• Government backs new investigation into phone hacking
• Anti-war protesters scale scaffolding outside Commons
• Nick Clegg says ministers should be reshuffled less often
• Read a lunchtime summary

2.41pm: And here are some extracts from the speech that Paul Farrelly, a Labour member of the culture committee, gave in the debate.

On Andy Hayman, the police officer in charge of the original phone hacking inquiry.

The former assistant commissioner Andy Hayman has repeatedly told the news that, as far as the Met is concerned, "we didn't leave a stone unturned, we interviewed everyone who was relevant at the time". That, I'm afraid, is simply not true. The police only interviewed Mr Mulcaire and Mr Goodman, despite evidence in their hands that implicated others in this activity which clearly has affected the confidence with which MPs can go about their business. They also mainted their right to silence before entering a guilty plea, so no cross-examination was made. In our report we were highly critical of the extent of the police operation. And, frankly Mr Speaker, had Mr Hayman been in charge of the Watergate inquiry, President Nixon would have safely served a full term.

On the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Crown Prosecution Service is not blameless in this affair. When we asked them to justify the way the prosecution had been carried out, they simply to a great extent repeated the statements that were given to us by the police. And those statements were highly misleading.

On Andy Coulson.

The second thing I wanted to addres, which has been repeated in the past few days, often for libel balance on the news, is that our committee found no evidence that the then editor of the News of the World, Andy Coulson, knew about the hacking. That has been taken to mean that we effectively cleared Mr Coulson of not knowing what his staff and Mr Mulcaire were up to. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is not a political point. It is a matter of fact.

We were frankly incredulous of the notion that such a hands-on editor could not have had the slightest inkling about what his staff, and what private investigators employed by the paper, were up to.

On Tom Crone, a News International lawyer.

Mr Crone is a very interesting character. He's legendary at the News of the World. He on two occasions misled our select committee. He denied admitting a pay-off to Mr Clive Goodman after he got out of jail. He also misled our committee on the identity of the junior reporter who was invovled in transcribing phone hacking messages ... Mr Crone is a key player in this and I would urge the [standards and privileges committee] to interview him as well.

2.26pm: Here is what Simon Hughes said in the debate about the need for a commission into the behaviour of the press.

I hope we will set up a commission into broadcasting and the media in this country because the Press Complaints Commission has not done a robust job. The public are not adequately protected from the press.

2.24pm: And here's what Tom Watson said at the end of his speech, when he said that politicians should not be afraid of taking on the media.

There is one more tiny little shame that we all share - the truth is that we, all of us in this House, are scared. If you fear passing this resolution, think of this: it's almost laughable.

Here we sit in Parliament, the central institution of our sacred democracy, between us some of the most powerful people of the land, and we are scared ... They, the barons of the media with their red-topped assassins, are the biggest beasts in the modern jungle. They have no predators, they are untouchable, they laugh at the law, they sneer at Parliament, they have the power to hurt us and they do with gusto and precision.

We are afraid, and if we oppose this resolution it is our shame. That is the tawdry secret that dare not speak its name. The most powerful people in the land - prime ministers, ministers and MPs of every party - are guilty in their own way of perpetuating a media culture that allows the characters of the decent to be traduced out of casual malice, for money, for spite, for sport, for any reason they like. And if we reject this resolution, we will be guilty of letting it happen.

2.13pm: More from Tom Watson's speech.

Something very dark lurks in evidence files of the Mulcaire case. And dark and mysterious forces are keeping it that way. If they are to get to the truth, I recommend that the standards and privileges committee interview the [culture committee] refusniks, the people associated iwith News International who flatly rejected our invitations to give evidence to our own inquiry.

They are Greg Miskiw, former assistant news editor. He said he was too ill at attend. He was not pursued. Glenn Mulcaire: we were told through an intermediary that he would not give evidence, and therefore he was not pursued. Clive Goodman was asked to give evidence. But he said he was unavailable. Chief executive of News International Rebekah Brooks: she was pursued on three separate occasions. We gave up. Andy Hayman, as head of the special operations unit was in charge of the Mulcaire inquiry. If the committee wants to get to the bottom of which MPs were on the target list, of who was told and who wasn't, News International's Andy Hayman is their man. I strongly recommend the committee ask him to appear.

Watson seemed to be referring to the fact that, since leaving the police, Hayman has been writing for the Times.

Watson went on:

You can delegate power but not responsibility. I doubt that Rupert Murdoch knows about these incidents. But he is appointing people to positions of great power who should. And for that reason he too should explain his actions to the committee.

2.01pm: News International has issued a statement in response to the debate.

This matter, which largely relates to alleged behaviour five years ago, has become intensely partisan. Amidst a swirl of untethered allegations, there should be no doubt that the News of the World will investigate any allegation of wrongdoing when presented with evidence. As we have always made clear, we have a zero-tolerance approach to wrongdoing and will take swift and decisive action if we have proof.

1.53pm: Here are some more quotes from Chris Bryant's speech in the phone-hacking debate. Bryant said the standards and privileges committee should conduct a thorough inquiry, making sure that witnesses cooperate. If necessary, warrants should be issued to ensure that witnesses attend.

I would urge the committee to use all of the powers at its disposal. That includes the power to summon any person it wishes and to require them to attend ... We should not accept when witnesses refuse to give a straight answer to a straight question, it should not be standard practice, which it is becoming. We should become, as a house, far more carnivorous in this.

Bryant also said the standards and privileges committee should not "shy away" from asking the Commons to enforce any punishment it recommends.

These could include barring a person or persons from the precinct of parliament. It could include withdrawing a pass from any passholder or a group of passholders. It could include calling someone to the bar of the house for admonishment by the house.

1.40pm: Here's a lunchtime summary.

• MPs have unanimously backed a call for the Commons standards and privileges committee to investigate phone hacking. Chris Bryant, the Labour former minister, said the Commons had to stop being "supine" and to protect "the democratic right of MPs to do their job without illegal let, hindrance or interception".

He said that the cases of MPs' having their phones hacked that we know about are probably "the tip of the iceberg", an impression reinforced when Tom Watson said that two (unnamed) MPs have discovered within recent days that their phones have been hacked.

Some MPs criticised News International executives for refusing to cooperate fully with the culture committee's inquiry into this affair, and one MP suggested that the standards and privileges committee should summon Rupert Murdoch.

Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader, called for a commission to investigate the state of the press. It was a short debate, but it showed that some MPs are appalled at the behaviour of some newspapers and determined to do something about it. I'll be posting more highlights shortly.

• Nick Clegg has played down the impact of the govenrment's planned public spending cuts. They will be spread over four years, he insisted, and most of them would have happened under Labour anyway. (See 8.21am)

• Ministers are likely to be reshuffled less often than under previous governments, Clegg said. In a speech entitled "Horizon Shift", the deputy prime minister said that the government would promote more long-term decision taking. (See 11.36am)

• Robert Chote, head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has been appointed as chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility. George Osborne, the chancellor, said Chote's suitability for the job was "beyond doubt".

• Michael Gove, the education secretary, has announced a review of vocational education for 14 to 19-year-olds. "For many years our education system has failed to value practical education, choosing to give far greater emphasis to purely academic achievements." he said in a statement. "This has left a gap in the country's skills base and, as a result, a shortage of appropriately trained and educated young people to fulfil the needs of our employers."

1.19pm: The phone hacking debate is over. The motion went through on the nod because there was no opposition. Although it was short, the debate was notable for some ferociously strong attacks on the media - including named individuals - and for the demand (from Simon Hughes) for the appointment of a commission into the state of the press.

I'll post a lunchtime summary in a moment before putting up some of the best quotes from the debate.

1.13pm: Paul Farrelly has just accused Tom Crone, a News International lawyer, of misleading the culture committee when he gave evidence to its inquiry about phone hacking. He said Crone "misled our committee about the identity of a junior reporter".

1.09pm: Keith Vaz and John Hemming have backed the call for a new inquiry. And Paul Farrelly, a member of the culture committee at the time it investigated the affair, is speaking now, strongly criticising the original police investigation.

While they speak, I've been looking for the best quotes. This is from the end of the Chris Bryant speech.

This is not about one man. This is not about the one honourable member whose case has already been to court. It is, however, about what kind of investigative journalism we want in this country. Searching, yes. Critical, caustic, aggressive and cyncial, maybe, but not illegal. And it is about whether this House will be supine when its members phones are hacked, or about whether it will take action when the democratic right of MPs to do their job without illegal let, hindrance or interception has been traduced. We have taken action before as a House. We should take action today.

12.58pm: Simon Hughes is speaking now. He says he gave evidence that helped to secure the conviction of Glenn Mulcaire.

At the time he asked if there were other people who had had their phones hacked. He says that he believes some people declined to give evidence against Mulcaire because they were "afraid" of how newspapers might retaliate.

After a serious start, Hughes tells a story designed to show that phone messages can be misinterpreted. A message was left on his phone recently by a woman saying that if she could not have a conversation, "our marriage will be at an end". That message was clearly not intended for him, Hughes says.

He calls for a commission to investigate broadcasting and the media. The Press Complaints Commission has not done its job, he says. Abuse and illegality has to end. "We need to be robust about it," he says.

12.55pm: Tom Watson, a Labour former minister, says that since he raised this matter in the Commons on Monday he has been learnt that two MPs have discovered that they have had their phones hacked. He says he also knows of three former ministers who have "serious concerns" that they have not so far discussed publicly about their phones being hacked.

