The new legislation would deny MPs a full vote on such data-sharing. Instead, MINISTERS COULD AUTHORISE THE SWAPPING OF INFORMATION between councils, the police, NHS trusts, the Inland Revenue, education authorities, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, the Department for Work and Pensions and other ministries. Opponents of the move accused the Government of bringing in by stealth a data-sharing programme that exposed everyone to the dangers of a Big Brother state and one of the most intrusive personal databases in the world. THE NEW LAW WOULD REMOVE THE RIGHT TO PROTECTION AGAINST MISUSE OF INFORMATION BY THOUSANDS OF UNACCOUNTABLE CIVIL SERVANTS, they added.

Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, said he believed BRITAIN HAD GONE TOO FAR IN HELPING TO BRING ABOUT A "SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY". In a report drawing on personal data infringements across Europe but "inspired" by Britain's plan for a new internet, email and telephone database, he added: "General surveillance raises serious democratic problems which are not answered by the repeated assertion that those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear. This puts the onus in the wrong place: it should be for states to justify the interferences they seek to make on privacy rights."

More than half a century ago an African was arrested by Kenya's colonial police; he was imprisoned, tortured, and finally released two years later, a broken man. Such episodes were grimly common during the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule in Kenya, yet this sharp little shard of history has now poked above the surface again, as the story of BARACK OBAMA'S GRANDFATHER.

This is more than simply another fascinating element in Mr Obama's already colourful story. No president of modern times is so steeped in history, both America's history and his own family narrative. The past, and where he came from - Hawaii, Indonesia, Kenya, Chicago - is how Mr Obama has chosen to define himself to the American electorate.

The experience of a grandfather he never knew, long before he was born, will not provoke some knee-jerk anti-British attitude on the part of the new president. Mr Obama is too supple a politician for that. Yet international relationships are based on emotions as well as politics, and the set of preconceptions about Britain that Mr Obama brings to the White House will be far removed from those we have become used to over the Past half-century. Mr Obama describes how travelling in Europe makes him feel "edgy, defensive, hesitant". "It wasn't that Europe wasn't beautiful," he writes. "It just wasn't mine." SO FAR FROM COMING HOME TO BRITAIN, LIKE REAGAN, MR OBAMA HAS DESCRIBED JUST HOW FAR FROM HOME HE FEELS HERE.

But with the Christmas season upon us, there is growing proof that the 82-year-old Pope is also quite willing to play the part of Scrooge TO DEFEND HIS OFTEN RIGID VIEW OF CHURCH. Benedict has said repeatedly that the Church is forced to speak out against the tide of secularization, especially in Catholicism's home turf in Europe. His kindly manner notwithstanding, Benedict does not seem to hesitate doing or saying what he deems necessary TO KEEP CATHOLICISM FROM STRAYING TOO FAR FROM ITS DOCTRINAL TRADITION.

Britain's Telegraph newspaper suggests that they did, citing unidentified officials claiming physical evidence shows the assailants used cocaine and other stimulants to sustain their violent frenzy.

And if the notion of self-anointed holy warriors on a coke binge sounds incongruous, the report also maintains that the killers imbibed the psychedelic drug LSD while fighting advancing security forces. "WE FOUND INJECTIONS CONTAINING TRACES OF COCAINE AND LSD LEFT BEHIND BY THE TERRORISTS, AND LATER FOUND DRUGS IN THEIR BLOOD," the Telegraph was told by one official, whose nationality and relation to the investigation were not specified. "THIS EXPLAINS WHY THEY MANAGED TO BATTLE THE COMMANDOS FOR OVER 50 HOURS WITH NO FOOD OR SLEEP."

The hallucinogenic and sensory-distorting effects of LSD make it an unlikely combat drug, even for kamikaze assailants who were, after all, seeking to kill as many people as possible before their own inevitable death. But the suggestion that the Mumbai jihadists may have amped themselves up on stimulants typically forbidden by their strict Salafist brand of Islam strikes some experts as plausible, particularly within the twisted jihadist logic in which holy ends justify impious means.

The number of people using food stamps in September surpassed the previous peak of 29.85 million seen in November 2005 when victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma received emergency benefits, said Jean Daniel of the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.

September's tally - the latest month available - was also boosted by hurricane and flood aid, Daniel said on Wednesday. But anti-hunger groups said the economic downturn is the main reason behind the higher figures. "It's a disturbing trend," said Ellen Vollinger, legal director with the Food Research and Action Center. She said she expects more people will turn to food stamps as unemployment figures rise and the economy remains weak.

ONE IN 10 AMERICANS WERE PARTICIPATING IN THE FOOD STAMP PROGRAM as of September, said Dottie Rosenbaum, analyst with Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank. That's approaching the all-time high of 10.5 percent of the population that used the program in 1994, and is similar to levels seen in the early 1980s, she said.

U.S. officials say Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will press Beijing to let its yuan rise against the dollar to ease trade tensions at the two-day Strategic Economic Dialogue. American companies contend that China keeps the yuan undervalued, giving its exporters an unfair advantage and adding to its swollen trade surplus. But with China's exporters suffering, the yuan plunged Monday in government-controlled trading—a possible message to Washington to go easy on the issue.

