Police chiefs have been accused of attempting to hide away a potentially embarrassing court case launched by women who say they were tricked into forming long-term, intimate relationships with undercover officers.

The women have begun legal action against the police, alleging undercover officers "deliberately and knowingly deceived" them into the relationships of up to six years by concealing their identity.

The women, who say they have suffered immense emotional trauma and pain, want the case heard at the high court. But lawyers for the Metropolitan police have applied to move the case into a little-known tribunal.

Ed Miliband made an audacious raid deep into Conservative heritage in a speech to his party's conference promising that Labour could rebuild Britain as one nation - a land in which "patriotism, loyalty, dedication to the common cause courses through the veins of all, and nobody feels left out".

In a high-risk, 65-minute speech in Manchester delivered without notes, and 20 minutes longer than he intended, Miliband tried to take the mantle of the 19th-century Tory prime minister Benjamin Disraeli's one nation, pointedly grabbing the territory and language of the centre ground which he believes David Cameron has foolishly vacated. It could yet be seen as the moment when Miliband transformed himself from a weak opposition leader to a credible potential prime minister.

BRUSSELS: Every step Greece takes to shore up its finances seems to make it harder for Athens to make the numbers add up in the long-term, especially when it comes to its spiralling debt.

Monday's 2013 budget plan contained some positive news - for example, the expectation that Greece will have a primary budget surplus, before debt financing costs, for the first time since 2002 - as well as some more alarming forecasts.

Chief among those was an acknowledgement that the economy will shrink again next year, by 3.8 per cent, the sixth annual contraction in succession, and that the debt-to-GDP ratio will rise to 179.3 per cent in 2013, a dauntingly high figure.

The bottom line is that Greece is in a worse state now than even the most pessimistic forecast just six months ago.

French prosecutors say they are dropping an investigation into former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn over a "gang rape" alleged to have taken place in Washington.

The woman who made the complaint has retracted her evidence, they added.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, 63, is still under investigation with three other men over their alleged roles in a prostitution ring. He denies the allegations.

A charge that he attempted to rape a US hotel maid was dropped last year.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has conceded defeat in parliamentary polls that appear set to hand a shock victory to the opposition Georgian Dream coalition.

"It is clear that the [opposition] Georgian Dream has won a majority," Saakashvili said in a televised speech on Tuesday.

Bidzina Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream opposition coalition was leading Saakashvili's ruling United National Movement (UNM) by 53.19 per cent to 41.51 per cent after a quarter of electoral precincts declared results on Tuesday in the proportional ballot that will decide just over half of parliamentary seats.

A complex electoral system means that the ruling party could still take a large number of seats, however.

French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac defended on Tuesday the government financial roadmap that targets to narrow public deficit to 3 percent next year despite wane economy.

Speaking to RTL radio, Cahuzac dismissed growing concerns over ambitious budget goals based on a 2013 economic growth forecast of 0.8 percent that is widely seen too optimistic.

"I think growth for 2013 that we hope will be well that one," the minister said.

"Nobody should forget that if France does not keep its word, that is to say, does not achieve this target of 3 percent of public deficit next year, its signature would be devalued which would lead to an increase in its borrowing costs," he added.

Andrew Wilbur, originally from California, has been married to a Scottish woman for six years but now no longer meets the criteria to stay here as their household income in the past year did not reach £18,600. Contextual targeting label:  Education

The income threshold was only introduced on marriage visa applications in July this year as part of a Government crackdown on immigration and sham marriages.

The move was aimed at ensuring spouses are able to support themselves while in the UK, but Mr Wilbur claims it is also hitting non-criminal, hard-working couples who simply have not earned enough.

The 32-year-old was due to start work at the university on a temporary basis, but now he and his wife, Laura Francescangeli, 34, have booked flights out of the country ahead of his student visa expiring on October 7.

Dft Press Release http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/press-rel...ress-20121003a
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has today announced that the competition to run trains on the West Coast Main Line has been cancelled following the discovery of significant technical flaws in the way the franchise process was conducted.

The decision means that the Department for Transport (DfT) will no longer be awarding a franchise contract to run the West Coast service when the current franchise expires on December 9. It is consequently no longer contesting the judicial review sought by Virgin Trains Ltd in the High Court.

