The academics praised the Coalition for ditching ID cards and some state databases but they identified a string of threats including:

- Social networking sites that have 'exponentially' increased their holdings of personal data

- Body scanners at airports that invite 'voyeuristic opportunism'

- Automatic numberplate recognition cameras

- CCTV cameras in schools that measure teacher performance

- Aerial police drones that are 'more pervasive than CCTV'

- GPS devices that can track the movements of staff such as cleaners to within a few yards

- Software that allows users to track their friends but which could be hacked by outsiders

- Databases that sort individuals by their ethnicity or social class.

The network's last report - in 2006 - warned that Britain was sleepwalking into a surveillance society. Yesterday it raised the alarm over surreptitious and unaccountable surveillance practices and weak legal protections. 'Much surveillance also goes beyond the limits of what is tolerable in a society based on the rule of law and human rights, one of which is the right to privacy', the report said. 'Some technologies have gone from being a subject of speculation to being in mainstream use in many different areas'.

The Dorset women were last week hailed by the BBC as figureheads of 'a reinvented religion', as the corporation's news channel devoted considerable airtime to the festival. At the same time, it emerged that the Metropolitan Police has produced a diversity handbook offering advice on handling witches and pagans.

Officers are advised not to panic if they encounter a blindfolded person in the nude with their hands tied together. The book reassures them: 'This is in accordance with ritual and has the full consent of the participant. The police are also told to avoid touching a witch's Book of Shadows, or spellbook, and not to handle the ceremonial dagger known as an athame. But it's not only the BBC and the police getting clued up. Druidism has just been given official recognition as a religion by the Charity Commission - with the tax exemptions and other 'rights' that follow.

Jailed druids are now allowed to take twigs, or 'magic wands', into their prison cells, and are being given official days off prison work to worship the sun. Critics say that this growing acceptance of primitive beliefs as a new faith undermines our social values. Mike Judge, spokesman for the Christian Institute, says: 'The BBC down-plays Christianity and up-plays paganism which is unreflective of British society. It creates an atmosphere where it's OK to marginalise Christians.'

He adds: 'When it comes to granting pagans rights, this is surely a case of political correctness gone mad.'

Full story - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1328968/Pagans-march--harmless-eccentrics-dangerous-cult.html

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble castigated investors who fear that Ireland may become the first euro zone country to default, saying they had failed to understand European Union support mechanisms that a country could call on. "It is up to every EU country to apply for help, if they need it," he told a press conference on Friday in Seoul. So far Ireland has not requested financial aid, the European Union said on Thursday.

Europe's latest round of sovereign debt jitters has forced its way onto the agenda of leaders and policymakers gathered in South Korea for the summit, which wraps up later on Friday. "I spent a bunch of time, and I'm sure other ministers did, talking about developments in Europe. But that's what you'd expect," a senior US official said, in response to a question about Ireland.

Dublin's fiscal woes have been triggered by concerns that it will need to spend more to rescue its stricken banking system in a move that has already driven its budget deficit to 32 percent of gross domestic product.

Hopes had been high that the Group of 20, which includes wealthy nations like Germany and the US and rising giants like China, could be a forum to forge a lasting global economic recovery. Yet so far, G-20 countries haven't agreed on an agenda, let alone solutions to the problems that divide them. G-20 leaders were expected to issue a communique detailing results of the summit on Friday.

The delegates have clashed in particular over the value of their currencies. Some countries, like the United States, want China to let the value of its currency, the yuan, rise. That would make Chinese exports costlier abroad and make US imports cheaper for the Chinese to buy. It would shrink the United States' trade deficit with China, which is on track this year to match its 2008 record of $268 billion.

But other countries are irate over the Federal Reserve's plans to pump $600 billion into the sluggish American economy. They see that move as a reckless and selfish scheme to flood markets with dollars, driving down the value of the US currency and giving American exporters an advantage. Richard Portes, president of the Center for Economic Policy Research in London, said the dim prospect for a substantive agreement "is very dangerous for the world economy." Portes said he fears "the possibility that currency wars and global imbalances might lead to severe trade protectionism over the next year or so."

