Though a moratorium on the use of the death penalty is due to expire in January, the Constitutional Court in Russia has ruled that the punishment is contradictory to the International protocols the country has signed.

AFP - Russia cannot apply the death penalty even after moratorium expires next year, a court ruled Thursday, effectively banning the use of capital punishment in the country for good.
  
However politicians warned it was too soon to formally abolish the death penalty as public opinion -- which is strongly in favour of capital punishment -- was not ready for such a move.
  
The end of the judicial moratorium on January 1 "does not make it possible to apply the death penalty on the whole of Russia's territory," Constitutional Court president Valery Zorkin said in his ruling.
  
"This decision is final and may not be appealed," he said of the ruling, which came after a request for a decision from country's Supreme Court.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is the most important member of Germany's new coalition government. He insists he is loyal to Chancellor Angela Merkel, but he could prove to be a thorn in her side.

Wolfgang Schäuble is sitting in his seat on a small Bombardier Challenger jet owned by the German military, heaping praise on Chancellor Angela Merkel. He has nothing but good things to say about her intelligence and her attention to detail, and he raves about her charm. His press spokesman interjects that she also has a strong political instinct. "That's true," Schäuble agrees, "she does have a good instinct."

It is Tuesday of last week, and Schäuble is flying back to Berlin from Brussels, where he attended a meeting of European Union finance ministers. He eventually tires of praising the chancellor and begins talking about Merkel's weaknesses. She likes to be surrounded by low-maintenance people, says the new CDU finance minister. He doesn't elaborate, which raises the question of whether he counts himself as part of this group.

He leans back and says: "I'm not low-maintenance."

This is precisely the reason why Schäuble stands a good chance of becoming the cabinet's strong man. He is already at the center of the first rift in the new CDU/CSU-FDP coalition government, over whether it should enact a major tax reform. FDP Chairman and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle thinks it should, Horst Seehofer, the head of the CDU's sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), doesn't think so and Merkel's opinion is somewhere between the two. Finding a solution to the impasse is Schäuble's job.

A source close to the British Labour Government has just given me reliable information about the most radical copyright proposal I've ever seen.

Secretary of State Peter Mandelson is planning to introduce changes to the Digital Economy Bill now under debate in Parliament. These changes will give the Secretary of State (Mandelson -- or his successor in the next government) the power to make "secondary legislation" (legislation that is passed without debate) to amend the provisions of Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988).

What that means is that an unelected official would have the power to do anything without Parliamentary oversight or debate, provided it was done in the name of protecting copyright. Mandelson elaborates on this, giving three reasons for his proposal:

1. The Secretary of State would get the power to create new remedies for online infringements (for example, he could create jail terms for file-sharing, or create a "three-strikes" plan that costs entire families their internet access if any member stands accused of infringement)

2. The Secretary of State would get the power to create procedures to "confer rights" for the purposes of protecting rightsholders from online infringement. (for example, record labels and movie studios can be given investigative and enforcement powers that allow them to compel ISPs, libraries, companies and schools to turn over personal information about Internet users, and to order those companies to disconnect users, remove websites, block URLs, etc)

3. The Secretary of State would get the power to "impose such duties, powers or functions on any person as may be specified in connection with facilitating online infringement" (for example, ISPs could be forced to spy on their users, or to have copyright lawyers examine every piece of user-generated content before it goes live; also, copyright "militias" can be formed with the power to police copyright on the web)

Healthy children between six months and five years old will be vaccinated against swine flu, the Department of Health has confirmed.

The expansion of the government's inoculation programme was revealed as the latest weekly bulletin showed a sharp rise in patient deaths and the number of children being admitted to hospital. 

The overall number of new cases showed a second successive weekly fall. Health officials estimate there were 55,000 new cases this week in England compared with 64,000 last week. There was a slight drop in Scotland.

The number of people who have died from swine flu in the UK has reached 214. There were 18 deaths in England last week. The figures since the start of the outbreak in May are 142 fatalities in England, 21 in Wales, 38 in Scotland and 13 in Northern Ireland.

The number of people needing hospital care for the virus is 783, down slightly from 785, in the previous week. Of those in hospital, 180 were in intensive care, up from 173 in the previous week. 

The Conservative party has been pressing the government to give vaccinations to healthy children because those under the age of 16 are in one of the more vulnerable groups. About 21% of all H1N1 deaths in the UK have been among under 14s.

David Curry, the MP who heads the committee responsible for policing Commons expenses, has claimed almost £30,000 for a second home that his wife has banned him from staying in, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

After learning of the Telegraph investigation, David Curry resigned as chairman of the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges Committee and now faces a formal inquiry into his claims.

The Conservative MP is accused of having an affair with a headmistress in his Yorkshire constituency and using a taxpayer-funded cottage to meet his lover.

A former horse riding school in the tiny Baltic state of Lithuania was used as a secret CIA prison to hold and interrogate top al-Qaeda terrorists, it has been claimed.

The allegations have sparked a parliamentary inquiry after President Dalia Grybauskaite said she harboured "indirect suspicions" that such a facility existed.

According to unnamed former intelligence operatives quoted by ABC News, the CIA built the secret jail in 2004 and used it for more than a year, flying in at least eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists from Afghanistan.

Police chief constables may resign if a Tory government tries to place forces under local political control, the head of their professional body has warned.

Sir Hugh Orde, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said colleagues would resist being told how to protect the public by locally-elected leaders.

The Tories want these officials to be able to hire and fire police chiefs and set force budgets in England and Wales.

Sir Hugh said police independence was vital to public trust and democracy.

The elections watchdog has ruled that the Liberal Democrats can keep £2.4m in donations which it had been suggested came from a man convicted of fraud.

Michael Brown was convicted of stealing more than £30m from clients last year.