Six weeks later two officers came to her home and questioned her about disciplining the youngsters, a boy of 11 and a four-year-old girl. To her horror she then received a letter from the local council saying HER 'CHASTISEMENT' OF THE CHILDREN HAD BEEN 'PUT ON RECORD' FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT 14 YEARS.

The shocked mother, a trainee manager in a Christian bookshop, said last night: 'It was an amazing intrusion. I was doing what parents should do, and what thousands do every week - SETTING MORAL BOUNDARIES FOR HOW CHILDREN SHOULD BEHAVE.' The 34-year-old mother does not want to be named, to protect the identity of her children. But she is speaking out to avoid the same thing happening to another parent.

Mike Judge of the Christian Institute think-tank said: 'This woman is a personal friend - and I know she's a good mum. I don't think it's particularly a Christian issue, but we do believe in the family quite strongly, AND GET WORRIED WHEN THE STATE TRIES TO TAKE OVER THE ROLE OF PARENTS.'

It's not often that a historic announcement comes, as an afterthought, almost by accident, at the end of an otherwise stultifying tedious press conference.

Many journalists had already left the small, stuffy windowless room on the first floor of the International Press Center where news conferences were held. Some had headed home, some drifted to the restaurant where the Stasi security police routinely observed foreign reporters by hidden camera. Even though pressure had been building on the East German government for months to grant "Reisefreiheit" - or freedom to travel - Schabowski had nothing to say about that until NEAR THE END OF HIS PRESENTATION WHEN HE WAS ASKED ABOUT TRAVEL RULES by Riccardo Ehrman of the Italian news agency ANSA at 6:53pm.

"Therefore... um... we have decided today... um... to implement a regulation that allows every citizen of the German Democratic Republic... um... to... um... leave East Germany through any of the border crossings," said Schabowski. He appeared scarcely to believe his own words and we were all dumbfounded. What did he just say? Schabowski was asked when the new rule would take effect. "That comes into effect... according to my information.... immediately, without delay," Schabowski stammered, shuffling through the papers spread in front of him as he sought in vain for more information.

IT LATER EMERGED THE ANNOUNCEMENT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE RELEASED UNTIL 4AM THE NEXT MORNING. He also meant to say East Germans COULD APPLY FOR VISAS IN AN ORDERLY MANNER at the appropriate state agency. The sudden rush to the border that so overwhelmed the guards there was the last thing he had in mind.

Increases in the value of securities Freddie Mac held over the period helped buoy its net worth, however, erasing its need to tap government funds for a second straight quarter to stay solvent while continuing to buy and guarantee home loans.

Including a $1.3 billion dividend payment on senior preferred stock bought by the Treasury in previous quarters, FREDDIE MAC'S THIRD-QUARTER LOSS INCREASES TO $6.3 BILLION. Its larger rival FANNIE MAE on Thursday said it would need $15 billion from the US Treasury after A WHOPPING $18.9 BILLION THIRD-QUARTER LOSS.

Results at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are widely watched as A BAROMETER OF THE US HOUSING MARKET since they own or back nearly half of outstanding mortgages.

The storm reached hurricane force again late on Saturday and strengthened to a Category 2 storm on Sunday with sustained winds of near 100 mph, the Miami-based hurricane center said in its 4pm EST (2100 GMT) advisory. Some energy companies in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuating workers from offshore platforms, but so far oil and gas output had not been affected.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the only terminal in the United States capable of handling the largest tankers, said it would stop unloading ships due to stormy seas. A quarter of US oil and 15 percent of its natural gas are produced from fields in the Gulf and the coast is home to 40 percent of the nation's refining capacity.

The hurricane center set a hurricane watch from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Mexico Beach in northwestern Florida, but did not include the city of New Orleans. A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions are expected in the area within 36 hours. LOUISIANA GOVERNOR BOBBY JINDAL DECLARED A STATE OF EMERGENCY ON SUNDAY, allowing the government to mobilize troops and rescue workers.

How is it possible that Israel only has 17 other true friends in the world, out of 192 countries? AN EVIL WIND IS BLOWING AGAINST THE STATE OF ISRAEL AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE. This resolution - WRITTEN BY THE ARAB LEAGUE - calls for a investigation of Israel for "war crimes" during the January 2009 Gaza war in which Israel was defending itself from some 12,000-plus rockets, missiles and mortars that had been fired by Hamas at civilian centers in southern Israel over the course of several years.

YET THE RESOLUTION NEVER EVEN MENTIONS THE WORD "HAMAS." The resolution has no balance, no sense of fair play, and effectively denies that Israel has a right of self-defense, which is, in fact, a basic right affirmed in the UN charter. The resolution affirms the findings of the anti-Israel and ultimately ANTI-SEMITIC GOLDSTONE REPORT and recommends the Secretary General require the Security Council to take up the issue and condemn Israel. After all, the war crimes were committed by Hamas for firing rockets at civilians, for using civilians as shields in Gaza during the war, for using elementary schools, hospitals and mosques as military bases during the war. YET THE UN CARES NOT ONE BIT ABOUT SUCH BITTER TRUTHS.

