision on this issue. WE NEED A NEW COMMISSION TO CONTINUE EU BUSINESSES. With or without the Lisbon Treaty. We've got no choice."

This is according to an authoritative new book by the political journalist Adam Boulton, a New Labour insider married to Anji Hunter, a former close aide of Mr Blair's. If anyone has worthwhile insights into what is going on in the ex-Prime Minister's mind, it is Mr Boulton. He says Lord Mandelson is propping up Gordon Brown only so that his friend Tony Blair can become President of Europe. WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A NASTY LITTLE PLOT, chiefly orchestrated by Lord Mandelson, whose overwhelming purpose is to see the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and, if at all possible, secure the coronation of Tony Blair as President. Even the timing of the General Election is part of the plot.

This is how it works. In less than two weeks, on October 2, the Irish will vote on the Lisbon Treaty. In June last year, they voted against it. That was not what Brussels wanted, since until the treaty is ratified by all member states, it cannot become law and there can be no European President, no European Foreign Minister and no other integrationist measures. Which is why the Irish are being made to vote again. So much for democracy! This time they are expected to say 'Yes'. Battered by a recession far worse even than ours, and in dire need of financial support from other member states, they are unlikely to stand up to Europe this time.

Once Ireland has approved the Lisbon Treaty, the last major impediment to its ratification will have been removed. However, there is one final wisp of hope for those who want to stop the EU juggernaut. Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, does not like the treaty, and has so far resisted signing it, though the Czech parliament has passed it. He and his country, though, are certain to come under enormous pressure. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, has just warned Prague that it faces 'consequences' if it does not swiftly follow an Irish 'Yes' with its own ratification.

THE TROUBLE IS THAT ONCE THE TREATY HAS BEEN RATIFIED, IT WILL BE DIFFICULT FOR THE TORIES TO UNPICK IT, as it will have become part of European law accepted by every member state. The reason Lord Mandelson wants the General Election to be held next June, which is the latest possible date, is not because he seriously believes that Gordon Brown has an earthly chance of winning by leaving it until then. He would like to provide as much time as possible for the treaty to be ratified before David Cameron arrives at No 10.

The Tories are admittedly in a difficult position for the reason I have mentioned. HOW COULD THEY RENEGE ON A TREATY WHICH HAD ALREADY BEEN RATIFIED, forming the new legal basis of the European Union? They could hardly deny the legitimacy of the President of Europe, be it Tony Blair or anyone else, or pretend that he did not exist.

That said, their present position is a potentially weak one. Their policy is to hope against hope that President Klaus, or conceivably the Polish President, will hold out until June and a Tory victory in the General Election. In that case, there would be a referendum which would almost certainly lead to a 'No' vote, and the Lisbon Treaty would come crashing down across Europe. Unlike Ireland, Britain is too big and important a country for its people to be forced by Brussels to vote again. WHAT A SORDID, UNDEMOCRATIC RACKET THIS SUPPOSEDLY NOBLE EUROPEAN PROJECT HAS BECOME.

Our real concern should not be whether Tony Blair becomes the first President of Europe, with Lord Mandelson's snout no doubt deeply embedded in a neighbouring trough. The most important issue is whether there should be a European President and a Lisbon Treaty at all - and, to that prospect, THE OVERWHELMING VERDICT OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE WOULD APPEAR TO BE A RESOUNDING 'NO'.

The Germans are also likely to get a very lukewarm reception to their idea at the G-20 summit. Although German Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed the proposal, the draft communiqué for the Pittsburgh meeting contains no mention of a transaction tax - a clear indication that the suggestion has no chance of making the agenda at the summit.

The differences of opinion on the other items up for discussion, which range from future economic policy to tightening the rules on capital reserves for banks, are already too big. Indeed it's quite possible the Pittsburgh summit will end in a similar fashion to its predecessor in London six months ago, namely with a few well-chosen, but nebulous soundbites that gloss over the fact that THE WORLD'S MOST IMPORTANT INDUSTRIALIZED NATIONS ARE AT LOGGERHEADS OVER HOW BEST TO MANAGE THE GLOBAL ECONOMY.

