The Telegraph can disclose that the Government is pushing ahead with plans for a national road-pricing scheme, including testing "spy in the sky" technology. Eight areas of the country have been selected by ministers for secret pay-per-mile trials which will begin in 2010 and are expected to pave the way for tolls on motorways. Motorists face paying up to £1.30 a mile during peak periods on the busiest roads.

Initially, in January 2010, one hundred cars in each area will trial the new technology – in many cases entailing placing black boxes to allow their movements to be tracked - but members of the public will be invited to join the pilots in June 2010. The Government is close to signing contracts with four companies who will run the national trials, testing not only the technology which will be fitted to the cars, but also the bureaucracy needed to run a system including sending out bills.

When the scheme was first floated by the Blair administration 1.8 million people signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling on the Government to abandon the scheme. Last night, Peter Roberts, who led the initial protests, said: "IF THE GOVERNMENT WAS TRUE TO ITS WORD AND WAS KICKING ROAD PRICING INTO THE LONG GRASS, WHY IS IT RUNNING TRIALS? MINISTERS HAVE SAID THAT NATIONAL ROAD PRICING IS NO LONGER ON THE AGENDA. So either they are wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers' money or they are not being honest with voters."

Pat Klein said he and three others from his Vision Beyond Borders group spent Sunday night at the airport in the south-western city of Kunming after customs officers took the Bibles from their checked luggage. "I heard that there's freedom of religion in China, so why is there a problem for us to bring Bibles?" said Klein, whose Sheridan, Wyoming-based group distributes Bibles and Christian teaching materials around the world. The Bibles were printed in Chinese, he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

In China, Bibles are legally printed at just one plant — the world's largest — run by a communist government-backed Christian association, and are available in many bookstores. But THE OFFICIALLY ATHEISTIC GOVERNMENT prohibits proselytizing and is worried that if the spread of religion goes unchecked, BELIEVERS MIGHT ULTIMATELY CHALLENGE THE COMMUNIST PARTY'S AUTHORITY.

In 2005, it launched its first commercial satellite on a Russian rocket in a joint project with MOSCOW, WHICH APPEARS TO BE THE MAIN PARTNER IN TRANSFERRING SPACE TECHNOLOGY TO IRAN. Iran first tested a rocket it said was capable of delivering a satellite in February, saying that trial was also successful. It said then that it planned two more test launches before attempting to put its first domestically built satellite into orbit.

The country's fledgling space program, like its nuclear program, has provoked unease abroad. The same technology used to put satellites into space can also be used to deliver warheads. The United States called the February 4 launch "just another troubling development," saying it was a cause for CONCERN ABOUT IRAN'S CONTINUING DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIUM- AND LONG-RANGE MISSILES.

Meanwhile, Iran claimed Sunday it has increased the range of its warplanes, allowing them to fly as far as Israel and back without refueling.

Investors say higher land valuations are just what's needed to settle claims which may have festered since colonial days. But much marginal and forested land is common property, which in the past has given poor local communities little benefit from logging, mining and oil concessions.

"No-man's land and hinterland is suddenly valuable," said Andy White, coordinator for the Washington-based Rights and Resources Initiative, a development NGO. "Communities had been told the land was theirs. Now it's contested," he said, explaining that a community in Liberia had told him that in one week they had separate visits from a mining company, a logging company and a biofuel company. "They were told by the government - 'go out and prospect'."

Spiralling commodity prices have driven speculative interest in farms and forests in emerging markets where productive land can cost one 10th of the price in industrialised countries. Land and food prices are expected to remain high as a growing, richer world demands more land for settlement and food, while climate change threatens more droughts.

A Russian general declared Poland a target for its arsenal after Warsaw signed a deal with Washington to host interceptor missiles for America's anti-nuclear shield. The move came as the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, signed a cease-fire deal that sets the stage for a Russian troop withdrawal after more than a week of warfare with its neighbour Georgia.

Ukraine said it was ready to give both Europe and America access to its missile warning systems after Russia earlier annulled a 1992 cooperation agreement involving two satellite tracking stations. Previously, the stations were part of Russia's early-warning system for missiles coming from Europe. "The fact that Ukraine is no longer a party to the 1992 agreement allows it to launch active cooperation with European countries to integrate its information," a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

It follows a declaration earlier this week from Ukraine's pro-Western president, Viktor Yushchenko, that the Russian naval lease of the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Sebastopol would be scrapped if any vessels joined the conflict in Georgia.

This autumn, Commons authorities will for the first time release details of up to two million receipts submitted by MPs, covering claims for home improvements, furnishings and office costs. But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that MPS HAVE INSISTED ON HAVING THE INFORMATION CENSORED – and in such a way that could save them from potential embarrassment.