IF COUNTRIES CANNOT FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISTS IN SELF-DEFENSE, will the US be charged with war crimes for fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan? Will Great Britain? Will Australia? Will Canada? Will other NATO powers?

Speaking to The Sunday Times, he argued: "We're very important. We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. We have a social purpose."

While he says he understands people are angry at banker's actions, he continued: "Everybody should be happy. Companies are looking to grow again and raise money. That's where we come in. The financial system may have led us into the crisis but it will lead us out."

Goldman Sachs is exempt from President Barack Obama's cap on bonuses because it paid back its £6 billion loan from the US government. As a result the average pay this year for the bank's UK staff will be around £440,000. Last month, Goldman Sachs said it had performed so well that its pay and bonus pot for the first nine months was up 46 per cent at £10.2 billion. It was reported that they were considering donating in excess of £627 million to charity in an attempt to quell the furore over the likely size of the pot.

The 61-year-old, who took his seat in the Lords last week, said: "Wherever you turn today - Jewish, Christian or Muslim - the more religious the community, the larger on average are their families. The major assault on religion today comes from the neo-Darwinians."

Lord Sacks said Europe was the most secular region in the world and the only continent seeing populations fall. He continued: "Europe is dying, exactly as Polybius said about ancient Greece in the third pre-Christian century. We are undergoing the moral equivalent of climate change and no-one is talking about it."

Temp hiring has traditionally been seen as a sign that companies are dipping their toes in the water before creating full-fledged positions. This looks like wishful thinking. A more plausible reading is that BUSINESSES REMAIN SKEPTICAL ABOUT THE RECOVERY AND WILL REMAIN RELUCTANT TO COMMIT TO FULL TIME HIRES. Even long into the recovery, businesses may still prefer to meet rising demand by using temporary workers.

The number of workers stuck in part-time jobs has been rising relentlessly. In October, the unemployment gauge that includes involuntary part-time workers rose to 17.5 percent, from 12 percent last year. Even as output starts to expand again, landing a job is getting ever harder. A year ago, almost a third of Americans losing their jobs managed to clamber back into employment in less than five weeks. Now just 20 percent are so lucky.

American households have barely made a dent in their record debts. Wage increases, meanwhile, remain stingy and credit harder to come by. But as the job slump continues there is A MOUNTING DANGER THAT THE PESSIMISM OF BUSINESSES AND CONSUMERS WILL FEED OFF EACH OTHER.

Scientists looking into a failure of the cryogenic cooling plant found a piece of baguette had caused the malfunction. The problem was noticed by enthusiasts who were monitoring data online and noticed unusual temperature changes.

It's not the first setback for the Collider, buried 100m underground near Geneva, Switzerland. The mighty machine was switched on last year in an effort to unlock the secrets of the origin of the universe, but broke down within days due to a leak of helium. The LHC is attempting to recreate conditions at the time of the Big Bang by firing protons round its 16.8 mile tunnel at almost the speed of light to smash them into each other.

There was concern at the time of its launch last year that the device's experiments could inadvertently bring about the end of the world. The series of technical glitches the LHC has suffered has resulted in some members of THE SCIENTIFIC WORLD SPECULATING THE MACHINE IS BEING SABOTAGED - BY ITSELF.

Some physicists have said that TIME-TRAVELLING PARTICLES FROM THE FUTURE COULD BE DAMAGING THE MACHINE in an attempt to thwart any experiments.

Two thirds of the state's drinking water supply flows through the gigantic Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta region east of San Francisco Bay — and the levees that help direct the massive amounts of water south to farmlands and cities are so antiquated that many may simply collapse with a major temblor. The resulting flooding could also put California's huge farm belt, hundreds of thousands of businesses and millions of residents at enormous risk.

Everyone has known of that doomsday scenario for years — a time in which the needs of farmers, the ambitions of environmentalists and the thirst of cities clashed. The big news this week is that California finally passed legislation to overhaul the state's aging water system. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called it "an historic agreement" and promised to sign it into law. "WATER IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF EVERYTHING WE DO IN CALIFORNIA," Schwarzenegger said. "Without clean reliable water, we cannot build, we cannot farm, we cannot grow, we cannot prosper."

The legislation proposes billions to repair and protect the largest estuary on the West Coast. The twin goals of the legislation are a massive restoration of the Delta's ecosystem, a project akin to saving the Everglades in Florida, and a new modern conveyance system to move water through the Delta and around the state with conservation and efficiency. It is an intricate one as well because the giant pumps that speed water to state and federal aqueducts have played a part in bringing the Delta to the verge of ecological collapse in the first place.

