It is a 1,700 per cent increase on the cost of the current surveillance regime. Last night LibDem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne described the sum as 'eye-watering'. 'There is already enough concern at the level of Government snooping,' he said. 'In an era of tough spending choices, IT CANNOT BE A JUSTIFIED RESPONSE to the problems we face as a country to lavish millions of pounds a year on state spying.'

'The increase in money spent on tapping phones and emails is all the more baffling when Britain is still one of the few countries not to allow intercept evidence in court, even in terrorist cases.' State bodies including councils are already making one request every minute to spy on the phone records and email accounts of members of the public.

The number of snooping missions carried out by police, town halls and other government departments has rocketed by 44 per cent in two years to a rate of 1,381 new cases every day.

Many are waiting for the publication of a Code of Practice by Rome to flesh out the detail of what is on offer before deciding whether to go. More than 440 took the compensation package on offer and left the Church of England, most for Rome, after the General Synod voted to ordain women priests in 1992. Some subsequently returned.

The Pope has made it it significantly more attractive for Anglicans to move over this time by allowing them to retain crucial aspects of their Anglican identity and allowing them to set up seminaries which will, presumably, train married men for the Catholic priesthood.

But any serving clergyman would face a marked loss of income. A job as a clergyman in the Church of England comes with a stipend of £22,250 and free accommodation. Catholic priests earn about £8,000, paid by their parish and sometimes topped up by a diocese.

Confidential negotiations on how to implement the Lisbon Treaty have produced proposals to allow the EU to negotiate treaties and even open embassies across the world. A letter conferring a full "legal personality" for the Union has been drafted in order for a new European diplomatic service to be recognised as fully fledged negotiators by international bodies and all non-EU countries.

According to one confidential paper, the first pilot "embassies" are planned in New York, Kabul and Addis Ababa. The move is highly symbolic in Britain as it formally scraps the "European Community", the organisation in which Britons originally voted to remain in the country's only referendum on Europe 34 years ago. Mark Francois, Conservative spokesman on Europe, said that the deal showed why the British should have been given a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

"As we have long warned, the Lisbon Treaty increases the EU's power at the expense of the countries of Europe," he said. "The new power a single legal personality would give the EU is a classic example. It illustrates why it is wrong for Labour to try to deny the British people any say on this Treaty at all."

In their lifetimes, they have seen their Christian faith purged from schools their taxes paid for, and mocked in movies and on TV. They have seen their factories shuttered in the thousands and their jobs outsourced in the millions to Mexico and China. They have seen trillions of tax dollars go for Great Society programs, but have seen no Great Society, only rising crime, illegitimacy, drug use and dropout rates.

They watch on cable TV as illegal aliens walk into their country, are rewarded with free educations and health care and take jobs at lower pay than American families can live on – then carry Mexican flags in American cities and demand US citizenship.

They see Wall Street banks bailed out as they sweat their next paycheck, then read that bank profits are soaring, and the big bonuses for the brilliant bankers are back. Neither they nor their kids ever benefited from affirmative action, unlike Barack and Michelle Obama.

They see a government in Washington that cannot balance its books, win our wars or protect our borders. The government shovels out trillions to Fortune 500 corporations and banks to rescue the country from a crisis created by the government and Fortune 500 corporations and banks.

America was once their country. They sense they are losing it. And they are right.

The case centres around Pfizer's criminal "off-label marketing" of four drugs, including the painkiller Bextra. After whistleblowers filed lawsuits in three states, the US Justice Department took an interest in the case and prosecuted Pfizer for criminal acts.

In the settlement, Pfizer admitted to a felony crime and agreed to pay $2.3 BILLION IN FINES and other fees. The investigation of Pfizer reportedly turned up evidence that Pfizer engaged in kickback payments to doctors for nine drugs, including Viagra and Lipitor. Part of the reason the penalty against Pfizer was so large is because THE COMPANY WAS CONSIDERED A "REPEAT OFFENDER" IN PROMOTING DRUGS FOR UNAPPROVED USES (which is a violation of federal law).

So-called "off-label" marketing of drugs is rampant in the pharmaceutical industry. Although the FDA, drug companies and many conventional doctors claim the drug industry is guided by a "gold standard" of scientific scrutiny, the truth is that pharmaceuticals are routinely marketed and prescribed for health conditions for which they have never even been studied... much less actually approved by the FDA. The fact that this continues today makes a mockery of any "scientific credibility" the pharmaceutical industry claims to possess.

