Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May has said that street gangs and hardcore activists were behind the protests against tuition fee rise last week.

May said on Monday that street gangs rampaged through London and attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, and several vandalized government buildings. May said police believe "the protests were infiltrated by organized groups of hardcore activists and street gangs bent on violence."

She also said that many of the protestors in central London last Thursday became involved in the violence. "It is quite clear that these acts were not perpetrated by a small minority but by a significant number of troublemakers," May told the House of Commons.

The government has revealed that 93 magistrates' courts are to be closed in England and Wales.

Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly also said the government would shut 49 County Courts, as part of its deficit-reduction programme.

These figures are slightly lower than the 103 magistrates courts and 54 county courts previously earmarked for closure.

Mr Djanogly told MPs the current system was "unsustainable".

There are some 300 magistrates' courts, who deal with minor crimes, crown court committal hearings and licensing applications.

It is estimated that closing the courts will save the government at least £15m a year in running costs, plus an extra £22m in maintaining the buildings.

Lib Dems don't expect their Lords rebels to muster more than single figures in tonight's vote on tuition fees.

If Labour confounded their expectations and got its way and won the vote the Government would have to come back with another resolution and get it through the Commons again in the New Year.

Universities want to issue prospectuses with new prices in the Spring ready for 2012 entry and a Whitehall source says that timings would get "very difficult."

It is impossible to say how long it will take before Mr Assange is out. The problem is that £200,000 can't be paid in by cheque because cheques take seven days to clear. We have to go around to find money in cash. Until this court is in possession of £200,000, an innocent man stays in jail.

Stephens trotted out the adjectives to describe the conditions that Assange is being held - he used the words Orwellian, Dickensian and Victorian.

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has narrowly won a vote of confidence in the lower house of parliament by 314 to 311, prompting street protests.

In Rome, violent clashes have left 50 police officers and at least 40 protesters injured.

The marchers set fire to cars, threw stones and overturned bins in Italy's worst street violence in recent years.

Mr Berlusconi's critics say he is too deeply mired in scandal and corruption allegations to remain in office.

Internet giant Google holds a dominant position in the online advertising market linked to search engines, a French competition watchdog has said.

But the Autorite de la Concurrence regulator said Google would only face sanctions if it abused this power.

"Only the abusive exercise of such market power could be sanctioned," the anti-trust regulator said.

Google said search advertisements were just "one of many options for advertisers".

Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National party, will contest the Oldham East and Saddleworth byelection, the far-right party confirmed today.

Griffin, who currently serves as MEP for the North West, is the latest candidate to confirm his bid to enter the race for the seat left empty by Labour's Phil Woolas.

Judges ordered a rerun of the constituency election after ruling last month at a specially convened court that Woolas had lied to win his seat in May by 103 votes, exploiting racial tensions in order to defeat Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins.

Measures changing redundancy terms for civil servants will lead to increased strikes and legal challenges, ministers have been warned.

Labour's John McDonnell claimed the Superannuation Bill is the "worst example of industrial relations practices" seen in years.

Mr McDonnell (the Hayes and Harlington MP) criticised what he said was the Government's threat to impose severe caps on the redundancy terms for thousands of civil servants, who will lose their jobs as a result of the coalition's spending cuts.

The Bill will see civil servants receiving one month's salary for every year of service. This would be capped at 12 months for compulsory redundancy and 21 months for voluntary redundancy, with all civil servants entitled to a three-month notice period.

Kosovo's prime minister is the head of a "mafia-like" Albanian group responsible for smuggling weapons, drugs and human organs through eastern Europe, according to a Council of Europe inquiry report on organised crime.

Hashim Thaçi is identified as the boss of a network that began operating criminal rackets in the runup to the 1999 Kosovo war, and has held powerful sway over the country's government since.

The report of the two-year inquiry, which cites FBI and other intelligence sources, has been obtained by the Guardian. It names Thaçi as having over the last decade exerted "violent control" over the heroin trade. Figures from Thaçi's inner circle are also accused of taking captives across the border into Albania after the war, where a number of Serbs are said to have been murdered for their kidneys, which were sold on the black market.

This is a direct consequence of the EU forbidding industrial policy except in the areas of military technology.

Of all the ways of organizing banking, the worst is the one we have today — Mervyn King, 25 October 2010

Last week, every single Labour MP turned out to vote in the same division lobby. We voted `no' to the tripling of tuition fees. There were no forgetful absences. Nobody rebelled. No-one sneaked off early. I couldn't remember the last time this happened so I asked the House of Commons library to tell me. And guess what? It hadn't happened in my parliamentary life. Not once since 2001 has the PLP felt collectively strong enough to march in complete unanimity through the same division lobby.

We've nearly ended our rollercoaster year with the whole Labour crew turning out resolutely to oppose David Cameron's Tory-Lib Dem government. We're ahead in the polls. Britain is now so broken that Nick Clegg can't safely ride a bicycle - despite all those close protection officers. And the government is already a cabinet minister and a handful of PPSs down after resignations.