It means Britons in receipt of a European arrest warrant (EAW) could be sent for trial anywhere else in the EU for minor crimes such as drunkenness and driving offences. The major extension of police powers comes as campaigners fight the extradition of computer hacker Gary McKinnon to the US. European arrest warrants are already issued by EU nations, and British police forces usually respond to those relating to serious offences such as terrorism and organised crime.

Under the controversial new rules, a key part of the so-called Schengen Information II system, THE POLICE WILL BE FORCED TO RESPOND TO ALL EAWS. Anyone who has an EAW issued against him or her will be automatically taken into custody. British courts must then allow an extradition, even if there are concerns about the standards of justice in the country they are being sent to. FOR EXAMPLE, TRIALS IN POLAND, GREECE AND BULGARIA ARE OFTEN HELD WITHOUT AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION.

Tory justice spokesman Dominic Grieve said: 'THE EUROPEAN ARREST WARRANT WAS INTRODUCED TO FAST TRACK EXTRADITION OF TERRORIST SUSPECTS, but has expanded well beyond that. It allows British citizens to be whisked away to face trial for things that are not criminal in this country, on limited evidence, and in countries with lower standards of justice.'

But instead of bombing the concentration camps and the railways supplying them, they reacted by first suppressing eye-witness reports and then claiming they were exaggerated. Britain opposed offering sanctuary to Jewish refugees, said the article, which will be seen as having the support of the highest Vatican figures.

L'Osservatore Romano draws on the diaries of former US Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, who said his country's officials 'dodged their grim responsibility, procrastinated when concrete rescue schemes were placed before them, AND EVEN SUPPRESSED INFORMATION ABOUT ATROCITIES'. Mr Morgenthau claimed that when the US began to rescue Jews the project met resistance from British officials.

The Foreign Office warned of 'the difficulties of disposing of any considerable number of Jews should they be rescued'. Mr Morgenthau called this 'A SATANIC COMBINATION OF BRITISH CHILL AND DIPLOMATIC DOUBLETALK, cold and correct and adding up to a sentence of death'. The article will be seen as part of the Vatican's drive to restore the reputation of the wartime Pope, Pius XII.

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Paper money can pick up cocaine particles directly from users snorting the drug through rolled up bills, or from the handling of cash during drug deals. Contamination can spread when bills are stacked together or run through counting machines. Scientists tested bank notes from more than 30 cities in the US, Canada, Brazil, China and Japan.

They found "alarming" evidence of cocaine contamination in many areas. The US and Canada had the highest levels, with an average contamination rate of between 85 per cent and 90 per cent. China and Japan had the lowest rates of 20 per cent and 12 per cent. Contamination of US currency was up 20 per cent on its level two years ago when the same scientists conducted a similar study.

Hundreds were turned away just on Tuesday, the first day of a weeklong clinic run by the nonprofit Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corp as part of its mission to provide free health, dental and eye care in needy spots around the world. It marks the first time in RAM's 25 years that it has gone to a major US metropolitan area - a reminder that even in Los Angeles, with world-class doctors and hospitals, many do not have access to affordable healthcare.

RAM is apolitical, but its mobile medical center has sprung up in the working-class LA suburb of Inglewood against the backdrop of an increasingly bitter public debate over President Barack Obama's proposed overhaul of the US healthcare system.

Some 8,000 people were expected to file through the Forum sports arena for everything from Pap smears to acupuncture to eyeglass fittings. "IT CERTAINLY PROVES THAT HERE IN THE INNER CITY HEALTHCARE IS NEEDED IN THE WORST WAY," Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn said. "If that doesn't send a message across America, I don't know what will."

At 1700 EDT (2100 GMT), Bill was located about 820 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands and was moving west with maximum sustained winds near 40 miles per hour, the NHC said. "Strengthening is indicated and Bill is expected to become a hurricane in three to four days," it said, adding forecasts showed this would take place when the storm was very near the Northern Leeward Islands. The five-day forecast track showed it could threaten Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.

Tropical storms become hurricanes when their top sustained winds reach 74 mph. Earlier on Saturday, the first named tropical storm of the 2009 Atlantic season, Ana, formed. It was heading toward the Leeward Islands, and could also threaten the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Energy traders watch for storms that could enter the Gulf of Mexico and threaten US oil and natural gas platforms and refineries along the coast. Commodities traders watch storms that could hit crops such as citrus and cotton in Florida and other states along the coast to Texas.

Police in Finland confirmed the ransom demand was made to the Finnish owners of the 4,000-ton Arctic Sea and that the case was now being treated as 'a hijacking with aggravated extortion'. They said the armed gang had warned they would pose a 'threat to the life and health' of the 15 Russian crewmen on board unless their demands are met.

