Labour has said that the Conservatives are in "disarray" after the resignation of London deputy mayor Ray Lewis.

Mr Lewis quit amid claims of financial irregularities and inappropriate behaviour, which he denies.

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said the affair had left Conservative leader David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson "embroiled in a mess".

A fellow deputy mayor said Labour's reaction was "ungracious" as Mr Lewis had worked hard to help young people.

Mr Lewis's resignation follows that last month of Mr Johnson's Deputy Chief of Staff James McGrath.

Europe's divisions over inflation were highlighted on Friday when José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, defended the European Central Bank against political critics.

He said: "When it comes to inflation, I have more confidence in the position of central bankers than in politicians...central bankers are not moved by short-term political pressures."

His remarks put him at odds with Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, who berated the ECB for putting price stability before economic growth and raising its main interest rate on Thursday by a quarter-point to 4.25 per cent, a seven-year high.

The difference of views has taken on extra significance because France assumed the EU's rotating presidency on Tuesday and will speak for the 27-nation bloc at international gatherings over the next six months.

Mr Barroso and the Commission are responsible for EU policies such as world trade negotiations - another area where Mr Sarkozy disagrees with Brussels.

The French president contends that higher interest rates will be little use against inflation because they will not contain the rise in oil prices, which has helped push up annual eurozone inflation to 4 per cent - double the ECB's target.

France says Poland's president has pledged not to block a treaty to reform the European Union.

A newspaper this week quoted Polish President Lech Kaczynski as saying that signing the treaty would be "pointless" because Irish voters have rejected it. All 27 EU nations must ratify the treaty for it to take effect.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke by phone with Kaczynski on Friday. According to Sarkozy's office, Kaczynski told the French leader that Poland will not be "an obstacle" to the treaty's ratification.

The few hundred rioters, many of them mummed, started to walk in opposed direction to the 1000-1500 participants of the Gay Pride march. Police erected cordons along the way, which was voefully inadequate: the rioters attacked police with Molotov cocktails and torn-up pavement, managed to burned police cars at the very beginning, and threw bananas and tomatoes at the marchers.

Police at least caught a group of six who wanted to trow some liquid chemical substance in vials from the balcony of a building.

In the now traditional streetfights, police chased the far-right rioters (chant of the day c.: "Gyurcsány [the PM] fuck off / also take your faggot") ahead of the march, who - another tradition - again knocked out a reporter too.

However, the Gay Parade was to end with a concert, and there things got chaotic, police had to bring away people (including politicians) in police cars under attack from rioters while police itself was dispersing the now 500 idiots. Altogether 13 police cars were damaged.

49 arrests - I must say only. Another blamage for police.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

Disposable income hit hard by rising mortgages and energy bills

UK households are 15% worse off than five years ago as rising food and oil prices put the squeeze on household incomes, a report out today said.

Ernst & Young's annual discretionary income study showed that after tax contributions and monthly household bills, the average family has just under 20% of its gross income left over, compared with 28% in 2003.

The average household now has £772.79 to spend each month after total fixed monthly outgoings, compared with £909.84 in 2003/04.

Jason Gordon, director of retail at Ernst & Young, said: "Many UK consumer segments are clearly feeling the pinch as big rises in household costs are far outstripping relatively modest wage inflation."

"The worst could be yet to come. If, as predicted, utility prices rise by as much as 40% later this year and interest rates are increased to control rising inflation, consumers and consumer facing businesses will face even bleaker times," he added.

And that's just average numbers, which, as we know, make things look better than they really are...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

South Africa's Thabo Mbeki has held talks in Harare with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and members of a breakaway opposition faction.

Mr Mbeki has been the chief regional negotiator on the Zimbabwe crisis, and has been trying to persuade Mr Mugabe to form a government of national unity.

However, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main opposition party, declined to meet Mr Mbeki.

Seeking to force President Robert Mugabe into negotiations with the opposition, the United States formally proposed United Nations Security Council sanctions on Zimbabwe, including an international arms embargo and punitive measures against the 14 people it deemed most responsible for undermining the presidential election through violence.

Besides Mugabe, those singled out Thursday in the draft resolution to be subject to an international travel ban and a freeze on personal assets include the chiefs of the various branches of the Zimbabwean armed forces, the governor of the central bank, the head of the Justice Department and the presidential spokesman.

"We want to respond to the situation and respond in a way that encourages a move toward resolving the legitimacy crisis without negatively impacting the people of Zimbabwe who are suffering a great deal at the hands of the regime," said Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The United States expects to bring the resolution to a vote as early as this coming week, he said. The mood around the council chamber was noncommittal, with even previously outspoken opponents to further UN interference, particularly South Africa, saying they would have to consult with their governments.

TOKYO, Jul 4 (IPS) - Japan wants countries to reconsider biofuels as an alternative technology to fight climate change by using fuel cell cars at the Group of Eight (G8) Summit on Jul. 7-9. The vehicles will transport the leaders of the world's major industrialised nations when they gather on the northern Japanese Island of Hokkaido.

Honda will display its most advanced environmental technologies with its FX Clarity and Civic Hybrid. They run on a blend of fuel made from straw.

The world is increasingly turning to biofuels as a way to ease pressure from rising oil prices. But critics say biofuels may create more greenhouse gas than they save. Clearing natural forests to plant fuel plantations releases more carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and using food crops for fuel production is at odds with boosting the global food supply.

But not everyone agrees with this argument. "Blaming biofuels for causing a food crisis is a useful distraction for the world's policy-makers from the real problem, which is an increasing overpopulation of the planet, leading to rapid increase in the use of fossil fuels and global warming," said Mike Taylor, CFO of Asia Resource Partners KK.

SAN MIGUEL DE TUCUMÁN, Argentina, Jul 2 (IPS) - European Union immigration policy was unanimously rejected in strong terms by the presidents of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and associate countries, meeting in Argentina.

At the six-monthly summit meeting, held this time in the northwestern Argentine city of San Miguel de Tucumán, negotiators made progress on integration issues in preparatory sessions, while the leaders' summit focused on the world food crisis and the new EU policy of restrictions on undocumented immigrants.

At the summit, the presidents agreed to extend the passport-free movement of their citizens, who will be able to travel on presentation of their national identity documents across all the borders of South America, except Guyana and Suriname. The measure facilitates the movement of persons in the region, in contrast to the restrictive attitude taken towards them by the EU.

The leaders of the bloc's four full member countries were present in the capital of the province of Tucumán: Cristina Fernández of the host country, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Nicanor Duarte of Paraguay, and Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay. Also attending the meeting was Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, which is in the process of acquiring full membership.

OSLO, Jul 4 (IPS) - A new commission appointed by Norway will investigate ways of putting a stop to the huge flows of money into tax havens. Tax evasion and corruption are believed to cost poor countries at least 50 billion dollars a year.

The commission, launched last week, includes Eva Joly, a special advisor on corruption for the Norwegian development agency Norad who headed the famous investigation into corruption at French oil company Elf as an investigatory judge, as well as experts in the fields of international economics, anti-corruption, fund management, and development policy.

Tax havens are places that have created special tax rules that allow operators such as companies to pay little or no taxes. The tax havens can be very secretive, making them attractive for operators that want to avoid paying taxes to their home countries, as well as for those that want to hide away money gained through corruption.

Among the areas that have been labelled as tax havens are Andorra, Monaco, Gibraltar, Jersey, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, as well as some parts of the financial system in London.

"I am very proud of this commission and I think it is very important that it has been appointed, because there is quite a high level of confusion surrounding the damaging effects of tax havens," Joly, who is also part of an anti-corruption working group at the World Bank, told IPS.

The collapse of TPG Capital's rescue package for Bradford & Bingley is an embarrassment to Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank that arranged the deal in a matter of days when an earlier fundraising plan ran aground five weeks ago, writes Chris Hughes.

B&B had previously aimed to raise £300m through a rights issue but this fell apart when the mortgage bank revealed that it was about to issue a profit warning.

Goldman was not leading the rights issue, but it was instrumental in bringing in TPG and delivering a deal that seemed to provide immediate certainty over B&B's financial position. The new plan was for TPG to inject capital alongside a repriced rights issue.

However, the TPG deal encountered immediate hostility from B&B investors, who argued that it was priced too advantageously for the US buy-out group. Investors also said they themselves could have fully funded a recapitalisation of B&B - as they now are - had they been given the opportunity five weeks ago

Mr. Knohl said that it was less important whether Simon was the messiah of the stone than the fact that it strongly suggested that a savior who died and rose after three days was an established concept at the time of Jesus. He notes that in the Gospels, Jesus makes numerous predictions of his suffering and New Testament scholars say such predictions must have been written in by later followers because there was no such idea present in his day.

But there was, he said, and "Gabriel's Revelation" shows it.

"His mission is that he has to be put to death by the Romans to suffer so his blood will be the sign for redemption to come," Mr. Knohl said. "This is the sign of the son of Joseph. This is the conscious view of Jesus himself. This gives the Last Supper an absolutely different meaning. To shed blood is not for the sins of people but to bring redemption to Israel."

Were this so, it would have profound effects on Christianity imo.


You can't be me, I'm taken

Rising prices have triggered an increase in gasoline thefts, according to police departments in the Washington region. With average prices of more than $4 a gallon for unleaded and $5 for diesel fuel, siphoning has become an easy and profitable crime of opportunity, officials said.

But one business has benefited from the crime spike: Lock-equipped gas caps have been flying out of auto parts stores.

Well, now we really are back in the '70s.

Opponents of "absurd" new anti-annoyance laws in place for World Youth Day (WYD) will take their fight to court, claiming the powers impinge on human rights.

Under the laws, authorised people, including police, will be able to direct people to stop conduct which "causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event".

"The laws that have been brought in last Friday are bad laws, they are counter-productive laws and they impinge important human rights," NSW Council for Civil Liberties spokesman Stephen Blanks told reporters in Sydney.

Control: "South Wales Police, what's your emergency?"

Caller: "It's not really. I just need to inform you that across the mountain there's a bright stationary object."

Control: "Right."

Caller: "If you've got a couple of minutes perhaps you could find out what it is? It's been there at least half an hour and it's still there."

Control: "It's been there for half an hour. Right. Is it actually on the mountain or in the sky?"

Caller: "It's in the air."

Control: "I will send someone up there now to check it out."

Caller: "OK."

After the police patrol car arrives, the script reveals the exchange between the control room and the police officer sent to the scene.

Control: "Alpha Zulu 20, this object in the sky, did anyone have a look at it?"

Officer: "Yes, it's the moon. Over."