Something "very dark" lurks in the police files on the Muclaire case, he says. But "dark and mysterious forces are keeping it that way".

He says the standards and privileges committee should interview the witnesses who refused to give evidence about this to the culture committee inquiry. Watson, a member of that committee, says that Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, refused three invitations to appear. She should be called, he suggests. He also suggests that Rupert Murdoch should be called.

Watson concludes with a peroration about a "tawdry secret" - the fact that MPs are scared of powerful newspapers.

12.43pm: Sir George Young, the leader of the Commons, gave a very short speech on behalf of the government accepting that the issue was a matter for the Commons. He said the government would support an investigation by the standards and privileges committee. Rosie Winterton, his Labour opposite number, was equally brief, but she said the opposition agreed.

John Whittingdale, the Tory chairman of the culture committee, is speaking now. His committee published a report on the affair earlier this year. But his committee had difficulty getting evidence from some witnesses, and some of the evidence that has emerged recently contradicts what the committee was told.

But Whittingdale says he has a "small concern". He is worried the affair has been "mired in politics". He hopes that the new inquiry will not be used for political ends.

12.37pm: Bryant says he wants the standards and privileges committee to investigate this business because it has the power to require witnesses to attend. It should use that power, he says. And it should refuse to let witnesses get away without answering questions.

Bryant lists some of the questions the committee's inquiry should consider.

He says he has "no confidence" that the police are carrying out a full investigation. The police have developed a "new theology" whereby it seems to be up to victims, not the police, to produce the evidence showing that they have been targeted.

He winds up with a powerful peroration about the Commons standing up for its rights. I'll post the best quotes from Bryant's speech later.

12.34pm: Nicholas Soames, a Tory MP, says that the report from the information commissioner into the hacking of phones showed that hundreds of journalists had been involved in this activity, but the Press Complaints Commission failed to investigate it properly.

Bryant says the report highlights the extent of the problem. He says many MPs are likely to have been targeted.

I suspect so far we have only seen the tip of the iceberg in relation to honourable and right honourable members.

Bryant says he thinks "a large number of Conservative members" were victims, as well as Labour and Lib Dem MPs.

I would urge every honourable and right honourable member who has or suspects they have been a person of interest to Mr [Glenn] Mulcaire to write to the [Metropolitan Police] asking whether they were included.

12.24pm: Chris Byrant is speaking now. He says many people have had their phones hacked, and most of them were not MPs. Today he is just talking about the hacking of MPs' phones. He is not saying MPs are more important than other people. But those other cases are not relevant.

He says he considers the hacking of an MP's phone to be a breach of parliamentary privilege. Think about the last message left on your phone, he tells his colleagues. It might have been a message from a spouse. But it might have been a message from the home secretary.

MPs have had their phones hacked, he says. But the police have investigated few, if any, of these cases.

12.21pm: Lindsay Hoyle, the deputy speaker, starts by telling MPs that they are debating a narrow motion. He does not want MPs to start speaking about matters that are not relevant.

12.18pm: The phone hacking debate is about to start. It probably won't last long. MPs will be debating a privilege motion, tabled by the Labour former minister Chris Bryant, saying that matter of the hacking of MPs' phones should be referred to the Commons standards and privileges committee.

12.15pm: When someone showed me the two anti-war protesters sleeping on the House of Commons scaffolding this morning, I took a picture of them with me phone. (See 9.15am) But the Tory MP Tobias Ellwood is made of sterner stuff. In business questions just now, he said that when he asked a police officer why the protesters had not been removed, he was told it was because of "health and safety". Ellwood then said he would be willing to climb the scaffolding himself to affect a citizen's arrest. At that point he was told that, if he did, he would be arrested. He went on:

It's a very strange day indeed in parliament when an MP is threatened with arrest, while protesters stay on our roof having breached our security.

12.05pm: At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the prime minister's spokesman said David Cameron strongly condemned the proposal by Terry Jones in Florida to burn copies of the Qur'an. "We would strongly oppose any attempt to offend any member of any religious or ethnic group. We are committed to religious tolerance," the spokesman said.

Sir George Young, the leader of the Commons, was more pithy in the Commons just now. Asked about Jones, a Pentecostal preacher, Young described him a "stupid bigot".

11.56am: There has been a lot of reaction this morning to the BBC-commissioned research showing that industrial areas in the Midlands and the North East are most vulnerable to economic shocks. Larry Elliott has written about it in the Guardian, the BBC version of the story is here and the BBC's Mark Easton has also written about it on his blog.

Pat McFadden, Labour's business spokesman, has put out a statement calling it a "wake-up call" for the coalition.

The government's reckless approach to the economy is a gamble with growth and jobs. We already knew they had turned their backs on supporting regional growth, with decisions like the scrapping of the RDAs. Today we have further evidence that their approach will hit the poorest areas hardest.

And Paul Kenny, the GMB's general secretary, said much the same.

The economic recessions of the 80's and 90's, made far worse by the monetarist ideology of the then Tory government, ripped the heart out of the UK's manufacturing industry. The destruction of jobs left a legacy of high unemployment and high levels of incapacity benefit claimants in the old industrial areas. This survey shows that this new Tory Lib government public spending cuts will leave these areas reeling in terms of job cuts and yet again single them out as the main victims of public services cuts.

11.36am: Do read the Nick Clegg speech if you've got time. It's more thoughtful than the usual ministerial speech - Clegg quotes John Stuart Mill, Oscar Wilde, David Willetts, John Rawls, Benjamin Disraeli and Chris Mullin - and his analysis of "short-termism" is good.

Clegg says the government wants to introduce a "horizon shift". In other words, it wants to replace taking decisions for the short term with taking decisisions for the long term. Clegg's attempt towards the end to show that is already happening is not particularly convincing.

He says, for example, that the government is taking long-term decisions about the economy, but Gordon Brown would have said the same. But his description of the problems of "contemporary political myopia" is spot on.

Here are the points of interest.

• Clegg says that short-termism is a "generational failure". He says that all politicians of his age have got it wrong.

The prime minister and I are from the same generation. And frankly, we know that both our generation - and the one before us - got it wrong. We have run up debts, despoiled the planet and allowed too many of our institutions to wither. For us, the longer-term view we are adopting in government will help to wipe the slate clean, and ensure that future generations can thrive, without being burdened with the dead weight of our debt, and our failings. Ware absolutely determined that we will be able to look our children and grandchildren in the eye and say we did the best we could for them, even if this means taking some difficult, unpopular decisions today.

• He says ministers will not get reshuffled quite so often as they have been in the past.

The average tenure of a government minister in the last Labour government has been calculated as being just 1.3 years. Junior ministers were moved on a virtually annual basis. Particularly among junior ministers, the level of churn has been so great in recent years that very often, by the time the minister has got close to understanding their subject, they are moved on. Chris Mullin, in his excellent diaries, records the view of Janet Andersen, a former Labour whip and minister, on Tony Blair's attitude to junior ministerial posts: "He regards them as sweeties to be handed out to keep the children happy," she said.

Of course, it is dangerous just four months into government to raise the question of the rate of ministerial turnover. Just to be clear, I am not making any commitment today for a target average ministerial tenure. But I can say that this government recognises that constant reshuffling of the ministerial deck – often to generate the headlines I mentioned a moment ago – is not conducive to good government, and that we will aspire to greater stability in the way ministers are allowed to govern.

• He says the Lib Dems were the first to advocate Bank of England independence. Labour politicians have been squabbling over who should take credit for this. In his memoirs, Tony Blair suggests it was his idea. Gordon Brown's allies scoffed at this, suggesting it was Brown's. At the weekend Ed Balls says he wrote a paper adovocating this proposal in 1992. But today Clegg says the Lib Dems beat them all too it. Bank of England independence was an idea "first advocated by the Liberal Democrats", he says.

• Clegg praises marriage. Maybe he has praised marriage before, but I don't recall it. This sentence struck me because it sounds like an excerpt from a Cameron speech. "Institutions like marriage and civil partnerships are profoundly important commitment devices: a way of pledging to work at a relationship through thick and thin, and make a life together," Clegg says

10.35am: You can read today's politics stories from the Guardian here. And the Guardian politics stories filed yesterday, including some that have gone into today's paper, are here.

And here are the most interesting political stories and articles from the rest of today's papers.

• Andrew Grice in the Independent says Nick Clegg will today propose an extension of state funding for political parties.

Mr Clegg hopes that a new deal on party funding will be part of a "second wave" of constitutional reforms in the second parliamentary year of the Government, after Bills on electoral reform and fixed-term five-year parliaments in the current session. Turning the House of Lords into an elected chamber could also be part of phase two, although it could take years to implement.

Mr Clegg will say [when he addresses a committee on standards in public life event this afternoon] that changes to the funding system should include greater transparency and new rules on spending and donations, with parties relying on more small donations rather than on a few rich backers. One option would be for the state to match pound for pound the amounts raised by parties in small donations – of perhaps up to £10 – to encourage them to recruit new members and supporters.

• Chris Cook in the Financial Times (subscription) say ministers are considering a charge for graduates that would "feel like a graduate tax" without actually being one. The plan has been floated by Tories as a means of appeasing the Lib Dems, who are opposed to higher tuition fees, Cook reports.

Under the policies floated by the Tories, undergraduates would pledge to pay a share of their future income to the universities they attended as part of their fees. Civil servants have discussed a 1 per cent lifetime income contribution. When added to the current system, that would more than double the £9,870 that UK universities now receive on average in fees from a student taking a three-year degree.