The ransom demand came as The Mail on Sunday established radiation tests were carried out at the port of Pietarsaari in western Finland, where the Maltese-flagged ship Arctic Sea started its voyage. The Turkish-built vessel, which was carrying £900,000 worth of timber, is feared to have been stormed by pirates looking for a 'secret cargo'.

The fact that nuclear tests were conducted will fuel speculation that the ship did have a hidden cargo.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, the director of the Christian Legal Centre, has written to Peter Fahy, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, over the incident. She claims that Mr Hayworth and his father, John, 55, were unlawfully and unfairly treated as they preached Christianity in the city at the end of July.

"They were clearly told that reading the Bible and preaching can be offensive and that they could be arrested," she wrote. "Furthermore, they were subjected to abuse and intimidation. They were told that they were being monitored and filmed," she wrote. CRITICS CLAIMED THAT A MUSLIM PREACHING HIS RELIGION IN THE STREET WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN TREATED IN SUCH A WAY BY POLICE.

Mr Hayworth, a voluntary worker who is married with two children, has been a street preacher in the Manchester area for five years and he is often accompanied by his father. He said that he and his father had decided to preach from 11am at St Ann's Square in Manchester instead of their usual place on nearby Market Street. He was reading passages from the Old and New Testaments while his father distributed leaflets containing the message of the gospel.

It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine. GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.

The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications. It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:

More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
500 cases of GBS were detected.
The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.

Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown.

Foremost in these Texas citizens' minds are questions about how they will be able to protect themselves and their families from vaccines and treatments that have debatable safety, efficacy, and even necessity while simultaneously protecting themselves from a new strain of the flu.

Unfortunately, a review of current Texas state law reveals TREMENDOUS UNILATERAL POWER IN THE HANDS OF UNELECTED HEALTH DEPARTMENT BUREAUCRATS and glaring gaps in language protecting individual rights. Unlike the laws that apply to school vaccines, the Health and Safety Code provides for absolutely no medical or reasons of conscience exemptions from state imposed mandated control measures like vaccination and antiviral drugs. There is a highly restrictive religious exemption only available to those who adhere to a recognized religion choosing prayer in lieu of medical treatment, but that is basically useless as it "does not apply during an emergency or an area of quarantine or after the issuance by the governor of an executive order or proclamation." (Health and Safety Code Sec 81.009)

Considering the fact that on June 11, the World Health Organization officially declared H1N1 Influenza a phase 6 (highest possible) pandemic, it is not unreasonable to be concerned that emergency declarations may be made in Texas thus leaving Texans with no options for exemptions. This is especially troubling since these experimental vaccines, potentially containing powerful unlicensed adjuvants, are being fast tracked at the FDA with very little known about side effects, and a recent study warns that antiviral drug use in children ages 12 and under actually does more harm than good. These are the same antiviral drugs the state has stockpiled for use this fall underscoring once again that parents need to ultimately be making these decisions for their children, not the health department.

These inhumane and unethical forced vaccination and drugging statutes provide for the inevitable sacrifice of some healthy individuals and leave no option for anyone, even those with known vulnerabilities, to refuse vaccination or drug treatments without facing the risk of incurring criminal penalties (Health and Safety Code 81.083).

Disasters often provoke unseemly bouts of finger-pointing. This has certainly been true of the global financial crisis. In the Anglo-Saxon world, libertarians have blamed it on governments, and governments on "bankers". But in continental Europe, many blame Anglo-Saxons for their supposed reluctance to regulate financial markets.

The crisis, they believe, would never have happened if the British and the Americans had regulated and supervised their financial sectors like the French and the Germans. On this view, the UK needs to change, notably by clamping down on hedge funds. Does this narrative stack up? Or have some Europeans just turned Anglo-Saxons and hedge funds into their scapegoats of choice?

It is no secret that sections of Britain's media and political class are primed to detect sinister motives in anything emanating from Europe. More often than not, such fears are just paranoid fantasy. But for once, the British may be forgiven if they conclude that FRANCE AND GERMANY ARE EXPLOITING THE CRISIS TO PROMOTE SOME OF THEIR LONGSTANDING OBJECTIVES and to weaken London's position as a financial centre.

The Irish Times reports that former President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, has said that EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy's claim that people in most EU countries would have voted No to the Lisbon Treaty is "sweeping, false and entirely groundless". McCreevy recently said that 95 percent of EU member states would have voted No like Ireland did, had the Treaty been put to a vote in other countries.

