CNN, which invented the cable news network more than two decades ago, will hit a new competitive low with its prime-time programs in October, finishing fourth - and last - among the cable news networks with the audience that all the networks rely on for their advertising.

The official monthly numbers will be finalized at 4 p.m. Monday and will include results from Friday. CNN executives conceded that will not change the competitive standing for the month. CNN will still be last in prime time.

That means CNN's programs were behind not only Fox News and MSNBC, but even its own sister network HLN (formerly Headline News.) Three of its four shows between 7 and 11 p.m. finished fourth and last among the cable news networks. That was the first time CNN had finished that poorly with its prime-time shows.

Government claims that the ID Card scheme will be self-financing are "completely deluded", the Tories have claimed today.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling launched the attack as the Home Office released its twice-yearly estimates on the multibillion-pound project's cost to the Exchequer.

His opposite number on the government benches, Alan Johnson, claimed that voluntary take-up will cover the £835m it is estimated the ID Cards themselves will cost.

The cards are expected to cost the public £30 each, so on the Home Secretary's reckoning, 28 million people - almost half the population of the UK - will come forward.

The fate of the London Lite newspaper appears uncertain after its publisher said it was considering its future, "which may result in closure".

Associated Newspapers said it would consult 36 London Lite employees before making a final decision.

Associated voiced concerns about the "commercial viability" of the paper.

Earlier this month, the Evening Standard started being given away for free in London. In September, the free London Paper ceased publication.

"The latest development in the London afternoon free newspaper space dictates that we look again at the future of London Lite," said Steve Auckland, managing director of Associated Newspapers free division.

The French branch of the Church of Scientology has been fined $900,000 for defrauding vulnerable followers, a Paris court has ruled.

But the group, which is officially considered a sect in France, was not banned from operating in the country.

The group's lawyer said they would appeal against Tuesday's verdict.

The court convicted six group leaders, the Scientology's Celebrity Centre, and its bookshop of organised fraud for preying financially on followers in the 1990s.

Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used "commercial harassment" against recruits.

A minimum wage of £7.45 per hour, coupled with corporation tax cut for small and medium size businesses is economically viable in the UK. It would lift millions of adults out of poverty, and children too. The current minimum wage of £5.73 per hour coupled with zero tax paid, is not enough to live on for one person, and falls below the poverty level of pay according to many studies and the general public Luxembourg has a minimum wage €9.08 per hour which is £8.26 per hour, or £17,173 a year. France has a minimum wage of €8.71 per hour (£7.92 per hour) and Ireland has a minimum wage of €8.65 per hour (£7.87 per hour). So a minimum wage of £7.45 per hour is hardly radical.

The current strategy of reducing child poverty heavily relies on increasing the amount of child benefits paid out, in real terms, relative to the median wage and inflation. This further and further incentivizes couples and women to have children simply in order to receive state benefits. This increases the number of children born into low income households, uses up government revenue and creates a benefits culture and destroys social cohesion.

Iceland is the country that has made the most progress in closing the gender gap - knocking Norway off the top spot - a World Economic Forum survey said.

Across the 134 countries surveyed, most progress was made in closing the health and schooling divide in the past year.

But 60% of the pay and work status divide and only 17% of the political involvement gap has been closed.

The WEF measures progress in the areas of politics, education, economy and health for the report.

Labour MP Barry Sheerman tells More 4 News that the system of providing 1.6 million pupils with special educational needs (SEN) is in need of significant change and has urged Children's Secretary Ed Balls to act now.

Sheerman, who chairs the influential education and skills select committee, has already clashed with the Children's Secretary as recently as last week, over the appointment of a children's commissioner when he described him as a bully.

Sheerman's latest call comes in advance of an inquiry into schooling for special needs pupils, whose problems may range from mild learning difficulties to serious disabilities.

At 92 years old, Alfred Donovan is an unlikely online campaigner. But he and his son John, 62, have been a painful thorn in the side of Royal Dutch Shell for more than a decade. The pair run one of the oldest and most effective "gripe sites", and the oil giant's army of well-paid lawyers do not know how to neutralise them.

The number of so-called "gripe sites", which exist to criticise, mock, and generally annoy companies, people, and institutions, has exploded in recent years, and the trend is set to continue.

Take this month's campaign against the super-injunction obtained by the lawyers Carter Ruck on behalf of Trafigura. Thousands of Twitter users, empowered and astonished at the campaign's success, are expected to look afresh at how the internet can be used to fight against big business.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset and Joel Tenenbaum captured the nation's attention when they were defendants in the RIAA's first two trials against accused online infringers. But here's the mind-warping reality: both defendants would have been far better off monetarily if they had simply ignored the complaint altogether and failed to show up in court.

That counterintuitive logic played out again this week in Massachusetts, where federal judge Nancy Gertner issued four default judgments against accused P2P file-swappers who never bothered to respond to the charges against them. Their failure to appear meant an automatic loss, and though the judge does have some discretion in setting penalties, judges often pick the minimum awards in such cases.

Apple's iPhone 3GS is driving its market share higher and higher, according to a new study from ChangeWave Research.

The firm surveyed 4,255 consumers in September, and found 39% of them now have a smartphone, which is up from 37% from July and almost double from a year ago.

As more people buy smartphones, the iPhone 3GS is taking share, while Research In Motion is stalling. And yes, it looks ugly for Palm, but at least it has leveled off. Too bad it looks like Google's Android is about to eat it alive.

Philip Collins in The Times today expounds brilliantly on why David Cameron's "progressive conservatism" is a contradiction in terms:

In his conference speech in Manchester this month, Mr Cameron made the intriguing claim that, in the very act of reducing the size of the State, a future Conservative government would improve the condition of the poor. When the State withdraws, he argued, the wounds of society heal over. The main problem of the poor, by this argument, is not that they have too little money but that they have too much government.

Well, it's a view. We will all somehow make ourselves better. The naivety would be touching if it wasn't so irritating. The Conservative conference was full of earnest young people pointing out that they had just discovered something called "the poor" that the Labour Government had shamefully failed.

He was listed as target X, a so-called domestic extremist included on a secret police spotter card as a regular attender at anti-arms demonstrations.

But today it emerged that X was not quite the threat police took him for - at least to the arms industry. In fact he was an alleged infiltrator from the arms company BAE.

The 2005 spotter card, published by the Guardian this week, contains a photograph of Martin Hogbin, who was national co-ordinator for the Campaign against the Arms Trade. He was later accused of supplying information to a company linked to BAE's security department, but denied the allegation.

When asked about his past today, Hogbin said: "I couldn't possibly comment." He added that he had attended demonstrations because he thought the arms trade was "wrong"

Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, warned internet users today that the days of "consequence-free" illegal filesharing are over as he unveiled the government's plan for cracking down on online piracy.

Mandelson, speaking at the government's digital creative industries conference, C&binet, confirmed that the internet connections of persistent offenders could be blocked - but only as a last resort from the summer of 2011.

He added that a "legislate and enforce" strategy was the only way to protect the intellectual property rights of content producers.