Russia and China have been identified as having the most active spy networks operating in the UK but it is understood that some European countries are also involved in espionage attacks against Britain. Details of the spy plots were revealed in a government security document obtained by The Sunday Telegraph which states that Britain is a "high priority espionage target" for 20 foreign intelligence agencies.

Security sources have revealed that the list of foreign agencies operating within the UK includes Iran, Syria, North Korea and Serbia, as well as some members of the European Union, such as France and Germany, who have traditionally been regarded as allies. The document, marked "restricted", warns that foreign spies are trying to steal secrets related to the military, optics, communications, genetics and aviation industries.

The source said: "If a country, such as Russia or Iran, can steal a piece of software that will save it seven years in research and development then it will do so without any hesitation. Russian agents will target anybody that they believe could be useful to them. Spying is hard-wired into the country's DNA. They have been at it for centuries and they are simply not going to stop because the Cold War has ended." The source added that Britain's European neighbours, including Germany and France, were also engaged in industrial and political espionage within the UK.

So far, eight states have introduced resolutions declaring state sovereignty under the Ninth and Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, including Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington. Analysts expect that in addition, another 20 states may see similar measures introduced this year, including Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nevada, Maine and Pennsylvania.

"WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO DO IS TO GET THE U.S. CONGRESS OUT OF THE STATE'S BUSINESS," Oklahoma Republican state Sen. Randy Brogdon told WND. "Congress is completely out of line spending trillions of dollars over the last 10 years putting the nation into a debt crisis like we've never seen before," Brogdon said, arguing that the Obama stimulus plan is the last straw taxing state patience in the brewing sovereignty dispute. "This particular 111th Congress is the biggest bunch of over-reachers and underachievers we've ever had in Congress," he said.

"A sixth-grader should realize you can't borrow money to pay off your debt, and that is the Obama administration's answer for a stimulus package," he added. THE NINTH AMENDMENT READS, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." THE TENTH AMENDMENT SPECIFICALLY PROVIDES, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

THE SCALE OF THE PLAN IS LIKELY TO INCREASE PUBLIC ANGER AS THE RECESSION DEEPENS, and add to the frustration of ministers. It comes as Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, announces in The Sunday Telegraph today his plans for an independent review of the way banks are managed, including the bonus system. The review, which ministers hope will address voters' concerns about big payments to executives, will examine the roles of directors and institutional investors and study how British banks compare with overseas institutions.

"We cannot return to business as usual," writes Mr Darling in this newspaper. "It is in everyone's interest to get banks' governance right. It would be wrong to reward people whose excessive risk-taking brought the banks down, causing misery to millions of their customers. Success should be rewarded. Failure should not." The Chancellor will announce the detailed terms of reference of the review, and its chairman, tomorrow.

His tutors felt that a career in paediatrics, the area he was interested in at the time, would be inappropriate because of his sexuality. Tutors said parents might not like him working with their children, nor might other staff. Today, more than a decade later, attitudes have changed greatly and DR VARNEY IS A CONSULTANT IN PUBLIC HEALTH MEDICINE WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE HEALTH OF 40,000 children in the Barking and Dagenham area of London.

Today, more than a decade later, attitudes have changed greatly and Dr Varney is a consultant in public health medicine with responsibility for the health of 40,000 children in the Barking and Dagenham area of London. Dr Varney, who is co-chairman of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists (Gladd), explains that attitudes are very much improved.

"I was steered away from some specialties by some consultants who said people might not be too comfortable about me doing paediatrics as a gay man. "I felt it would be difficult to take up a post in certain hospital specialties because of my sexuality. Genitourinary medicine has lots of gay doctors, orthopaedics does not."

Dr Susan Bewley, consultant in obstetrics/maternal-foetal-medicine at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London and fellow co-chairman of GLADD said there were still some cases of doctors facing discrimination, but that generally things are improving. However, she said the NHS also needed to focus on the requirements of lesbian, gay and bisexual patients .

Many people had started cleaning up, believing the waters were receding. Giandomenico said "it's a bit disheartening and people do get upset." Treasurer Wayne Swan on Saturday announced emergency relief funding for flood victims, while a commercial jet laden with food and other supplies left Sydney for the waterlogged region.

Much of Queensland state has been declared a disaster zone, with an area of more than one million square kilometres (386,100 square miles) and 3,000 homes affected by floods due to torrential rains. Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate, or have been stranded in their homes for up to six days. The sugar cane and cattle industries have been devastated by the floods, with tens of thousands of stranded cows starving to death.

Many of the 40-odd recommendations echo the demands of privacy campaigners who have been dismissed as 'extremist' by ministers. But there is one piece missing.

