MINISTERS AND OFFICIALS HAVE KNOWN SINCE AT LEAST 2005 THAT MANY HOMES WERE IN THE WRONG TAX BANDS. But instead of solving the problem, they tried to keep it secret because coming clean would have embarrassed the Government and reduced its tax take from homeowners.

The cover-up was exposed after ministers were forced to reveal the minutes of a Whitehall meeting in 2005. The papers were handed to the House of Commons library with some sections blacked out. But a blunder by officials left the text still legible beneath the blacking. Whitehall's council tax inspectors have already been forced to correct the council tax bands of a quarter of a million homes across England and Wales following appeals by householders since the last general election. But hundreds of thousands of others still have no idea that they are being ripped off.

Tory spokesman Caroline Spelman said: 'The Government has been caught red-handed fiddling council tax to make families pay more. THE WHOLE MORAL BASIS OF OUR TAX SYSTEM IS UNDERMINED IF THE STATE CONSPIRES TO OVERCHARGE THE PUBLIC.' Local Government minister John Healey has admitted that ministers were aware of the cover-up as part of 'ongoing feedback from staff'.

Matthew Elliott, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, called for the Government to pay back the money - with interest. He said: 'With the Government's fiscal position looking so dire, they are trying to grab every last penny from taxpayers to stop the UK's debt rising even higher. But this is no excuse for them to effectively allow council tax to be overcharged on households who are already suffering financial pain. The Government's actions are completely underhand.'

But they said it would be "tragic" if people chose not to vote, or to register a protest vote, at the European Parliamentary and local elections on June 4. Dr Williams and Dr Sentamu said the forthcoming elections were taking place "at a time of extraordinary turbulence in our democratic system". They added: "The temptation to stay away or register a protest vote in order to send a negative signal to the parties represented at Westminster will be strong."

"In our view, however, it would be tragic if the understandable sense of anger and disillusionment with some MPs over recent revelations led voters to shun the ballot box." The Archbishops said some parties would exploit the current political situation if elected and said the BNP fostered "fear and division within communities, especially between people of different faiths or racial background".

They went on: "This is not a moment for voting in favour of any political party whose core ideology is about sowing division in our communities and hostility on grounds of race, creed or colour. It is an opportunity for renewing the vision of a community united by mutual respect, high ethical standards and the pursuit of justice and peace."

He was dismissed after a disciplinary hearing. The Christian Legal Centre said it is considering legal action. Mr Rao said that in the training exercise the woman had been playing the part of a patient with a life-threatening heart condition. He said he told her she should go to church to alleviate stress.

Christian Legal Centre (CLC) director Andrea Minichiello Williams said the centre was now representing Mr Rao and was considering legal action against his former employer. She said: "How is it possible that a nurse who has served the public for 40 years should find himself dismissed because in a training exercise he advised someone to go to church?"

"TO SEEK TO CENSOR AND SUPPRESS THIS KIND OF LANGUAGE AND BELIEF IS THE FRUITS OF A CLOSED SOCIETY."

Just hours later, North Korea appeared to have test-fired a short-range missile, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. Pyongyang has so far not commented on Yonhap's report. Following the announcement of North Korea's latest nuclear test on Monday, Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama said Tokyo would respond "in a responsible fashion" at the UN, without giving further details.

Russia's UN ambassador said an emergency meeting of the Security Council would be held later on Monday. The military in South Korea formed a crisis team and went into emergency talks. In Washington, a state department spokesman said officials were checking the report, "but we're not able to confirm at this time". The European Union said that the development was "very worrying".

On Monday, KCNA said North Korea's test had been "aimed at strengthening its self-defence nuclear deterrent in every way. The current nuclear test was safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control." It said the results resolved "scientific and technological problems arising in further increasing the power of nuclear weapons and steadily developing nuclear technology".

South Korean officials said earlier that a seismic tremor was detected in the north-eastern part around the town of Kilju - the site of North Korea's first nuclear test. Both South Korea's and the US geological agencies said the tremor on Monday (25th May) morning indicated a nuclear explosion. The US Geological Survey said the 4.7-magnitude quake was detected at 0054 GMT.

Last month, Pyongyang pulled out of six-party talks on its nuclear programme, in protest against international condemnation of its test-firing of a rocket on 5 April.
The UN Security Council adopted a statement calling on North Korea to comply with a 2006 resolution banning missile tests. Pyongyang says its rocket carried a satellite, but several nations viewed it as cover for a missile test.