"The signal China sent on Monday is: We also have our own political problems and issues in a slowing economic environment," Frank F.X. Gong, chief Asia economist for JPMorgan Securities Ltd., said in a report to clients. State media said Thursday a rapid rise of the Chinese currency would harm the global economy further as it would hurt Chinese exports and increase unemployment. "China's foreign exchange policy should be aimed at helping domestic economic growth, for which the yuan should not rise too fast against the U.S. dollar now when the global financial market is in turmoil," said a report Thursday in the China Daily, an English-language newspaper aimed at foreign readers.

The U.S. is China's second-largest export market after Europe. CHINA, WITH THE WORLD'S LARGEST CURRENCY RESERVES - POISED TO TOP $2 TRILLION - surpassed Japan in September to become the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries.

AMERICAN ATHEISTS INC. sued in state court over a 2002 law that stresses God's role in Kentucky's homeland security alongside the military, police agencies and health departments. Of particular concern is a 2006 clause requiring the Office of Homeland Security to post a plaque that says the safety and security of the state "cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon almighty God" and to stress that fact through training and educational materials.

The plaque, posted at the Kentucky Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort, includes the Bible verse: "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." Democratic state Rep. Tom Riner, a Baptist minister from Louisville, said he considers it vitally important to acknowledge God's role in protecting Kentucky and the nation.

"NO GOVERNMENT BY ITSELF CAN GUARANTEE PERFECT SECURITY," Riner said. "There will always be this opposition to the acknowledgment of divine providence, but this is a foundational understanding of what America is." Kentucky isn't the only state dealing with religious issues, but Ed Buckner, president of American Atheists, said it's alone in officially enlisting God in homeland security.

"I'm not aware of any other state or commonwealth that is attempting to dump their clear responsibility for protecting their citizens onto GOD OR ANY OTHER MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURE," Buckner said.

Mr Martin, who knew in advance about the raid and Mr Green's arrest, told the Commons he had not been told the police did not have a search warrant. Mr Martin also promised that, in future, a warrant would be required before searches were carried out on Commons property. He added that the police did not explain, as they were required to do, that the sergeant at arms was not obliged to consent to the search or that a warrant should have been insisted upon.

Mr Green, shadow immigration minister, was arrested and held for nine hours last Thursday as part of a police inquiry into Home Office leaks. Raising a point of order, he told the Commons it would be a "bad day for democracy in this country" if facts that ministers preferred to keep hidden could not be revealed by MPs. "An MP endangering national security would be a disgrace. An MP exposing embarrassing facts about Home Office policy which ministers are hiding is doing a job in the public interest."

Anybody who refuses the Big Brother demand could face arrest and a possible prison sentence. The new rules come in legislation to be unveiled in today's Queen's Speech. They are presented as a crackdown on illegal immigration, but LAWYERS SAY THEY COULD BE APPLIED TO ANYBODY WHO HAS EVER BEEN OUTSIDE THE UK, EVEN ON HOLIDAY.

The civil rights group Liberty, which analysed clauses from the new Immigration and Citizenship Bill, called them an attempt to introduce compulsory ID cards by the back door. The move would effectively take Britain back to the Second World War, when people were stopped and asked to 'show their papers'. The law would apply to British citizens and foreign nationals, according to Liberty's lawyers. The only people who would be exempt are the tiny minority who have never been abroad on holiday or business.

A second clause says that people who are stopped 'must produce a valid identity document if required to do so by the Secretary of State'. Failure to do so would be a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of 51 weeks in jail or a £5,000 fine.

George Fisher, aged 18 months, was discovered dead in his cot in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire by his mother Sarah Fisher just hours after he was heard "chatting away on the baby monitor", a coroner was told.

Mrs Fisher, 44, and husband Christopher, 43, believe the vaccine is "implicated" in their son's death in January 2006 as THE TEMPERATURE-RAISING EFFECTS OF THE DRUG ON CHILDREN who have suffered febrile convulsions were not explained to them - knowledge they say might have allowed them to act sooner. Department of Health guidelines say THE JAB SHOULD BE GIVEN "WITH CAUTION" but does not ban child sufferers of febrile convulsions from taking it and recommends temperature monitoring.

In Harrow, north-west London, where the technology was first introduced, officials estimate they have saved £300,000 in three months by rejecting fraudulent claims. Unemployed people could also be forced to carry out "community punishments" such as litter-picking or gardening if they miss meetings designed to help them back into the workplace. And single parents and those on sickness benefits will have part of their weekly payments stopped for not keeping to a promise that they will make themselves ready for work.

The tough sanctions have been put forward by a Government adviser and could be adopted by ministers as part of a new regime to end Britain's culture of benefits dependency. Currently 2.6 million people claim Incapacity Benefit, with a further 900,000 on Jobseeker's Allowance and 750,000 lone parents receiving Income Support.

As The Daily Telegraph disclosed, unemployed people on JSA will be fined up to a month's benefits if they do not look for work under plans likely to be outlined in the Queen's Speech today.