The report is silent on the massive information sharing powers in Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill, currently being debated in Commons Committee. This proposal appears in legislation to coincide with the report, but has been a key part of the 'Transformational Government' database state agenda in official documents for a long time. It would allow departments to make regulations for officials to take any information and use it for any purpose, without any parliamentary debate.

Phil Booth, NO2ID's National Coordinator said, "The report screams - Stop! Stop unwarranted surveillance. Stop abusing, misusing and losing citizens' information. Stop building the database state - But the government has just stamped on the accelerator. It is not listening.'

Read full report - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldselect/ldconst/18/18.pdf

Thousands of firefighters are battling several major fires, and the number of dead is expected to rise. Victoria Premier John Brumby said he had accepted an offer from the federal government to send in the army. Entire towns have been destroyed in the fires, fanned by extremely high temperatures and unpredictable winds. Temperatures are dropping now, but officials fear they will not be able to get the fires under control until there is substantial rain.

Firefighters have been battling against what are described as the worst conditions in the state's history. Witnesses described seeing walls of flames four storeys high, trees exploding and the skies raining ash, as fires tore across 30,000 hectares (115 sq miles) of forests, farmland and towns. At least 640 homes have been destroyed in Victoria and about 14,000 homes are without power. Most of the people who died came from a cluster of small towns to the north of Melbourne.

A survivor from Kinglake, Chris Harvey, told AFP: "It was a most horrible day. It's going to look like Hiroshima I tell you, it's going to look like a nuclear bomb. There's animals dead all over the road." Another resident, Darren Webb-Johnson, told Sky TV: "The service station went, the take-away store across the road went, cylinders (exploded) left, right and centre, and 80% of the town burnt down to the ground."

Following overwhelming public support for Caroline Petrie, the Christian nurse who was suspended after she offered to pray for an elderly patient, her employers have caved - said she could return to her job. The row over her treatment has reached the House of Commons, with Sir Patrick Cormack, the Tory MP for South Staffordshire, claiming that HER CASE HAD HIGHLIGHTED THE "UTTER ABSURDITIES" OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.

A little-noticed document published by the Department of Health last month gives warning that attempts by doctors or nurses to preach to other staff or patients will be treated as harassment or intimidation under disciplinary procedures. But it does not make clear the limits of acceptable discussion about religion. Faith groups said the guidelines were so vague that they could mean action could be taken against anyone who talks about their beliefs to fellow workers or patients.

The Department of Health said: "The guide recognises that for some groups evangelising is part of their religious practice, which for some staff or patients can cause offence or discomfort. [It] suggests, to avoid misunderstanding or complaints, that as part of staff induction staff are made aware that this practice could be construed by some patients or staff as harassment.

The Age of Obama begins with perhaps the greatest frenzy of old-politics influence peddling ever seen in Washington. By the time the stimulus bill reached the Senate, reports the Wall Street Journal, pharmaceutical and high-tech companies were lobbying furiously for a new plan to repatriate overseas profits that would yield major tax savings. California wine growers and Florida citrus producers were fighting to change a single phrase in one provision. Substituting "planted" for "ready to market" would mean a windfall garnered from a new "bonus depreciation" incentive.

After Obama's miraculous 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear that at some point the magical mystery tour would have to end. The nation would rub its eyes and begin to emerge from its reverie. The hallucinatory Obama would give way to the mere mortal. The great ethical transformations promised would be seen as a fairy tale that all presidents tell -- and that this president told better than anyone.

I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks.

GTC Biotherapeutics said regulators cleared its drug Atryn, which is manufactured using milk from goats that have been scientifically altered to produce extra antithrombin, a protein that acts as a natural blood thinner. The drug's approval may be the first step toward new kinds of medications made not from chemicals, but FROM ANIMALS ALTERED BY SCIENTISTS. Similar drugs could be available in the next few years for a range of human ailments, including hemophilia.

The FDA cleared the drug to treat patients with a rare hereditary disorder that causes a deficiency of the protein, putting them at higher risk of deadly blood clots. The injectable treatment will be marketed in the U.S. by Deerfield, Ill.-based Ovation Pharmaceuticals. To make the drug, scientists from GTC put modified DNA, or rDNA, for the human antithrombin protein into single-cell embryos of goats. Goat embryos with the gene were then inserted into the wombs of surrogate mothers who gave birth to baby goats that produce the protein-charged milk.

