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The Lib Dem leader rallies his troops for the 'biggest fight of their political lives' at his party's Spring conference.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers a stinging rebuke to Israel over new settlements in East Jerusalem.

Lib Dem leader condemns bankers as 'Scargills in pinstripes' and says electorate, not him, will decide who is next PM

Nick Clegg is to call for a 10% tax on bank profits to fund a £2bn job creation programme to rescue victims of the recession.

In a Guardian interview, the Liberal Democrat leader condemned bankers for behaving like ''Arthur Scargill in pinstripes'', and vowed his party would be "a radicalising, rather than moderating force" in the event of a hung parliament so long as the majority party was committed to bring the deficit under control.

On the eve of his party's pre-election spring conference, he insisted he will consult his party fully before joining a coalition or supporting a Queen's speech tabled by a minority government.

Clegg insisted it is not for him, but for the electorate to decide whether David Cameron or Gordon Brown becomes prime minister. However, he also attacked Brown in contemptuous terms: "It's very difficult to invest much hope or faith in a man who could not even maintain relations with his own colleagues".

He said Brown was not a credible figure to rebuild the economy. "This is the man who wrought the damage, he should not be the person to do the repair work".

Brown's late conversion to electoral reform was "hardly a hallelujah moment". He added: "There is no point anyone clinging to power when it's obvious the British people don't want you ... they'd prefer someone else.

"That's where constitutional nicety bumps up against political reality. It's not for me to decide. We give the electorate the cards, they deal them".

Clegg said he remained, on balance, "a huge critic" of Margaret Thatcher, but admitted Britain needs to rediscover the zeal she showed when she tackled the unions.

The banks, he said, have now become Britain's great contemporary vested interest. He said: "Bankers are Scargill in pin stripes. Scargill's stated aim was to challenge who runs the country. The bankers have behaved in the same arrogant way ... to benefit only themselves ...

"The banks have basically been given untrammelled support by both Labour and Conservative governments to do exactly what they like, and take massive risks with our livelihoods and savings.

"They have been holding a gun to the economy. A progressive liberal like myself is not going to be squeamish about blowing the whistle on a vested interest."

In the only tax rise proposed by his party, he now backs a 10% tax on bank profits, a break up of the banks' investment and retail arms, and finally a requirement on banks owned by the taxpayers – RBS and Lloyds – to be required to behave in the public interest on issues such as take-overs of UK firms.

He also proposes tighter requirements on banks to lend. "What I hear from the Conservatives is ... 'we've got to wait for the rest of the world'. I really don't think the Tories get how much we're skating on thin ice as an economy.

"If we don't take on this vested interest ourselves, now, unilaterally, immediately, we're asking for trouble. The liabilities of British banks are now four and a half times the size of the British economy. We are like a large version of Iceland. We are not sheltered in any way".

In his interview Clegg also:

• dismisses Tory plans to open new schools and rejects profit-making firms opening new schools. "I keep reading that we and the Tories have identical policies on schools but it's complete rubbish."

• insists he will not ringfence the NHS from cuts. He said: "We need to make significant savings to safeguard the GP surgery or A&E or the maternity ward".

• promises "to slash the headcount of the Department of Children".

He tried to defuse the issue of whether he would back Cameron or Brown in a hung parliament saying: "I think these constitutional niceties will be swept aside if it's obvious that there's one party that enjoys a mandate, if not an actual majority. I don't think there will be a photo finish."

• Nick Clegg
• General election 2010
• Banking
• Liberal Democrats
• Economic policy
• Recession

Patrick WintourAllegra Stratton
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Neighbours were oblivious that recluse who froze to death in her home was first black woman on South Carolina legislature

The neighbours knew Juanita Goggins only as an elderly recluse with no friends and a family that was rarely seen.

Goggins was so private that she instructed a neighbour who delivered groceries to leave them at the door, ring the bell and go away before she emerged. She spurned offers of home help from the local authorities even though she was evidently finding it increasingly difficult to look after herself.