The duties are part of a growing roster of trade conflicts between the two countries, despite a high-level meeting last week in China aimed at reducing tensions. "China resolutely opposes such protectionist practices and will take steps to protect the interests of our domestic industries," Yao Jian, ministry spokesman, said on its website. "The US should give objective consideration to the fact that the fundamental problem of the US industries in question is the fall of demand brought about by the financial crisis."

The decision by the US Commerce Department, which imposed tariffs of up to 99 per cent on some Chinese steel pipes, follows a move earlier in the week by the US, European Union and Mexico to file a formal complaint at the World Trade Organisation against Beijing's restrictions on exports of specialised raw materials. Last month the Obama administration levied 35 per cent tariffs on tyres made in China.

In response, the Chinese have opened probes into US exports of poultry on grounds of safety and into cars and car parts because of the state aid those industries have received.

Among the highlights: Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That's 44 percent of the body – compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall. All told, at least seven lawmakers have net worths greater than $100 million, according to the Center's 2008 figures.

"Many Americans probably have a sense that MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AREN'T HURTING, even if their government salary alone is in the six figures, much more than most Americans make," said CRP spokesman Dave Levinthal. "What we see through these figures is that many of them have riches well beyond that salary, supplemented with securities, stock holdings, property and other investments."

Some lawmakers have profited from investments in companies that have received federal bailouts; dozens of lawmakers are invested in Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.

Dr Jim Radike, an expert in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Role 3 Trauma Hospital at Kandahar Air Field, told The Washington Times that Sergeant Robert David Gordon, 22, from River Falls, Alabama, died September 16 from what turned out to be Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever after he was bitten by a tick. The virus is transmitted by infected blood and can be carried by ticks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dr Radike said the hemorrhagic fever is similar to Ebola "in that in the end there is internal degeneration and external bleeding. From the Black Sea to upper Turkey, you'll see a dozen or more cases a year. Afghanistan falls right in the middle."

Dr Radike said US soldiers in Afghanistan not only have to worry about the Taliban but also a host of ailments not commonly found in the West. "Diarrheal diseases, typhoid fever, skin ailments and tuberculosis are some of what we have to be on the lookout for," he said. "It's important for soldiers to get medical help early on if they are not feeling well or have been bitten. It's too risky not to have a doctor take a look at it." Dr Radike also advised soldiers to "wash their hands often; it's as simple as that."

Symptoms of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever include sudden fever, dizziness, neck pain, aching muscles, soreness in the eyes and sensitivity to light. Early on, nausea, vomiting and sore throat occur. The virus incubation period depends on how the virus was acquired. If the infection is via tick bite, the incubation period is roughly one to three days, with a maximum of nine days, Dr Radike said. If the illness is not caught early, it is often fatal, he said. The mortality rate is 30 percent, according to the CDC.

The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain "acceptable health insurance coverage" and who choose not to pay the bill's new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, INCLUDING CRIMINAL FINES OF UP TO $250,000 AND IMPRISONMENT OF UP TO FIVE YEARS. In response to the JCT letter, Camp said: "This is the ultimate example of the Democrats' command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail. It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately."

Key excerpts from the JCT letter:

"Criminal penalties -

"Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years." [page 3]

According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker's bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.

In an address intended to shore up public support for the operation, the Prime Minister will accept for the first time that international efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, which began eight years ago, may not succeed.
Describing the Afghan mission as a "conflict of necessity not choice," Mr Brown will insist despite growing doubts over the continued deployment of British troops, "we cannot, must not and will not walk away".

However, following the deaths of seven soldiers in six days, he will also raise the prospect of defeat. "We entered together eight years ago," he will say. "We must persist together; in our different ways we must all contribute; in the end we will succeed or fail together."

Mr Brown will make his personal appeal amid doubts about how long the public and politicians will support the deployment of British troops. An opinion poll yesterday indicated that the majority of BRITISH VOTERS NOW BELIEVED THAT VICTORY IN AFGHANISTAN WAS NO LONGER POSSIBLE.

In a YouGov poll for Channel Four News, 57 per cent of respondents said the mission could not succeed, up from 36 per cent two years ago. Nearly three quarters wanted to see troops home within a year. Families of servicemen killed in Afghanistan called for troops to be withdrawn, WARNING THAT THE CONFLICT WAS TURNING INTO "OUR VIETNAM".

The Daily Telegraph has learnt that there is growing frustration in Whitehall at Barack Obama's deliberations over sending another 40,000 soldiers to Afghanistan. His military advisers said in September that a troop surge was necessary but he had yet to make an announcement. British sources said THE PRESIDENT'S INDECISION WAS UNDERMINING THE MISSION.

Adding to concerns about Western efforts to secure Afghanistan, the United Nations announced yesterday that it WAS PULLING 600 STAFF OUT OF THE COUNTRY TEMPORARILY BECAUSE THEIR SAFETY COULD NOT BE GUARANTEED.