Mr Obama must keep his promises of direct talks with Tehran and engage the Middle East region as a whole if he is to halt a looming crisis that could be revisited on the US, the experts said. "Diplomacy is not guaranteed to work," Richard Hass, one of the authors said. "But the other options – military action or living with an Iranian weapon are sufficiently unattractive for it to warrant serious commitment."

The warnings came in a report entitled Restoring the Balance. The Middle East strategy for the President-elect was drafted by the Council for Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution. Gary Samore, one of the authors, said that the level of alarm over the "hornet's nest" facing the President-elect in the Middle East, and the need for the swift adoption of a previously untested approach, had inspired the decision to write policy for him.

The report paints a grim picture of the problems in the region but asserts that Mr Obama is still in a strong position. For the first time since the Iranian revolution the leadership in Tehran has endorsed the idea of talking directly with Washington, as Mr Obama has suggested. Syria, which has shown tentative signs of a desire for better relations with the West and has held negotiations with Israel, could be the ideal test case for a new diplomatic approach.

"It is beyond what anyone can face; what an individual can take. The cutting off of the city's water when there's a cholera outbreak, the cash withdrawal limit and now the security forces becoming undisciplined. We deserve a better life. We are not a country at war but look at the kind of life we are living. What on earth is going on?

People are dying in great numbers and there is no treatment because like I told you last time, Harare's two main hospitals are closed. It is so difficult because even the smaller local clinics are closed. In some parts of town there is raw sewage running down streets. But you should know that some people in the poor, poor parts of the high density areas have had to live with this every day for five years now. It is just that now pictures are circulating because of the cholera crisis.

You would think that by this stage it would be normal for riots to break out. But normal is not normal in Zimbabwe; and the sight of soldiers rioting, ransacking and looting would be considered implausible… But finally, no, it actually really, really happened. It is these cash withdrawal limits that have done this. The daily limit is 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars and it affects us all whether we are a soldier or a struggling citizen. That amount cannot even buy you a loaf of bread, not even a packet of chips. It is nothing.

Where I stay, we had water problems even before this complete city shut-down. It was becoming the order of the day - sometimes water would run from the tap but normally, not a drop. Now all we can do is go over to a neighbour who has a borehole. Absolutely everyone is boiling all their water. And because there's no power we have to make a fire to do so. We have become a very angry people."

UPDATE - A cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has killed at least 484 people since August, according to the UN. More than 11,700 cases of cholera have been recorded over the same period, an update from the UN office for humanitarian affairs said.

HE WANTS TO DRAMATICALLY EXPAND THE POWER OF THE U.N., A CORRUPT GLOBAL INSTITUTION THAT IS INFESTED WITH SPIES FOR FOREIGN AND HOSTILE INTERESTS. Obama's record in the Senate included sponsorship of the pro-U.N. Global Poverty Act and co-sponsorship of the Jubilee Act. These two foreign aid spending measures alone would cost $920 billion to implement.

Mrs. Clinton, as First Lady, was a cheerleader for the U.N. and made a video appearance at a 1999 conference sponsored by the World Federalist Association (WFA), a group openly dedicated to WORLD GOVERNMENT financed by global taxes. President Bill Clinton had previously sent a message to the group on the occasion of the WFA's awarding of a "GLOBAL GOVERNANCE" award to Talbott, who had been his Deputy Secretary of State in charge of Russian affairs.

A former Time magazine journalist, Talbott wrote favourably about WORLD GOVERNMENT in a notorious column entitled "THE BIRTH OF THE GLOBAL NATION." In his message to the WFA, dated June 22, 1993, Bill Clinton noted that Norman Cousins, the WFA founder, had "worked for WORLD PEACE AND WORLD GOVERNMENT." Clinton didn't disagree with those goals, adding, "Best wishes... for future success."

Hence, when Hillary Clinton gave her video-taped address in 1999, which was in honour of former "CBS Evening News" anchorman Walter Cronkite receiving the organization's "global governance" award, there can be no doubt that she was aware of its PRO-WORLD GOVERNMENT ORIENTATION. Cronkite told the group that "WE MUST STRENGTHEN THE UNITED NATIONS AS A FIRST STEP TOWARD A WORLD GOVERNMENT" and that AMERICA MUST "YIELD UP SOME OF OUR SOVEREIGNTY."

The FT quotes Jose Manuel Barroso as saying "Some British politicians have already told me: 'If we had the euro, we would have been better off.'" A Telegraph leader notes, "There is a clue. The Business Secretary said at the weekend that he believed 'that our aim, our goal, should be to enter the single currency'. IT WAS THE FIRST TIME THE EURO HAS BEEN MENTIONED BY A CABINET MINISTER IN YEARS".

The story is reported on the front page of The Express, which quotes Open Europe's Lorraine Mullally arguing, "There is nothing to suggest that we would be better off in the euro... If the last few months have taught us anything, it's that we need as much flexibility and as many tools as we can get."

Ambrose-Evans Pritchard also notes in a piece for The Telegraph that despite Barroso's claims that the financial crisis was behind the "undercurrent" in favour of euro membership, the UK's problems could not be solved by a change in currency. He argues "How, exactly, would we have been better off?... [the euro] would have made matters worse".