Under the changes, the location of MPs' taxpayer-funded second homes will be cut out while full travel details – including potentially extravagant taxi journeys – will also be exempt. The decision to edit the claims was nodded through the Commons without a vote just before MPs broke up for the summer and came after women MPs apparently broke down in tears at the prospect of their personal details being released.

The change meant amending the Government's flagship freedom of information legislation. It comes ahead of an extraordinary expenses 'big bang' later this year, when between 1.3million and 2million receipts submitted by MPs in four-and-a-quarter years will be published on the same day. Full details of 'regular' journeys – such as taxis to the same destinations – will also not be provided although broader details of how much each MP spends on different modes of travel will be released. MPs have also secured the right to see the expenses being published a month before the release date to 'check' the details are accurate – leading to fears they will use the period to remove key information.

Phil Woolas, the environment minister, said it was "easy for those with plentiful food" to ignore Third World hunger. He told The Sunday Telegraph that the Government would press ahead with GM crop trials and look at moving to a more "liberal" regime in Britain, unless scientific evidence showed that the crops had done harm.

The defiant stance came days after the Prince called GM a "gigantic experiment with nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong". The Prince told The Daily Telegraph last week that future reliance on corporations to mass-produce food would drive millions of farmers off their land.

Ministers were privately furious about the attack, which they believe risks becoming a constitutional crisis. One Labour source said the Prince had "overstepped the mark".

General Vyacheslav Borisov, the commander leading Russia's advance in northeastern Georgia, claimed that his troops had begun to pull out of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, the crucible of the conflict between the two ex-Soviet neighbours. But, typifying the kind of claim and counterclaim that has characterized the past few days, Russia's defence ministry denied that withdrawal was underway and hinted that it could be several days before one began.

"It has not started yet," said a spokesman for the ministry. "The question of withdrawal is being considered now and the decision will be taken as the situation in the region is stabilized." In Gori, 15 miles into undisputed Georgian territory from the South Ossetian frontier, a senior official from President Mikheil Saakashvili's administration was involved in a verbal altercation with Gen Borisov after he refused to withdraw from the town.

Russia pledged to pull out of Gori on Thursday after its troops took advantage of the first day of peace to seize the town in apparent violation of a ceasefire brokered by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.

Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements. In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and have to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.

Superintendent David Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff's office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district's lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked US Highway 287, which could make it a target.

"WHEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT STARTED MAKING SCHOOLS GUN-FREE ZONES, THAT'S WHEN ALL OF THESE SHOOTINGS STARTED. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog," Thweatt said in Friday's online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has now uncovered just how much personal data is being collected about individuals by the Government, law enforcement agencies and private companies each day. In one week, the average person living in Britain has 3,254 pieces of personal information stored about him or her, most of which is kept in databases for years and in some cases indefinitely.

The data include details about shopping habits, mobile phone use, emails, locations during the day, journeys and internet searches. In many cases this information is kept by companies such as banks and shops, but in certain circumstances they can be asked to hand it over to a range of legal authorities. Employers are increasingly using radio-tagged security passes for employees, providing them with information about when staff enter and leave the office.

This newspaper's findings come days after the Government published plans to grant local authorities and other public bodies access to the email and internet records of millions. Phone companies already retain data about their customers and give it to 650 public bodies on request.

The incident has sparked an international row and renewed calls for a reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy. It is illegal to discard fish in Norwegian waters, but boats are forced to do so in European Union waters if they have caught the wrong species of fish or fish that are too small. Last year the EU estimated that BETWEEN 40% AND 60% OF ALL FISH CAUGHT BY TRAWLERS IN THE NORTH SEA ARE DISCARDED.

Environmentalists branded the system a "disgrace", whilst Norwegian Fisheries Minister Helga Pederson said that she would be pressing for a review, calling it "a massive waste of food and potential income".

170,000 PEOPLE NOW WORK FOR THE EU INSTITUTIONS. As well as those who work for the EU directly, the study finds that there are many more officials working for the EU indirectly. For example: working for the EU agencies; working for the EU overseas; sitting on EU policy committees; or working in the member states' representations to the EU. In total there are far more people working for the EU (170,000) than for the UK army (107,000).

Open Europe's research into the number of EU bureaucrats in the EU's legislative process was reported across Europe. Open Europe analyst Nick Cosgrove was quoted as saying, "THE COMMISSION DESPERATELY TRIES TO PLAY DOWN JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE NOW WORKING FOR THE EU. They are extremely secretive about the number of people who are working to churn out regulations". Open Europe's Hugo Robinson was also quoted in Polish paper Rzeczpospolita criticising the poor transparency of the EU's legislative process.