Hanging over all of this is the same fundamental conflict that overshadowed the London summit, namely that BRITAIN AND THE US WANT TO CRANK UP GLOBAL DEMAND AND GROWTH WHILE THE CONTINENTAL EUROPEANS WANT TO REGULATE THE FINANCIAL MARKETS. Unless the delegates in Pittsburgh can reach a compromise, THERE MAY BE DIRE CONSEQUENCES. New trade disputes could arise which would further weaken the already poor prospects for growth.

The Australian doctor - nicknamed Dr Death for his work on suicide - is traveling the world to teach people how to end their lives safely with a suicide drug-testing kit. "Very few will go down this path, but almost every 75-year old I meet now sees merit in having their own bottle of Nembutal in the cupboard as an insurance policy, in case things get bad," Nitschke told Reuters, referring to the barbiturate used as a sedative.

Nitschke's is an extreme view, but as the proportion of older people increases rapidly in countries such as the United States, Australia, Japan, Germany and Britain, the suggestion of an option to escape indignity could spur political tremors. Littered with ethical red flags - particularly around the possibility that families or organizations may encourage the elderly or infirm to end their lives - the issue of assisted suicide has been forced up the British political agenda.

Despite the threat of prosecution, British campaign group Dignity in Dying said there is a growing trend of Britons opting for assisted suicide. So far 117 Britons have traveled abroad for an assisted death and 30 more are preparing to go.

The couple decided not to have an abortion because of their religious beliefs, and have met the other couple and arranged a handover. Mrs Savage added: 'We will wonder about this child every day for the rest of our lives. We have hopes for him, but they are his parents and we'll defer to their judgment on when and if they ever tell him what happened and any contact that's afforded us.'

'We just want to know he's healthy and happy.' Lawyers for the Savages are working to ensure that the fertility clinic that made the error 'will accept full responsibility for the consequences of their misconduct'.

Military units are in reserve near the Channel Tunnel entrance in case of disorder and efforts have so far been hampered by the presence of SCORES OF CAMERA CREWS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATION REPRESENTATIVES. Around 150 migrants were standing quietly behind banners marked 'we need shelter and protection, we want peace'.

Police hope to seal off the site at the end of the four-day action. But last night some migrants, MOST OF THEM FROM AFGHANISTAN, threatened to meet violence with violence and sent out this defiant message - 'THE ONLY PLACE WE ARE GOING FROM HERE IS BRITAIN'.

A 22-year-old from Kabul, who gave his name as Rezna, spoke for many when he said: 'We're determined to stay as close to the port as possible because it's the way to England. Nothing will stop us getting there. We are all absolutely determined to start a new life in Britain.' They are resigned to losing their temporary shelters but PLEDGED YESTERDAY TO DEFEND THEIR MAKESHIFT MOSQUE - by far the best-built structure on the camp.

In fact, she had been tied to a fence, whipped by four boys, had to be dragged to safety and suffered burns to her wrists. BUT THE ATTEMPTED COVER-UP WAS EXPOSED WHEN CAROL HILL - THE DINNER LADY WHO SAVED HER FROM FURTHER INJURY - bumped into Mr and Mrs David and told them what really happened. Mrs Hill, 60, was suspended after the incident in June and yesterday it emerged that she has been FIRED BY A DISCIPLINARY TRIBUNAL FOR BREACHING PUPIL CONFIDENTIALITY at Great Tey Primary School, near Colchester, Essex.

Mrs Hill has previously told how another pupil alerted her to the bullying incident. She found Chloe bound up and terrified. She said: 'SHE HAD EIGHT KNOTS AROUND HER WRISTS AND HAD BEEN WHIPPED ACROSS THE LEGS WITH A SKIPPING ROPE. I took her back into the school, along with four boys who had been seen with her. Two admitted it.' Mr and Mrs David say Chloe, who had rope burns to her wrists and whip marks on her legs, was sent home with an accident notification letter. They could not find out what exactly had happened as she was in shock and refused to talk about it.