• Jason Groves in the Daily Mail says Sinn Féin MPs have been invited to "write their own oath" by the government in an attempt to get them to take their seats in the Commons. Groves reports what Owen Paterson, the Northern Ireland secretary, told a Commons committee yesterday.

There is no reason for them to stay away. I have said if the oath is an obstacle, come to me with an alternative text, we already do it for people who are not Christians. So far they have not, the ball is in their court.

• Bendedict Brogan in the Daily Telegraph says ministers are worried that they have not done enough to prepare the public for the scale of the public spending cuts.

"We are in a canoe paddling down the Zambezi, and Victoria Falls lie dead ahead. Once we've gone over the edge, none of this [Andy Coulson etc] will matter," one leading Cameroon told me. The edge, for those at Westminster who worry about it, is the moment we discover just how bad the cuts are going to be. To judge by what Cabinet ministers and officials are saying, many worry that the Coalition has not done nearly enough to warn the public of the abyss into which the country is about to plunge. "If we have had a collective failure," one Cabinet minister says, "it is that we have underplayed the scale of the problem."

• The Sun says unions have spent £500,000 trying to help "Red" Ed Miliband win the Labour leadership.

• The Daily Telegraph says that taxpayers who have to repay tax to HM Revenue and Customs will be charged interest at six times the Bank of England base rate.

• The Independent says Bonnie Greer has written an opera based on her Question Time appearance with Nick Griffin.

10.14am: The Lib Dems have now posted a full text of Nick Clegg's speech on their website. I'll read it soon and post the key excerpts.

9.46am: David Cameron and his family have issued a statement about his father.

Our dad was an amazing man – a real life-enhancer. He never let the disability he was born with or the complications in later life get in the way of his incredible sense of fun and enjoyment. He touched a lot of lives in lots of different ways and was a brilliant husband and father. You could never be down for long when he was around. We will miss him terribly but have a bank of memories that can never be exhausted. This was unexpected and sudden, but he was having a wonderful holiday and was with great friends. Above all he was with mum, to whom he was devoted, and he was happy - and the end came quickly. We will treasure all the joy he brought us.

Cameron has also thanked President Sakozy for helping him to get to the hospital before his father died. (Sarkozy provided a helicopter to take Cameron from Nice airport to the hospital at Toulon.)

I am extremely grateful to President Sarkozy who helped me get to the hospital while dad was still with us so I could say goodbye. We would like to thank Nicolas and everyone at the hospital who worked so hard to look after dad.

9.42am: Clegg is taking questions at the end of his speech. The first came from the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, and it was about Andy Coulson. She asked Clegg if he believed Coulson when he said he did not know anything about phone hacking at the News of the World when he was editor. Clegg gave much the same answer that he gave to Jack Straw at PMQs yesterday, and to John Humphrys on the Today programme this morning. He said that Coulson's statement speaks for itself, and that the new allegations should be investigated by the police.

9.29am: Nick Clegg is delivering his speech to the Institute for Government now. I billed it earlier as a speech about public spending, but it really seems to be about governance. According to the Cabinet Office, it is designed to "emphasise the importance being placed on governing for the long-term as a guiding purpose for the government".

The Press Association has had a briefing on the speech and it has written a story saying Clegg is promising that ministers will be given "more time to prove themselves in their jobs without fear of being reshuffled". The PA story quotes this extract from the speech.

This government recognises that constant reshuffling of the ministerial deck... is not conducive to good government, and that we will aspire to greater stability in the way ministers are allowed to govern.

I'll post a full summary of the speech once I've read the whole text for myself.

9.15am: Anti-war protesters have got onto the scaffolding at the House of Commons to put up "Troops Home" banners. The protest has been timed to coincide with today's debate, which is significant because it is the first Commons debate on Afghanistan on a substantive motion ("that this house supports the continued deployment of UK armed forces in Afghanistan"). In the past MPs have only debated this issue "on the adjournment", meaning that they have not had the chance to vote for or against a specific position relating to the war. Here's what it looked like

The protesters didn't just put the banners up. They've been sleeping on the scaffolding all night too. They're just outside an office used by some of my colleagues, not far from where I sit, and I managed to grab a picture. Apparently they're planning to stay there until after the debate is over early this evening.

8.58am: Nick Clegg was on the Today programme this morning doing his best to play down the impact of the spending cuts. He said that although the government is talking about cuts in some departments of 25%, these would be spread over four years and that meant spending reductions of 6% per year. About 80% of these cuts would have taken place under Labour's plans anyway, he said.

A misapprehension has arisen that somehow the cuts that we're going to announce on 20 October are going to happen the following Tuesday. What we will actually be setting out is a plan which starts from April of next year and goes on for four years ... I don't think we should aggravate that anxiety and fear by pretending that there's a sword of Damacles which is going to come down straight away.

8.21am: MPs will - briefly - debate the News of the World phone hacking affair today and there are two stories in this morning's papers that will make uncomfortable reading for Andy Coulson. In the Guardian Nick Davies says another former News of the World journalist has come forward to say that phone hacking was rife at the paper when Coulson was editor.

Paul McMullan, a former features executive and then member of the newspaper's investigations team, says that he personally commissioned private investigators to commit several hundred acts which could be regarded as unlawful, that use of illegal techniques was no secret at the paper, and that senior editors, including Coulson, were aware this was going on.

And a YouGov poll (pdf) suggests that more than 50% of voters think Coulson should lose his job.

But there are other important stories in the diary too. Here's a full agenda for the day.

9am: Nick Clegg delivers a speech on public spending.

11am: Michael Gove gives a speech on vocational education.

12.15pm: MPs debate a motion saying the standards and privileges committee should investigate the phone hacking affair.

1pm: MPs start a debate on Afghanistan. The Commons has debated Afghanistan many times before, but for the first time MPs will get the chance to vote on whether they are in favour or against the deployment of British troops in the country. The votes are expected at 6pm.

2.30pm: The committee on standards in public life holds its annual public meeting. It is publishing a "key issues" paper on party funding.

As usual, I'll be looking at all these stories, as well as flagging up the best stories in the papers, covering breaking political news and bringing you all the best politics from the web.

US president joins worldwide condemnation of plan by US preacher to burn copies of Qur'an to mark 9/11 anniversary

Barack Obama today joined mounting worldwide condemnation of the plan by an extremist US preacher to burn copies of the Qur'an, saying the event would be a "recruitment bonanza for al-Qaida".

The Rev Terry Jones has vowed to go ahead with the event at his church in Florida on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The US president today pleaded directly to Jones to cancel the event.

"If he's listening, I hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans," Obama said.

In a television interview with ABC, Obama said the event was a stunt that would boost support for terrorism. "This could increase the recruitment of individuals who would be willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European cities," Obama said.

The president repeated a warning by General David Petraeus, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, that the burning would endanger US troops.

"And as a very practical matter, I just want him [Jones] to understand that this stunt could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform," Obama said.

David Cameron's spokesman said earlier that the prime minister strongly opposed any attempt to offend members of a religious group.

Religious leaders of all faiths have warned against the event, with statements of protest having come from both the Vatican and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Earlier this week protests took place in the Afghanistan capital of Kabul where effigies of Jones were burned alongside the American flag.

Anjem Choudary, the former leader of the banned Islamist organisation Islam4UK, told Reuters he was calling on radical Muslim groups around the world to burn American flags outside US embassies in retaliation.

Today about 200 lawyers and civilians marched and burned a US flag in the central Pakistani city of Multan, demanding that Washington prevent the book burning.

The foreign ministries of Pakistan and Bahrain issued some of the first official denunciations in the Muslim world, with the latter calling it a "shameful act which is incompatible with the principles of tolerance and co-existence".

The president of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has written to Obama asking him to stop the bonfire.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said images of the Qur'an in flames could "threaten world peace", according to his special adviser Heru Lelono.

India's Home Office has asked its country's media to exercise restraint in reporting on the planned burning.

The rightwing US presidential hopeful Sarah Palin urged Jones and his supporters to reconsider. Writing on her Facebook page she said: "People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero."

In a statement on his faith foundation website, Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair, said: "Rather than burn the Koran, I would encourage people to read it".

Major world economies may be slowing faster than thought – although OECD says another downturn 'unlikely'

The global recovery may be slowing faster than previously thought, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned today as it cut its growth forecasts for the second half of the year. The Paris-based organisation also called for further stimulus measures if the slowdown proves more than temporary.

The G7 industrialised nations are now expected to grow 1.5% on an annualised basis in the second half of this year, down from the 1.75% forecast in May.

"The uncertainty is caused by a combination of both positive and negative factors," said OECD chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan. "But it is unlikely that we are heading into another downturn."

Growth is weakening in the world's rich economies, and further monetary stimulus might be needed in the form of quantitative easing and commitment to close-to-zero interest rates if the slowdown proves more than momentary, the OECD said. Plans to bring looming budget deficits under control through public spending cuts and tax rises "could be delayed".

The OECD forecast growth across the G7 to average an annualised 1.4% in the third quarter and 1% in the fourth, down from 3.2% in the first quarter and 2.5% in the second.

The US is expected to grow at an annualised rate of 2% in the third quarter, slowing to 1.2% in the fourth, after 1.6% in the second quarter and 3.7% in the first three months of the year. In Japan, GDP growth is forecast at 0.7% in the fourth quarter after 0.6% in the third.