Minicows are not genetically engineered to be tiny, and they're not dwarfs. THEY ARE DRAWN FROM ORIGINAL BREEDS BROUGHT TO THE U.S. FROM EUROPE IN THE 1800s that were smaller than today's bovine giants, said Ron Lemenager, professor of animal science at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

The Petersens' mini Herefords, with their white faces and rounded auburn-hued bodies, weigh in at a dainty 500 to 700 pounds, compared with 1,300 pounds or more for their heftier brethren. Big cows emerged as a product of the 1950s and '60s, when farmers were focused on getting more meat and didn't fret as much about the efficient use of animal feed or grasslands.

Their miniature Herefords consume about half that of a full-sized cow yet produce 50% to 75% of the rib-eyes and fillets, according to researchers and budget-conscious farmers. "We get more sirloin and less soup bone," Ali said. "People used to look at them and laugh. Now, they want to own them."

"Feed prices were relatively cheap, and grazing lands were accessible," Lemenager said. "The plan was to get more meat per animal. But it went way too far. The animals got too big and eat so much." Today, there's little room for inefficiency on a modern farm, and that has led some farmers to consider minicows.

"We do not intend to build any new settlements, but it wouldn't be fair to ban construction to meet the needs of natural growth or for there to be an outright construction ban," Netanyahu told his cabinet, according to officials.

The note of defiance came less than a week after Netanyahu held talks in Washington with Obama, who wants Israel to halt all settlement activity, including natural growth, as called for under a long-stalled peace "road map". Netanyahu's comments reaffirmed a position he took in his bid for the premiership in a February election. By natural growth, Israel refers to construction within the boundaries of existing settlements to accommodate growing families.

Thought we were on the long road to recovery; that economies and financial systems were now back in rude health; that interest rate cuts and quantitative easing were likely to push us out of recession and generate another boom? Not so fast.

When the ministers and central bankers from the world's richest nations met last month in Washington there was little room for back-slapping. Sure, they had seen their economies through the worst of the financial crisis. Most banks had been rescued from full-scale implosion. Governments had taken drastic measures to shore up their capital and ensure their survival. BUT THE MOUNTAIN OF DEBT THAT HAD POISONED THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM HAD NOT DISAPPEARED OVERNIGHT. INSTEAD, IT HAS BEEN SHIFTED FROM THE PRIVATE SECTOR ONTO THE PUBLIC SECTOR BALANCE SHEET.

Britain has taken on hundreds of billions of pounds of bank debt and stands behind potentially trillions of dollars of contingent liabilities. If the first stage of the crisis was the financial implosion and the second the economic crunch, the third stage – the one heralded by Johnson – is where GOVERNMENTS START TO TOPPLE under the weight of this debt. IF 2008 WAS A YEAR OF PRIVATE SECTOR BANKRUPTCIES, 2009 AND 2010, IT GOES, WILL BE THE YEARS OF GOVERNMENT INSOLVENCY.

The decision, which would make it hard for Americans in London to open bank accounts and trade shares, is being discussed by executives at Britain's banks and brokers who say it could become too expensive to service American clients. The proposals, which were unveiled as part of the president's first budget, are designed to clamp-down on American tax evaders abroad. However bank bosses say they are being asked to take on the task of collecting American taxes at a cost and legal liability that are inexpedient.

Andy Thompson of Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers (APCIMS) said: "The cost and administration of the US tax regime is causing UK investment firms to consider disinvesting in US shares on behalf of their clients. This is not right and emphasises that the administration of a tax regime on a global scale without any flexibility damages the very economy it is trying to protect."

One executive at a top UK bank who didn't want to be named for fear of angering the IRS said: "It's just about manageable under the current system - and that's because we're big. The danger to us is suddenly being hauled over the coals by the IRS for a client that hasn't paid proper taxes. The audit costs will soar. We'll have to pay it but I know plenty of smaller players won't."

Police forces across England, Wales and Scotland will soon be able to share the information on one central computer. Officers say it is a useful tool in fighting crime, but critics say the network is secretive and unregulated. Kent's Chief Constable, Michael Fuller, commented: "We've seen an increase of some 40% of arrests since we've been using this technology. I'm very confident that we're using it properly and responsibly, and that innocent people have nothing to fear from the way we use it."

But not everyone thinks it is such a good thing. John Catt found himself on the wrong side of the ANPR system. He regularly attends anti-war demonstrations outside a factory in Brighton, his home town. It was at one of these protests that Sussex police put a "marker" on his car. That meant he was added to a "hotlist".

