The proposed rule now goes to the public for comment until January 14, after which the Federal Communications Commissions will review the feedback and possibly seek more comment. A final rule is not expected until the spring of next year.

"I am pleased that there is broad agreement inside the commission that we should move forward with a healthy and transparent process on an open Internet," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. The vote came despite a flurry of lobbying against the net neutrality rule by telecommunications service providers like AT&T Inc (T.N), Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) and Qwest Communications International Inc (Q.N), which say it would strip them of the ability to manage their networks effectively and would stifle innovation and competition.

Quarterly growth of 0.2% had been expected in the figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), although expectations had been tempered by recent figures showing no growth in retail sales in September, and a 2.5% decline in industrial output in August. The unexpected decline in the services sector was the key factor behind the drop, with the distribution, catering and hotels sector performing particularly badly.

The UK economy's reliance on the service sector, and financial services in particular, may be the reason why it is still in recession when partners such as France and Germany exited earlier in the year. The economy contracted 5.2% compared with the same period last year, which was marginally better than the record figure of 5.5% in the previous three months. It has now contracted 5.9% from its peak before the recession began.

The worse-than-expected GDP figures are likely TO MAKE THE BANK OF ENGLAND CONSIDER EXTENDING ITS POLICY OF QUANTITATIVE EASING.

"What we have is a bunch of dead banks that don't want to lend money," says Paul Miller, analyst with FBR Capital Markets. He points to the continued decline in net loans at Wells — $800 billion this quarter, down from $864 billion in December — as just the latest example.

"Everyone's patting themselves on the back for saving the banking system, but all we've done is postponed the day of reckoning. And so lending is declining across the board because banks know they are sitting on major capital holes."

In the real economy, THIS MEANS BANKS ARE EXTENDING LOANS TO BUSTED BORROWERS, PRETENDING THAT THEY WILL MAKE GOOD EVENTUALLY. And the government is supporting them wholeheartedly in their effort. The end result is a banking system that is making fewer new loans and pulling lines of credit in order to gird its collective balance sheet against the losses it knows are lurking. In the end, productive sectors of the economy — in particular small businesses — can't get credit.

The UN's World Food Programme says $285m (£173m) will be needed in the next six months. Some aid officials say the numbers of hungry could rise. Aid agency Oxfam has called for a new approach to tackling the risk of disaster in the country. The report, named Band Aids and Beyond, called on international donors to adopt a new approach focused on preparing communities to prevent and deal with disasters before they strike.

"Drought does not need to mean hunger and destitution," said Penny Lawrence, Oxfam's international director, who has just returned from Ethiopia. "IF COMMUNITIES HAVE IRRIGATION FOR CROPS, GRAIN STORES, AND WELLS TO HARVEST RAINS THEN THEY CAN SURVIVE DESPITE WHAT THE ELEMENTS THROW AT THEM." The drought, brought on by four years of bad harvests, has been made worse by conflict, climate change and population growth.

The awards programme was broadcasted on the MTV network throughout the country through cable and satellite television. The Radio City Hall audience readily acquiesced to Black's invitation to pray to the devil. In a video posted on YouTube, Black encouraged the large audience to join in by saying, "let me see those horns." Black, dressed in a "muscle suit" continued by asking the awards ceremony audience to join hands during "the prayer." He then held hands with actress Leighton Meester while he prayed aloud.

Black's prayer went basically unnoticed among most conservative and Christian media circles - perhaps because they feel the comedian was simply joking as he displayed his contempt for Christianity with the prayer invocation. In fact, this would be in keeping with Black's previous behaviour.

But regardless how one looks at Black's actions, it sets a dangerous precedent. Author and King's College professor Paul McGuire labels Black's prayer to Satan as "just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening in our nation and in the entertainment industry." The conservative commentator contends that "although it is hidden, SATANISM IS ONE OF THE FASTEST GROWING RELIGIONS IN AMERICA." He adds: "WE CAN EXPECT TO SEE SATANISTS DEMANDING AND GETTING THE SAME RIGHTS AS ANY OTHER RELIGION."

His propaganda machine is making up false statements to accuse conservative media, but refuses to present any evidence that these false statements were ever made. Anita Dunn is the White House spokesperson Obama put in charge of watching Fox News all day long.

