Benefit claimants will face lie detector tests and will lose benefits for a month if found guilty of fiddling the system under proposals unveiled by Gordon Brown on the eve of today's Queen's speech.

The "one strike and you're out" proposal is contained in a tough summary of the speech released yesterday by the Cabinet Office. The government is also proposing to give the public clearer information, mainly via the internet, on how criminals are sentenced in local courts. Communities are to be given a bigger role in deciding what form of community punishment local criminals should be forced to undertake.

The proposals mark a break by the prime minister from his focus on the economic crisis for the past five months and suggest he knows he needs to broaden his political agenda if he is to claw back lost votes.

The introduction of a lie detector test for benefit claimants is the most striking shift to a more populist programme, similar to Tony Blair's respect agenda.

So far, 25 local councils administering housing benefit to 500,000 claimants are using "voice risk analysis technology" to test whether a claimant is providing false information.

The government introduced the technology in Harrow, north-west London, last year, but says it plans to make the technology available nationwide. In the first three months of using the technology Harrow saved £300,000, suggesting that levels of benefit fraud may be higher than government estimates. Ministers are cracking down on benefit fraud even though it is officially at its lowest recorded level, down 66% since 2001.

The government currently withdraws 13 weeks of benefit from anyone found making a fraudulent claim twice in five years, but said yesterday it intends to tighten this process by withdrawing four weeks' benefit for first-time fraudsters.

The benefit withdrawal will be taken against both those that suffer an administrative penalty as well as those found guilty in a criminal court. Currently the Department for Work and Pensions seeks court penalties only where the alleged fraud is worth more than £2,000.

In other proposals in the Cabinet Office's paper, the power of public servants to use force may be strengthened. The paper says: "The public looks to healthcare professionals, neighbourhood wardens and teachers to deal with unacceptable behaviour in public places.

"If they are not able to fulfil that role because they are not sure the law is on their side, or because they do not see it as part of their job, that sends the wrong message about what we as a society are prepared to tolerate."

It also suggests most family intervention projects will grow so they reach 20,000 families with the most severe difficulties. The paper also proposes an alcohol code limiting "all you can drink" promotions, and setting conditions on premises in local hotspots.

Lap dancing clubs will be reclassified as sex establishments, allowing councils greater scope to close them.

James Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, was criticised yesterday for plans disclosed on Monday night to tighten the requirements on lone parents and on disabled people to do more to prepare themselves for work or face mounting benefit penalties.

Under Gordon Brown, ministers have played down Blair's respect agenda, believing it played into the theme of a "broken society" promoted by David Cameron. But there have been signs of a rethink over the past three months.

The Cabinet Office paper tries to put the emphasis on fair rules in the context of the credit crunch. It says: "As everyone enters difficult economic times ... fair rules will become more important.

"If people perceive that not everyone is treated equally, that some get preferential treatment, that people who break the rules get away with it, respect for rules is undermined."

The true scale of the maltreatment of children in the UK is revealed by child abuse experts today who say that one in 10 suffers physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect.

Unlike Baby P, who died in Haringey, north London, while on the at-risk register after months of abuse and neglect, most maltreated children are not even referred to the authorities.

Teachers, GPs and paediatricians have no confidence in the ability of social services to make a difference to their lives and fear the child's plight will be made worse if he or she is taken into care and placed in a foster family, they say.

A series of papers published today by the Lancet medical journal in collaboration with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health paints a grim picture of the unseen sufferings of an estimated 1 million children a year in the UK.

Between 4 and 16% of children suffer physical abuse, such as hitting, punching, beating and burning, according to a paper by Ruth Gilbert and colleagues from University College London's Institute of Child Health. The figures come from research in high-income countries, including the UK, which is not thought to differ from the average.

Some 5-10% of girls and 1-5% of boys have been subjected to penetrative sex, usually by a family friend or relative. If sexual abuse is defined more widely - as anything from being shown pornographic magazines to rape - it is estimated that it will include at least 15% of girls and 5% of boys.

Around 10% of children suffer emotional abuse every year, the paper says, which includes persistently being made to feel worthless, unwanted or scared. More still - up to 15% a year - suffer neglect, defined as the failure of their parents or carers to meet the child's basic emotional or physical needs or ensure their safety.

Those like Baby P who are picked up by the social services and placed on the at-risk register are only the tip of the iceberg. The plight of fewer than one in 10 maltreated children is investigated and substantiated by child protection services.

The experts underline a key finding from the case of Baby P - that professionals are not communicating and sharing their suspicions.

Lancet editor Richard Horton said the findings, which had taken a year to reach publication, had "huge significance for considering an appropriate and measured response to the findings around Baby P".

He added: "What this report does emphasise is the extent of the risk factors and consequences of child maltreatment, which are of such complexity that any reflex attempt to apportion blame or think there is a simple solution to this issue is to completely misrepresent the extent and depth of the problem."

The papers also expose the paucity of evidence behind the decisions taken by health professionals and social workers. Far more research is needed into finding out what will prevent a child being abused. "We don't know how effective existing practice is," said Jane Barlow, professor of public health in the early years at Warwick University, co-author of the paper on interventions. "These are some of the most vulnerable children out there in society."

In a Lancet commentary, Dr Horton says the series "will unfortunately not halt the blight of child abuse, because the phenomenon is too common, too surreptitious and too deeply rooted in deprivation and other social ills - but we nonetheless hope to raise awareness of the scientific evidence that is available, and indeed essential, to guide paediatricians and other professionals in their practice with children who might have been abused and to help bring a new logic and clarity to public debate about this contentious area."

The US warned India last month of a pending raid by a Pakistan-based militant group it emerged yesterday, a revelation that will add to public anger over apparent security lapses and missed chances to stop the attack on Mumbai.

Although the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined yesterday to comment on intelligence shared with allies round the world, a serving intelligence source confirmed to the Guardian that a warning had been passed to Indian counterparts.

ABC News also quoted a US intelligence officer saying the warning had been specific, of a potential attack "from the sea against hotels and business centres in Mumbai". The terrorists used boats to land on Mumbai's waterfront before attacking multiple targets which killed 183 people and led India to endure a four-day national nightmare.

Indian intelligence sources told NDTV news yesterday they had issued several warnings about a strike on Mumbai. The latest was issued eight days before the attack, warning that the "sea wing" of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based group accused by India of being behind the attack, was planning to target Mumbai.

India's navy said a "systemic failure" of security and intelligence services led to the attacks in Mumbai, the Press Trust of India reported.

"There is perhaps a (gap) that exists and we will work to sort this out. There is a systemic failure which needs to be taken stock of,", said Admiral Sureesh Mehta.

Fishermen's groups have also claimed their warnings four months ago about militants using sea routes to land RDX explosives in Mumbai, assisted by gangsters, was ignored by the Indian authorities.

Since al-Qaida's attacks of September 11 2001, almost every attack against the west has led to revelations of missed opportunities and intelligence blunders. The Bush administration was accused of missing opportunities to stop the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, the Spanish government was accused of blunders over the Madrid train station bombings and the British government is accused of missing chances to stop the July 7 2005 bombing of London's transport network.

But Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA head of counter-terrorism, said yesterday the information passed on by the US was not specific. "They provided some sketchy intelligence in October that Lashkar-e-Taiba was getting ready to increase anti-Indian activity. Mumbai was mentioned because hotels kept coming up," he said.

Hasan Gafoor, Mumbai's police commissioner, echoed Cannistraro yesterday, saying: "There was no specific intelligence."

Disclosure of the US warning came as Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, was due to arrive in Delhi to try to reduce tension between India and Pakistan.

The Pakistan government was yesterday deciding how to react to India's demand that it hand over 20 people linked to terrorism as the two countries fight a battle for world opinion after the attacks on Mumbai. Delhi handed over the list after summoning Pakistan's high commissioner to its foreign ministry.

India's foreign minister said yesterday that military action was not being considered which was taken as meaning Delhi would concentrate on diplomatic means to press Pakistan to act against militants whom it claims were linked to the attacks. But Pranab Mukherjee appeared to backtrack later, saying: "I am neither making any comment on military options. What I am saying is every sovereign country has its right to protect its territorial integrity and take appropriate action as and when it feels necessary."

India is expected to outline its case against Pakistan to Rice, based on intercepts and the testimony of the only terrorist captured alive. Amid widespread anger at the political class, Mukherjee publicly confirmed the first concrete demand aimed at Pakistan after the attacks: "We have in our demarche [diplomatic protest], asked for the arrest and handover of those persons who are settled in Pakistan and who are fugitive of Indian law," he said.

In Mumbai both hotels turned into killing grounds have started repairs as they race to reopen. Yesterday the Oberoi Trident hotel said it hoped to start accepting guests in a fortnight.

"Guests will come back to the hotel they knew," Ketaki Narain, a spokeswoman for the Oberoi group, said.

The Taj Mahal Palace hotel has appointed a team headed by a structural engineer to help restore it to how it was before the attack.

The hotel's lobby featured paintings by the renowned Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain which were damaged in the shootout.

Indian media quoted Husain as announcing he would paint again: "I have decided to paint a series of paintings condemning the attack. I am sure some day the Taj will regain its glory and I hope to show these paintings there," he said.

The Metropolitan police conducted a search of Damian Green's parliamentary office last week after being told by the Cabinet Office that a series of leaks to the shadow minister could have posed a threat to national security.

Minutes after the Tories intensified the pressure on the police last night by releasing a short video showing the "rigorous" search, the Met hit back by highlighting the seriousness of the operation.

Sources said their investigation was prompted by a request from the Cabinet Office, whose officials told the police that the "systematic series of leaks" from the private office of the home secretary were so serious that they could pose a threat to national security. Police sources said this explained their decision to take the step - unprecedented in recent history - of arresting Green and searching his parliamentary office.

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, outlined the thinking in a letter last night to Dominic Grieve, her Tory shadow. She wrote: "Given the sensitive issues that the Home Office deals with - including matters of national security - there was a clear duty to take action to prevent leaks from happening."

Whitehall sources said national security fears were raised even though none of the four Home Office documents released to the press by Green was related to the issue. They said the systematic nature of the leaks, and the fact they originated from the home secretary's private office, raised fears that a mole with access to national security documents was at large.

The decision by the police to intensify the pressure on the Tories came minutes after the party released a short video showing police officers searching Green's office last week. This was released at 6pm to secure maximum coverage on the television news bulletins in an attempt to set the scene for a parliamentary battle with the government and the Commons authorities today when MPs return for the Queen's speech.

MPs across the Commons are threatening to disrupt the political debate following the speech if the Speaker, Michael Martin, whose officials sanctioned the search, fails to give an adequate account when he addresses MPs at 2.30pm.

The video, which the Tories released hours after the Met announced a review into Green's arrest, shows Andrew Mackay, the veteran Tory MP who is David Cameron's senior parliamentary adviser, walking into Green's office at 2.35pm last Thursday where three police officers, their faces obscured, are carrying out the search. One police officer wearing purple plastic gloves operates a large camera.

Mackay shows his parliamentary pass to the senior officer before asking the police to explain what they are doing. The officer shepherds Mackay out the office, saying: "Can you turn that camera off? Can I just ask you to leave, is that possible? This is currently a scene we are going to search and it is not appropriate that you be in here."

Mackay asks if they are sure and then leaves.

Cameron last night held talks with Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, to coordinate their response when the Commons reconvenes today. Harriet Harman, leader of the Commons, who has expressed concern at the arrest of Green, is keen to allocate government time for a debate. She will wait for the Speaker's statement before making an announcement.

The home secretary hopes to make a statement to MPs tomorrow before she opens the Queen's speech debate on law and order that has been brought forward from Monday at the request of the Tories. Smith went on the offensive last night by accusing Grieve of taking a cavalier approach to leaks. "To assert that the systematic leaking of government material is not serious if it does not relate to national security, as you and David Cameron have done, is not just a cavalier attitude to take. It is a wholly irresponsible one and entirely unfit for those who seek to hold high office."

Grieve tabled a 34-point freedom of information request to the home secretary last night to try to verify her account of her role in the affair.

Last night Sir Gus O'Donnell, cabinet secretary and Britain's top civil servant, delivered a thinly veiled warning to Whitehall officials over their duty to serve the government. It was vital for the operation of the civil service that individuals put aside their "political beliefs" and kept the "confidence" of ministers, he said. "All civil servants serve the government of the day. We are politically impartial and our actions are governed by the civil service code," he said at an awards ceremony in Birmingham to recognise equality and diversity in the service.

The video was released as the acting commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir Paul Stephenson, announced an urgent review of Scotland Yard's handling of the affair.

Police forces across Britain have reopened a series of unsolved murder cases involving young women after an itinerant handyman was convicted yesterday of raping and killing a schoolgirl who went missing 17 years ago.

Peter Tobin, 62, was given a life sentence for murder after a jury found him guilty of abducting, raping and murdering Vicky Hamilton, 15, who disappeared in the centre of Bathgate, near Edinburgh, in February 1991. Her body was dug up in the back garden of Tobin's former home in Margate, Kent, last year.

Detectives are understood to be re-examining at least four cases involving missing girls and women after drawing up a detailed profile of Tobin's life and movements since he was born near Paisley, Renfrewshire, in 1946.

Tobin is already serving life for the rape and murder of Angelika Kluk, a Polish student. Her body was discovered bound and gagged under the floor of a Catholic church in Glasgow in September 2006, where Tobin had been working as a handyman under an assumed name.

Detective Supt David Swindle, of Strathclyde police, said yesterday that Tobin had travelled extensively across Britain during his life and police were working on "any potential links between Tobin's movements and outstanding missing females or victims of crime". The detective said no house searches were planned but that might change "should the intelligence and evidence warrant it".

Detective Chief Supt Malcolm Graham, head of CID at Lothian and Borders police, told reporters before Tobin's conviction that police across the UK were re-examining unsolved cases. There had been "information-sharing with a variety of other forces throughout the UK", he said, and that would continue "to establish whether Peter Tobin had committed any other crimes".

The jury in Dundee took less than two and a half hours to deliver the guilty verdict yesterday. It was greeted with cries of "yes" from Vicky's family and friends. Her father, Michael, shouted "rot in hell" as the judge, Lord Emslie, sentenced Tobin to a minimum of 30 years in jail.

Lord Emslie told Tobin he was guilty of a "truly evil" crime, adding: "Yet again you have shown yourself to be unfit to live in a decent society." He continued: "It is hard for me to convey the loathing and revulsion that ordinary people will feel for what you have done. Abducting and killing a child on her way home from a happy weekend with her sister and then desecrating her body must rank among the most evil and horrific acts."

Tobin was also convicted in 1994 of raping and sexually assaulting two girls aged 14 and 15 at his flat in Havant, Hampshire, after he drugged them with the sedative amitriptyline - the same drug found in Vicky's remains - and gave them alcohol.

In a joint statement read out by her sister, Lindsay Brown, Vicky's family thanked the jury, prosecutors and police. "Vicky was much more than a girl who was abducted and killed by a stranger, or the girl on a 'missing' poster. Our sister was a warm, clever, generous girl who shared many happy years with us.

"We will always remember Vicky as she lived, not as she died."

Vicky's dismembered body was recovered, wrapped in layers of plastic bags, from a carefully dug pit in the garden of Tobin's former home in Margate in November last year after Lothian and Borders police uncovered DNA evidence linking him to her disappearance.

Forensic tests on Vicky's purse, which was found in Edinburgh shortly after she disappeared, disclosed that Tobin's son, Daniel, then aged three, appeared to have bitten it while staying with his father in Bathgate. Further tests on a knife hidden in the attic of the house in Bathgate, found after police searched the property last year, detected a fragment of human tissue that belonged to Vicky. Four of Tobin's fingerprints were also found on one of the plastic bags covering her remains in Margate, and partial DNA fragments similar to Tobin's detected on her body.

Tobin had denied all the charges and claimed he had been in Portsmouth on the day Vicky disappeared. His defence advocate, Donald Findlay QC, told the jury there was "not one solitary scrap" of evidence that Tobin had met, abducted or killed her.

The entrance to Craters restaurant is guarded by a phalanx of bombshells, each as big as a man. Opposite, the Dokkhoune hotel boasts an even finer warhead collection. For tourists who have not cottoned on, the Lao town of Phonsavanh lies at the heart of the most cluster-bombed province of the most bombed country on earth.

The haul of unexploded ordnance (UXO) is just a taster of that littering the countryside, or sitting in vast piles around homes and scrapyards. The deadly harvest from the US bombing of this landlocked country 30 years ago in the so-called "secret war" as the real battle raged in next-door Vietnam has become big business. Steel prices that surged on the back of soaring demand from China's go-go economy drove up scrap prices five-fold in eight years in impoverished Laos. It sent subsistence rice farmers, struggling make to ends meet amid spiralling food and fuel prices, scurrying into their fields in search of the new "cash crop".

But it comes at a high price. At least 13,000 people have been killed or maimed, either digging in fields contaminated with live bombs or, increasingly, in their quest for lucrative scrap metal. Half the casualties are young boys, most killed by exploding tennis-ball-sized cluster bomblets - christened "bombies" locally - that are everywhere.

The scale of the contamination is mind-boggling. Laos was hit by an average of one B-52 bomb-load every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973. US bombers dropped more ordnance on Laos in this period than was dropped during the whole of the second world war. Of the 260m "bombies" that rained down, particularly on Xieng Khouang province, 80m failed to explode, leaving a deadly legacy.

Overwhelmed by the immensity of the clear-up, Laos - which has dealt with just 400,000 unexploded munitions - had resisted the signing today in Oslo of a treaty banning cluster bombs and demanding that remnants be cleared within 10 years. But the country has had a rethink and will now be a key player in the ceremony.

For Laos it could be a godsend, focusing world attention on its plight and bringing international resources to tackle the problem. With 37% of agricultural ground made unsafe by unexploded munitions in a nation where four-fifths of people farm the land, the scourge has stifled development.

Yet farmers eking out a living below the dollar-a-day poverty line have no choice. Bombs unearthed as they gingerly peck at the soil are planted around, or moved to the side of the field.

"In the end the Lao people regard lack of food as much greater threat than unexploded bombs," said David Hayter, the Lao country director of British-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG). "It's just that each UXO death is marked by a big bang, but deaths from lack of food or poor water are less noticeable."

Fatalistic acceptance of the danger is fostered by familiarity. Bomb remains are fashioned into everyday items: cluster-bomb casings become fencing; houses perch on stilts crafted from 500lb bombs; mortars with fins are used as table lamps. "People's familiarity is the most striking thing for me," said Jo Pereira, an occupational therapist with the Lao charity Cope, which fits UXO victims with prosthetic limbs. "They've lived with it for so long. Much of it is in their houses. Children think 'we've got those at home' and don't see the risks."

So when scrap metal prices rocketed many saw it as a heaven-sent opportunity to boost meagre incomes. For those unable to grow enough rice to feed their families throughout the year, there is little choice but to collect UXO scrap despite the dangers.

"People have lived with this for two generations," said Gregory Cathcart, an MAG programme officer. "They don't view it as risky. It's simply a cash crop. The problem is the main scrap on the surface is gone, so they've to dig it up which is extremely dangerous."

Cheap Vietnamese metal detectors costing as little as £7.36 boost the business. Landless families have turned full-time scrap collectors, earning up to £2.70 a day if they unearth six or seven kilos. Stumble on half a cluster bomb casing of "best Detroit steel" and they hit pay-dirt, worth £20 to £27.

No such luck for Sher Ya, 25. He plonks a plastic bag of bullet casings on the scrap dealer's scales and anxiously eyes the needle. His teenage brother dredged the shells from their village rice field. It earns a welcome 40p. "My family grows only enough rice for six months," he said. "So when we're not planting or harvesting we collect bomb scraps. It's scary, but we've no choice."

The trade is so lucrative that scrap dealers ferry collectors by truck to virgin forests every day. Sypha Phommachan, 45, need not to go to such lengths. Farmers around Thajok village beat a path to the scrap dealer's door. A pile of fragments, casings, and mortars is all she had left after the foundry took away nearly eight tonnes a few days before.

"That took me about three weeks to collect," she said. "That's quite slow because it's the rice harvest season and people are busy farming. In a couple of months they'll be out furiously collecting to raise cash for the Hmong festival." Yet she carefully inspects the bomb harvest, rejecting live munitions. She knows the risks. In the six years she has lived in the village, 10 people have been killed collecting scrap. One 50-year-old man died three months ago when he tossed half a "bombie" he believed safe into the wicker basket on his back. It exploded and the ball-bearings it threw out went clean through his chest, killing him instantly.

Today's treaty banning the stockpile and use of cluster munitions is due to be signed by 107 countries - including the UK, which has been the third biggest user. Those holding out include the US, China, Russia and Israel.

But Richard Moyes, co-chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition, is confident that the convention will change the climate. "We sense we'll see a dramatic decline in cluster munitions use even among states that don't sign."

On one side there is an ageing crooner in a cardigan and on the other an impish TV presenter who favours wooden beads. It is Countdown vs Top Gear with Des O'Connor versus Richard Hammond - and the man known as The Hamster is winning hands down.

Hammond and O'Connor are going head-to-head as the Christmas TV faces of two of the UK's biggest supermarkets, and O'Connor's Tesco is now trailing way behind Hammond's Morrisons. Tesco, the UK's biggest retailer, yesterday revealed its worst sales figures for 14 years. Like-for-like sales - which exclude gains from new stores - were ahead just 2% in the last three months, or half the growth achieved in the previous quarter.

In an unusually gloomy quarterly trading update, Tesco's chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy, blamed the economic downturn: "We are pleased with our progress, but we are also realistic - the current economic climate and the strain this is putting on consumers everywhere is something that all businesses are feeling, including ours." But not all supermarkets are as gloomy. Bradford-based Morrisons is - so far - storming through the recession. Tomorrow it is expected to reveal recent sales up around 7.5% on last year - maintaining much the same impressive rate of growth as it reported three months ago.

Tesco's performance is also markedly worse than its rivals Sainsbury and Asda. Sainsbury - which has hired "I'm a Celebrity ..." hosts Ant and Dec to star in its adverts alongside its usual frontman Jamie Oliver - last month revealed like-for-like sales up 3.9%. Meanwhile Asda, which is reflecting the new austerity by shunning celebrities and filming traditional family Christmas ads in the Yorkshire Dales, grew 6.9% in the three months to the end of September. But Morrisons is now top of the pile, pulling in thousands of new shoppers every week, especially in the south-east, where it was almost unheard of until a couple of years ago.

The Morrisons empire, built by Sir Ken Morrison, was always a fiercely Yorkshire business. But it descended into chaos, with tumbling sales and profits after it took over its larger rival Safeway. Shareholders demanded a management shake-up and Marc Bolland was installed as chief executive, even though he had spent his career working for Dutch brewer Heineken and had never run a shop. Bolland did, however, understand marketing.

The stores were given a new green and yellow look and out went the outmoded "More reasons to shop at Morrisons" adverts. In their place Bolland brought in a raft of celebrities - Denise van Outen, Lulu, Alan Hansen, Nick Hancock and, more recently, Richard Hammond.

The TV adverts now concentrate on image, while press adverts go toe-to-toe with Tesco and the others on price. One retail executive said: "It was an old-fashioned grocer competing with the slicker marketing of rivals. The new Bolland empire has given the brand a slick new look and feel. He has taken the brand and the business and given it a polish". It is, however, far too soon to write off Tesco. Yesterday's poor sales figures were actually slightly better than most City experts had predicted, and its shares rose. The grocer, which accounts for £1 out of every £7 spent on the UK high street, decided months ago that a full-scale recession was on its way and, in a bid to stop bargain-hunting shoppers drifting away to discount outlets such as Aldi and Lidl, launched its own range of Discounter goods.

In September, some 350 new lines - from Shampoo to curry sauce and teabags - went onto Tesco's shelves. The range was the biggest since Tesco launched its Value label in the last recession, with prices higher than Value, but lower than the premium, proprietary brands and the grocer's standard own-label equivalents. The supermarket rebranded itself as "Britain's biggest discounter" and the bargain range has been expanded to 800 products. Yesterday's lower sales figures, said Tesco, are a direct result of introducing these lower-priced goods. "We think this is the right strategy to help our business and our customers through the tougher times ahead."

According to Tesco, the new range is pulling in 300,000 new customers a week and now accounts for 5% of everything that goes through its tills. At the same time, sales of higher-priced organic foods and the grocer's Finest upmarket heat-and-eat meals has gone into reverse. Aside from the impact of the discount range, the big supermarkets are currently locked in a fierce price war. For retailers, discounting means selling more just to stand still.

City analysts were yesterday divided over exactly whether Tesco was cleverly planning for the future, or falling out of favour. Oriel Securities said it was obvious that shoppers were switching to Tesco's lower-priced Discounter range "but in general we are seeing a waning in the UK's love affair with the market leader".

But another from broker Cazenove, said the data showed Tesco "is back on the front foot in the UK and is ahead of its competitors in preparing for battle fought in a deflationary world".

One of Prince Charles's allies in his battle against modern architecture has attacked the "disappointing to dismal" design of British postwar towns.

Sparking anger among architects, Andres Duany flew in from America and yesterday unveiled a 64-point litany of mistakes made by British architects and planners over the last 50 years.

He accused architects of being "infantile" in pursuing ego-driven visions and said they were "heedless of technical and social dysfunction and widespread lack of popularity" caused by their designs.

Duany is one of the original designers of Poundbury, the prince's new town in Dorset, and said the leading lights of modernist architecture including Richard Rogers, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Peter Eisenman were "increasingly irrelevant".

He called on architects and planners to step aside and allow a new generation of amateurs to lead development in the 21st century.

The broadside was met by a vociferous response from leading modern architects who have become used to regular disputes with the prince and his allies. Sunand Prasad, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, said Duany was "living in another world".

He conceded that architects' craft skills and traditional knowledge had been swept aside too easily between the 1950s and 1970s, but said architects were now building the "highest performance" buildings ever.

Duany's outburst, will reignite a battle between architects who believe in modernism and his own "church" of new urbanism, which argues that towns should be built to strict codes, often based on traditional design.

Duany used new urbanism to design Seaside, the Florida community which provided the backdrop to the film The Truman Show, and Charles has embraced the principles of new urbanism on projects to design new settlements from Newquay, Cornwall to Llandarcy, near Neath.

His intervention was timed to coincide with the unveiling of a masterplan for Hertfordshire, his most ambitious UK scheme yet. In it he advocates a new town and a series of garden villages built on open land in which residents would be obliged to grow fruit and vegetables for market.

"It is inexplicable why architects and planners continue to pursue radical innovation as if it were 1945 every morning," he said.

"Only architecture, confusing itself with fashion as a platform for cultural expression, continues to be avant garde, heedless of its cost overruns, social and technical dysfunction and widespread lack of popularity."

He cited "gratuitous shapes" in buildings such as winged roofs which quickly go out of fashion, "amazingly rude" colours on shop signs which "are just a vulgar way to attract attention" and civic buildings that "look common" when they should be grand.

Out-of-town retail parks, excessive road signage and "placeless architecture that could be anywhere in the world" were also criticised. Duany advocates a return to "matter of fact architecture" as exemplified by the traditional English village.

Prasad said it was "obviously untrue" that the majority of architects want to express themselves regardless of context. "It is not so much the innovation and the ego that is causing the problem," he said.

"It is the commercial pressure to build large on sites which can't take it; it is the haphazard development of towns and the widespread confusion over our democratic planning process."

Prasad said many of Duany's complaints seemed to stem from the decision to build a car-based society, and the way highways engineers took control of urban design.

"It was wrong to aim for a society dominated by cars," he said.

"But most architects and planners have moved on, so he is really railing against a problem that doesn't exist anymore."

What not to do

• Avoid fashionable architecture - buildings that are obsessively of our time will be out of date too soon

• Civic buildings should be grand and private buildings should recede into the background

• Avoid overly transparent facades - mess inside a building looks like an unkempt yard

• Avoid many buildings by one designer - diversity is the hallmark of a great place

• Avoid meandering streets - excessive curves confuse and aggravate

• Avoid gated-off estates - they undermine social interaction

• Avoid businesses in the suburbs - every job means one less person to enliven a town centre

Anti-government protesters in Thailand signalled the end of their siege of Bangkok's international airport yesterday, hours after a court disbanded the ruling party and banned the prime minister from office. The People's Alliance for Democracy, which had demanded that the prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, quit and the government step down, claimed victory and said it would today end its week-long sit-in, which has left 300,000 foreign travellers stranded.

But uncertainty surrounded the resumption of flights at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international airport. The airport director said he could not decide the restart date until sensitive systems had been examined.

The sudden end to the dramatic standoff that has paralysed the country's lucrative tourist industry caught observers by surprise. The court's decision is unlikely to dramatically alter Thailand's political landscape, which is riven with divisions.

The ruling also raised the spectre of street violence after government supporters angered by the judges' decision surrounded the Bangkok court and refused to allow the judiciary to leave. Hours earlier a grenade was thrown at Bangkok's barricaded domestic terminal, Don Muang, killing one demonstrator and injuring 22.

Judges from the constitutional court found the People Power party (PPP) and two senior coalition partners guilty of electoral fraud for vote buying in last December's general election and barred the prime minister from office for five years. Another 59 executives from the three parties were also banned from political office, among them 24 MPs who will have to resign their seats.

Immediately after the decision to disband the PPP and the Machima Thipatai and Chart Thai parties, Somchai said he would abide by the rule of law and stand aside, describing it as "not a problem. I was not working for myself. Now I will be a full time citizen".

The ruling coalition's six parties immediately said they would reform under a new banner, a move not barred by the constitution. The PPP's surviving MPs are to join Puea Thai (For Thailand) and choose a new prime minister next week.

But the PAD leadership embraced the court's decision, perhaps grabbing an opportunity to save face and remove itself from the airport siege that has seen its backing among Thailand's metropolitan monarchist-elite dwindling.

"We have finished our duty," said the PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul, who had branded the government a proxy of the ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. "If a puppet government returns or a new government shows its insincerity in pushing for political reform, we will return."

The warning and the government supporters' decision to continue their own protests against yesterday's court ruling herald the prospect of further turmoil, though both sides will take a breather for King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 81st birthday celebrations in two days.

"The divisions are so deep, it's difficult to see how it could be over," said Giles Ungpakhorn, a political analyst at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, who described the court ruling as a "judicial coup" to strip the PPP of power.

But for the tourists stranded by the stalemate that began a week ago, the departure of the thousands of PAD supporters comes as a huge relief. The first cargo aircraft left Suvarnabhumi yesterday afternoon after an agreement with the PAD, helping to reduce the economic distress of lost export earnings costing Thailand £53m each day.

The acting head of Thailand's airports authority, Serirat Prasutanont, said he would be able to make a statement later today about when Suvarnabhumi could return to normal.

The business secretary, Peter Mandelson, will set out plans for a new age of "industrial activism" when he gives the annual Hugo Young memorial lecture today, saying the government must do more to support services and manufacturing for after the recession, when the country will be "an even tougher place to do business in".

In the Guardian lecture, Mandelson will take a break from his department's current preoccupation with getting the banks to resume lending to paint a picture of Britain on "the other side" of the recession. He will say: "We will get through the downturn. But on the other side we will encounter an even tougher place to do business in and we need to be fully prepared."

Mandelson will sketch out a new doctrine of "market-driven industrial activism" to ready the economy. Aides describe this as a model that would see the government, in partnership with the private sector, driving what they call "available streams of the economy" to support growth sectors. Low-carbon technology, civil nuclear plans and high-tech manufacturing are all likely to be boosted.

Today's speech will build on a defence of Britain's manufacturing base the business secretary mounted last week at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), in which he said he "hated" Britain being described as a "post-industrial economy" since the UK was the sixth-largest manufacturer by output. Though the future for the country may not lie with "mills and smokestacks", he told the CBI, it lay with the "next industrial revolution and the low-carbon and post-carbon technologies that will define the 21st century."

According to the Purchasing Managers Index published on Monday, British manufacturing shrank in November at the fastest rate since records began in 1992, making it the third month in a row to see a record decline. In October the CBI said optimism among British manufacturers was at its lowest level for three decades.

Today Mandelson will defend the government against claims its industrial policies were becoming overly statist, something critics say repudiates the modernisation platform on which Labour was elected in 1997.

He will say: "For New Labour this is a critical moment to renew and think further about how Britain adapts to globalisation and the tougher economic challenge we are facing. Not to retreat from the strong and abiding commitment to open economies and free markets that New Labour made in 1994. Certainly not to be hubristic that big government is back: I don't believe it is or should be. But to define urgently what smart government can do to resolve not just the present crisis but to guarantee Britain's future prosperity."

Mandelson will also acknowledge the government's attempts to steer business through the recession may have frustrated some. He will say: "While the government is doing a lot to back enterprise and support entrepreneurs, some of its efforts appear to business as insufficiently joined up and often overlapping."

Last night a business department spokesman said rights to flexible working would be going ahead. The business secretary caused controversy only three weeks into his job when he announced a review of the rights, on account of businesses fearing they would be unable to afford it during a downturn. Yesterday an aide said the review had wrapped up and they were "happy for it to go ahead".

It will not be included in the Queen's speech tomorrow since it does not require primary legislation.

Radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada yesterday had his bail revoked and was returned to indefinite detention in a maximum security prison pending the outcome of a legal battle over his deportation to Jordan.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac), in effect Britain's national security court, ruled that evidence from the security services, heard in secret, had convinced them there was now an increased risk of Qatada absconding.

Qatada, described by a Spanish judge as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, was released on bail in June to live with his family in west London under a 22-hour curfew after the court of appeal ruled it was unsafe to return him to Jordan.

The preacher has spent three and half years in maximum security jails since he was first declared a risk to national security in January 2001 on the grounds that he encouraged other extremists to commit acts of terrorism by providing religious sanction for them.

The immigration judges said their decision to revoke his bail was based on the evidence they had heard in secret: "The secretary of state relies on information contained in the closed case to justify the revocation of bail." This remains confidential and is only spelled out in a separate "closed" unpublished judgment.

The "open" version published yesterday said none of the reasons put forward by the Home Office in the public sessions of the commission's two-day hearing would justify the revocation of his bail. These included the seizure at his home of memory cards, MP3 players, computer discs and videotapes.

They also rejected security service arguments that the publication of a message from a senior al-Qaida figure on a website in July, appealing to religious scholars to return to the "battlefield", and the pending government appeal to the House of Lords against the decision not to deport him also increased the risk of him absconding.

The judges said it has been a long-standing assessment of the security services that Qatada, also known as Mohammad Othman, is a senior religious extremist with links to al-Qaida and these factors in themselves did not justify revoking bail.

Before the Siac hearing it had been reported that Qatada was trying to flee the country but Mr Justice Mitting, sitting with two other judges, said the cleric's declared interest in renouncing Jordanian citizenship and attempting to go to the country of his birth, Palestine, did not amount to a breach of bail. They said they did not regard as significant the fact he had not formally notified the Home Office of attempts on his behalf to find a third country, other than Jordan, willing to take him.

"If the appellant identifies a state or territory willing to receive him, and seeks to put into effect his declared wish to go there, he will be fulfilling the obligation imposed on him by the deportation order to depart the United Kingdom ... We do not, however, see any realistic prospect that either of these two possibilities will be open to him in the near or medium term," they added.

During the hearing Qatada's barrister, Edward Fitzgerald QC, said his lawyer, Gareth Peirce, and writer Victoria Brittain had been involved in the initial attempts to find a country willing to take him.

The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said she was pleased Qatada's bail had been revoked: "He poses a significant threat to our national security and I am pleased that he will be detained pending his deportation, which I'm working hard to secure."

Qatada was in Belmarsh prison in east London last night but is expected to be moved to Long Lartin maximum security

The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, is refusing to back down over a decision to let out its congress hall this Friday to a British company whose suppliers are alleged to use sweatshop labour in Bangladesh to manufacture cheap T shirts.

This is despite pressure from two general secretaries and Labour MPs who want him to cancel the event. A letter published in today's Guardian attacks the TUC for allowing Associated British Foods, owners of the clothing group Primark, to hold its annual meeting on Friday. The letter has been organised by No Sweat, a campaigning organisation against sweated labour and the exploitation of migrant workers.

Some 106 people, including two general secretaries, five Labour MPs, former minister Tony Benn and comedian Mark Thomas, have signed the letter. It says: "It is embarrassing for trade unionists in the UK to see the supreme body of British trade unionism benefit from Primark's profits, particularly as the AGM coincides with the No Sweat speaker tour, which features a delegation from National Garment Workers Federation of Bangladesh.

"This time last year, Primark was believed to be sourcing clothes from a factory chain in Bangladesh, which forced its workers to work 14-hour shifts for as little as 4p an hour. When workers have organised against these appalling conditions, they were met with severe state repression. Trade unionism in Bangladesh remains illegal. In this sense, a portion of ABF's profits come as a direct result of the merciless violence with which the Bangladeshi state enforces its anti-trade union laws and at the direct expense of our brothers and sisters in the NGWF. We hope that you will do all you can to stop the forthcoming AGM in the spirit of international workers' solidarity. If it continues to go ahead then No Sweat will be calling on trade unionists in London to picket the TUC building on December 5."

Last night the TUC stood by its decision. A spokesman said: "Associated British Foods has made a commercial booking to hold its AGM in the TUC's conference facilities. This is not a Primark event. ABF is a unionised company with good relations with UK unions. The TUC has a proud record of campaigning for vulnerable workers in the UK and developing countries. We believe in constructive engagement with companies. We welcome ABF's membership of the Ethical Trading Initiative and have used that opportunity to press concerns about supply chain issues - including in Bangladesh."

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said yesterday: "We need to raise the bar on what are acceptable standards. Just because a company recognises trades unions in the UK does not mean we should pass over exploitation and abuse of labour standards in China or other overseas territories. Primark has a very poor reputation on labour standards at overseas suppliers'" he claimed. "The TUC's rental policy needs to be changed to exclude the likes of Primark."

If the meeting goes ahead the GMB and the National Union of Journalists are likely to ask for change in the rules governing the letting of TUC premises.

The US suffered a setback yesterday when their west European Nato allies forced a resumption of contacts between the alliance and Russia and stalled Nato-membership bids from Georgia and Ukraine.

A meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels agreed to reopen contacts with Moscow, frozen in protest at Russia's invasion and partition of Georgia last August. Despite US pressure, the meeting also declined to hasten Nato applications from Georgia and Ukraine.

The meeting agreed on a "conditional and graduated re-engagement with Russia", said the Nato secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, adding that the liaison body known as the Nato-Russia Council would also resume sessions.

He stressed this was not "business as usual" with Moscow, but the decision to restore contacts coincided with the EU resuming negotiations with Russia on a new strategic pact which were called off because of the Georgia conflict.

"The moment has arrived to renew negotiations with Russia," said Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister.

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, cautioned against restoring links, but appeared to have lost the argument.

A Nato summit last April split over Georgia's and Ukraine's membership bids, with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, prevailing over George Bush when the alliance refused to award the two post-Soviet countries the membership action plans that are the roadmaps to joining.

The Bucharest summit sent mixed signals and arguably helped to spark the August conflict. Yesterday's meeting indicated that the transatlantic rift has widened because of that conflict, with both sides to the dispute feeling vindicated.

The family of Jean Charles de Menezes walked out of his inquest yesterday as the coroner ruled the jury was forbidden from considering whether he was unlawfully killed.

Sir Michael Wright said he did not believe the testimony justified him allowing them to return a verdict which was tantamount to accusing police officers of murder or manslaughter.

As the De Menezes family and their supporters walked out the coroner said he knew the jury's hearts would go out to the dead man's mother, Maria Otone de Menezes. "But these are emotional reactions, ladies and gentlemen, and you are charged with returning a verdict based on evidence," he said.

"Put aside any emotion - put them to one side."

Over the 10 weeks of the hearing jurors have heard from 100 witnesses, including the two specialist firearms officers, C12 and C2, who shot dead the Brazilian at point-blank range on a carriage at Stockwell station in London on July 22 2005.

For the first time, the public was given a full account of the incident from key witnesses on board the underground carriage where the shooting took place.

Police mistakenly believed he was Hussain Osman, one of a group of would-be suicide bombers who had attempted to set off bombs on a number of tube trains and a bus the previous day. De Menezes was living in a block of flats connected to one of the July 21 bombers.

The coroner is likely to send the jury out today with the instruction to consider a verdict of lawful killing or an open verdict. They have also been asked to answer a series of questions: yes, no or don't know.

In his legal ruling to the jury before he sent them out to deliberate, Wright said they could not find the firearms officers who fired the fatal shots or senior officers coordinating the operation liable under criminal or civil law for the death because inquest law prohibited any jury returning a verdict that would lay the blame at the door of an individual or individuals.

He told the court he had listened to submissions from the legal teams for all the parties before making his decision. "After hearing the submissions the conclusion that I have come to is that the evidence in this case taken at its highest would not justify my leaving verdicts of unlawful killing to you," he said.

"This is so in respect of C12 and C2 concerning their direct involvement in shooting Mr De Menezes and also in respect of any of the particular senior officers in relation to their management and conduct of the operation."

Wright said the decision did not indicate police did nothing wrong on July 22 2005, but he said all interested persons agreed that a verdict of unlawful killing could only be considered if jurors could be sure a very serious crime, such as murder or manslaughter, had been committed to a criminal standard of proof, ie beyond all reasonable doubt.

Even if the jury concluded that a number of people made different mistakes which together resulted in the shooting of De Menezes, unlawful killing should also not be considered.

Explaining his decision he said: "The accusation that is made against C2 and C12 on behalf of the family is an allegation of murder. That is to say the deliberate killing of another human being without any lawful excuse; that is the allegation of murder.

"The response of the two officers to that accusation is that they were acting in lawful defence of themselves and of many other people in that they fired their weapons in order to prevent detonation of body-borne, improvised explosive devices."

He said that given the evidence did not amount to proving a verdict of unlawful killing, the jury must consider lawful killing first and then an open verdict. They should find that De Menezes was lawfully killed if they believed it was probable he died by "deliberate application of force against him" and that the person causing the injuries used reasonable force in self-defence or defence of another person, or to prevent a crime, or to assist in lawful arrest, even if the result of the action was fatal.

The coroner added the jury may consider whether some witnesses were lying. As an example, he said they may consider the testimony of C12, who said he shouted a warning of "armed police" to De Menezes, which was contradicted by all the civilian witnesses.

But he urged caution on judging anything they viewed as lying too harshly. "You must decide whether the person has lied or made an honest mistake. If you can prove that the witness has lied you should bear ... in mind people tell lies for a variety of reasons, not necessarily to put their own part.

"In the context of this case it might be to mitigate the impact of ... a tragic mistake or to support others in explanations they may have put forward."

He added that if they found C12 had been lying, it would not automatically follow that C12 could not still have been acting in lawful defence of himself or others.

The Guardian's social affairs editor, John Carvel, and head of society, health and education, Patrick Butler, discuss the 'damning' report into Haringey council's handling of the case of Baby P.

David Kennedy, chief executive of the government's Climate Change Committee, discusses new proposals to reduce greenhouse gases by at least one fifth in just over a decade.

The Home Office civil servant alleged to have leaked documents that led police to arrest senior Conservative Damian Green spoke publicly for the first time yesterday. Chief political correspondent Nicholas Watt looks at the latest developments.

Diplomatic editor Julian Borger discusses the pressure facing Pakistan to act against terrorists following last week's attack on Mumbai.

And art critic Jonathan Jones assesses the winner of the 2008 Turner prize, Mark Leckey.

The Football Association is to write to Liverpool for an explanation into the orchestrated support shown for the jailed fan Michael Shields during Monday's 0-0 draw with West Ham United at Anfield.

Officials at Soho Square are considering whether to bring disciplinary charges after taking exception at the manner in which Liverpool have publicly backed a man who has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the attempted murder of a Bulgarian waiter, Martin Georgiev, in May 2005.

Another Liverpool fan admitted being responsible for the crime before later retracting his confession and Shields' case will go before a high court review tomorrow. The FA, however, is alarmed that Liverpool should openly use a live televised game to try to influence the matter.

Rafael Benítez's players wore T-shirts bearing the slogan Free Michael Now during their pre-match warm-up and the actress Sue Johnston was invited on to the pitch with Shields' parents to make a speech calling for the justice secretary, Jack Straw, to "do the right thing".

A mosaic was held up in the Kop spelling out Free Michael Now and the match-day programme contained an article declaring the 22-year-old's innocence. "Liverpool fan Michael Shields should be here at Anfield for tonight's game," it began. "Instead, he will be sitting in a prison cell."

The FA's concern is linked to the recent disciplinary case against the Ipswich midfielder David Norris for supporting the former Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper Luke McCormick. Norris had been charged with improper conduct after making a handcuffs gesture in dedication to McCormick, who had been sentenced to seven years in prison for causing the death by dangerous driving of two young brothers.

The FA's disciplinary department fined Norris £5,000 and is alarmed that Liverpool should also publicly back someone convicted of a serious crime and, in the process, open themselves to allegations of playing judge and jury.

The matter became a subject of controversy on radio phone-ins yesterday and the FA will, at the very least, remind Liverpool that it does not believe it is the club's role to take on such issues. "We are not comfortable about this," one source told the Guardian.

There is also an element of concern as Liverpool, according to the FA, had not informed the authorities of their plans. In 1997, their then striker Robbie Fowler was fined 2,000 Swiss francs by Uefa for revealing a T-shirt expressing his support for the city's sacked dock workers.

Close your eyes and picture the scene. The air is warm with adrenaline and fake-tanned flesh, and thick with name-dropped designer labels. The atmosphere is one of camaraderie, but also competition; the scent of hairspray and this season's cult perfume almost, but not quite, masks an underlying buzz of nerves.

No, I'm not talking about a Premier League dressing room on a Saturday. I'm talking about the ladies loos in your office, or an office very near you, at around 6.30pm one night this week or next. Because we are about to face one of the toughest fixtures in the fashion calendar: the Christmas party.

The top three all-time worst wardrobe-crisis-inducing moments, in no particular order, are: the job interview, the first date, and the Christmas party. But the Christmas party wardrobe crisis is, arguably, the worst of all. After all, if you dress really, really badly to a job interview or a first date, chances are you never have to see those people again.

Dressing for Christmas parties is hard work for the same reasons that the parties themselves are often quite hard work. First, Christmas parties tend to be about getting drunk with people you already know, rather than meeting new people. It is much more difficult to impress people with your dazzling wit when they have heard all your funniest and most faux-self-deprecating anecdotes twice already. Second, there is the pressure to be all festive and twinkly and marzipan-sweet, and no one apart from Cheryl Cole manages to do this without sacrificing all fashion cred and sex appeal in the process.

So it makes sense that the first coping strategy of getting dressed for a Christmas party is the same as for dealing with the actual party: fix yourself a large drink. Just enough to stop you taking the whole thing too seriously. Go slow on the top-ups - 'tis the season to be merry, not so hammered that furry antlers start to seem like an amusing accessory.

The one unbreakable rule of Christmas parties is that festive-themed accessories - antlers, Santa hats, tinsel trims - are a bad idea. Not because I'm trying to be some sort of couture-obsessed killjoy, but because Dressing Up As Christmas screams of dumbed-down literal mindedness. In other words, it's not just that the Santa hat looks stupid, but that it actually makes you appear to be stupid. Beyond that, trust your instinct: the outfit that makes you look at your reflection a few seconds more, that makes you start to imagine yourself having a good time, is the outfit you should wear. And what's more: we think we've found that outfit for you. These party outfits are Christmassy in a Wonderful Life kind of a way, rather than a Four Christmasses kind of way. Some of them even have sleeves. Are we good to you or what? Why, I almost feel like wearing a Santa hat.

Brain scientists have succeeded in fooling people into thinking they are inside the body of another person or a plastic dummy.

The out-of-body experience - which is surprisingly easy to induce - will help researchers to understand how the human brain constructs a sense of physical self. The research may also lead to practical applications such as more intuitive remote control of robots, treatments for phantom limb pain in amputee patients and possible treatments for anorexia.

The research follows a related study from the same group last year in which the scientists convinced volunteers that they were having an out-of-body experience. It was the first time it had been done in the lab and showed that the intensely spiritual experiences that patients sometimes have while on the operating table, for instance, can have a scientific explanation.

"We are interested in how normal perception works, how we recognise our own body. And we do that by studying these perceptual illusions," said Dr Henrik Ehrsson at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. "Critically it depends on the visual perspective and the so-called multisensory integration or the combination of visual signals and tactile signals."

In the new study Ehrsson and his colleague, Valeria Petkova, attached two cameras to the head of a dummy. These were hooked up to two small screens placed in front of their subjects' eyes. This gave the illusion that the person was looking through the mannequin's eyes. For example, when they looked down they saw the dummy's body and not their own.

To create the illusion of occupying the dummy's body, the team stroked the abdomen of the subject and the dummy at the same time while the subject watched the stroking via the cameras on the dummy's head. As a result, subjects reported a strong feeling that the dummy's body was their own. The technique is similar to the "rubber hand illusion", in which a subject can be convinced that a rubber hand is his or her own, but this is the first time the illusion has been extended to a whole body.

The illusion was so convincing that when the researchers threatened the dummy with a knife they recorded an increase in the subject's skin conductance response - the indicator of stress that polygraph lie detector tests rely on. "This shows how easy it is to change the brain's perception of the physical self," said Ehrsson, who led the project. "By manipulating sensory impressions, it's possible to fool the self not only out of its body but into other bodies too."

Things got even weirder when the researchers dispensed with the dummy and put the cameras on the head of another person. After carrying out the same double stroking routine the subjects were convinced that they were occupying another person's body. The illusion persisted even when the other person came over and shook the subject's hand, producing the sensation of the subject feeling as if they were shaking hands with themselves.

The researchers plan to use the out-of-body illusion to try to treat amputee patients that experience phantom limb pain in the arm or leg they have lost. "We have begun to realise that there could be a link between pain perception and the feeling of ownership of the body," said Ehrsson.

Another potential angle for research is body image in patients with anorexia. These people become obsessed with reducing their own weight even when they become dangerously thin. "Possibly this approach could be used for new diagnostic tools and maybe therapeutic tools to train people better to recognise their actual body size," he said.

Another application is in remotely operated robots, for example in nuclear power plants or surgery. "The hope is to elicit a full-blown illusion that you are the robot," said Ehrsson.

The results are reported today in the journal PLoS One.

An ant species that forms huge supercolonies and infests gardens and parks is marching rapidly across Europe and will soon invade the UK, according to entomologists who are monitoring its spread.

The colonies can swell to 10 or 100 times the size of those of common garden ants and scientists warn that they can cause significant damage to plants.

"When I saw this ant for the first time, I simply could not believe there could be so many garden ants in the same lawn," says Prof Jacobus Boomsma at the University of Copenhagen, one of its co-discoverers almost 20 years ago.

"We reckon it's only a matter of time before [it invades the UK]."

The invasive garden ant or Lasius neglectus was first identified in 1990 when it was found infesting an entire neighbourhood in Budapest, Hungary.

"This ant basically looks like the garden ant that everybody knows, so you don't really become suspicious if you see a few of those crawling around because they are everywhere," he said. It has since become a major pest in central Europe and has spread as far as Jena in Germany, Ghent in Belgium and Warsaw in Poland.

Boomsma and his team think it is moved around by the horticultural trade because it hides inside plant pots. "That is the most reasonable hypothesis for how these ants get transported because the ants themselves have lost the ability to fly so they are very poor disbursers," he said.

In research published today in the journal PLoS One, the team used genetic techniques to work out where the ants originated and what makes them so successful at taking over new regions. One reason is that they are able to form super-colonies.

The ants occupy many interconnected nests with many queens. Because they are related, the ants in these nests do not show territorial aggression. When they reach new locations the parasites that usually keep the ants in check are no longer there, so they are able to expand their colonies rapidly.

"We found that invasive garden ants developed from species in the Black Sea region that have natural populations with small networks of interconnected nests with many queens that mate underground and don't fly.

"It is now becoming clear that rather many ant species share this lifestyle, so it is no surprise that a number of them have become invasive pests with giant super-colonies based on the same principles," said Dr Sylvia Cremer, at the University of Regensburg.

Dr Jes Pedersen, a co-author at the University of Copenhagen, said: "The future will therefore see many more ants become invasive, so it is about time we understand their biology. This study is a major step in that direction."

Much of the damage that the invasive garden ant causes is connected with the herds of aphids that it tends. The ants have a symbiotic relationship with the aphids in which the aphids provide sugary food while the ants provide protection from predators.

With the ants around, aphid populations expand to large numbers causing damage to plants and releasing sticky secretions that create a mess on parked cars. Because the ant colonies are so large they can cause a nuisance by invading homes and spoiling food.

Invasive ants have caused much more significant damage in other countries. The imported red fire ant, which has a nasty sting, causes $750m (£500m) of damage in the US each year to crops and livestock. The Argentine ant has spread along 6,000km of coastline in southern Europe, exterminating many local insects.

The Ford plant in Highland Park, a city within the city of Detroit, is a monument to the American automobile. It opened in 1910, and three years later pioneered the world's first car assembly line. In 1925, it spewed out 9,000 Model Ts in a single day. The revolution that turned America into a car-owning democracy had arrived. Today, there is ample evidence of that revolution. The factory looks over a six-lane highway that is heavy with traffic from dawn to dusk. Next door is a drive-thru McDonald's, where customers come to order Big Macs before rolling 50 metres to a drive-thru chemists to pick up indigestion tablets.

The story of the plant is told in one of those green-and-gold heritage plaques erected by the main entrance. It says: "Mass production soon moved from here to all phases of American industry and set the pattern of abundance for 20th-century living." Pattern of abundance: the phrase reads like a sick joke, for the Ford factory it describes is a shell of what it once was. Its red brick and granite walls still stand proud, framed by decorative mosaics. But the windows are broken or boarded up, its ceilings have gaping holes, the floor is covered in broken lumps of fallen plaster. On the roof, the flagpole that for years flew the Stars and Stripes is rusty and bare.

Other companies, other countries, might have turned Henry Ford's factory of dreams into a museum rather than let it decay into the pitiful wreck that it is today. But Ford, and its fellows in the Big Three - General Motors (GM) and Chrysler - have enough to do staying alive without worrying about preserving the past. GM, the giant of the three, has lost $73bn in the past three years; it is haemorrhaging $2bn a month. At that rate it will run out of cash by the middle of next year and collapse by that year's end, potentially bringing millions of workers down with it. Which is why the CEOs of the three giants took their begging bowls to Washington earlier this month, pleading for a "bridging loan" of $25bn.

They didn't get a warm reception. They were ridiculed by senators for having flown in three separate corporate jets, an act that must rank among the most impressive PR disasters of the decade. But what the senators and the largely hostile media coverage missed was that the miserable condition of the Detroit car industry is not merely a comment on the failed leadership of its corporate executives, though it is that. It is also a matter of personal survival for millions of Americans who depend, directly or indirectly, on the revolution Henry Ford began 100 years ago.

Nowhere is this more visible than in Detroit, the crucible of the Big Three. Half of GM's 100,000 workers live in the city, and they in turn support a spider's web of relatives, spin-off industries and services. Detroit is really nothing but a company town. Hamtramckis a city within the city that borders one of GM's main factories. When GM enjoyed good times, Hamtramck boomed. Now GM is in the doldrums, Hamtramck is too. We walk along a stretch of shops along one of its main streets. First in line is Anna's Beauty Salon: it's closed, but the sign on the door suggests Anna is managing to stay open four days a week. Next, Popular Fashion and Variety Store: shut down. Billiards and Burger Hall: abandoned. Antiques store, an oil painting portraying an autumn landscape still in its window: deserted. Law offices: vacant. Funeral home: open. Even in a recession, one aspect of life must go on - the ending of it.

On the other side of the road is the Family Donut shop, a local institution run by a Polish family for the past 28 years. It has a picture of Princess Diana on the wall, a gift from one of the regular clients, and another of the Three Stooges. The owner, Vojno, is unloading a bundle of cardboard boxes used to pack the donuts. A few years ago he would order up to 30 bundles a month; now it's 10. On Polish festive days, there would be a line of customers out the door and round the corner, and the stools at the counter would be loaded. Today, the line is more of a dribble and the counter is largely empty. Unless GM recovers, and money starts flowing again, he will have to close in a few months. "It's not just me. Everybody around here is going to shut down," he says. What will he do if he does have to close? "I'll stay home and sleep. I'm hungry for sleep," he says.

One of the few clients, dressed in a bomber jacket with Detroit written across the back, shouts over at him. "You only work one job, so why do you need to sleep?"

"Shut up, Eddie," Vojno replies.

"I work three jobs to make my money," Eddie Fabiszak says, prompting the only other customer in the bakery to say, under his breath: "Lucky man."

The other customer is Melis Lejlic, 27, a naturalised American originally from Bosnia. His father and mother, two uncles and a cousin all work in the car business. All now fear redundancy. Lejlic works in construction, but that is no better. Car workers are no longer spending on home improvements, so demand for his work has fallen by half. Of 10 builders he knows, seven are unemployed. "Everybody in a small town like this is looking to the car industry, and there's no hope there," he says. "Drive around, you'll see. Detroit is worse right now than Baghdad."

The comparison sounds far-fetched, but in the streets around the GM plant you can see what he means. Several houses have no glazing in their rickety wooden walls. Front lawns have turned into littered pasture. Walls are lined with barbed wire. A mural of a Stars and Stripes has been graffitied. And though it is nothing like Baghdad, there is clearly a market in lawlessness. A poster advertising the services of a lawyer says: "Aggressive criminal defence. Drugs CCW [carrying a concealed weapon] Theft Murder All felonies misdemeanours." That is how Henry Ford's dream looks in November 2008.

GM's headquarters in downtown Detroit dominate the city's skyline. The seven cylindrical glass towers of the Renaissance Centre were built in 1977 as a statement of the company's untouchable status as the then unquestioned king of the auto world. Inside the main tower, there is an exhibition of some of GM's most memorable models, dating back to the 1950s. It is almost shocking to see how beautiful and exhilarating those cars were. There is a 1953 Chevrolet Corvette Roadster, built largely by hand, its white, sensuous curves set off by red leather seats. Then there's a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air in black, the quintessential car of the American dream, big enough to carry a family to its suburban home but sufficiently powerful and sleek to avoid any sense of frumpiness. Pride of place goes to a 1959 Cadillac series 62 convertible, which is an outrageously attractive work of art. This was the baby of Harley Earl, GM's legendary designer. Inspired by the tail of a second world war fighter plane, he placed fins on the back of the car, with rear brake lights the shape of rockets and exhausts mimicking those of a jet. The 59 Cadillac summed up an entire generation - young, dangerous, fast, unstoppable.

Peter DeLorenzo spent 22 years working in the car business as an advertising and marketing consultant and now runs an influential website called Autoextremist. He explains that when the explosion of creativity burst out in the 50s, Detroit had just emerged from the crucial role it had played as the manufacturing backbone of the war effort, churning out tanks and missiles at extraordinary rate, and confidence was riding high. "Coming out of the second world war, the automobile was the symbol of American might. GM was the symbol of American might, and most Americans were proud that GM was a successful corporation that turned out magnificent cars people wanted."

The design-led strategy not only generated exquisite cars, it worked handsomely for GM. In 1955, four out of every five cars around the world were US-produced and half of those came from GM. The Big Three monopolised around 95% of the domestic market, and between them they transformed the US. They provided the stimulus for the biggest construction project in world history - the laying of the US interstate highways - and gave birth to the suburbs and to urban sprawl. Think Los Angeles. Think Phoenix rising out of the desert of Arizona.

How you get from the invincibility of those days to the verge of bankruptcy is a cautionary tale for the whole of America as its dominance wanes in an increasingly globalised economy. DeLorenzo, who has written a book called The United States of Toyota, dates the start of the rot to 1979 - just after GM had moved into its monolithic new headquarters in the Renaissance Centre. By then Japanese car companies were already snapping at the heels of the Big Three, but Detroit ignored the threat, steeped in complacency that the good times would last for ever. Leadership within the business also crucially changed hands, from the designers to what DeLorenzo calls the "bean counters".

By the 1990s, the Big Three's reputation for innovation and beauty had withered, replaced by a reputation for faulty products. "People started to associate Detroit with cars coming off the assembly line and their doors falling off," says Micheline Maynard, a New York Times business reporter and author of The End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip. She recounts how in 2002 GM's vice-chairman, Bob Lutz, declared that their vehicles were every bit as reliable as Honda's and Toyota's; that same afternoon GM recalled 1.5m minivans.

From the sleek elegance of the 1959 Cadillac to the lumpen brutality of the Hummer: what was in the mind of the GM executive who conceived putting a machine modelled on armoured vehicles on to the civilian streets of US cities, at barely 13 miles per gallon? But then Lutz has argued that that hybrids