Ministry of Justice data shows almost 40,000 inmates have opted out of the early release tagging scheme since it was introduced in 2000, turning down the chance to leave jail up to 18 weeks early. And MORE THAN 40 OUTSIDERS HAVE BEEN CAUGHT INSIDE PRISONS or trying to enter by scaling walls. Many are apparently selling drugs to criminals while others may be offenders trying to get back in.

The findings follow warnings from prison officers' leaders, who claimed inmates were often happy to enjoy 'soft' conditions behind bars, where drugs are cheaper than outside. They said PROSTITUTES PLIED THEIR TRADE IN OPEN PRISONS AND CRIMINALS IN SECURE UNITS ENJOYED BREAKFAST IN BED, SATELLITE TV AND SPORTS FACILITIES, while staff treated them 'with kid gloves' and were 'SUBSERVIENT' FOR FEAR OF BREACHING THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS.

Tory justice spokesman Nick Herbert said: 'Labour's mismanagement of prisons is descending from tragedy to farce. "HOW SECURE ARE OUR JAILS IF CRIMINALS CAN BREAK INTO THEM?" Dr Neil Bentley, director of public services at the Confederation of British Industry, will today accuse the prison system of being a 'hugely expensive bed and breakfast' facility.

He defended his policy of seizing land from white farmers that has brought his country to the brink of economic collapse, saying he had undone a legacy left by Zimbabwe's former "colonial masters." MUGABE BOASTED THAT 300,000 FAMILIES WERE NOW LANDOWNERS and said: "Previously this land was owned by a mere 4,000 farmers mainly of British stock."

"While this land reform programme has been warmly welcomed by the vast majority of our people it has however elicited wrath from our former colonial masters. In retaliation for measures we took to empower the black majority the United Kingdom has mobilised her friends and allies to impose illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe." He added: "All this has been done to cripple Zimbabwe's economy and thereby effect illegal regime change in our country." Sanctions are in fact restricted to a travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe and his acolytes.

Zimbabwe, once known as the "bread basket of Africa," is now ravaged by 165,000 PER CENT INFLATION AND 80 PER CENT UNEMPLOYMENT, while 3.5 million people have fled the country as a result of his policies.

As major users told MPs that EUROPEAN POWER MONOPOLIES WERE EFFECTIVELY HOLDING BRITAIN TO RANSOM, the extent of the UK's suffering was spelled out by the respected Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. It said UK energy prices have jumped 13.6 per cent in the past year, adding hundreds of pounds to domestic bills. This compares with 9.5 per cent in Germany, 12 per cent in France and just 2.8 per cent in the Netherlands.

And there are warnings that UK household bills could rise by a further 25 per cent this autumn. The problem stems from the fact the country is no longer self-sufficient in gas from the North Sea and has become reliant on imports during the winter. Foreign power firms are buying cheap North Sea gas from Britain in the summer and putting it into vast storage facilities on the Continent.

They then refuse to pipe it back to the UK when it is needed in the winter, effectively rationing supplies and pushing up prices. The UK is vulnerable to these strong-arm tactics because we have such tiny gas holding facilities that we cannot store cheap North Sea gas in the summer for use in the winter. THERE IS ENOUGH STORAGE TO SUPPLY THE COUNTRY WITH GAS FOR ONLY 13 DAYS, compared with 99 days in Germany and 122 in France.

The US has been spending hundreds of billions on the Iraq war, suffered massive trade deficits for many years ($708 billion in 2007), and now is paying about $1.2 billion a day for imported oil. Moreover, the dollar has been hugely devalued against the euro (the currency of 15 nations in the European Union), the British pound, and some other currencies.

Conventional wisdom among economists is that currency ascendancy gives a nation an economic advantage. The US, for instance, finances much of its international payments deficit by issuing Treasury bonds and other debt instruments denominated in dollars. SO WHEN THE DOLLAR LOSES VALUE, AS IT HAS ON FOREIGN-EXCHANGE MARKETS, THE DEBTS ARE PAID IN THOSE SAME CHEAPER DOLLARS.

In effect, the dominance of the dollar has enabled the US to live beyond its real means for decades. Charles de Gaulle, founder of France's fifth republic, complained in the 1960s about the "exorbitant privilege" the dollar gave the US. Loss of the privilege could lower US living standards a little. Another piece of conventional wisdom is that loss of the key currency role can take many decades to happen. "This is not what history tells us," Professor Eichengreen says.

One source from the union Unite, which represents the drivers, said its members had the capacity to seriously disrupt supply of petrol. There is also the threat of secondary picketing which means other petrol stations could be affected. The source said: "THIS WILL BRING PETROL FORECOURTS TO A HALT AND PICKET LINES WILL NOT BE CROSSED." If the meeting fails to resolve the dispute then the walk-out could be as early as this week, or the beginning of next week.

Tony Woodley, the union's joint general secretary, described the level of profits in the oil industry as "obscene". Earlier this year Shell reported annual profits of £13.9 billion, a record for a UK-listed company. Much of the rise has been attributed to increased oil prices.