Since the administration is watching and Fox News wants to have a dialogue, Fox News has installed a dedicated direct line for the White House to call their studio in case Dunn wants to phone and deny any criticism made by Fox News. So far, no calls, no denials. They can't deny that Fox News tells the fair and balanced truth.

Many Democrats and independents are ignoring the accusations that Fox News lies, and to their surprise are finding that Fox gives fair and unbalanced news. The people claiming that Fox lies either never watched, or are just intent on smearing Fox. Fox News presently is by far the most popular cable news source. OBAMA ALSO WANTS TO LIMIT FREEDOM OF INTERNET NEWS because so many Americans have lost confidence in the ONE-SIDED LIBERAL MAINSTREAM NEWS MEDIA.

Last week clouds gathered over much of the country, but the rains have come too late to bring much relief. Aid agencies have warned that with them will come flooding, cholera, malaria and hypothermia. In the arid north, pastoralists have watched as their cattle collapsed from exhaustion and thirst, and those that survive now face floods. The people are scarcely holding on and the number of armed skirmishes over water and livestock is rising.

Even in usually greener regions the drought has taken its toll. Four consecutive harvests have failed in the southeast while the Rift Valley, Kenya's breadbasket, is a wasteland of withered crops. There are fears that heavy rains will wash away the topsoil, taking with it precious maize seeds. In Nairobi emaciated cattle led by desperate Masai herdsmen graze by the roadside. The economy is also threatened by plummeting tea and coffee production, while tourists who visit the country's money-spinning safari parks return with tales of landscapes littered with carcasses.

Drought is nothing new to this part of Africa, but what is different is the frequency with which it hits. The cycle of drought used to come around every ten years but now it is almost constant. Many attribute the changing patterns to climate change. Kenya's fractious coalition Government, forced together last year after a violent election, has been accused of hindering rather than helping the situation by failing to safeguard the country's strategic grain reserve.

They will be among the first to take up an option allowing Anglicans to join an "ordinariate" that brings them into full communion with Roman Catholics while retaining elements of their Anglican identity. The Pope's move is regarded by some Anglicans as one of the most dramatic developments in Protestant christendom since the Reformation gave birth to the Church of England 400 years ago.

Archbishop John Hepworth, the twice-married Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, who led negotiations with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, said he was "profoundly moved" by the Pope's decision and would immediately seek the approval of the group's 400,000 members worldwide to join.

He described the development as "a moment of grace, perhaps even a moment of history". As fully-fledged Anglicans also seek refuge from liberalism in the shelter of Rome, it is feared that the proposal could deal a deadly blow to the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion, which already faces schism over homosexual ordination.

Hundreds of deer were discovered either dead or so badly injured they had to be put down by wildlife experts. In the country's rural Salzburg province, 90 per cent of pheasants and 80 per cent of hares were killed in the hail storms.

Sepp Eder, the hunting chief, said: "Animals sought shelter in farms, in fields of grain but the hail was so heavy it smashed right into them. It may take five years for animal numbers to recover, if they ever do so." Farmers are believed to have suffered more than £60 million in damages to crops and buildings.

It is a 1,700 per cent increase on the cost of the current surveillance regime. Last night LibDem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne described the sum as 'eye-watering'. 'There is already enough concern at the level of Government snooping,' he said. 'In an era of tough spending choices, IT CANNOT BE A JUSTIFIED RESPONSE to the problems we face as a country to lavish millions of pounds a year on state spying.'

'The increase in money spent on tapping phones and emails is all the more baffling when Britain is still one of the few countries not to allow intercept evidence in court, even in terrorist cases.' State bodies including councils are already making one request every minute to spy on the phone records and email accounts of members of the public.

The number of snooping missions carried out by police, town halls and other government departments has rocketed by 44 per cent in two years to a rate of 1,381 new cases every day.

Many are waiting for the publication of a Code of Practice by Rome to flesh out the detail of what is on offer before deciding whether to go. More than 440 took the compensation package on offer and left the Church of England, most for Rome, after the General Synod voted to ordain women priests in 1992. Some subsequently returned.