GENETICALLY ENGINEERED, OR GE, ANIMALS ARE NOT CLONES BUT RATHER ANIMALS THAT HAVE HAD THEIR DNA CHANGED to produce a desirable characteristic. But consumer groups said the FDA's long-awaited policy will NOT REQUIRE ALL GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS TO BE LABELED AS SUCH. And they said the government has not done enough to examine the potential impact of genetically engineered animals on the environment, particularly if some escape and begin to mate with animals in nature.

While politicians in Washington have liked to portray the scientist as some kind of dark mastermind of nuclear proliferation - former CIA Director George Tenet reportedly referred to him as "AT LEAST AS DANGEROUS AS OSAMA BIN LADEN" - Dr AQ Khan has always been a hero for many Pakistani people.

The reason for his popularity is simple - he is widely seen as having made Pakistan a nuclear state and delivered it a form of status and security that the country otherwise would profoundly lack. The reason for his notoriety is the belief that he also secretly helped other countries to develop their nuclear programmes. Many questions remain unanswered about his activities though, including what exactly he gave to whom.

Even last year there were reports that his network may have had copies of far more advanced nuclear weapons design than previously understood. So, whilst AQ Khan will be celebrating his release, Washington will be watching very closely.

The rules, created in response to growing public anger about the record bonuses the financial industry doled out last year, will apply only to top executives at companies that need "exceptional" assistance in the future. The limits aren't retroactive, meaning firms that have already taken government money won't be subject to the restrictions unless they have to come back for more.

The new guidelines are the first salvo in a broader financial-rescue plan Obama plans to announce next week. The president and Congress have had to defend billions in aid to banks that continue to provide generous bonuses and luxury perks while posting record losses. Pay caps may provide the political cover the administration needs to deliver additional infusions of capital into the financial sector that may be necessary. SOME ANALYSTS SAID THE NEW RULES WOULDN'T HAVE MUCH EFFECT.

Obama, 47, "is not proposing to go back and get that $18.4 billion in bonuses back," Laura Thatcher, head of law firm Alston & Bird's executive compensation practice in Atlanta, said of the cash bonuses New York banks paid last year, the sixth-biggest haul in history. "RIGHT NOW, WE HAVE NOT CLAMPED DOWN" ON PAY AT BANKS.

"This economy needs support from the government, A CHECK FROM THE GOVERNMENT IN THE TRILLIONS," Gross said today in a Bloomberg Television interview from Pimco's headquarters in Newport Beach, California. "THERE IS A POTENTIAL CATASTROPHE IF THE US GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO FOCUS ON BILLIONS OF DOLLARS."

President Barack Obama has proposed a stimulus package intended to spur growth estimated at as much as $900 billion. The US economy shrank by 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter, the most since 1982 as consumer spending recorded the worst slide in the postwar era, the Commerce Department said last week.

GOVERNMENT BORROWING WILL PROBABLY REACH $2.5 TRILLION DURING THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Speculation has risen that China, which holds $681.9 billion of Treasuries as the single largest investor in US debt, may stop or slow the purchases of US debt as its own economic growth slows.

Those subject to unlawful surveillance should be compensated while the policy of DNA retention should be rethought. The government said CCTV and DNA were "essential crime fighting tools". But surveillance and data collection must be proportionate, it added.

Civil liberties campaigners have warned about the risks of a "surveillance society" in which the state acquires ever-greater powers to track people's movements and retain personal data. Controversial government plans for a database to store details of people's phone calls and e-mails were put on hold late last year after they were branded "Orwellian".

In its report, the Lords constitution committee said growth in surveillance by both the state and the private sector risked threatening people's right to privacy, which it said was "an essential pre-requisite to the exercise of individual freedom". THE PUBLIC WERE OFTEN UNAWARE OF THE SCALE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION HELD AND EXCHANGED BY PUBLIC BODIES, it said. "There can be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about us being recorded and pored over by the state," committee chairman and Tory peer Lord Goodlad said.

However, there are concerns that savers will be hurt by lower interest rates. And business groups argue that this rate reduction will not be enough to ease the economic crisis, and will not encourage banks to lend. The decision comes after official data showed the UK had entered a recession in December, after two successive quarters of economic contraction. The Bank Rate has now been reduced from 5% in October last year.

In a statement, the Bank of England said that the rate cuts, along with government measures to boost the economy, "would provide a considerable stimulus to activity as the year progressed." The Ernst & Young Item Club supported the Bank's decision, but added that the economy was in "deep recession" and believed that interest rates should drop further - "possibly to zero". Hetal Mehta, senior economic adviser to the Ernst & Young Item Club, highlighted the "difficult task" the Bank faced.

In contrast to the Bank of England the European Central Bank kept eurozone rates on hold at 2% on Thursday.