Open Europe's Director Neil O'Brien appeared on the BBC Today programme to discuss the findings. He said, "It's not a very transparent system... THIS HUGE FIGURE [170,000] IS COMMENSURATE WITH THE HUGE INFLUENCE THAT BRUSSELS NOW HAS OVER EVERYTHING IN OUR DAILY LIVES".

When the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier describes the overall situation in the world, he likes to refer to what he calls a "new complexity" of circumstances. Yet things were already complex before the war in the Caucasus region, which has its roots in the 19th century more than in the 21st, but now we have been deprived of one small piece of ignorance. Who would have even bothered to try and pinpoint South Ossetia on the map or to carefully differentiate it from North Ossetia before the conflict? And this is supposed to be a world crisis?

But it is one indeed, because the crisis has given oil and gas producer Russia an alibi for cleaning up along its borders in places like Georgia, where the United States and NATO were beginning to exert their influence. It is a world crisis, because this wounded ex-superpower decided, some time ago, that it was going to put an end to a phase of humiliation and losses, of NATO and American expansion.

People took to the streets in the Baltic states, and the Polish president traveled to Georgia to participate in a show of solidarity among the weak, among countries with a long historical memory of what Russia can do to the weak. It is no coincidence that Eastern Europeans suspect that the West is hedging its bets, as it did in 1938, 1956, 1961 and 1968, in loud silence and inactive appeasement. Their illusions are suddenly dropping away like autumn leaves.

AND RUSSIA? IT HAS A TREMENDOUS CRAVING FOR RECOGNITION AND A LUDICROUS AMOUNT OF MONEY. And so the world finds itself in a state of new complexity. It's a nice, inoffensive term, one difficult to criticize. Things are already tremendously in flux. But aren't things always in flux, sometimes more, sometimes less? In 1957, the new British Prime Harold McMillan was asked what would determine the course of his government. "Events, my good man, events," he replied. Yesterday there was Iraq, today there is the Caucasus, and the Palestinian problem never seems to go away.

Col-General Anatoliy Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the general staff, told Interfax that RUSSIAN MILITARY DOCTRINE WOULD ALLOW FOR A POSSIBLE NUCLEAR STRIKE. Poland agreed on Thursday to host elements of a U.S. global anti-missile system after Washington agreed to boost Poland's own military air defences. "The USA is engaged in an anti-missile defence for its own government, and not for Poland. And Poland, in deploying (elements of the system) opens itself to a military strike. That is 100 percent," Interfax quoted Nogovitsyn as saying.

Nogovitsyn said Russia allows nuclear weapons to be used in circumstances defined by its current security doctrine. The Russian government revamped its national security doctrine in 2000, broadening the range of conflicts in which nuclear weapons could be used. "It is written clearly: We will use it in instances against governments that have nuclear weapons; against allies of countries with nuclear weapons, if they somehow enable them," he said.

Washington says the missile system is aimed at protecting the United States and its allies from long-range missiles that could in the future be fired by Iran or groups such as al Qaeda. The Kremlin has long said that was untrue, and has opposed the shield as a threat to Russia. The 10 interceptor missiles to be based at a site in northern Poland compare with Russia's own nuclear arsenal of more than 5,000 ballistic warheads.

Russia's invasion across an internationally recognised border, its thrashing of the Georgian military, and its smug satisfaction in humbling one of its former fiefdoms represents only the visible damage.

AS BAD AS THE BLOODYING OF GEORGIA IS, THE BROADER CONSEQUENCES ARE WORSE. The United States fiddled while Georgia burned, not even reaching the right rhetorical level in its public statements until three days after the Russian invasion began, and not, at least to date, matching its rhetoric with anything even approximating decisive action. THIS PATTERN IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF A PAPER TIGER. Sending Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice to Tbilisi is touching, but hardly reassuring; dispatching humanitarian assistance is nothing more than we would have done if Georgia had been hit by a natural rather than a man-made disaster.

The European Union took the lead in diplomacy, with results approaching Neville Chamberlain's moment in the spotlight at Munich: a ceasefire that failed to mention Georgia's territorial integrity, and that all but gave Russia permission to continue its military operations as a "peacekeeping" force anywhere in Georgia. More troubling, over the long term, was that the EU saw its task as being mediator – its favourite role in the world – between Georgia and Russia, rather than an advocate for the victim of aggression.

The blood on the Bear's claws did not go unobserved in other states that were once part of the Soviet Union. Russia demonstrated unambiguously that it could have marched directly to Tbilisi and installed a puppet government before any Western leader was able to turn away from the Olympic Games. It could, presumably, do the same to them.