The Pope has made it it significantly more attractive for Anglicans to move over this time by allowing them to retain crucial aspects of their Anglican identity and allowing them to set up seminaries which will, presumably, train married men for the Catholic priesthood.

But any serving clergyman would face a marked loss of income. A job as a clergyman in the Church of England comes with a stipend of £22,250 and free accommodation. Catholic priests earn about £8,000, paid by their parish and sometimes topped up by a diocese.

Confidential negotiations on how to implement the Lisbon Treaty have produced proposals to allow the EU to negotiate treaties and even open embassies across the world. A letter conferring a full "legal personality" for the Union has been drafted in order for a new European diplomatic service to be recognised as fully fledged negotiators by international bodies and all non-EU countries.

According to one confidential paper, the first pilot "embassies" are planned in New York, Kabul and Addis Ababa. The move is highly symbolic in Britain as it formally scraps the "European Community", the organisation in which Britons originally voted to remain in the country's only referendum on Europe 34 years ago. Mark Francois, Conservative spokesman on Europe, said that the deal showed why the British should have been given a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

"As we have long warned, the Lisbon Treaty increases the EU's power at the expense of the countries of Europe," he said. "The new power a single legal personality would give the EU is a classic example. It illustrates why it is wrong for Labour to try to deny the British people any say on this Treaty at all."

In their lifetimes, they have seen their Christian faith purged from schools their taxes paid for, and mocked in movies and on TV. They have seen their factories shuttered in the thousands and their jobs outsourced in the millions to Mexico and China. They have seen trillions of tax dollars go for Great Society programs, but have seen no Great Society, only rising crime, illegitimacy, drug use and dropout rates.

They watch on cable TV as illegal aliens walk into their country, are rewarded with free educations and health care and take jobs at lower pay than American families can live on – then carry Mexican flags in American cities and demand US citizenship.

They see Wall Street banks bailed out as they sweat their next paycheck, then read that bank profits are soaring, and the big bonuses for the brilliant bankers are back. Neither they nor their kids ever benefited from affirmative action, unlike Barack and Michelle Obama.

They see a government in Washington that cannot balance its books, win our wars or protect our borders. The government shovels out trillions to Fortune 500 corporations and banks to rescue the country from a crisis created by the government and Fortune 500 corporations and banks.

America was once their country. They sense they are losing it. And they are right.

The case centres around Pfizer's criminal "off-label marketing" of four drugs, including the painkiller Bextra. After whistleblowers filed lawsuits in three states, the US Justice Department took an interest in the case and prosecuted Pfizer for criminal acts.

In the settlement, Pfizer admitted to a felony crime and agreed to pay $2.3 BILLION IN FINES and other fees. The investigation of Pfizer reportedly turned up evidence that Pfizer engaged in kickback payments to doctors for nine drugs, including Viagra and Lipitor. Part of the reason the penalty against Pfizer was so large is because THE COMPANY WAS CONSIDERED A "REPEAT OFFENDER" IN PROMOTING DRUGS FOR UNAPPROVED USES (which is a violation of federal law).

So-called "off-label" marketing of drugs is rampant in the pharmaceutical industry. Although the FDA, drug companies and many conventional doctors claim the drug industry is guided by a "gold standard" of scientific scrutiny, the truth is that pharmaceuticals are routinely marketed and prescribed for health conditions for which they have never even been studied... much less actually approved by the FDA. The fact that this continues today makes a mockery of any "scientific credibility" the pharmaceutical industry claims to possess.

The dispute around the August 20 vote has stoked tension between Karzai and the West and complicated US President Barack Obama's decision on whether to send thousands more US troops to Afghanistan to fight a resurgent Taliban. Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon all welcomed Karzai's decision to accept the run-off.

"It is now vital that all elements of Afghan society continue to come together to advance democracy, peace and justice," Obama said in a statement. "We look forward to a second round of voting, and the completion of the process to choose the president of Afghanistan." The White House said the president had taken no decision on whether to wait for the new poll before announcing a new strategy for Afghanistan. A decision would be taken "in the coming weeks."

Karzai, who is a Pashtun, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, is almost certain to win the run-off but the level of mass fraud alleged in the first round will inevitably cast a shadow over the new vote.