Ministers will then be able to make the change by passing an act of parliament. The measure is likely to be fiercely opposed by Conservative eurosceptics. Under the terms of the bill, published on Thursday, ministers will only be able to avoid a referendum by saying a change is insignificant where EU institutions are given powers to impose fresh obligations or sanctions on the UK.

Broader changes will have to be put to a public vote. The minister's ruling could be challenged in the courts, and the government says it has no plans to transfer sovereignty or powers to the EU in this parliament. The measure is likely to cause alarm among Conservative eurosceptics, who will point to the commitment in the coalition agreement to subject any future transfers of power to a "referendum lock".

The Conservative chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee Bill Cash has opened an inquiry. Mr Cash said: "This bill is of historic significance and is the most important constitutional bill affecting the relationship between the UK parliament and the EU since the European Communities Act 1972."

Last November in a speech on Europe made while leader of the opposition David Cameron said: "Never again should it be possible for a British government to transfer power to the EU without the say of the British people."

MPs will get an opportunity to raise their concerns when the bill has its second reading in the House of Commons.

CHINA VERSUS THE US - There are several main elements, two of them fairly new, but the first is a long-standing one. It has been through several phases and during the financial crisis, China went back to keeping the yuan from rising. Why the Chinese reluctance to allow the yuan to rise much? A fear of job losses among export industries that would be made less competitive. The rise against the dollar has not been enough to satisfy the US, where there is a long standing complaint that China manipulates its currency to gain an unfair advantage. The cry is: "It costs American jobs."

US ECONOMIC POLICY - Many in the US complain about China, but are their hands entirely clean? Some in the rest of the world say not. The dollar has fallen sharply in recent months, because interest rates are low, so investors have been seeking higher returns in emerging economies. They need to buy the currency of the country concerned to make those investments. That tends to push its value up, while the dollar, which they are selling, tends to fall.

The weak dollar has an advantage for the US - it's that competitiveness issue again. It should help American exporters. The US has a large trade deficit, so more exports could help fix that. Some even argue that the Fed's policies are actually intended to weaken the dollar and help the US economy recover by exporting more.

EMERGING ECONOMIES - The Fed's policies have led to a wave of money-seeking opportunities in the emerging economies. That tends to push their currencies up, undermining their competitiveness. There is also the risk of bubbles in financial and property markets. And capital inflows can go into reverse - as they did in the Asian crisis in the 1990s. So the third element in the currency "war" is the resistance of emerging economies, and some developed ones too. Brazil and Thailand have used tax measures to slow the inflows. Japan, South Korea and others have intervened in the currency markets, buying foreign currency in an attempt to interrupt the rise of their own.

ECONOMIC IMBALANCES - The currency war is closely linked with another theme that has been troubling many economists for several years, that of global economic imbalances. In international terms, it is trade that is unbalanced. Actually, the thing that is most often the focus is the "current account balance", which means trade in goods and services plus some financial items, including remittances that migrant workers send home.

Usually, though, trade is responsible for most of the current account imbalance.

Some countries have large trade surpluses, notably China, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Russia. The big deficit country is the United States. Some countries at the eye of the European storm have hefty deficits too - Greece, Portugal and Spain. Britain also has a deficit, although as a share of national income, it is not all that large. The other side of international imbalances is high savings at home with a surplus country such as China, and relatively low savings in a deficit country such as the US.

Household savings have risen in the US, the UK and other deficit countries, because consumers are borrowing less in the wake of the financial crisis. But international imbalances also reflect how much governments borrow and in many deficit countries that has risen, partly offsetting the increase in private savings. Why does all this matter? Those countries where saving has risen desperately want to export more. They want to sell more abroad to make up for consumers at home drawing in their horns.

That is true of the US, Britain and many others. They could do that more easily if consumers in China and the other surplus countries were willing to buy more imported goods.