The flaws uncovered relate to the way the procurement was conducted by department officials. An announcement will be made later today concerning the suspension of staff while an investigation takes place.

The FT has a story on Herman van Rompuy's draft on economic union, which includes designs for a central eurozone budget; member states seem to agree the principle of a central budget, but cannot, as yet, on agree on what it is used for, and how to fund it; Germany sees it as an alternative to a eurobond; the French want to use the funds for unemployment insurance, as a protection against asymmetric shocks; Rajoy's denies Reuters story of an imminent bailout; he also met regional premiers to work out a fiscal strategy for the country; Catalan president Artur Mas refused to join the family photo; Spain's regional liquidity fund sets out a list of priorities of how claims are to be settled, with debt payments enjoying top status; the Italian audit court warns that Italy risks a short circuit between austerity and recession; so does Gustavo Piga, who writes that recession has become the new normal in Italy; Vittorio Grilli has become embroiled in two separate damaging scandals, leading to calls for his resignation from Italian newspapers; the troika disputes €3.5bn of the proposed €13.5bn in austerity measures in Greece, and insists that structural reforms be implemented before more money is disbursed; IMF and EU disagree on strategy, with IMF pushing for an immediate debt restructuring, while the Europeans want to give Greece more time (this year's way of saying: let's kick the can down the road); Jean-Marc Ayrault is wooing Socialist deputies to support the fiscal pact; banks are considering the issue of a new hybrid bond to address a capital shortfall likely to arise as a result of new capital rules; Moody's has expressed doubts over the Spanish bank stress tests; Guy Verhofstadt and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, meanwhile, want the European Parliament to proclaim itself as a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution.

OK, it's not really him, it's the whole European situation. But I'm still obsessing over the third chapter of the new IMF World Economic Outlook, with its discussion of the case of Britain's return to the gold standard -- the case that inspired Keynes to write his scathing "The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill".

Eurozone countries would have to sign binding contracts with Brussels, committing them to detailed fiscal reform, according to a draft EU agenda that would increase the bloc's control over national economic policies.

The provision, included in a report distributed to EU countries before this month's summit, would require all 17 eurozone members to sign on to the kinds of Brussels-approved policy programmes and timelines now negotiated only with bailout countries.

If adopted, the plan could help to meet demands in Germany for tighter control over the economies of highly indebted countries such as Italy and France that have a mixed record on economic reform.

Blanchard told Hungarian website Portfolio.hu, in an interview conducted on Sept. 18, that Germany would have to accept higher inflation and a real strengthening of its purchasing power as part of the solution to Europe's problems.

But even though the focus was on Europe's troubles now, he said, the United States also had a fiscal problem which it had to resolve.

...

On the debt crisis, Blanchard said that debt reductions were unavoidable but it should be done without stifling growth, walking on a "narrow middle path."

By agreeing to create money to purchase struggling countries' debt without limit, the ECB has ushered in the decisive phase of Europe's battle to save the euro. If the ECB's resort to the printing press fails to stabilize markets and buy time for crisis-hit countries to recover, nothing else will, economists say.

Even if it works, the ECB will emerge a fundamentally different institution, having abandoned major planks of the economic orthodoxy that shaped its charter and first decade. A more activist central bank, while welcomed in most European countries, is already confronting deep skepticism in Germany, where fears are growing that it is sowing the seeds of inflation.

A loss of German support for the euro would call the currency's viability into question anew. The controversy over the ECB shows how the euro crisis is fueling tension among European nations. While many Germans fear a takeover of the currency union by Mediterranean countries, many southern Europeans feel that German obstinacy is prolonging the crisis.

Honda Motor Co. announced on Monday to recall 603,000 of its Accord models due to a problem with the vehicle's power steering hoses, which could leak and possibly catch fire.

According to Honda, the recall affects 2003-2007 Accord V6 models sold in the U.S. and Canada.

Although Honda said no crashes or injuries had been reported so far, the automaker said the power steering hose in the Accord could wear over time to develop a fluid leak. Leaking fluid could possibly lead to a loss of power steering capability, or cause smoke or fire if released onto a catalytic converter.

EU banks should separate trading and investment activities from deposit banks, said a report by an advisory group designated by European Commission on Tuesday.