Headmistress Debbie Crabb has insisted that Chloe's parents were told of the incident according to school 'accident and first aid procedures'. But she said the procedures would be reviewed. She said yesterday: 'We can confirm that subject to any appeal Mrs Hill will not be returning to work at Great Tey Primary School.'

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon was asked by Reuters if that comment by Israeli President Shimon Peres, as reported on Sunday by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, was a guarantee there would be no Israeli strike on Iran. Ayalon replied: "It is certainly not a guarantee."

"I don't think that, with all due respect, the Russian president is authorized to speak for Israel and certainly we have not taken any option off the table." Echoing that, the chief-of-staff of Israel's armed forces, Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, later told Army Radio when pressed on whether Israel could attack Iran: "ISRAEL HAS THE RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF AND ALL OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE."

Israel has long dismissed Iranian assurances that its nuclear programme is not intended to produce weapons and has said it would not tolerate such a level of armament in the Islamic Republic, which is avowedly hostile to the Jewish state. A Kremlin transcript of an interview Medvedev gave to CNN last Tuesday quoted him as saying that an attack on Iran would lead to "a humanitarian disaster" and risk provoking retaliation against Israel that would also affect other nations.

Last week, a former senior Israeli defense official told Reuters that Israel would be compelled to attack Iran's nuclear facilities IF THE INTERNATIONAL POWERS HAD NOT AGREED BY THE END OF THIS YEAR on crippling sanctions to force Tehran's hand.

General Stanley A McChrystal says emphatically: "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) - while Afghan security capacity matures - risks an outcome where DEFEATING THE INSURGENCY IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE." His assessment was sent to Defense Secretary Robert M Gates on August 30 and is now being reviewed by President Obama and his national security team.

He repeatedly warns that without more forces and the rapid implementation of a genuine counterinsurgency strategy, defeat is likely. MCCHRYSTAL DESCRIBES AN AFGHAN GOVERNMENT RIDDLED WITH CORRUPTION AND AN INTERNATIONAL FORCE UNDERMINED BY TACTICS THAT ALIENATE CIVILIANS. He provides extensive new details about the Taliban insurgency, which he calls a muscular and sophisticated enemy that uses modern propaganda and systematically reaches into Afghanistan's prisons to recruit members and even plan operations.

McChrystal makes clear that his call for more forces is predicated on the adoption of a strategy in which troops emphasize protecting Afghans rather than killing insurgents or controlling territory. Most starkly, he says: "INADEQUATE RESOURCES WILL LIKELY RESULT IN FAILURE."

Nigeria, where the Anglican church has 17 million adherents, is split between Christianity and Islam. The country has been riven with religious strife in recent years, notably in the predominantly Muslim north. In a sermon in Beckenham, Kent, in July he spoke of African Christians being "surrounded by Islamic domination".

In extracts quoted by The Times, he said: "They spend a lot of money, even in places where they don't have congregations, they build mosques, they build hospitals, they build anything. They come to Africans and say, 'Christianity is asking you to marry only one wife. We will give you four'." He went on: "That is the type of evangelism they are doing: mass-production, SO IF YOU HAVE FOUR WIVES, FOUR CHILDREN, SIXTEEN CHILDREN, VERY SOON YOU WILL BE A VILLAGE."

As Archbishop of Nigeria's Bendel Province, he was one of the prime movers in the Gafcon meeting of conservative Anglicans in Jerusalem last year.

MarketWatch reports that a new Moody' housing forecast says that "It will take more than a decade to completely recover from the 40% peak-to-trough decline in national home prices." In many parts of the country, which include large states like New York and Illinois, home prices will not rebound to 2006 levels until 2018 to 2022. In the states where prices have fallen the most, particularly California and Florida, values may not rebound until 2024.

The prediction, if correct, means that Baby Boomers and even some of their older children may not be able to sell homes to help finance retirements. The use of homes to get equity loans will be out of the question. SOME HOMEOWNERS WILL HAVE TO GIVE BANKS MONEY TO GET OUT FROM UNDER THEIR HOUSES, DEFAULT BECAUSE THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO SELL THEIR HOMES AT A LOSS, OR STAY IN HOMES THAT THEY NO LONGER NEED.