Earlier this year, then German President Horst Kohler provoked a storm of controversy when he said that MILITARY DEPLOYMENTS WERE NECESSARY TO PROTECT GERMAN ECONOMIC INTERESTS. His remarks, made during a trip to Afghanistan, triggered consternation and sharp criticism in the media. Ultimately, he resigned as a result. Now German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has echoed those sentiments.

Speaking at a security conference in Berlin on Tuesday, Guttenberg said that GERMANY SHOULD BE PREPARED TO USE ITS MILITARY TO SECURE TRADE ROUTES, for example against piracy. "We in our country must really do something to articulate the relationship between regional security and economic interests without coming to deadlock," Guttenberg said. COMMENTING ON KOHLER'S DECISION TO STEP DOWN IN MAY, THE MINISTER SAID: "I ASK MYSELF TO THIS DAY WHAT WAS SO AUDACIOUS ABOUT HIS COMMENTS."

Piracy around the Horn of Africa has posed a threat to the commercial interests of many nations, including Germany. Guttenberg described this as "not just a side note, but a serious challenge to our economic performance, one to be taken seriously."

The plan concocted by South Korean organizers of the G-20 summit is cunning. Anything negotiators fail to agree on before the start of the actual G-20 summit on Thursday night in Seoul will be left off the table when the world leaders assemble. Anything! But please don't be upset. This summit, after all, is the first of its kind in an Asian country, and from a South Korean perspective it needs to be a major success. For now, though, success looks very far off.

The global leaders are expected to finally pave the way for new equity capital rules for banks through the Basel III proposal and the reform of the International Monetary Fund. But the progress in the financial market regulations and the staged harmony won't be able to cover over the fact that a shadow is hanging over this summit.

At the height of the financial crisis, this club of the most powerful industrialized nations presented itself as a body that would close ranks and react swiftly to distortions in world markets. Now that the economy has recovered in many areas, though, the pressure to cooperate is sinking and egoism seems on the rise. Instead of unity and resolve, the order of the day is distrust and bickering. Disputes over issues like global disparities in trade balances, or alleged currency manipulation, or unfair competitive advantages have marked this year's summit, and at the heart of the conflict are the United States, China and Germany.

"If they don't consume, and they just bet on exports, the world will go into bankruptcy," he told reporters as leaders at the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations headed into a two-day summit in the South Korean capital.

He also called for continued dialogue between Christians and Muslims and said this should be accompanied by mutual recognition of "the freedom to practice one's religion in private and in public." The 83-year-old pontiff also praised Christians who stood up to their persecutors. "I express my gratitude to all the Christian Churches who do not capitulate before obstacles and persecutions because of the Gospel," he said.

The comments, contained in Benedict's written conclusions to a 2008 Synod of bishops in Rome, follow the recent targeting of Christians in attacks in Baghdad. Forty-four Christian worshippers and two priests were killed in an attack on a church service in Baghdad by Islamist gunmen on October 31 and the ensuing shootout when it was stormed by troops, while bombings killed six people and wounded 33 this week.

"All religions should encourage the correct use of reason and promote ethical values to build civil coexistence," Benedict said. "Religions can never justify intolerance and war." He called on political leaders to "guarantee to all the freedom of conscience and religion, and of being able to bear public witness to their own faith."

* Tory HQ attacked as demonstration spirals out of control

* 35 arrested and 14 injured in violent clashes at Millbank

* Police admit being caught out by scale of student action

Tonight both ministers and protesters acknowledged that the demonstration - by far the largest and most dramatic yet in response to the government's austerity measures - was "just the beginning" of public anger over cuts. Police, meanwhile, were criticised for failing to anticipate the scale of the disorder.

An estimated 52,000 people, according to the National Union of Students, marched through central London to display their anger over government plans to increase tuition fees while cutting state funding for university teaching. A wing of the protest turned violent as around 200 people stormed 30 Millbank, the central London building that is home to Tory HQ, where police wielding batons clashed with a crowd hurling placard sticks, eggs and some bottles. Demonstrators shattered windows and waved anarchist flags from the roof of the building, while masked activists traded punches with police to chants of "Tory scum".