The UK is set to grow at an annualised rate of 2.7% in the third quarter, slowing to 1.5% in the final three months of the year.

"Recent high-frequency indicators point to a slowdown in the pace of recovery of the world economy that is somewhat more pronounced than previously anticipated," the OECD said.

"It is not yet clear whether the loss of momentum in the recovery is temporary … or whether it signals greater underlying weaknesses in private spending at a time when public support is being removed."

Overall financial conditions have stabilised, the report noted. While consumer spending is set to remain weak, a combination of robust corporate profits and low business investment suggest that capital spending is unlikely to weaken further. Because inventories are now close to desired levels, a renewed depletion of stocks is also unlikely.

British resident cannot sue firm for allegedly flying terror suspects abroad for CIA because of 'national security concerns'

A US court has narrowly ruled that Binyam Mohamed, the British resident secretly rendered to Morocco by the CIA before being held in the Guantánamo Bay prison camp for four years, cannot sue over his alleged torture in overseas prisons because it would compromise national security.

Mohamed was the lead plaintiff in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of five former prisoners who claim they were tortured after being transferred to other countries through the CIA's extraordinary rendition programme.

They are fighting for the right to sue Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing subsidiary accused of arranging flights for the CIA.

A US court ruled last year that the case could proceed, but the Obama administration appealed and yesterday the court of appeals for the ninth circuit dismissed the case – although the judges were divided by six to five on the decision.

Judge Raymond Fisher said the majority had "reluctantly" concluded that "legitimate national security concerns" meant the case should not be heard.

Although the alleged offences were committed under the Bush government, the decision is a victory for the Obama's administration's aggressive efforts to prevent anything it believes would jeopardise national security reaching the public domain. Earlier this year, after a British court ordered disclosure of a seven-paragraph summary of classified CIA information showing what British agents knew of Mohamed's torture, the White House said it was "deeply disappointed" by the ruling and it could have an impact on intelligence-sharing between the countries.

The ACLU now plans to take the case to the supreme court, which will be called upon to make a crucial ruling on the president's power to restrict litigation that could reveal state secrets.

ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner told the New York Times: "To this date, not a single victim of the Bush administration's torture programme has had his day in court. That makes this a sad day not only for the torture survivors who are seeking justice in this case, but for all Americans who care about the rule of law and our nation's reputation in the world. If this decision stands, the United States will have closed its courts to torture victims while providing complete immunity to their torturers."

The prisoners' rights charity, Reprieve, which has represented Mohamed in the British courts, described the decision as regrettable.

"Yet again, those responsible for torture and rendition have used 'state secrecy' to avoid facing up to their crimes in court," said the executive director, Clare Algar. "The need for an independent inquiry into state involvement in torture has never been more urgent, and, if we are serious about learning from our mistakes, the UK must lead the way. We cannot learn from history unless we know what it is."

Obama had criticised the Bush administration's frequent use of the state-secrets privilege and last year the attorney general, Eric Holder, issued a new policy aimed at avoiding cases being shut down purely to prevent embarrassment or cover up illegality.

The judge said: "The government [in this case] is not invoking the privilege to avoid embarrassment or to escape scrutiny of its recent controversial transfer and interrogation policies, rather than to protect legitimate national security concerns."

Despite rejecting the lawsuit, Fisher urged the government to grant reparations where it could be proved that people had suffered human rights violations at the hands of the CIA.

But dissenting judge Michael Hawkins wrote: "Permitting the executive to police its own errors and determine the remedy dispensed would not only deprive the judiciary of its role, but also deprive plaintiffs of a fair assessment of their claims by a neutral arbiter."

The court ordered the government to pay the plaintiffs' costs despite the fact that Mohamed and the others had lost, and not requested payment.

Mohamed was detained in 2002 in Pakistan, where he was questioned incommunicado by an MI5 officer. The US flew him to Morocco, where he was subjected to more prolonged and brutal torture, including the repeated slashing of his genitals with a razor blade. He was then rendered to Afghanistan and finally Guantánamo. He was released and returned to Britain in February last year.

US secretary of state angers politicians and raises fears that controversial Plan Colombia may be used in Mexico

Hilary Clinton has sparked a diplomatic row with Mexico by likening the country's drugs war to a Colombia-style "insurgency", a charge angrily rejected by Mexican politicians.

The US secretary of state pointed to the use of car bombs, a tool once favoured by cartel-allied rebels in Colombia, as evidence that Mexican drugs gangs "are now showing more and more indices of insurgency". Her remarks came as the third mayor in a month became the latest victim of violence in Mexico.

Her comments were dismissed in Mexico, but raised fears there that Clinton was preparing the ground to implement a Mexican version of Plan Colombia – a controversial anti-drug programme in the late 1990s involving US troops working with the Colombian army against the dominant Medellin drug cartel.

In a speech in Washington, Clinton said drugs gangs were "morphing into, or making common cause with, what we would consider an insurgency in Mexico and in Central America".

"It's looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago, where the narco-traffickers controlled certain parts of the country."

Referring to Plan Colombia, she acknowledged its problems, but claimed it worked. "We need to figure out what are the equivalents [for Mexico and Central America]," she said.

Her comments came as the death was announced of Alexander Lopez Garçia in the northern town of El Naranjo. His was the latest of 28,000 murders since President Felipe Calderón launched a crackdown on cartels in 2006.

Shot in his office by four gunmen, Garçia was the third mayor to be killed in less than a month. Mexican police also reported they had found four bodies in a clandestine grave that they linked to the arrest of drug hitman Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as La Barbie.

Mexico is strongly opposed to US troop involvement in dealing with the violence.

"We are not going to permit any version of a Plan Colombia," said Santiago Creel, a Mexican senator and member of Calderon's National Action party. Opposition politicians agreed. Senator Ricardo Monreal of the Labour party said US aid to Colombia hadn't stopped drug trafficking there. "Whoever thinks Colombia is a cure-all, and if the United States thinks it is necessary to apply the same model to us they applied to Colombia, they are mistaken," he said.

Mexico's senior national security official, Alejandro Poire, said: "There are very important differences between what Colombia faced and what Mexico is facing now."

He suggested that US demand for drugs was the root of the problem. Both Colombian and Mexican drug gangs were "nourished by the enormous, gigantic demand for drugs in the United States", he told a news conference.

Yesterday, the Mexican government announced that marines had arrested seven gunmen suspected of killing 72 Central and South American migrants last month in the worst drug cartel massacre to date.

Four of the suspects were arrested after a gun battle last Friday.

Poire alleged the seven belonged to the Zetas drugs gang, but he gave no further details on their identities or what led to their arrests. Investigators believe the migrants were kidnapped by the Zetas and killed after refusing to work for the cartel.

Bullet trajectories suggest some victims were hit by friendly fire during botched assault on hijacked bus

Some victims of a botched rescue of hostages on a tourist bus in the Philippines may have been hit by police fire, the country's top law enforcement official said today .

Eight tourists from Hong Kong were killed and three seriously wounded after a policeman who had been sacked hijacked their bus on 23 August to demand his job back. The hostage-taker was also killed when police stormed the bus after a standoff that went on for hours and was shown live on television around the world.

The justice secretary, Leila de Lima, said bullet trajectories and the hostages' wounds indicated that some of the passengers may have been hit by friendly fire. She did not say, however, whether any of the shots fired by police were fatal and said investigators were waiting for a complete ballistics report before drawing any final conclusions.

The details of the investigation emerged as President Benigno Aquino said he had already apologised for the attack and was focusing on easing tensions with China and Hong Kong, where officials criticised the handling of the day-long crisis.

"Let me just say that this incident will not define this administration," Aquino said in a televised news conference.

Aquino, facing his first major test barely two months after taking office, said he would concentrate on preventing a repeat of the incident. The public and the media have questioned why the president wasn't more visible and involved.

"The first thing I will admit is I am not perfect and I can learn," Aquino said. He later went to a restaurant near the downtown Manila park where the hostages were held to meet officials, but said he did not want to be "backseat driving" or looking over the shoulders of those handling the crisis.

Aquino said that there was a point during the haphazard assault on the bus when he lost patience with police commandos. "Every mistake that I saw, I pointed out. That was perhaps my way of being 'hands on."

He said a police special action force trained for hostage rescue had not been deployed as promised. Instead, a local Manila police Swat team was used.

Television footage showed that the team was unprepared and took about an hour to break into the bus instead of just seconds, Aquino said.

The Chinese embassy said in it expected the Philippines to come up with "a comprehensive and fair report, which tells the truth [and] upholds justice".

Asad Qureshi was working on a Channel 4 documentary in March when he was taken by the Taliban in North Waziristan

A British journalist held hostage by the Taliban in Pakistan's tribal belt for almost six months, has been released, the British high commission in Islamabad announced today.

"We can confirm that Asad Qureshi has been released and our consular team are providing him with assistance," a high commission spokesman said.

Qureshi was working for an independent production company on a documentary commissioned by Channel 4 when he was abducted in North Waziristan on 26 March. Also kidnapped were two retired Pakistani intelligence officers, one of whom, Khalid Khawaja, was subsequently beheaded.

The whereabouts of the other, Sultan Amir Tarar, are unknown. He was last seen in a hostage video released on 26 July.

Qureshi, who also has Pakistani nationality, reached Islamabad last night where he was reunited with his family and debriefed by British officials.

Sources close to negotiations said his release had been directly brokered by Qureshi's relatives.

The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of $10m (£6.5m) and the release of several Taliban prisoners in return for Qureshi. It was not clear whether any of their demands had been met.