This is a system meant for criminals but John Catt has not been convicted of anything and on a trip to London, the pensioner found himself pulled over by an anti-terror unit. "I WAS THREATENED UNDER THE TERRORIST ACT. I HAD TO ANSWER EVERY QUESTION THEY PUT TO ME, AND IF THERE WERE ANY QUESTIONS I WOULD REFUSE TO ANSWER, I WOULD BE ARRESTED. I THOUGHT TO MYSELF, WHAT KIND OF WORLD ARE WE LIVING IN?" Sussex police would not talk about the case.

An audit of hundreds of patients sent to the "flying doctors" for knee operations found that one in three suffered a poor outcome, with one in five cases so bad that the operation needed to be redone. Under an EU directive passed in 2004, DOCTORS CAN WORK IN ANY MEMBER STATE WITHOUT TESTS OF THEIR LANGUAGE SKILLS OR CLINICAL COMPETENCE. Now, an audit of more than 200 patients who underwent knee surgery between 2004 and 2006 has revealed that the number of operations which were botched was ten times the national average.

The paper, published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, found that 37 per cent of the knee operations carried out on 224 patients had an unsatisfactory result, with dozens of patients left in pain. Twenty two per cent of the operations to replace knees were so bad that they had to be redone – a rate ten times the normal figure in NHS hospitals – while the review warns that yet more patients might need surgery redone in the future.

Mr Cannon attacked the legislation giving "equivalence" to medical qualifications from 27 EU member states, despite the fact each country's medical education is tailored to its health care system. "The systems are very different in each country – for example, THERE ARE COUNTRIES LIKE ITALY WHERE DOCTORS QUALIFY WHILE BARELY SEEING A PATIENT," he said. Sir Donald said: "This is an unsafe system; the holes in it are gaping. The problem is the starting point always seems to be 'What do the lawyers say?' – not 'What is best for patients?'"

John Burton, Mr Blair's political agent in his Sedgefield constituency for 24 years, says that Labour's most successful ever leader – in terms of elections won – was driven by the belief that 'good should triumph over evil'."It's very simple to explain the idea of Blair the Warrior," he says. "It was part of Tony living out his faith."

"I truly believe that his Christianity affected his policy-making on just about everything from aid to Africa, education, poverty, world debt and intervening in other countries when he thought it was right to do it. The fervour was part of him and it comes back to it being Christian fervour that spurred him into action for better or worse." Mr Burton says that inherent in Mr Blair's faith was the belief that people should be treated fairly: "He applied that same principle in everything he did – from establishing the Social Exclusion Unit to ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, and ridding Iraq of the evils of Saddam Hussein's rule."

Tony Blair complained in 2007 that he had been unable to talk about his faith while in office. "It's difficult if you talk about religious faith in our political system," he said. "If you are in the American political system or others then you can talk about religious faith and people say 'yes, that's fair enough' and it is something they respond to quite naturally. You talk about it in our system and, frankly, people do think you're a nutter."

Since leaving Downing Street, he has set up the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and given a number of interviews about his faith. Last month, HE CHALLENGED THE ATTITUDES OF THE POPE ON HOMOSEXUALITY, and argued that it is time for him to "rethink" his views.

With the worldwide recession, prices have been retreating in the developed world. But they remain stubbornly high in many poorer nations, and with the return of tight supplies and high demand grain markets are again flashing warning signs that could prove expensive for world consumers. "I would say our (grain) markets are going to be quite well supported in this early part of the growing season, and I think potentially explosive at THE FIRST SIGN OF ANY SERIOUS WEATHER ADVERSITY after the crop finally is planted," said Rich Feltes, senior vice president at MF Global Research in Chicago.

US food prices jumped 5.5 percent last year - the biggest jump since 1990 - but are expected to moderate this year with a 3-4 percent rise tempered by lower dairy and meat prices. Food prices remain high in developing countries, however, and are clinging to record levels in some locales, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. THE AGENCY SAID "FOOD EMERGENCIES" PERSIST IN 32 COUNTRIES.

"Keeping people fed is always job one of most governments." said Dan Basse, president of the consultant AgResource. "As you see Saudi Arabia, China, others are now building strategic stockpiles, knowing that if anybody has a weather calamity or there's a supply disruption that there will be a food price shock." With South America's crop a disappointment, much focus is on the world's breadbasket, THE UNITED STATES, TO COME THROUGH WITH A BIG CROP FOR CORN, SOYBEANS AND WHEAT. And so far it's getting off to a soggy, slow start, but it could still produce solid results.

SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 TRILLION DEBT, A NATIONAL DEFICIT OF $11 TRILLION. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, WE ARE OUT OF MONEY NOW. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we've made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we've seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades. So we've got a short-term problem, which is we had to spend a lot of money to salvage our financial system, we had to deal with the auto companies, a huge recession which drains tax revenue at the same time it's putting more pressure on governments to provide unemployment insurance or make sure that food stamps are available for people who have been laid off.

So we have a short-term problem and we also have a long-term problem. The short-term problem is dwarfed by the long-term problem. And the long-term problem is Medicaid and Medicare. If we don't reduce long-term health care inflation substantially, we can't get control of the deficit. So, one option is just to do nothing. We say, well, it's too expensive for us to make some short-term investments in health care. We can't afford it. We've got this big deficit. Let's just keep the health care system that we've got now. Along that trajectory, we will see health care cost as an overall share of our federal spending grow and grow and grow and grow until essentially it consumes everything...

The couple, whose names are being withheld until a demand letter can be filed on their behalf, told their attorney a county government employee knocked on their door on Good Friday, asking a litany of questions about their Tuesday night Bible studies, which are attended by approximately 15 people.

They were told that they must stop holding "religious assemblies" until she and her husband obtain a MAJOR USE PERMIT FROM THE COUNTY, a permit that often involves traffic and environmental studies, compliance with parking and sidewalk regulations and costs that top TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. And if they fail to pay for the MUP, the county official reportedly warned, the couple will be charged escalating fines beginning at $100, then $200, $500, $1000, "and then it will get ugly."

Dean Broyles of the Western Center for Law & Policy, which has been retained to represent the couple, told WND the county's action not only violates religious land-use laws but also assaults both the First Amendment's freedom of assembly and freedom of religion. "The First Amendment, in part, reads, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,'" Broyles said. "AND THAT'S THE KEY PART: 'PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE.' We believe this is a substantial government burden on the free exercise of religion."

He continued, "If one's home is one's castle, certainly you would the think the free exercise of religion, of all places, could occur in the home." Broyles confirmed the county official followed through on his threat. The pastor and his wife received a written warning ordering the couple to "cease/stop religious assembly on parcel or obtain a major use permit."

Broyles also explained to WND that oppressive governments, such as communist China or Nazi Germany, worked to repress home fellowships, labeling them the "underground church" or "subversive groups," legally compelling Christians to meet only in sanctioned, government-controlled "official" churches. "Therein lies my concern," Broyles said. "If people can't practice their religious beliefs in the privacy of their own homes with a few of their friends, that's an egregious First Amendment violation."

"On all of these matters related to the disclosure of sensitive information, I wish I could say that there is a simple formula," Obama said. "But there is not. These are tough calls involving competing concerns, and they require a surgical approach. But the common thread that runs through all of my decisions is simple: we will safeguard what we must to protect the American people, but we will also ensure the accountability and oversight that is the hallmark of our constitutional system. I WILL NEVER HIDE THE TRUTH BECAUSE IT IS UNCOMFORTABLE. I will deal with Congress and the courts as co-equal branches of government. I will tell the American people what I know and don't know, and when I release something publicly or keep something secret, I will tell you why."

Joseph Farah, WND's editor and chief executive officer, reacted to Obama's statement in stunned amazement. "This is a guy who has no trouble turning over sensitive documents from previous administrations, but he still refuses to release for public view something seemingly so innocuous as his own birth certificate," said Farah. "This is a double-standard wide enough to sail the Queen Mary 2 through. Statements like this need to be challenged by a vibrant and free press. And that's what our 'Where's the birth certificate?' billboard campaign is all about."

"AS OBAMA TRANSFORMS THIS COUNTRY FROM SELF-GOVERNING CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC TO ONE GOVERNED BY A CENTRAL RULING ELITE, the simple fact remains that no controlling legal authority has established that he is indeed a 'natural born citizen' as the Constitution requires," Farah said. "Obama's promises of transparency have become a bad joke as he continues to hide simple, innocuous documents like his birth certificate and his student records." THE IDEA BEHIND THE BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN IS TO MAKE SURE OBAMA CANNOT AVOID THIS QUESTION ANY LONGER.