Police conceded that they had failed to anticipate the level of violence from protesters who trashed the lobby of the Millbank building. Missiles including a fire extinguisher were thrown from the roof and clashes saw 14 people - a mix of officers and protesters - taken to hospital and 35 arrests. Sir Paul Stephenson, Met police commissioner, said the force should have anticipated the level ofviolence better. He said: "It's not acceptable. It's an embarrassment for London and for us."

"The Atlantic is getting wider," said Anton Boerner, head of Germany's Foreign Trade Association, who spoke of a "creeping alienation" between America and Europe, which has been exacerbated by the global financial crisis. Germany and the United States often criticize each other's approaches to aiding economic recovery, with US calls for more expansive policy falling on deaf ears in fiscally disciplined Germany. But Berlin has taken the rhetoric to a new level.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, 68, said last week that the US Federal Reserve decision to buy $600 billion of government bonds undermined US credibility and was "clueless." There was no point, he said, in pumping money into the markets.

China and Brazil were among those echoing his comments but US officials were particularly stung by Schauble and German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle saying the Fed move amounted to "indirect manipulation" of the dollar to boost exports; this at a time when Washington is criticizing China for exactly the same kind of strategy. "It's not acceptable for the Americans to criticize China for currency manipulation then slyly help the dollar by printing at the Federal Reserve," Schauble told Der Spiegel magazine.

Simon Green, a history professor at Aston University in Britain, said the Americans' quantitative easing was a "red flag" to the Germans with their historic fear of inflation. Germany has made a painful effort to get competitive in the past decade of slow growth and stagnant wages and is unhappy to see "the Americans saying 'let's throw on the press, print money and get competitive that way,'" said Green.

For two years, Ireland had poured money on a raging banking crisis, to no avail. Each estimate of the rising price of rescuing Ireland's banks turned out too low. Mr Lenihan needed to halt the drip-drip of bad news that was leading his country to ruin. "I want a final figure ASAP," he told the group. Two weeks later, the estimate came in: Up to 50 billion euros - nearly $50,000 for every household in the Emerald Isle.

But now, investors are betting the bill could be higher still and could reignite Europe's sovereign-debt crisis. The unpopular government is bracing for collapse, and on Tuesday, Irish government bonds continued a week-long slide to a fresh record low. The debt is judged as risky as Greece's was this spring just before that nation begged for a European Union bailout.

Mr Lenihan, racing to ease those fears, proposed Thursday shrinking the country's 2011 budget by 6 billion euros. Proportionally, that's as if the US suddenly eliminated the Defense Department. Ireland's troubles are Europe's. The 16 euro-zone countries have agreed to guarantee up to 440 billion euros in loans if any among them is unable to borrow from private markets.

Clinton made the announcement in a joint video conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who has been scrambling to fill a huge projected budget hole as his government expands services in expectation of full eventual statehood.

Ahead of the meeting US President Barack Obama urged leaders to work together for global economic recovery. He earlier said the US would seek to create jobs and reduce global trade imbalances. Washington has blamed these in part on Beijing's alleged manipulation of its currency to help boost Chinese exports, which has led to Beijing amassing huge foreign reserves.

Others, however, say America's economic policies, specifically creating new money to pursue quantitative easing (QE), could also be a form of currency manipulation for its own ends. Speaking to the BBC, the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, said there were "definitely tensions" over currency. "One has to be wary of the tensions because you don't want them to slip into PROTECTIONISM," he said.

Accused of forcing the dollar down to trade its way back to prosperity, Mr Obama is due to hold one-on-one talks with two of the strongest critics of his administration's economic direction - Chinese President Hu Jintao and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "We all now recognize that the foundation for a strong and durable recovery will not materialize if American households stop saving and go back to spending based on borrowing."

During and after the financial crisis, world leaders huddled close, staring together over the precipice. With the danger of an immediate plunge over, they began jostling, and are now pushing. But the cliff edge is still there. Critics, especially in the US, have called for tariffs on Chinese imports unless the yuan is allowed to appreciate. It is feared that other countries will rush to allow currency devaluation to also make their exports more competitive.