The Guardian and other media organisations did not report Qureshi's kidnapping at the request of Channel 4, which said any links to the station could hinder efforts to secure his release.

In March, Qureshi seemed to be in good company when he travelled into the tribal belt with Khawaja and Tarar, a former ISI officer better known as "Colonel Imam", who were two of Pakistan's most prominent fundamentalist sympathisers.

The group's intermediary was "Usman Punjabi", a militant leader who promised access to the main Tehrik-i-Taliban group and its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud.

The US government, which accuses Mehsud of orchestrating a suicide attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan that killed seven spies last December, added him to its list of "specially designated global terrorists" on 1 September.

Khawaja and Tarar's militant links failed them, however, when they were kidnapped by a group calling itself Asian Tigers. Tribal sources said it was a front for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a vicious sectarian group that has developed strong links to the Taliban in recent years.

In April Khawaja appeared in a video, in which he claimed to have continuing links to the ISI and CIA and to have betrayed extremist militants during the 2007 Red Mosque siege in Islamabad. Khawaja was under clear pressure when making the statement.

Days later his body was found in a ditch near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan with a warning note to other "American spies".

The killing hastened efforts to free Qureshi and Imam by their relatives, Channel 4, the ISI and a delegation from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam religious party that held talks with the militants.

There were also unconfirmed approaches by Afghan Taliban to secure the release of Tarar, a legendary figure in Pakistani intelligence sometimes dubbed the "father of the Taliban" for his role in nurturing the militant movement in the 1990s, when he was an ISI officer stationed in western Afghanistan.

The Pakistani and Afghan Taliban are linked, but operate separately. Tarar was last seen pleading for his life in the July 26 video. At Tarar's home in Rawalpindi a woman who identified herself as his daughter said the family had "no idea" about his location or condition. "We still don't know. We have no contact with them," she said.

At least 12 killed and 80 injured by Vladikavkaz blast in what appears to be latest strike by Islamist militants

At least 16 people have been killed and 114 injured after a powerful car bomb ripped through a market in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz today.

Witnesses reported major devastation in what appears to be the latest strike by Islamist militants against civilians.

The car laden with at least 10kg of explosives was parked in a quiet residential street close to the market and a private house, officials said.

"Police and the leadership of the republic's interior ministry are rushing to the scene. The situation has yet to be clarified," a law enforcement source told the Russian news agency Interfax. North Ossetia's interior ministry said there were 16 dead and 114 injured.

Russia is fighting an Islamist insurgency across its Muslim-dominated north Caucasus. Bomb attacks and shoot-outs between militants and security forces occur on a daily basis, with Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya at the centre of the violence.

Vladikavkaz, in the neighbouring republic of North Ossetia, has been relatively immune from the conflict. Its inhabitants are mainly orthodox Russians, making today's lethal bombing an apparent sectarian attack.

The blast follows a major terrorist strike in March, when two female suicide bombers from Dagestan blew up the Moscow metro.

Vladikavkaz – the name means ruler of the Caucasus – was an imperial outpost in tsarist times, founded by Catherine the Great, and has long been a Russian enclave surrounded by Muslim villages. Initially a small fort on the Terek river, it played a crucial role in extending Russian control in the region. It is now a bridgehead to the rebel Georgian territory of South Ossetia, recognised by Moscow as an independent state.

North Ossetia was the scene of the Beslan school siege, where 331 people died, most of them children, in 2004. Schoolchildren in the republic were today sent home, agencies reported.

Prime minister issues statement following sudden death of his father yesterday

David Cameron paid tribute to his "amazing" father today, describing him as a "life-enhancer" who had "touched a lot of lives in lots of different ways".

The prime minister was at Ian Cameron's bedside in hospital in the south of France as he died yesterday following a stroke.

David Cameron's brother, Alex, and sister, Clare, were also there.

Ian Cameron's death, which was described as sudden and unexpected, came after the 77-year-old fell ill while on holiday near Toulon.

The prime minister, who had cancelled his engagements and flown to France, thanked the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, for providing a helicopter for the last leg of the journey. He arrived shortly before his father died.

A statement released by Downing Street on behalf of David Cameron and his family said: "Our dad was an amazing man – a real life enhancer. He never let the disability he was born with or the complications in later life get in the way of his incredible sense of fun and enjoyment.

"He touched a lot of lives in lots of different ways and was a brilliant husband and father.

"You could never be down for long when he was around. We will miss him terribly but have a bank of memories that can never be exhausted."

His father had been born with severe physical disabilities, including having no heels, which after enduring several operations, eventually led to the amputation of both legs. He had suffered a stroke with heart complications on Tuesday night.

The family's statement said of his death: "This was unexpected and sudden, but he was having a wonderful holiday and was with great friends.

"Above all he was with Mum, to whom he was devoted, and he was happy - and the end came quickly. We will treasure all the joy he brought us."

The PM added: "I am extremely grateful to President Sarkozy, who helped me get to the hospital while Dad was still with us, so I could say goodbye.

"We would like to thank Nicolas and everyone at the hospital who worked so hard to look after Dad."

Cameron stayed overnight in France, where Sarkozy is thought to have put him up at his summer residence, the Fort de Brégançon. It is not yet known when he will return to the UK.

Politicians, including the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, Labour's acting leader, Harriet Harman, and former prime minister Gordon Brown, offered condolences to the Cameron family.

Cameron's mother, Mary, had called him at around 6am yesterday to tell him of his father's illness, which arose halfway through the couple's two-week holiday.

Friends said Ian Cameron, a successful stockbroker, had been proud to see his son become prime minister and had visited 10 Downing Street and Chequers.

But the family's holiday plans meant their paths had not crossed in time for him to meet his latest granddaughter, Florence.

Cameron has previously described his father as a "huge hero figure", and inspiration and praised his optimism.

Captain of Chinese boat that collided with Japanese patrol ships in disputed waters could be prosecuted

A territorial row between Japan and China worsened today after officials threatened to prosecute the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that collided with Japanese patrol ships near disputed islands.

Reports said Zhan Qixiong could face up to three years in prison if found guilty of causing the collision on Tuesday, but that he could be released without charge within days if he admitted obstructing coastguard officials. No one was injured in the incident and the Japanese boats sustained minor damage.

Zhan, 41, was handed over to prosecutors on the southern Japanese island of Ishigaki for questioning after his boat struck two coastguard ships near Senkaku, a chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

The territory, known as Diaoyu in China, is a focal point for competing territorial claims as Tokyo and Beijing step up their search for resources in the area. The Japanese-controlled islands, which are also claimed by Taiwan, are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and, possibly, oil and gas deposits.

The 14 other crew on the Chinese fishing boat were not arrested, but are being questioned as witnesses. China said today it had sent a maritime law enforcement vessel to the area, but it was not clear whether it would patrol the islands or collect the stranded fishermen.

Japan's coastguard said the collision occurred after Zhan ignored requests to leave the area and then refused to allow Japanese officials to inspect his boat.

China's state media warned that Japan's handling of the incident risked escalating tensions.

"A wave of indignation is brewing in Chinese society, which might snowball into a major public outcry if the Japanese authorities continue to take a hardline stance," the China Daily said.

China summoned Japan's ambassador twice in 24 hours to protest about Zhan's arrest and a small group of Chinese nationalists demonstrated yesterday outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing. Internet chatrooms have been buzzing with messages condemning Tokyo's response, with some calling for a boycott of Japanese goods.

A foreign ministry spokesman in Tokyo said Japan had a duty to investigate the collision, adding that its sovereignty over the islands was an "undeniable fact".

Both sides, however, said the incident would not affect diplomatic ties. "We will handle the matter firmly in accordance with the law," Yoshito Sengoku, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, said. "It is important that in Japan we not get overly excited."

Former president questions his actions during Cuban missile crisis in interview with US journalist

Cuba's communist economic model has been criticised by an unlikely source: Fidel Castro.

The revolutionary leader told a visiting American journalist and a US-Cuba policy expert that the state-dominated system was in need of change, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has taken pains to steer clear of local issues since illness forced him to step down as president four years ago.

That things are not working efficiently on the cash-strapped Caribbean island is hardly news. Fidel's brother Raúl, the president, has said the same thing repeatedly, but the blunt assessment by the father of Cuba's 1959 revolution is sure to raise eyebrows.

Jeffrey Goldberg, a correspondent for the Atlantic magazine, asked Castro if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries. Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us any more," Goldberg wrote in his Atlantic blog.

The Cuban government had no immediate comment on Goldberg's account.

Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations who accompanied Goldberg on the trip, confirmed the Cuban leader's comment, made at a private lunch last week.

She said she took the remark to be in line with Raúl Castro's call for gradual but widespread reform.

"It sounded consistent with the general consensus in the country now, up to and including his brother's position," Sweig said.

She said she found Castro, 84, to be "relaxed, witty, conversational and quite accessible".

"He has a new lease on life, and he is taking advantage of it," Sweig said.

Castro stepped down temporarily in July 2006 due to serious illness.

He resigned permanently two years later, but remains head of the Communist party. After staying out of the spotlight for four years, he re-emerged in July and speaks frequently about international affairs. He has been warning for weeks of the threat of a nuclear war over Iran.

But the former president has said very little about Cuba and its politics, perhaps to limit perceptions that he is stepping on his brother's toes.