The aim of the move was to "get rid of a system where profits are private and costs are public," said Erkki Liikanen, Governor of the Bank of Finland as well as chairman of the group.

"I believe that the Group's recommendations would if implemented provide for a safer, more stable and efficient banking system serving the needs of citizens, the EU economy and the internal market," he added.

The report was presented by EU's Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier, who said the report "underlines the excessive risks taken by banks in the past, and makes important recommendations to make sure that banks work in the interest of their customers."

Samuelson's latest column claims that President Obama and Governor Romney are lying to the nation because they have not sufficiently embraced the moral panic as the transcendent campaign issue that will determine America's future.  Samuelson demands the candidates implore the American people to urgently adopt austerity and attack Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

We have known for over 75 years that the key to recovering from a recession is to follow a counter-cyclical fiscal policy that will reduce unemployment. We have long exhibited the wisdom to adopt automatic stabilizers that increase government services and decrease taxes when a recession strikes.

What would have happened if Obama had adopted austerity as Berlin imposed austerity on the European periphery?  It would have prevented any recovery, throwing the U.S. into an even more severe recession.  Berlin's austerity demands have thrown the Eurozone back into a gratuitous recession, increasing the budget deficit in many nations and plunging Greece and Spain into depressions.  Europe has followed Samuelson's and Ryan's policy advice and the results have been disastrous.  Samuelson's and Ryan's austerity policies violate economic theory, economic history, and a natural experiment in Europe with austerity that has proved catastrophic.  Samuelson, however, makes bizarre odes to Irish austerity, emphasizing the necessity of "persuading ordinary citizens to tolerate austerity (higher unemployment, lower social benefits, [and] heavier taxes) without resorting to paralyzing street protests or ineffectual parliamentary coalitions."

Samuelson shares Berlin's belief in the redemptive power of suffering - by others. 

h/t MBlades

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter

After 15 years of solitary confinement on Louisiana's death row, Damon Thibodeaux became the 300th person exonerated based on DNA evidence. He had been wrongfully convicted of raping and strangling his 14-year-old step-cousin Crystal Champagne, largely based on a coerced confession.

Five years ago, the Innocence Project and the office of Jefferson Parish DA Paul Connick reopened the investigation into his case and last Friday revealed compelling DNA evidence that was used to exonerate him.

At a halfway house called Resurrection After Exoneration, Thibodeaux observed:

"It's a surreal walk. It's not something you can prepare yourself for because you've been in those (death row) conditions so long."

More than 500,000 people are estimated to have fled to the northern city of al-Raqqa over the year-and-a-half long conflict in Syria.

That influx of internally displaced Syrians has doubled al-Raqqa's population.

Now, as opposition fighters say they plan to take the city from the forces of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, civilians are pleading with the fighters to spare them the violence that would ensue.

Dozens of college students have been killed by attackers in Nigeria's northeastern town of Mubi in Adamawa state, police say.

A senior police official told Al Jazeera that unknown gunmen went into campus hostels used by students at Federal Polytechnic Mubi, and killed at least 25 people.

Local officials confirmed that the attack had taken place. Yushau Shuaib, a National Emergency Management Agency spokesperson, said that "a number of people" had died.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has rejected criticism of his policies and insisted his country could ride out the sanctions, imposed because of the nuclear programme, after the rial lost about a third of its value in a week.

"Enemies have managed to reduce our oil sales but hopefully we will compensate for this," Ahmadinejad told a news conference in Tehran on Tuesday.

He suggested domestic criticism of him was part of a "psychological war" against the Islamic Republic.

"According to a report from one of the security services, 22 individuals are ringleaders of the recent turmoil in the currency market, and since these individuals are known, security institutions must act," Ahmadinejad said.

- Four Chinese marine surveillance ships patrolled in the waters off the Diaoyu Islands on Tuesday after the Japanese right-winger's intrusion, the Foreign Ministry confirmed.

China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposes the Japanese right-wingers' illegal entrance into the waters off the Diaoyu Islands and is keeping high vigilance to their intention and purpose, FM spokesman Hong Lei said Tuesday at a regular press briefing.

The provocation of this kind will make the situation more complicated if not stopped, said Hong Lei.

The international community has been hand-holding Afghanistan for long enough and Kabul should now be left to get on with running the country without the west's constant interference, the British ambassador in Kabul has said.