The paper also reports that Ireland's Referendum Commission has reappointed the same public relations firm that ran the marketing and communications campaign for the first Lisbon referendum without running a tender process for the second referendum. The original contract was worth approximately €3.5 million out of the referendum's total allocated budget of €5 million. The total budget allocated to the Referendum Commission for the second Lisbon campaign is €4.2 million.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was appointed receiver of Montgomery, Alabama-based Colonial, with about $25 billion in assets, and Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association, located in Pittsburgh. The agency approved the sale of Colonial's $20 billion in deposits and about $22 billion of its assets to BB&T Corp, which is based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The failed bank's 346 branches in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Texas will reopen at the normal times starting on Saturday as offices of BB&T, the FDIC said.

Dwelling House had $13.4 million in assets and $13.8 million in deposits as of March 31. PNC Bank, part of Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc, has agreed to assume all of Dwelling House's deposits and about $3 million of its assets; the FDIC will retain the rest for eventual sale. Dwelling House's lone office in Pittsburgh will reopen Monday as a branch of PNC Bank, the FDIC said.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the deposit insurance fund from the failure of Dwelling House will be $6.8 million. The failure of Colonial is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund an estimated $2.8 billion. The 74 bank failures nationwide this year compare with 25 last year and three in 2007.

The Secret Service is investigating a Maryland man who held a sign reading "Death to Obama" and "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids" outside a town hall meeting this week. And in New Hampshire, another man stood across the street from a Presidential town hall with his gun on full display.

Los Angeles police officers apprehended a man Thursday after a standoff with him inside a red Volkswagen Bug car in Westwood, California – the latest disturbing case even though officials said the man had mental problems. "I don't think these are simply people who are mentally ill or off their rocker," Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told ABC News of those behind the threats. "IN A VERY REAL SENSE THEY REPRESENT A GENUINE REACTION, A GENUINE BACKLASH AGAINST OBAMA."

Experts say a sharp growth in so-called militia groups that helped spawn a wave of domestic terrorism in the 1990s – and are now using YouTube, rock music and the Internet to recruit members and spread hate and fear - shouldn't be ignored. "IT'S CERTAINLY A SCARY TIME," said former FBI agent Brad Garrett, now an ABC News consultant. Garrett said the Secret Service "cannot afford to pass on anyone," and he believes "they really do fear that something could happen to [Obama]."

"I have been defending religious freedom issues for 22 years, and I'VE NEVER HAD TO DEFEND SOMEBODY WHO HAS BEEN CHARGED CRIMINALLY FOR PRAYING," said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, the Orlando-based legal group that is defending the two school officials.

The fight involving the ACLU, the school district and several devout Christian employees began last August when the ACLU sued Santa Rosa County Schools on behalf of two students who had complained privately to the group's Florida affiliate, claiming some teachers and administrators were allowing prayers at school events such as graduations, orchestrating separate religiously themed graduation services, and "proselytizing" students during class and after school.

In January, the Santa Rosa County School District settled out of court with the ACLU, agreeing to several things, including a provision to bar all school employees from promoting or sponsoring prayers during school-sponsored events; holding school events at church venues when a secular alternative was available; or promoting their religious beliefs or attempting to convert students in class or during school-sponsored events.

Mr Staver said the district also agreed to forbid senior class President Mary Allen from speaking at the school's May 30 graduation ceremony ON THE CHANCE THAT THE YOUNG WOMAN, A KNOWN CHRISTIAN, MIGHT SAY SOMETHING RELIGIOUS. "She was the first student body president in 33 years not allowed to speak," he said.

That fire started Wednesday evening 10 miles north of Santa Cruz, and the cause is still under investigation. More than 2,000 people were evacuated. AccuWeather.com says that the gusty winds will continue at least through the weekend, giving little relief to firefighters.

"The rapid spread of the fire was aided by winds gusting to nearly 20 mph. The fire is burning in a heavily wooded, evergreen forest area," the forecast said. "The thick brush and rough terrain will make it difficult for ground fire control. Water drops via aircraft may be the best option at this time." AccuWeather said the towns most at risk are Swanton, Davenport and Bonny Doon. The last major fire in that area was in 1948.

A second large fire roaring through Los Padres National Forest about 26 miles east of Santa Maria has grown, forcing some residents to flee. About 1,600 firefighters are attacking the blaze, which started Saturday. The cause is unknown. Firefighting efforts have been hampered by inaccessible terrain and volatile winds. Officials said the Santa Barbara County blaze, named the La Brea fire, has grown to 67,092 acres.