Goldberg, who travelled to Cuba at Castro's invitation to discuss a recent Atlantic article he wrote about Iran's nuclear programme, said Castro questioned his own actions during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, including his recommendation to Soviet leaders that they use nuclear weapons against the US.

The Cuban state controls well over 90% of the economy, paying workers salaries of about $20 a month in return for free healthcare and education, and nearly free transportation and housing. At least a portion of every citizen's food needs is sold to them through ration books at heavily subsidised prices.

Cuba blames many of its problems on the 48-year-old US trade embargo. The economy has also been hit by the global economic downturn, a drop in nickel prices and the fallout from three devastating hurricanes in 2008. Corruption and inefficiency have exacerbated problems.

As president, Raúl Castro has instituted a series of limited economic reforms, and has warned Cubans that they need to work harder and expect less from the government. But he has also made clear that he has no desire to depart from Cuba's socialist system or embrace capitalism.

Fidel Castro's interview with Goldberg is the only one he has given to an American journalist since he left office.

Former president questions his actions during Cuban missile crisis in interview with US journalist

Cuba's communist economic model has been criticised by an unlikely source: Fidel Castro.

The revolutionary leader told a visiting American journalist and a US-Cuba policy expert that the state-dominated system was in need of change, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has taken pains to steer clear of local issues since illness forced him to step down as president four years ago.

That things are not working efficiently on the cash-strapped Caribbean island is hardly news. Fidel's brother Raúl, the president, has said the same thing repeatedly, but the blunt assessment by the father of Cuba's 1959 revolution is sure to raise eyebrows.

Jeffrey Goldberg, a correspondent for the Atlantic magazine, asked Castro if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries. Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us any more," Goldberg wrote in his Atlantic blog.

The Cuban government had no immediate comment on Goldberg's account.

Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations who accompanied Goldberg on the trip, confirmed the Cuban leader's comment, made at a private lunch last week.

She said she took the remark to be in line with Raúl Castro's call for gradual but widespread reform.

"It sounded consistent with the general consensus in the country now, up to and including his brother's position," Sweig said.

She said she found Castro, 84, to be "relaxed, witty, conversational and quite accessible".

"He has a new lease on life, and he is taking advantage of it," Sweig said.

Castro stepped down temporarily in July 2006 due to serious illness.

He resigned permanently two years later, but remains head of the Communist party. After staying out of the spotlight for four years, he re-emerged in July and speaks frequently about international affairs. He has been warning for weeks of the threat of a nuclear war over Iran.

But the former president has said very little about Cuba and its politics, perhaps to limit perceptions that he is stepping on his brother's toes.

Goldberg, who travelled to Cuba at Castro's invitation to discuss a recent Atlantic article he wrote about Iran's nuclear programme, said Castro questioned his own actions during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, including his recommendation to Soviet leaders that they use nuclear weapons against the US.

The Cuban state controls well over 90% of the economy, paying workers salaries of about $20 a month in return for free healthcare and education, and nearly free transportation and housing. At least a portion of every citizen's food needs is sold to them through ration books at heavily subsidised prices.

Cuba blames many of its problems on the 48-year-old US trade embargo. The economy has also been hit by the global economic downturn, a drop in nickel prices and the fallout from three devastating hurricanes in 2008. Corruption and inefficiency have exacerbated problems.

As president, Raúl Castro has instituted a series of limited economic reforms, and has warned Cubans that they need to work harder and expect less from the government. But he has also made clear that he has no desire to depart from Cuba's socialist system or embrace capitalism.

Fidel Castro's interview with Goldberg is the only one he has given to an American journalist since he left office.

Around the world the holiest month in the Islamic calendar is drawing to a close

Author Tahir Shah gives Marcel Theroux an insider's guide to his home city of Casablanca

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9.20am New York time: I'm in the front row at Nicholas K. Blimey. Then again, since there is apparently a dog backstage with a press pass, perhaps I shouldn't be too flattered.

8.45am New York time: The Lincoln Center is awash with black-clad fashionistas. I'm wearing a grey cardigan and that zany splash of colour sticks out like a sore thumb around here. Today's first show will be Nicholas K - and according to the daily email from the organisers, Kelly Brook may well be in attendance. Oh the glamour, the excitement, etc. Now where's the coffee?

8am New York time: The first show at the Lincoln Center - the new home for fashion week - kicks off in an hour, and I'm about to dive onto the subway to head up there. I'm wearing flat shoes, and going on the subway. What would Anna Wintour say? And speaking of wardrobe crisis and incurring the wrath of La Wintour, here's Jess Cartner-Morley on what she's looking forward to at the week's shows.

It's show time. Nearly. First I have to pack. New York Fashion Week is stressful before you even get there: just the thought of all those sleek Manhattan Voguettes in their perfect Wu outfits brings me out in hives. New York is the one place where fashion editors really are expected to look like fashion editors. This is a fashion city ruled by Ms Wintour, and - in the words of her close colleague Andre Leon Talley, "Miss Anna doesn't like fat people." I also suspect she's less than wild about people with chipped nail varnish and people still wearing last season's Zara sandals. So getting front-row-ready in time for my first show (probably Edun, the ethical fashion label founded by Bono's wife Ali Hewson and designed by Sharon Wauchob) on Saturday morning is a challenge. But scruffiness aside, I'm excited: can't wait to catch up with the glorious Mrs Beckham on Sunday morning for a run-through of her new collection; to see what Tommy Hilfiger does for his 25th anniversary show; to find out exactly what time the now-ridiculously-prompt Marc Jacobs show will start on Monday night (I'm guessing 5 minutes BEFORE the 8pm on schedule) and to hang out with the Brits-in-NY fashpack at the Mulberry do on Soho House rooftop on Tuesday. Bring it on. Just don't look too closely at my nails, OK?

Good morning from New York and welcome to the first day of our live fashion blog. Our hope is that this blog will provide all your fashion week needs: news from the shows, celebrity spots, gossip, and, of course, what next year's trends will be. We'll also be linking out to the best things we've spotted on the web, as well as answering your questions. The blog will be updated throughout the day, with myself anchoring it in New York, and regular hot-off-the-press updates from our fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley in New York and deputy fashion editor Imogen Fox back in London as well as the latest from our Observer fashion team, Jo Jones and Helen Seamons. We'll also be including tweets and blogs from other journalists and bloggers.

Good morning from New York and welcome to the first day of our live fashion blog. Our hope is that this blog will provide all your fashion week needs: news from the shows, celebrity spots, gossip, and, of course, what next year's trends will be. We'll also be linking out to the best things we've spotted on the web, as well as answering your questions. The blog will be updated throughout the day, with myself anchoring it in New York, and regular hot-off-the-press updates from our fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley in New York and deputy fashion editor Imogen Fox back in London as well as the latest from our Observer fashion team, Jo Jones and Helen Seamons. We'll also be including tweets and blogs from other journalists and bloggers.

As Ben Affleck and bro vie for attention in Venice, the older one's brawny cops-and-robbers thriller leaves no cliche untrampled

The Affleck brothers – Casey and Ben – are vying for glory at this year's Venice film festival. In the past three days both siblings have boated on to the Lido, brandishing films that could hardly be more different in tone and spirit. I'm Still Here, by Casey, was a mischievous portrait of Joaquin Phoenix's fall from grace. The Town, by Ben and by contrast, is a brawny cops-and-robbers thriller in which Affleck leads a gang of armed robbers who disguise themselves, variously, as scary skeletons and zombie nuns.

Try as I might, I can't decide which film is funnier, although it may well be The Town, which acts so big and tough that it soon grows faintly ludicrous. Rebecca Hall plays Claire, a Boston bank manager abducted, freed and subsequently spied on by Doug (Affleck), who has now divested himself of his nun's habit in order to pose as her new best friend. Ostensibly Doug is playing this role to ensure his former hostage doesn't sing too loudly to the FBI. But Claire is so beautiful and so much classier than the other neighbourhood girls, with their blue mascara and shamrock tattoos, that one thing leads to another and pretty soon he's in love. "I'm gonna change my life," he tells her. "But there are a few things you still don't know about me."

Is there a place for Joaquin Phoenix in The Town? Sadly there is not, although he may conceivably have been offered the role of Jem, Doug's bug-eyed, loose-canon partner, which instead falls to The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner. Elsewhere, Jon Hamm – so good as Don Draper in Mad Men – has a thankless part as Frawley, the hapless FBI agent on the criminals' trail. Poor Frawley orders guns to be fired and bridges to be closed but it's no use; these dudes are just too smart for him. If he never actually goes so far as to slap his forehead and say "D'oh!" then no matter, you can bet it's somewhere on the director's cut.

The Town is based on a best-selling novel (Prince of Thieves) by Chuck Hogan and is set, pungently, in the roustabout Boston 'burb of Charlestown where everyone is either a criminal, a yuppie, or an elderly florist who's really a criminal. The action sequences are sharply orchestrated, with car chases and shoot-outs, and the film does not lack for pace as the noose draws tight and the star-crossed lovers find themselves tugged every which way but loose. But it's a bogus, bull-headed enterprise all the same; a film that leaves no cliche untrampled. Doug wants to change his life but the past rears up to grab him. He loves Claire but he loves Jem as well, even if they do sometimes fight each other outside the cemetery, young bucks that they are, and even if Jem is clearly a goddamned accident waiting to happen.

The film ends with one last job and one last disguise. Hilariously, this involves Affleck and Renner dressing up as policemen. They come striding down the corridor in their smoked sunglasses and jaunty caps, with their legs apart and their shoulders swinging, like a pair of strippers en route to a hen night.