In an interview with the Guardian, Sir Richard Stagg said it was also clear that the Taliban had grown tired of camping across the border in Pakistan and had accepted they needed to be involved in peace and reconciliation talks over the next two years if they were to have any hope of sharing power.

The Foreign Office does not believe the complex obstacles to negotiations are insurmountable, which will give further encouragement to the voices in Whitehall pushing for an acceleration of the British military and civilian withdrawal.Stagg acknowledged that the debate about withdrawal was ongoing and hinted that he believed a faster drawdown was not only possible, but preferable:

LAHT, BOGOTA - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said he has prostate cancer and will be operated on Wednesday, two weeks before the beginning of peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 1 2012 (IPS) - Several thousand marchers demonstrated against Haitian President Michel Martelly on Sunday, the anniversary of a bloody coup d'état that toppled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide 21 years ago.

MercoPress: A weak global economy, mainly due to the difficulties faced by Europe, United States and China has affected growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2012 the original growth estimate will fall from 3.7% to 3.2%, according to the latest estimate from the UN Economic Commission for Latinamerica and the Caribbean.

Coral cover in the Great Barrier Reef has dropped by more than half over the last 27 years, according to scientists, a result of increased storms, bleaching and predation by population explosions of a starfish which sucks away the coral's nutrients.

At present rates of decline, the coral cover will halve again within a decade, though scientists said the reef could recover if the crown-of-thorns starfish can be brought under control and, longer term, global carbon dioxide emissions are reduced.

"This latest study provides compelling evidence that the cumulative impacts of storms, crown-of-thorns starfish (Cots) and two bleaching events have had a devastating effect on the reef over the last three decades," said John Gunn, chief executive of the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

A Chinese company sued Barack Obama on Tuesday for blocking its wind farm project in Oregon on the grounds it was a national security threat.

Obama made the rare decision last week to bar the company from buying four small wind farms close to restricted air space used by a navy weapons training facility.

The privately owned Ralls Corp responded on Tuesday by accusing Obama of overstepping his authority as president and adding his name to its lawsuit against the treasury department's foreign investment committee.

The amended complaint alleges the committee and the president deprived Ralls of its property rights.

The last native speaker of the Cromarty fisherfolk dialect has died.

Retired engineer Bobby Hogg, 92, was the last person who was still fluent in the dialect used in parts of the Black Isle, near Inverness.

His younger brother Gordon was also a native speaker. He died in April last year aged 86.

The dialect is believed to have arrived in the area with fishing families that moved north from the Firth of Forth in 15th and 16th centuries.

Should benefit claimants be prevented from spending the money given to them by the state on alcohol, gambling, cigarettes and other "vices"?

A poll commissioned by think tank Demos suggests most people would support such a move.

But the findings have been met with horror by anti-poverty campaigners, who have questioned whether the British public really feel that way, or whether they have been denied the full facts on poverty by the government and certain newspapers.

Football's world governing body FIFA is meeting to decide the design of the official hijab for women.

The traditional Islamic headscarf was approved for use in July by the governing body, allowing women to wear a sport-specific headscarf. 

And there has been a competition on how the hijabs will look like.

Montreal based fashion designer Elham Sayed Javad hopes her design, one of the two studied  on soccer fields around the world, gets the approval.

A senior member of the Football Association's referee department and football league referee has been arrested on suspicion of computer hacking and the dissemination of private information. Dean Mohareb, 29, was due to take charge of the Championship match between Barnsley and Peterborough on Tuesday night but following his arrest he has now been removed from the fixture.

Mohareb, the FA's national referee development manager, who is responsible for handling sensitive data, including child protection issues, was arrested at his home on Sunday. It is unknown whether Mohareb has been suspended from his role beyond no longer overseeing the match at Oakwell.

Former miners' leader Arthur Scargill has gone to the High Court to fight an attempt by his union to stop paying the cost of his London flat.

Mr Scargill, 74, says he was given use of the rented three-bed Barbican flat for life when he became president of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1982, a tenure that lasted 20 years.

He says under the union's rental terms he should have use of it until he dies.

The NUM says maintaining the flat costs £34,000 a year, which it cannot afford.

When i helped install a 2kw prototype on Ohayo Mountain in Woodstock 1976, i would never have dreamed...

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin