Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England The world is facing the worst financial crisis since at least the 1930s “if not ever”, the Governor of the Bank of England said last night. Sir Mervyn King was speaking after the decision by the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to put £75billion of newly created money into the economy in a desperate effort to stave off a new credit crisis and a UK... 

The Home Secretary’s plan to retain the DNA of people charged but then cleared of offences may breach human rights law, a group of MPs and peers have said. A “catch-all” discretionary power to allow police to hold the DNA of innocent people indefinitely for reasons of “national security” should also be scrapped, the Joint Committee on Human Rights [JCHR] said. Its report on the Protection... 

Charged with numerous counts of child molesting including murder, Sergey Kutnyuk was sentenced by Sverdlovsk Region Court to life imprisonment. The Russian parliament has approved a law on pedophilia in a first reading. From now on people found guilty of sex crimes against children under the age of 14 will face chemical castration, while repeat offenders face a life sentence. ­According to the new... 

Lithuania's Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis Lithuania’s top diplomat urged Moscow on Tuesday to start considering the issue of compensation for the Soviet-era “occupation” of his country. “I have encouraged Russia to open a dialogue on the joint evaluation of the past, the restoration of justice, compensation for the occupation, and problems of the investigation of crimes... 

A grim Federal Security Services (FSB) report on Prime Minister Putin’s plan to meet China’s leader Hu Jintao [both pictured top photo right] in Beijing next week warns that both Russian and Chinese military forces are being placed on their ‘highest alert’ in anticipation of a massive land invasion believed being planned by the United States of both the Middle East and Central Asia. The plans... 

London’s elite real estate reached another maximum level in September. The average price on a real estate object in the British capital hit the level of 3.968 million pounds sterling. This is 4.5% higher than before the crisis in March 2008. Houses and apartments in London became 11.4% more expensive within a year. In comparison with March 2009, the prices have grown by 37.2%. London remains... 

Putin wants to further globalize the world by creating a union similar to the European Union, the Eurasian Union. Vladimir Putin has proposed the creation of a new international power nexus between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region in an article in the Izvestia daily. According to the Voice of Russia, the Eurasian Union is Putin’s priority. The Izvestia article, published on Tuesday, mainly... 

Is greed good? Research from the U.S. suggests inequality in a culture makes that society stronger Are greedy bankers good for society? Egalitarian civilisations ‘are weaker’ than those with inequality. Shortages of food affected the poor more, but the upper classes were able to maintain hierarchies. In equal societies everyone suffered the same, making those cultures less able to adapt... 

Britain’s Indian Summer is set to be abruptly interrupted as Hurricane Ophelia’s remnants bring four days of gales and torrential rains across the country. The hurricane, currently affecting the United States, is expected to hit with 65mph gusts, potentially rivaling the strength of Hurricane Katia that devastated parts of Britain last month. Jonathan Powell, a senior forecaster at Positive... 

France, Marseille: Pupils wait for entering their classroom at Fraissinet school, on the first day of the school year. Parents and teachers across France are up in arms over new textbooks which carry accounts of French history revised to avoid insulting ethnic minority pupils. They say common sense has been sacrificed to political correctness in French schools. ­Natives of France now fear their identity... 

Kosovo Force KFOR soldiers guard the border crossing Jarinje between Serbia and northern Kosovo Violence has flared again in Northern Kosovo after NATO troops brutally dispersed a crowd of Serbian protesters at a makeshift roadblock, firing live ammunition at peaceful demonstrators, and have now established an armed presence in the area. Over 100 KFOR troops arrived at the scene on Friday and forced... 

Thousands crowd Lisbon's main Liberdade avenue during a demonstration Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011. Thousands of protesters have demonstrated in Portugal against the adopted austerity measures and declining living standards linked to the country’s massive bailout. The country’s largest trade union confederation, the General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers (CGTP), organized the rally... 

The UK is facing the possibility of an additional £2.5 billion annual benefits bill for EU migrants as the European Commission accuses the country of violating EU laws by restricting foreigners’ access to the welfare system. Eurocrats have issued a “reasoned opinion,” giving the UK a two-month deadline to align its legislation with EU law or face court action. The European Commission... 

France is implementing austerity measures with a new budget proposal that would cut government spending for the first time in decades, Press TV reports. The 2012 budget proposal of French President Sarkozy’s government is the first to reduce public spending since World War II. “This was a budget created to please the European commission in Brussels. It stems from the desire to drastically... 

We have received word today from Sister Aleksandra in Moscow that a new Federal Security Services (FSB) report on China’s Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Guo Boxiong, urgent meeting this past week with Prime Minister Putin is now available for us. This report is titled “The Great Event” and is directly related to the “terrifying” top-secret information given to China’s...