The housing crisis, it seems, still has at least fifteen years to go and for some older Americans that is a lifetime.

Derek Simpson, leader of the giant Unite union, and his colleagues enjoyed a lavish dinner that included veal, venison and Cumbrian beef at one of Liverpool's top restaurants. The party of ten, who took the best table in the restaurant in the city's gentrified Hope Street quarter, started with cocktails before washing down their meal with wines costing up to £40. Mr Simpson himself quaffed a fine red.

Earlier in the week, Mr Simpson, 64, A WELL-KNOWN CRITIC OF 'FAT-CAT SPIVS' AND BANKERS' BONUSES – despite himself earning about £100,000 a year – led calls at the TUC rally for new help for hard-pressed working families. He said: 'Over the years, working families have funded tax concessions for big business and the super-rich. Now it's payback time.'

Talk of a virtual circle of recovery in asset values and the real economy abounds at big banks, a sharp if cautious contrast to the dire pessimism which prevailed until recently. Unusual simultaneous rallies in equities, US government bonds and commodities are linked to one factor: super-cheap monetary policies adopted around the world. Bank stocks have led the runaway US equity markets which have catapulted indexes nearly 60 percent above March lows. This has meant better earnings, rising profits and bigger bonuses.

One obvious candidate for an abrupt turnaround is the US stock market. Not only has it recovered more than half its value in the past six months, but THE REBOUND HAS ALSO BEEN LARGELY PREDICATED ON A RALLY IN SHARES IN FINANCIAL FIRMS, MANY OF WHICH ARE STILL BELIEVED TO REST ON SHAKY GROUND. An ongoing deterioration in consumer debt repayments and a worsening picture in commercial real estate are all putting additional strain on already-heavy balance sheets.

Joseph Stiglitz, a prominent economist and Nobel Laureate from Columbia University in New York, argued last week that THE US BANKING SECTOR IS NOW IN WORSE SHAPE THAN BEFORE THE COLLAPSE OF MAJOR INVESTMENT BANK LEHMAN BROTHERS IN SEPTEMBER 2008, because banks seen as too big to fail before the crisis had grown even larger. Lehman's demise set off a cascading storm across financial markets that stifled lending, crippled global industrial production and exacerbated an already severe economic slump.

Chikungunya virus has spread beyond Africa since 2005, causing outbreaks and scores of fatalities in India and the French island of Reunion. It also has been detected in Italy, where it has begun to spread locally, as well as France. "We're very worried," Dr James Diaz of the Louisiana University Health Sciences Center told a meeting on airlines, airports and disease transmission sponsored by the independent US National Research Council.

"Unlike West Nile virus, where nine out of 10 people are going to be totally asymptomatic, or may have a mild headache or a stiff neck, if you get Chikungunya you're going to be sick," he said. "THE DISEASE CAN BE FATAL. IT'S A SERIOUS DISEASE," DIAZ ADDED. "THERE IS NO VACCINE." Chikungunya infection causes fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, rash and joint pain. Symptoms can last a few weeks, though SOME SUFFERS HAVE REPORTED INCAPACITATING JOINT PAIN OR ARTHRITIS LASTING MONTHS.

West Nile, spread by a different mosquito species, first appeared in New York in 1999 and now can be found in most of North America.

Shirley Chaplin said she believed The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust Hospital was trying to prevent her from expressing religious beliefs although she had been told health and safety concerns were behind the order. Mrs Chaplin, 54, from Exeter, said: "For about 30 years I have worked in the NHS and nursed patients day and night and on no occasion has my cross caused me or anyone else any injury - and to my knowledge, no patient has ever complained about me wearing it."

Mrs Chaplin, who is due to retire in eight months, added: "Everyone I have ever worked with has clearly known I am a Christian: it is what motivates me to care for others." Mrs Chaplin claimed other members of staff have been allowed to wear necklaces. "This smacks of double standards and APPEARS TO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST CHRISTIANS."

"This BLATANT PIECE OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS amounts to the marginalising of employees' personal human rights, a blanket 'secularising and neutralising' of the NHS intended to stop Christians from expressing their faith in the public services of the NHS."