Rating: 2/5

They're not real berries and not always black. This is our guide to finding, storing, cooking and eating blackberries

The blackberry has been foraged and enjoyed for a very long time, at least 8,000 years according to the archaeological evidence. They are more highly prized in western Europe than anywhere else in the world, and collected and eaten most enthusiastically of all in Britain, where blackberrying occupies a special cultural niche as a uniquely rewarding leisure activity.

There are now as many as 2,000 varieties of Rubus fruticosus worldwide, if you count the naturally occurring hybrids and commercial cultivars, and none of them produce true berries. Instead, they are "aggregate fruits", agglomerations of individual berries known as drupelets.

The family also includes raspberries, and it's more difficult than you might think to tell the two apart. There are black raspberries and red blackberries, and the only way to be certain is to pick one; the blackberry will come away with the hard centre, or receptacle, retained within the fruit whereas that of the raspberry will be left behind on the plant. The only thing to do then is to eat the berry, and then conduct the experiment again, repeatable results being the cornerstone of empirical scientific research.

In the early season, with cream and a little sugar, the still slightly tart berries make a pleasant change from strawberries. As the fruits swell and ripen into September their sweetness becomes more pronounced and they find other homes in pies, crumbles and cobblers, frequently combined with early apples for a taste which is the embodiment of the changing seasons.

There is traditionally a date after which the berries should not be picked, most commonly taken to be Michaelmas (29 September) but later in some areas, after which time the devil is said to spit or stamp (or worse) on the berries, rendering them unfit. It seems likely that this is a reference to the grey botrytis cinerea mould which envelops the fruits later in the season. No mention in folklore is made of the more prosaic problems associated with low hanging fruit in areas where dogs are walked and child pickers roam.

Varieties

According to Lia Leendertz, Loch Ness is extremely popular because it "produces a high yield from thornless, compact plants - perfect for small gardens. Alternatively, the vigorous Ashton Cross produces vast crops with a proper wild blackberry flavour. But Kotata, with its beautiful long, black glossy berries, perhaps boasts the best flavour of all."

If your style is to go no further than your own patch when foraging see here for more information on growing your own blackberries.

What to look for

The prize berry for flavour, size and ripeness is the one at the extremity of the bunch, and it's a sure sign that someone else has beaten you to the bush if they've vanished by the time you arrive. A glossy black swollen appearance indicates a ripe berry; if insects have been at the fruit it will tend to appear deflated. For more on the finer points of foraging from acclaimed expert John Wright, see here.

Nutrition

A good source of vitamin C, and also dietary fibre in the multitudinous tiny seeds. They also contain a mild analgesic in the form of salicylates; useful in combating the effects of an autumnal sore throat, but potentially less helpful to people with an allergy to asprin.

Harvested

August to mid-October.

Storage

It's a rare person indeed who can contemplate storing blackberries. Fresh, they will not keep even overnight without losing taste and condition, and that's without factoring in the most notorious predator of the picked blackberry; the forager's own family. They do freeze very well, though, making a glut a nice problem to have. As with other soft fruit, spread them in a single layer on a tray and freeze them before transferring to a container, or simmer them briefly and freeze or refrigerate the resulting purée for a couple of days.

Basic cooking

Stew briefly with a little lemon juice and / or sugar to taste.

Goes with / good in

As noted, blackberries and apples are best friends forever, and blackberries also lend themselves to jelly, jam, compote, tart, pie, iced desserts, syrup, liqueur and ratafia.

Recipes

Nigel Slater's deep dish blackberry and apple pie

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's blackberry and apple leather

Nigel Slater's blackberry and apple fool

John Wright's bramble mousse

Paul A Young's chocolate bramble cocktail

Fraser Doherty's basic fruit jam recipe

• You can find plenty more blackberry recipes by using our new recipe search

I need to upgrade my camera in order to increase my earnings to pay off my debt, but it will use up the remainder of my credit limit. What is a debtor to do?

Work investment. Work investment. Work investment. I can say it a hundred times and my wife will have a go at me for giving in to gadget lust.

Fact is, I need to upgrade the old kit because that's what the market demands. If I'm getting less wedding photography work it's because people are plumping for photographers who can offer the fully monty: bells, whistles and video too. But I can't offer the video because my trusty old Canon doesn't do the latest format of big-screen HD footage.

It certainly makes sense from a diversification point of view. If I don't get a photography booking from a prospective client I can at least wangle a straight video shoot. It's a justifiable business outlay, straight-line depreciation …

And the time to press the "buy" button on Amazon is now, before next year's wedding season gets into full swing. That way there's time to learn my way around the new technology. Thank the gods there is still a corner of credit left on one of my cards, the green one I think.

Perhaps that's a sign: green for go. At least it would be if I wasn't already up to the neck in debt quicksand. Press the "buy" button and I'm using up my last little corner of breathing space on the last of my credit cards – the gold, black and red ones are all too close to their limit to attempt; the blue one had its limit cut the other week, leaving me just £50 short of a penalty fine for being over the limit. Thanks guys, kick a man when he's down why don't you.

Between the plastic and my Greece-sized overdraft I'm already forking out a third of my take-home pay to keep up with the minimum repayments. If I splash out £1,500 on a HD video camera body I'm saying goodbye to the safety zone – the only real reason to have a credit card anyway: for an emergency. That means no access to funds if the knackered old Mondeo finally dies, no source of nursery school fees if Sally – my wife – has another relapse and is forced to take more unpaid leave but is too weak to look after the kid.

How did we build up all this debt? We were unlucky with the postcode lottery on NHS-paid IVF. Five cycles at £5,000 a pop before Simon was born. Then Sally had to scale back on work because she got ill. I must have been boring my old college pal Zad because he started his "talk to one of the debt charities" mantra again.

Yeah, right, there's a Harry Potterish magic wand out there that can take this all away. A friend of his apparently contacted one of these charities and managed to cut a deal with the credit card companies, they froze his interest and he's slowly paying them off.

What does he think I've been doing these past five years? Succeeding in paying off some of the debt, on occassion. At least I was until they doubled and then trebled my interest rates.

And after the credit crunch there's no longer the option of a balance transfer to a low-interest introductory offer, so I'm lumbered with credit cards rather than loans. Worse still, the bank is talking about converting my overdraft to an expensive loan and threatening to slap massive charges on any new overdraft I run up.

I went in to see them the other week. The teenager du jour who was pretending to be my bank manager refused to take on board that as a freelancer I get paid irregularly, so in months where nobody's coughing up I've still got to pay the rent, food bills, car bills, new shoes for our son …

My only option, surely, is to buy the new bloody camera, increase my revenue stream and work my way out of this mess job by job?

Ailey's American Dance Theater gave black choreography identity and emotional presence – and became an African-American institution

In short

Born in poverty in rural Texas, Alvin Ailey grew into a gifted choreographer who drew inspiration from African American culture. He went on to become both an American institution and a broken man.

Backstory

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, founded in New York in 1958, was named as an act of entitlement. Ailey, a black choreographer who had been born in rural Texas in 1931, where racial segregation was still in full force, was profoundly conscious of two Americas: white and black. By launching American Dance Theater with Blues Suite – a piece brimming with images from his Depression-era childhood and filled with the sound and spirit of the blues – Ailey was also staking a claim: that black America, too, could represent the country.

After moving to Los Angeles aged 11, Ailey found himself in a more racially mixed environment, and as a youngster was as inspired as much by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as by Katherine Dunham's black dance revues. His first serious dance training was with Lester Horton, who had a multicultural melting-pot vision of modern dance. When Horton died suddenly in 1953, the precocious Ailey took over his company as choreographer and director.

In 1954 he moved to New York to appear in black musicals on Broadway. He also gathered together a group of black dancers eager to expand the roles available to them, and formed the group that went on to become the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Ailey's work, like the pieces by guest and commissioned choreographers, often but not always references black styles or subjects; and since the early 60s, the company has never been exclusively black.

Ailey followed the success of his 1958 concert with Revelations (1960), the masterpiece that became his signature work. Despite financial struggles, he quickly became a major force in modern dance, touring extensively and becoming popular with audiences worldwide. He set up a training school in 1969 and a youth company in 1974, both of which still go strong. But as his company went from strength to strength, Ailey's own life suffered. He had always been secretive about his homosexuality; under pressure from his public success, in private he turned increasingly to alcohol, drugs and compulsive cruising, and suffered a mental breakdown in 1980. Ailey was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (then known as manic depression). He returned to work with considerable support from the company, but despite some successes the 80s were a precarious time for him. In 1989, he died of an Aids-related illness.

Unusually for a choreographer-led group, the company lived on. Former dancer Judith Jamison took over as artistic director, and has overseen a long era of consolidation of the entire Ailey organisation. She will stand down in 2011, to be succeeded by Robert Battle.

Today, Ailey's project has in some ways been realised: his company is an American institution, an official cultural ambassador for the nation, and part of the revolution in civil rights that saw something which would have been unthinkable in Ailey's own lifetime – a black man in the White House.

Watching Alvin Ailey

Though his most direct stylistic influence was Lester Horton, Ailey amalgamated elements from a wide range of different dance styles into his choreography. He often said that he liked to work with a balletic lower body – articulate footwork, long extensions – and a more mobile, "modern dance" upper body. Alongside that, he added elements of jazz dance, popular, ritual and social dances, all fused into a limber and athletic presentational style.

