London, Oct 12 : More than a million Britons will be out of work and on the dole by next month as the toxic fallout from Black October filters down to ordinary families, economists are warning despite Downing Street’s desperate efforts to shore up the economy in the face of the escalating credit crash may not be enough.

A bleak Christmas lies ahead for many as the City turmoil spreads into the so-called real economy, The Guardian reported.

Companies are now being squeezed on two vital fronts, with shoppers abandoning the high street and bank lending drying up, making it almost impossible for smaller businesses to get credit to stay afloat.

London, Oct 12 : British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s new minister for race relations has attacked Sharia courts, insisting that the Muslim community in Britain is not “advanced” enough to have its own legal system.

Sadiq Khan, whose comments will have added impact because he is a Muslim himself, has also warned that the growing number of tribunals based on Islamic codes could entrench discrimination against women, The Times reported.

London, Oct 12 : British officials covered up evidence that a Taliban commander killed by special forces in Helmand last year was in fact a Pakistani military officer, according to highly placed Afghan officials.

The commander, targeted in a compound in the Sangin valley, was one of six killed in the past year by Special Air service regiment and Special Boat Service regiment of the British Army. When the British soldiers entered the compound they discovered a Pakistani military ID on the body, The Times reported.

It was the first physical evidence of covert Pakistani military operations against British forces in Afghanistan even though Islamabad insists it is a close ally in the war against terror.

London, Oct 12 : As part of an attempt to widen the readership of the Bible, academics are working on making the books of the Old and New Testaments available in patois -a spoken language developed by West Indian slaves in the seventeenth century.

Originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic centuries ago, the Bible has since been translated into hundreds of languages.

London, Oct 12 : An archaeological dig is seeking to uncover some of the secrets of Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, an island and county in the English Channel.

English Heritage archaeologists have been digging at the Carisbrooke Castle, which is the Isle of Wight''s only medieval castle, in a bid to answer more questions about the area known as the Privy Garden.

"The re-opening of the entrance to the Privy Garden provides a timely opportunity to address some of the questions raised by the first archaeological dig here two years ago," said English Heritage archaeologist Michael Russell.

London, Oct. 11 : India, South Korea and Taiwan should join the global trend and immediately establish a moratorium on the death penalty, the rights group Amnesty International has said.

In an appeal to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty, Amnesty said these three nations had stopped executing criminals in recent years and should make that move official, setting an example for the rest of Asia.