Bold and even "savage" cuts in government spending will be necessary to bring the public deficit down after the next election, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, says today.

As the three main parties begin the conference season with competing proposals for how they would make spending cuts, Clegg used a Guardian interview to set out plans including a long-term freeze in the public sector pay bill, scaling back future public sector pensions, and withdrawing tax credits from the middle class. He is even prepared to examine means-testing universal child benefits, though he is cautious of destroying "middle-class solidarity" with the welfare state.

"I find it odd that people on multi-million pay packages from the city get child benefit. That's patently silly and patently unfair," he says.

Clegg predicts that voters will show Gordon Brown the exit at the general election, and pleads with Labour not to hold a referendum on electoral reform on the same day, saying it will set back the case by 20 years. "Anything that Gordon Brown proposes now will turn to dust," he says.

The Liberal Democrats also attacked Tory spending plans last night, claiming that Treasury documents released under the Freedom of Information laws revealed £53bn of unfunded Tory promises. "The Tories try to talk tough on spending cuts, but in reality they haven't a clue," said a spokesman, Lord Oakeshott. "With over £50bn of uncosted spending commitments, they are not fit for government."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have called for the UN to support a carbon tax on imports from countries who fail to back international efforts to fight global warming.  

In a joint letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, the two leaders said, "It would be unacceptable for the efforts of the most ambitious countries to be undermined by the carbon emissions released by lack of or insufficient action by other countries."

Sarkozy, whose government is to introduce a carbon levy on domestic fuel emissions in 2010, has repeatedly argued for a European Union carbon tax on imports from regions with poor environmental standards.

Germany had yet to come out in favor of a carbon tax on imports, which a German minister has warned could be perceived by developing nations as a form of "eco-imperialism."

MOSCOW - Russia said Saturday it will scrap a plan to deploy missiles near Poland since Washington has dumped a planned missile shield in Eastern Europe. It also harshly criticized Iran's president for new comments denying the Holocaust.

Neither move, however, represented ceding any significant ground. A plan to place Iskander missiles close to the Polish border was merely a threat. And while the Kremlin has previously criticized Tehran for questioning the reality of the Holocaust, Russian leaders have refused to back Western push for tougher sanctions against Iran.

It still remains unclear whether Moscow will make any significant concessions on Iran and other issues in response to President Barack Obama's move to scrap the Bush-era plan for U.S. missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic.

International terrorist organization al-Qaida released a video on Friday in which Bekkay Harrach, an Islamist from Bonn, threatens the German electorate ahead of next week's general election. 

In the video, a man identified as Bekkay Harrach from Bonn demanded an end to Germany's military mission in Afghanistan. He spoke German, and was dressed in a suit and tie and stood in front of a red curtain.

"If the people choose to continue the war, they have passed judgment on themselves. The parliamentary election is the only opportunity for the people to influence its country's politics," Harrach says, "When the last German soldier is withdrawn from Afghanistan, the last mujahedeen will be withdrawn from Germany."

German security services consider the 26-minute long video genuine, since Harrach, a German of Moroccan origin, is believed to be somewhere in the middle of the al-Qaida hierarchy. He has appeared in several al-Quaida videos released on the Internet this year, calling himself Abu Talha. But the video is not believed to threaten a specific attack.

In the video, which is currently in the hands of German state broadcaster ARD, Harrach calls on Muslims to stay out of public areas for two weeks after the election.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen offers to integrate NATO's missile defense system with Russia's, a day after US President Barack Obama announced his plan to shelve the USA's Eastern European rocket shield. 

"We want to explore the possibility of linking NATO's missile defense shield with Russia's, at an appropriate time in the future," Rasmussen said on Friday in Brussels, "I do believe that it is possible for NATO and Russia to make a new beginning and to enjoy a far more productive relationship in the future." 

He emphasized that neither the political nor the technological pre-conditions for the proposed fusion exist yet, but said his suggestion was meant to send "a clear political signal" to Moscow.

The USA's decades-old intention to station defensive rockets in Poland and the Czech Republic has been a persistent strain on its relations with Russia, which had seen the plan as a direct threat.

Scotland's top law officer tonight fiercely criticised a move by the Lockerbie bomber to proclaim his innocence.

[...]

But the Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini, said she "deplored" his attempt to challenge his conviction though "selective publication of his view of the evidence in the media" after he had abandoned his appeal.

[...]

