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.

The children accompanied the soldiers carrying in the national flag at the most solemn moment of the ceremony. They were dressed in costumes associated with the country's ethnic minorities, including those from troubled areas such as Tibet and the muslim province of Xinjiang. Such displays of "national unity" are a compulsory part of any major state occasion.

But the children were all from the Han Chinese majority, which makes up more than 90 per cent of the population and is culturally and politically dominant, according to an official with the cultural troupe from which they were selected. "I assume they think the kids were very natural looking and nice," Yuan Zhifeng, deputy director of the Galaxy Children's Art Troupe said. The official guide to the opening ceremony said that the children did not just represent but "came from" China's ethnic groups. "Fifty-six children from 56 Chinese ethnic groups cluster around the Chinese national flag, representing the 56 ethnic groups," it said.

It is a sign of how sensitive ethnic relations in China are. At national Communist Party and state congresses, while the Han Chinese delegates all wear suits, carefully chosen members of ethnic minorities are told to wear traditional costume.

Maj Gen Barney White-Spunner said the Iraqi-led crackdown on Shia militia groups in Basra had improved security and they would not regain control. He said there was obvious "scope" for the government to review troop numbers. The PM has said the UK's mission will change in 2009, but the MoD said it was too early to be specific on reductions.

Maj Gen White-Spunner has just completed a six-month tour of duty as the British commander in the country. He described Basra as a happier and more secure city, with property prices doubling, thanks to the interest of foreign investors.

He said Christians and Sunni Muslims were also returning to the city and that he was confident the militias would not regain control. "Basrawis realised what a nightmare, literally, that was. They're not going to put themselves back through that period of violent extremism," he told the BBC. "They have got better things to do now with their lives and I do not see Basra coming back under militia control. Those days are passed," he added.

They'll get over it. A-B's shareholders sure did, considering the $52 billion price tag, which at $70 a share was a 27% premium for a stock that had gone flat. The ruling Busch family ultimately faced up to THE FACT THAT THE US IS FOR SALE, AND FOREIGNERS ARE BUYING. It's everything from the St-Tropez crowd buying up condos in Palm Beach, Florida, to Asian and Middle Eastern governments sinking billions into US banks to Europeans taking over US pharmaceutical and infrastructure companies.

Even tourists are busy using their euros and pounds to snap up iPhones, jeans, shoes and everything else they can stuff into the empty suitcases they carry along for just that purpose, damn them. The weak dollar and our weakening economy are underwriting the great American yard sale. Investors from Dubai are behind the June purchase of the General Motors Building in New York City for $2.8 billion. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council's sovereign wealth fund bought a 90% stake in the landmark Chrysler Building.

General Electric's plastics division is gone, and its famed appliance unit could soon be in the hands of China's Haier or South Korea's LG. Chrysler is hoping to hook up with India's Tata Motors or Italy's Fiat. Switzerland's Roche Holding is offering about $44 billion to acquire the 44% of the biotechnology outfit Genentech that it doesn't own.

THE SURGE OF FOREIGN BUYING SPANS THE ECONOMY. Since 2003, foreign-led mergers and acquisitions have increased more than sixfold. Last year there were over 2,000 foreign-led acquisitions of US companies in deals worth some $405.4 billion, twice the value of deals in 2006 and up from $60.8 billion in 2003, according to Thomson Reuters, the financial-information company. Unlike the 1980s panic about the Japanese buying up American landmarks like Rockefeller Center, the response of the financial establishment has been to welcome the latest rush of foreign investment. "The US needs these flows, particularly now," says Bank of America chief market strategist Joseph Quinlan. "It helps create income and jobs for Americans."

Indeed, European infrastructure firms calculate that the US needs a massive infusion of capital to modernize its roads, bridges and power lines, highlighted by a recent spate of blackouts and the tragic collapse of a Minneapolis highway bridge last year. Steve Lucas, CEO of British power utility National Grid, says estimates are that the US will spend $2 trillion in the next two decades upgrading electricity and gas infrastructure. "That's bigger than China," he notes.

In 2004, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) took stock of the phenomenon - which is CAUSED IN LARGE PART BY AGRICULTURAL RUNOFF - and pronounced it one of THE BIGGEST ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS OF THE 21ST CENTURY. Two years later it noted that the number of identified dead zones, some of which cover thousands of square miles, had climbed from 150 to 200.

The best way to prevent this from happening would be to reduce the amount of nitrogen introduced into the ocean. The technology already exists to do that. If, for example, farmers in the upper part of the U.S. were given a financial incentive to plant crops like winter wheat, rather than leaving their fields fallow after the fall harvest, says marine ecologist Robert Howarth of Cornell University, much of the nitrogenous fertilizer that would normally get washed into waterways by spring thaws could instead be absorbed into winter grain crops. Measures of this sort, if uniformly implemented, could all but eliminate the Gulf of Mexico's famously ballooning dead zone.

"The oceans are vast and they cover most of the Earth's surface," notes Howarth. "But what people mostly care about in the oceans is largely in these coastal areas. That's where the most productive fisheries are, and where people recreate. And that's where people are overfishing, and where dead zones are developing."

The ruling affected approximately 200,000 children and raised protests from grass-roots activists all the way to the office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. On Aug. 8, however, the same judges made an equally surprising reversal of this decision. Judge H. Walter Croskey, presiding over the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, wrote that as long as parents declare their home to be a private school, they may continue to homeschool their children, even if the parents do not have credentials.

Schwarzenegger, who has been clear that he would fight for homeschooling, was pleased with the new ruling. "This is a victory for California's students, parents and education community," he said in a statement. "I hope the ruling settles this matter for parents and homeschooled children once and for all in California, but assures them that we, as elected officials, will continue to defend parents' rights."