The dispute around the August 20 vote has stoked tension between Karzai and the West and complicated US President Barack Obama's decision on whether to send thousands more US troops to Afghanistan to fight a resurgent Taliban. Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon all welcomed Karzai's decision to accept the run-off.

"It is now vital that all elements of Afghan society continue to come together to advance democracy, peace and justice," Obama said in a statement. "We look forward to a second round of voting, and the completion of the process to choose the president of Afghanistan." The White House said the president had taken no decision on whether to wait for the new poll before announcing a new strategy for Afghanistan. A decision would be taken "in the coming weeks."

Karzai, who is a Pashtun, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, is almost certain to win the run-off but the level of mass fraud alleged in the first round will inevitably cast a shadow over the new vote.

It comes amid splits among Anglicans worldwide over homosexuality and the ordination of women. But Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams said he did not think it was a "commentary on Anglican problems". Causes of discord in the worldwide Anglican communion have included the election of an openly gay bishop and the blessing of same-sex unions.

In the Church of England, the ordination of women as priests, and the prospect of their appointment as bishops, has led many Anglicans to consider joining the Roman Catholics. Two senior opponents of women bishops said they would announce their reaction to the Vatican move in February.

The measure, known as an Apostolic Constitution, was shown to leaders of the Church of England just two weeks ago. Under its terms announced by the Vatican, groupings of Anglicans would be able to join "personal ordinariates". This would allow them to enter full communion with the Catholic church, but also preserve elements of the Anglican traditions including the possible use of Anglican prayer books.

He told the Major Economies Forum in London, which brings together 17 of the world's biggest greenhouse gas-emitting countries, there was "no plan B". World delegations meet in Copenhagen in December for talks on a new treaty.

The United Nations (UN) summit will aim to establish a deal to replace the 1997 Kyoto treaty as its targets for reducing emissions only apply to a small number of countries and expire in 2012. Mr Brown warned that negotiators were not reaching agreement quickly enough and said it was a "profound moment" for the world involving "momentous choice. In Britain we face the prospect of more frequent droughts and a rising wave of floods," he told delegates. "The extraordinary summer heatwave of 2003 in Europe resulted in over 35,000 extra deaths."

In recent days there have been a number of warnings that progress is stalling. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told Newsweek magazine "the prospects that states will actually agree to anything in Copenhagen are starting to look worse and worse". The Major Economies Forum is not part of the formal UN process and so firm commitments are unlikely to come from the meeting. It is seen instead as a gathering where countries can explore options and positions in a less pressured environment.

This is nearly treble the official £805billion figure used by the Treasury and equal to a staggering 157 per cent of national output. Alistair Darling has warned national debt will rise to £1.4trillion over the next few years. But the new report insists this is far too low and accused the Government of hiding its real scale by omitting massive bills from its figures.

Author, Tory MP Brooks Newmark, claims the 'hidden liabilities' include Private Finance Initiative projects, the banking bailouts and public sector pensions. His report came as the CBI warned another £120billion needed to be cut from public spending amid fears of a 'VW recession' that will see the economy struggle for years.

Mr Newmark, MP for Braintree in Essex, warns in his book The Hidden Bombshell that these are only 'cautious assumptions' and overall debt could be even higher. 'The truth is the national debt is far higher than the Prime Minister is willing to acknowledge. To continue to ignore this is both economically irresponsible and economic with the truth.' He adds: 'The Chancellor has called for greater transparency from the banks and corporations. It is time that he applied the same principles to the national finances and end the "Do as I say, not do as I do" culture of this government.'

The storm is roaring roaring towards the popular tourist town of Cabo San Lucas on the Baja California Peninsula today. Its howling winds have been measured at 145mph - bringing it down to a dangerous Category Four storm. Over the weekend winds reached up to 180mph - a potentially catastrophic Category Five.
Forecasters said they expected Rick to make landfall by midweek as a Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane, with winds ranging from 74 mph (120 kph) to 110 mph (177 kph).

Forecasters called on all those in Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula and along the mainland coast to closely monitor the storm, adding Rick would remain an extremely dangerous hurricane for the next day or two before losing some punch over cooler waters.

The French Foreign Office reports that French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said this week that, during the European Council meeting on 29-30 October, "the general lines of the European External Action Service will be sketched, in other words the future EU 'Foreign Affairs Minister'. This [diplomatic] service will have to put its members at the core of the Commission, the Council's Secretary General, but also of the 27 member states."

"The credibility and effectiveness of European diplomacy will depend on its ability to analyse and act. The biggest mistake would be to create new European bureaucracy." The paper also reports that the UK is also looking TO INTEGRATE MEMBER STATES' MILITARY CONTINGENT IN BRUSSELS INTO THE EXTERNAL ACTION SERVICE.