The agency's main focus on its planned June 22-24 visit to Syria is a building in the country's remote eastern desert that was destroyed in September by Israeli jets. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei announced Monday that Syria had agreed to an agency check of U.S. assertions that the target was a plutonium-producing reactor that was near completion, and thus at the stage where it could generate the fissile material for nuclear arms.

But the agency is also interested in following up on information THAT SYRIA MAY HAVE THREE OTHER UNDECLARED ATOMIC FACILITIES. Diplomats and a nuclear expert told the AP Monday that at least one of the sites may have equipment that can reprocess nuclear material into the fissile core of warheads.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Monday that his inspectors would this month visit the site of the suspected reactor that was bombed by Israeli warplanes in September last year. The Al-Kibar site was attacked after Israeli and US intelligence concluded it was a partly constructed nuclear reactor built with North Korean help, but the Syrians have strongly denied the allegations.

"The American and Israeli claims are false. Instead, Israel should be called on to submit its own nuclear installations to international inspection so at least we know how many nuclear weapons it possesses," Syria's official Ath-Thawra newspaper said in an editorial. Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear armed power in the Middle East but has a policy of neither confirming nor denying its arsenal and is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The central bank announced the results of its most recent auction - $75 BILLION IN SHORT-TERM LOANS - the 11th such auction since the program started in December. It's part of an ongoing effort by the Fed to help ease the credit crunch, which erupted last August, intensified in December and January and took another turn for the worst in March.

The housing, credit and financial crises have weakened the economy and threaten to push it into recession. In the latest auction, commercial banks paid an interest rate of 2.220 percent for the loans. To help bolster the economy, THE FED ALSO LAST WEEK LOWERED A KEY INTEREST RATE BY ONE-QUARTER PERCENTAGE POINT TO 2 PERCENT. However, it signaled that may be the last reduction for some time. The Fed is hoping that its powerful rate cuts along with the government stimulus package of tax rebates will help lift the economy out of its funk in the second half of this year.

WHILE THE WIPES KILLED SOME BACTERIA, A STUDY OF TWO HOSPITALS SHOWED THEY DID NOT GET THEM ALL AND COULD TRANSFER THE SO-CALLED SUPERBUGS TO OTHER SURFACES, Gareth Williams, a microbiologist at Cardiff University, said. The findings presented at the American Society of Microbiology's General Meeting in Boston focused on bacteria that included methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

"WHAT WE HAVE FOUND IS THERE IS A HIGH RISK," Williams, who led the study, said by telephone. "We need to give guidance to the staff on how to use the wipes because we found there is a possibility of cross transfer." MRSA infections can range from boils to more severe infections of the bloodstream, lungs and surgical sites. Most cases are associated with hospitals, nursing homes or other health care facilities.

The superbug can cause life-threatening and disfiguring infections and can often only be treated with expensive, intravenous antibiotics. The researchers found that many health care workers cleaned multiple surfaces near patients, such as bed rails, monitors and tables with a single wipe and risked sweeping the infections around rather than cleaning them up.

The bugs are rich in protein and some minerals and are lower in cholesterol than beef or pork. Research carried out at the National Autonomous University of Mexico found that 1,700 species are eaten in at least 113 countries across the world, usually as a substitute for meat.

In Mexico, grasshoppers are sold by the pound in markets and fried before being eaten while the larvae of giant butterfly sell for the equivalent of £12.50-a-plate in some restaurants. Colombians eat ants, which they grind and spread on bread, and termites while Filipinos are partial to grasshoppers, crickets and locusts. In Papua New Guinea, moths, dragonflies and beetles are popular when boiled or roasted over an open fire and the late Emperor Hirohito of Japan's favourite dish was wasps with rice. Grasshoppers have 20 grams of protein and just 6g of fat per 100g while fire ants have 13.9g of protein and 3.5g of fat. Crickets are sources of iron, zinc and calcium.

Patrick Durst of the FAO admitted that Westerners will take some persuading before tucking in to insects. "We're not going to convince Europeans and Americans to go out in big numbers and start eating insects." But he held out hope that insects would catch on with the more adventurous, especially if they "don't have to look the bug in the eye as they're eating it."

A study of almost 400,000 babies found A CLEAR LINK BETWEEN CHEMICALS FORMED DURING CHLORINATION AND THE OCCURRENCE OF A TRIO OF BIRTH DEFECTS. Drinking water, showers, swimming pools and even the steam from a boiling kettle can all contain the problem chemicals called TRIHALOMETHANES, OR THMS, the researchers said.

While the study was carried out in Taiwan, it is thought up to one in six British homes is exposed to levels even higher than those found to cause concern, with concentrations tending to be particularly high in the spring and autumn. The researchers stressed it would be impractical for pregnant women to avoid tap water and said the onus was instead on the use of disinfection methods which limit levels of the chemicals. The Birmingham University study compared details of birth defects with the level of THMs in tap water.