It was not technique that moved him, though, but spirit. By no means an innovator in dance terms, he was more interested in engaging his audience emotionally and physically. His masterpiece is Revelations, the most widely seen piece of modern dance ever, which currently closes almost every programme by the Ailey company. It draws inspiration from spirituals and gospel music to create a transcendent image of the human soul – a soul that reappears elsewhere, from the aspiring spirit of Lark Ascending (1972, to Vaughan Williams's famous score) to the famous strength-and-suffering solo, Cry (1971).

Some of his dances are inspired by music (he especially loved Duke Ellington), some by musicians: the protagonists of Flowers (1971) and For Bird – With Love (1984) were based on Janis Joplin and Charlie Parker respectively, and he must have felt deeply the rift between their public and private personae. The current company has some of the best dancers in the business: expect to be wowed, but not necessarily by the choreography – a recurrent criticism of the company (though they're hardly alone in this) is that the dancers outclass the repertory.

Who's who

Famous Ailey dancers include Carmen de Lavallade, James Truitte, Dudley Williams, Judith Jamison and Renée Robinson. More recent standouts include Matthew Rushing, Clifton Brown and Linda Celeste Sims. "Turnaround king" Michael Kaiser is credited with turning around the fortunes of the Ailey company in the early 90s.

Fact

Ailey once danced the pas de deux from Swan Lake with Erik Bruhn, one of the most famous danseurs nobles of classical ballet. It happened at a roadhouse party during a dance festival in 1961.

In their own words

"I believe that dance came from the people, and that it should always be delivered back to the people." Alvin Ailey

"I wanted to explore black culture, and I wanted that culture to be a revelation."

Alvin Ailey, interview with Jennifer Dunning, New York Times 1983

"The cultural heritage of the American Negro is one of America's richest treasures. From his roots as a slave, the American Negro – sometimes sorrowing, sometimes jubilant but always hopeful – has touched, illuminated, and influenced the most remote preserves of world civilisation. I and my dance theater celebrate this trembling beauty."

Ailey, quoted in Jennifer Dunning's Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance (1996)

In other words

"How to adequately explain the dependably rapturous standing ovation Revelations received… The standard analysis is cliché now but true: Revelations captures the universal pain and fortitude of the African-American experience."

Rachel Howard, San Francisco Chronicle 2009

"Ailey created a thriving cultural institution balanced on the double-edged sword of race."

Thomas F DeFrantz, in Dancing Revelations (OUP) 2004

"Ailey choreographed the everyday experience of black people and made the world see us anew."

Bonnie Greer, New Statesman 2010

Do say

"A spirit in the dark."

Don't say

"Madonna danced with Alvin Ailey."

Sometimes claimed, but in fact she just took classes at the Ailey school and was briefly an apprentice in a student company there. Ailey had no recollection of her.

See also

Black dancers Katherine Dunham and Pearl Primus were influences on Ailey's style; so were white dancers Lester Horton, Martha Graham and Jack Cole. American companies and choreographers with angles on black culture include Eleo Pomare, Garth Fagan, Urban Bush Women and Bill T Jones.

In a UK context, the question of black dance has been variously engaged by Les Ballets Nègres, Phoenix Dance Theatre, and Ballet Black.

Now watch this

Rocka My Soul (archive TV footage from 1967)

Excerpts from Revelations

Cry, made for Judith Jamison in 1971

Pas de duke originally made in 1976 for Mikhail Baryshnikov and Judith Jamison

Flowers, originally a vehicle for Royal Ballet star Lynn Seymour

The Lark Ascending (1982 performance)

Where to see Ailey next

14-25 September, Sadler's Wells theatre, London

Then touring the UK until 23 October

For future performances and tours, visit the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater website.

The mayor of London is cuddling up to Ed Balls to distance himself from the coalition's cuts – and who can blame him?

The axeman cometh and, unusually, he has an appointment – 20 October will see the coalition government cuts programme unveiled. Ed Balls says the cuts will go deep at precisely the wrong time and may well plunge us into a double dip recession. And Boris Johnson says he agrees with him.

Yes, Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London, agrees with him. What's going on? The short answer is that, undeclared, there is an election going on. Johnson has not yet confirmed that he will run for a second term in charge of the capital but most would be surprised if he did not and already the canny brain underneath the blond mop is manoeuvring.

It looks increasingly likely that his opponent in 2012 will be Ken Livingstone, rather than Oona King. Livingstone has the union votes for his party's mayoral nomination and a great deal of support among the London Labour party establishment. Normally Boris wouldn't mind that match-up. He beat Livingstone before. And having pioneered a laissez-faire kind of mayoralty, short of drama, cheap to maintain, he figures he hasn't done very much wrong and thus as a popular cove, would probably beat Livingstone again.

The only problem is that the wind is blowing in Livingstone's direction. The Labour veteran's stance is clear. He, the blurb says, is the man to fight the cuts in London. They are Tory cuts, he says. Johnson's cuts. And indeed some of them are Johnson's cuts. Not all by any means. But that won't matter in the fog of the election. It's a pretty old Labour way to fight an election. But then Ken is very much old Labour. For him, it's the people against the toffs. The GLC against Thatcher. A stereotype for sure. But the signs are that with the axeman on his way, this approach may have traction, especially in 2012, when the full effects of the cuts have kicked in.

Johnson probably figures he has the better of Livingstone on every other score. He will say he has held his demand on the council tax flat, while Livingstone increased it every year. He will say he has provided sunnier leadership for London, whereas Livingstone's last term in office was scarred by feuds and negative headlines.

But with Livingstone campaigning hard, and that is what he has been doing since he lost the mayoralty in 2008, Johnson knows he has to firmly entrench himself in the public mind as a very detached kind of Tory; willing to fight his own party over nationally imposed cuts – even while administering cuts of his own. Willing to fight for CrossRail. Willing to speak sharply to the City's bankers, urging them to forgo their bonuses, even if at the same time he is upholding their right to operate unfettered; to pay themselves as they like.

With the cuts likely to overshadow everything else, Johnson must bolster his image as a conservative but at all costs avoid being demonised as a Con-Dem cuts Conservative. If cuddling Ed Balls helps to address that vulnerability, so be it.

Artist satirises roadside adverts by nailing his poetry to traffic lights and streetlamps across the city

Artist John Morse has been peppering Atlanta's road intersections with haikus, nailing his poetry to traffic lights and streetlamps in an attempt to provide commuters with "poetic snapshots of the urban condition".

Mimicking the usual advertisements for weight loss and health insurance, Morse's poems began appearing throughout the city last month. From an exhortation to "Lose ugly weight fast!!/ Feel Happier! Healthier!/ Dump your bigotry" to "Meet local singles!!/ Easy: stand near others/ Hang up your cell phone" and "Free debt counselling/ Take the important first step/ Beware signs like these", the artist has written 10 different haikus, printed 50 copies of each and placed them at 500 locations across Atlanta.

"People read these bandit signs. They'll read them if it's about an electrician or they'll read them if it's about anything," explained Morse. "So if they read it and they like it, great, if they read it and they don't like it, great. But the fact is they'll read it, they're going to read your poetry and that's my goal.

"There's a great deal of bad in the world, and one of the few things that ameliorates the cruelties of the world is art," he said. "A little bit of art can do a great deal of good. And I want to spend my life doing something good ... Will it be good? I don't know. But I'm going to try."

Backed by artist support group Flux Projects, which says the signs offer "compact observations and commentary on modern life", the Roadside Haiku initiative is scheduled to run until the end of October. The haikus haven't been welcomed by everyone, however: Peggy Denby of Keep Atlanta Beautiful described them as "litter on a stick" and told local news site wsbtv.com there would be fines if they weren't taken down.

Wayne Rooney was last night fighting to save his marriage as the penny finally dropped over the hurt he’s caused Coleen.

Thousands of people are set to escape the Government's attempt to claw back millions in unpaid tax.

David Cameron paid tribute to his "amazing" father Ian today, saying he had "touched a lot of lives in lots of different ways".

David Cameron lost his "hero and inspiration" yesterday when his beloved dad died aged 77.

A US pastor has vowed to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 - despite more than 100 death threats.

Al-Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheikh Mohammed looked more like a startled drunk than a terrorist mastermind when his photo was flashed around the world.

An animal lover has brought back an unusual souvenir from Malaysia holiday - SIX rescue cats at cost of £14,000.

Helen Wood – the second vice girl said to have had three-in-a-bed sex with Wayne Rooney – poses here with fellow prostitute Jenny Thompson.

The anguished parents of the hooker who bedded Wayne Rooney have said sorry to his betrayed wife Coleen.

It is no exaggeration to say David Cameron owes his premiership to the influence of his father.

Murderers could end up serving just a few years behind bars under plans backed by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

When 20-stone Rebecca Kelly tried to wedge herself into her beloved sports car - and failed - she knew it was time to go on a diet.

A British father and son have drowned in a holiday tragedy at a popular Spanish beach.

Two asteroids narrowly avoided a collision course with our world yesterday.

One of Damilola Taylor's killers was yesterday released from prison after serving just four years behind bars.

Smartly turned out in uniforms for their first day at primary school, it's even harder to tell Britain's only identical quads apart.

The recession has scarred the face of Britain's town centres - leaving almost one shop in eight standing empty, a report has revealed.

Fuel giant BP has been accused of trying to pin the blame elsewhere for the worst oil spill in history.

Telly's Piers Morgan was unveiled as the new host of one of American's biggest talk shows last night.

Dad, 16, has also gone missing