She said the Crown had been "ready, willing and able" to argue the case for his conviction in the appeal which Megrahi had abandoned.

"As he and his legal team have made clear, the decision to discontinue the appeal proceedings was taken voluntarily by Mr Megrahi himself," she said.

If the prosecutor is sincere, would they be able to offer Megrahi the chance to change his mind on dropping the appeal?

"Dear Cardinal Bertone,
I read in the press that on 7 October 2009, the day of commemoration for the Madonna of the Rosary, you intend to inaugurate the exhibition, with the symbolic title of "Power and Grace", alongside Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whom I can in no way describe as "honourable" because there is absolutely nothing "honourable" about his public or his private life, his politics or his systematic lies. Were this report to be true, you would certainly be viewed as an accomplice by the vast majority of the members of the Church both in Italy and worldwide and you would be responsible for many people "leaving" the Church, believers who have had enough of seeing the politics of diplomacy taking precedence and overshadowing the clear testimony of the Gospel. Surely you, of all people, are aware, as is every parish Priest that is living on the brink of the precipice, that this year there has been an absolute haemorrhage as regards the 8/thousand donations that many, many believers, even practicing ones, have chosen to withhold from the Catholic Church because of its interference and connivance with a government that, while it may be legitimate, has nevertheless continued to display extreme levels of illegality and immorality. I believe that this matter concerns you, both as a representative of the Vatican and as a member of the Italian Episcopal Conference.
After all that has happened, including the testimonies, the reports, the investigations, the public perjury on television sworn on the lives of his children, the immigrants that died at sea and that are now on the Government's conscience, and after the infamous law that turns an individual's "personal situation" into a "crime", in other words changing "immigrant" status to "illegal immigrant" status on the basis of the Bossi/Fini Law; after all of this, surely you cannot make as if nothing has happened and allow yourself to be seen in public with Berlusconi or, for that matter, with one of his cutthroats.
If you wish to talk about public morality and political ethics, then your actions must be consistent with the very principles that you yourself demand of others who don't have the obscene power of Silvio Berlusconi, who clearly believes that he is the Messiah and "solutus omnibus legibus", given that he views himself as the sultan and Italy as his own personal sultanate. He thinks that he can buy anything and anyone: the Courts, Court decisions, the desire to please of the pimps and panderers that supply him with ladies of easy virtue in return for payment to amuse him with orgies (and even drugs perhaps) about which he continues to boast unashamedly, to the point of claiming that: "the Italian people wish they could be like him". He thinks that he can even buy the Vatican by offering laws and favours on demand. You decide whether the potential benefit is worth the cost to the Church.
One thing you should be aware of is that there is a schism growing within the Church that is no longer simply an undercurrent but is growing day by day and we must beware of watching it become a movement, or worse still a split, also because many Bishops prefer to say nothing while in their heart of hearts they meditate and curse in private. Please don't make the mistake of taking what I am telling you too lightly. Both you and my Bishop, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco who know me well, know that I don't tell lies and that I don't spread mere rumours, and also that I always publicly take full responsibility for anything I say.
For once, as Secretary of State, act like a Priest, nothing more than a Priest and purely as a priest and cancel all your appointments with that unscrupulous and undignified trafficker who is simply using you so as to suggest that his relations with the Vatican and the Pope "are excellent".
I attach a copy of the "Letter of repudiation" that I have sent to Silvio Berlusconi and that is garnering much support, both from believers and non-believers. If you insist on rehabilitating Berlusconi, as has already been done by Gian Maria Vian, Editor of the "Osservatore Romano" in his interview with the "Corriere della Sera", then you will no longer have any right to speak about the Gospel, ethics and morals in God's Church.
Even if Berlusconi manages to buy even the Vatican in exchange for some laws, favours and money, he should know that he will never be able to buy our consciences as believers that pray to God every day to save our "poor Italy" and to overthrow the ecclesiastical hierarchies whose behaviour is so often scandalous and who certainly don't serve as an example to the baptised population.
Concerned and embittered, I send my sincere regards." Paolo Farinella, Priest

A Gay Pride march in Serbia has been called off after police told organisers they could not guarantee its safety.

One of the organisers said Serbia's prime minister had urged them to switch Sunday's rally from central Belgrade, but the proposal was "unacceptable".

President Boris Tadic vowed on Friday to protect the participants.

Anti-gay groups had threatened violence if the march were allowed to go ahead. "We're expecting you" posters had been stuck around the Serbian capital.

And so the bigots win again...