The analysis of almost 400,000 babies showed those born into regions where levels of THMs were above 20 micrograms per litre were around 80 per cent more likely to have a hole-in-the-heart defect and more than 50 per cent more likely to have a cleft palate. Their odds of suffering anencephalus - a condition that causes much of the brain, skull and scalp to be missing - were almost doubled, the journal Environmental Health reports.

The amount of THMs made during chlorination vary according to where the water comes from and the disinfection process, meaning highly chlorinated water does not necessarily have the highest levels. Home water filters may not be entirely effective at removing the chemicals and bottled water may also be tainted. Professor Jaakkola said the solution was for water companies to use disinfection procedures that keep the production of THMs to a minimum.

THE STATISTICS ARE ALARMING. Throughout Germany, the police documented a total of 1,311 right-wing extremist and racist crimes, an increase of 458 over the year-earlier month. The incidents included 72 acts of violence.

The anarchist nationalists constitute the advance guard of a broader violent movement which is making inroads into western Germany. The movement has long since established itself in the east where it feels unassailable and in some areas has come to dominate everyday life. "Right-wing extremists have embarked on A PROCESS OF NORMALIZATION IN THE COUNTRY'S CITIES AND TOWNS," says Adler. Some groups have even sponsored waste pickup campaigns in local forests, under the guise of "protecting the environment to protect the homeland."

The far-right is trying to reinvent itself as champion of ordinary citizens. "SOCIAL AWARENESS CAN ONLY BE NATIONAL AWARENESS" is the new slogan devised by right-wing anti-capitalists. By laying claim to social issues, the neo-Nazis are trying to make violence against "freeloaders" and dissenters socially acceptable. "Wherever the state and civil society are retreating, right-wing extremists are filling the void," says Anetta Kahane of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation.

The EU doubtless regards it as only appropriate that it should be able to hang its "ring of stars" flag outside one of the most iconic political buildings in Britain, just as its new "Not the Constitution" comes into force - with the added sweetness that it will be like a final symbolic victory over Lady Thatcher, for whom it was the backdrop to her political triumphs of the 1980s.

Ever since she departed, the question of what the Tories insist on calling "EUROPE" HAS BECOME THEIR ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE, the issue they have to keep stuffed away in a cupboard FOR FEAR IT WILL REOPEN THE DISASTROUS PARTY RIFTS of the 1990s. For 10 years the Tories have allowed themselves to mention "Europe" only in very strictly confined terms - "No to the euro", "Yes to a treaty referendum" and that's it. Anything else is just what their leader, David Cameron, famously dismissed as "banging on about Europe".

The Tories must remain silent, because THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS TO THEM IS GETTING INTO GOVERNMENT. But when they do arrive in "government" they will get a fearful shock to find that, while they were not talking about it, MOST OF IT HAS DEPARTED - TO THAT REAL CENTRE OF POWER IN BRUSSELS.

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION intends to interfere with Member State civil protection capabilities as well as coordinate their response to disaster. Last March, the European Commission adopted a communication with the purpose "to reinforce the EU's disaster response capacity." The Commission wants to put in place an integrated disaster response for the EU. It has presented an action plan with proposals for enhancing the EU's response capacity and recommends the actions to be implemented by the end of 2008.

THE COMMUNICATION COVERS NATURAL OR MAN-MADE DISASTERS AS WELL AS CONFLICT-RELATED EMERGENCIES WHICH HAVE TAKEN PLACE EITHER INSIDE OR OUTSIDE THE EU. The Commission has said in its communication that the European Parliament has urged it to put forward a proposal on a European rapid reaction force for emergencies based on the civil protection mechanisms of the Member States. The Commission wants to improve the European civil protection response capacity. IT HAS MADE CLEAR THAT IT WISHES TO COORDINATE THE MEMBER STATE CIVIL PROTECTION RESOURCES.

Labor leader Kevin Rudd made the remarks a day after ordering his country's 550 combat troops to head home after five years in Iraq. As one of the United States' staunchest allies, Australia was quick to pledge military support for the US-led coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003. But that decision was made by conservative Prime Minister John Howard, whose 11 years in office came to an end in November's election. He dismissed one by one the reasons used by the Howard administration - and by association the Bush administration - to topple Saddam Hussein.

"Have further terrorist attacks been prevented? No, they have not been, as the victims of the Madrid train bombing will attest," Rudd told Parliament. "Has any evidence of a link between weapons of mass destruction and the former Iraqi regime and terrorists been found? No. Have the actions of rogue states like Iran been moderated? No - Iran's nuclear ambitions remain a fundamental challenge. After five years, has the humanitarian crisis in Iraq been removed? No, it has not."

Rudd said there had been a "failure to disclose to the Australian people the qualified nature of the intelligence. For example, the pre-war warning that an attack on Iraq would increase the terrorist threat, not decrease it." In response to Rudd's remarks, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters Monday that "we acted on the intelligence that we had.... No one else in the world, no other government, had different information and so we acted based on what was the threat that was presented to us."