The French Foreign Office quotes Bernard Kouchner saying the Lisbon Treaty, "will lead to an influential Europe that will be able to make its voice heard on the international scene because it will be more effective and visible with a stable President of the Council and... a High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and a security policy benefiting from reinforced means of actions, A TRUE EUROPEAN DEFENCE POLICY, and the necessary conditions for powerful diplomacy. Can the diplomat do without the soldier...? I don't think so."

An ambulance crew arrived and called for help, only to be told by their operator that under strict meal break regulations the closest additional crew still had a few minutes left on their lunch break. The paramedics were informed it would take 20 minutes for another crew to arrive. In the end one of them called their colleagues directly and they abandoned their lunch and raced to help. They arrived only five minutes after the original crew and took Bethany to hospital.

An ambulance worker, who asked not be named, said: 'There isn't one staff member who would not go, but we have to be given two 30-minute meal breaks and can't be interrupted. It's a joke.' Bethany's father Stephen 48, of Poole, Dorset, said: 'THE WORLD REALLY HAS GONE MAD.'

A spokesman for the South Western Ambulance Service Trust said it took its health and safety duties seriously. He added: 'In line with national guidelines which must be adhered to by all ambulance trusts, it is important all staff have dedicated 30-minute rest breaks which cannot be interrupted.'

- The G-20 countries, now largely in control of the world's economic caretaking, are turning the US into just one of many countries setting the rules for our future.

- Behind closed doors, Arab Gulf States are seriously considering replacing the dollar for pricing oil.

- The UN Commission of Experts on International Financial Reports is now recommending that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency and replace it with a basket of currencies.

- China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan is calling for a new global reserve currency run by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

- A host of leading and Nobel prize-winning economists — such as Robert Mundell, Joseph Stiglitz, George Soros and fund manager Jimmy Rogers — are making similar arguments and doing so with growing influence.

Make no mistake about it — the world's monetary system is on the verge of dramatically changing.

Washington's Tower of Debts - If the government could somehow pay off that debt at the rate of $100 million PER DAY, it would take 3,446 years before the total government debts and obligations are paid off. Even if Washington were to pay off $1 billion per day, it would still take nearly 345 years to pay off those debts!

Patently unsustainable debts? Yes! Patently unpayable? You bet it is! Of course, Washington will never default outright on its obligations. But it doesn't have to. By devaluing the dollar, Washington can effectively pay off its debts with a cheaper currency.

"This deficit is driven by us," New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg candidly said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union when asked about the federal government's projected $1.42 trillion operating deficit for the 2009 fiscal year.

"You talk about systemic risk. The systemic risk today is the Congress of the United States," the Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, "that we're creating these massive debts which we're passing on to our children. We're going to undermine fundamentally the quality of life for our children by doing this."

The figures, Gregg told King, "MEAN WE'RE BASICALLY ON THE PATH TO A BANANA-REPUBLIC-TYPE OF FINANCIAL SITUATION IN THIS COUNTRY. And you just can't do that. You can't keep running these [federal] programs out [into the future] and not paying for them. And you can't keep throwing debt on top of debt. Standards of living will drop if we keep this up."

More specifically, the group's members, which number in the thousands, pledge to disobey orders they deem unlawful, including directives to disarm the American people and to blockade American cities. By refusing the latter order, the Oath Keepers hope to prevent cities from becoming "giant concentration camps," a scenario the 44-year-old Rhodes says he can envision happening in the coming years.

It's a Cold War-era nightmare vision with a major twist: The occupying forces in this imagined future are American, not Soviet. "The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here," Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale-trained lawyer, said in an interview with the Review-Journal. "My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they can't do it without them. We say if the American people decide it's time for a revolution, we'll fight with you." Oath Keepers is not preaching violence or government overthrow, Rhodes said. On the contrary, IT IS ASKING POLICE AND THE MILITARY TO LAY DOWN THEIR ARMS IN RESPONSE TO UNLAWFUL ORDERS.

The US Department of Homeland Security said the nation's economic downturn and Obama's race are "unique drivers for right-wing radicalization and recruitment." The homeland security report added that "disgruntled military veterans" might be vulnerable to recruitment by right-wing extremist groups. That warning was enough to make Rhodes feel paranoid. "THEY'RE ACCUSING ANYBODY WHO OPPOSES OBAMA OF BEING A RACIST OR A POTENTIAL TERRORIST," he said. "What they're saying is, 'We're coming after you.'" The motto of Oath Keepers: "Not on our watch!"