So the residents of her South Carolina community were saddened, if not entirely shocked, to hear that the 75-year-old woman had frozen to death in her own home and that her body went undiscovered for nearly a fortnight.

But in the days before her funeral today, they were surprised to learn that at one time Goggins had been a trailblazing politician and civil rights activist who shook up South Carolina's exclusive politics as the first black woman elected to the southern state's legislature.

That same legislature last year honoured Goggins, who was also the first black woman to serve on the government's civil rights commission and who was twice invited to the White House by President Jimmy Carter, by naming a highway after her. But that didn't catch the eye of the people who lived around her. It was Goggins's neighbour of 16 years, Erskine Hunter, who dropped off the groceries and left before she answered the door.

He also tended her lawn but was invited in only once, to fix a water heater. He knew nothing of her past. "I miss her," he told the Associated Press. "I don't know why I didn't go over there and hammer on the door."

The first that Linda Marshall knew about the woman whose rent she collected each month was reading an obituary. "She needed someone to assist her, but anyone who tried to get close, she'd block them off," she said. "She was very fragile. This was something I always dreaded."

Goggins was the youngest of 10 children and the only one to make it to college and earn a degree at what was then the all-black South Carolina state college. She went on to become a teacher in the segregated school system.

She had experienced discrimination but working in the education system she saw how even after segregation was formally abolished it lived on through bureaucratic practice, funding priorities and racial attitudes. She was determined to change that, so she entered politics and in 1972 became the first black woman to represent South Carolina at the Democratic party's national convention. Shortly after, she was the first black woman appointed to the US government's civil rights commission.

Then in 1974, Goggins beat a white man to win a seat in the South Carolina legislature in Columbia.

"I am going to Columbia to be a legislator, not just a black spot in the House chambers," she said at the time.

Goggins said that voters "were weary of poor representation". "They were ready to accept a person who was sincere and concerned about things. Those feelings go beyond colour," she said.

She made her way on to the powerful committee drawing up budgets, and used her position to win funding for sickle-cell anaemia, a blood disorder that disproportionately affects the African American community. She pushed through important reforms to education affecting school funding and class sizes.

"She was truly a mover and a shaker, so well-liked and so well-loved by so many," said John King, who now holds Goggins' former seat.

Goggins' last surviving sibling, Ilese Dixon, 88, wasn't surprised that her sister achieved so much as a politician.

"She was not bashful or anything. She liked to talk. I used to say she could sell an Eskimo ice. She was just lively and smart. She thought she could fix the world," she told the Associated Press.

After Goggins retired from politics, she worked for the state's health and environment department. But she became increasingly withdrawn after moving to a quiet neighbourhood in Columbia in the early nineties.

Goggins had distanced herself from her family, who suspected she was suffering from dementia. Her former husband, Horace, said that she "divorced herself from family and friends".

"I tried to communicate with her and went down there to Columbia many times," he told South Carolina's Herald newspaper. "She wouldn't accept contact from anybody."

Goggins became even further withdrawn after she was mugged near her home. She put new locks on the doors and rarely left the house.

She died of hypothermia after snow hit South Carolina last month. It was nearly two weeks later, when one of her neighbours noticed that he had not seen her lights go on for some time, that concerns were raised and the landlord called the police. They found Goggins wrapped up in several layers of clothes. The electricity had been cut off after she failed to pay the bill but the police found hundreds of dollars in cash in the house.

Goggins' only son, also called Horace, said that despite the sad circumstances of his mother's death, it is an opportunity to remind people of the trailblazer she once was. "I want her to be remembered as a positive role model, not only for African-American girls, but also any young girl who has a want and a desire to make a change and do something positive," he said.Life of Juanita Goggins1935 Born to sharecroppers in South Carolina

1972 First black woman to represent South Carolina at the Democratic party's national convention.

1974 First black woman appointed to the US civil rights commission.

1974 First black woman elected to South Carolina legislature. Served three terms.

1976-80 Twice invited to the White House by President Jimmy Carter.

1977 Instrumental in passing a law that remains the basis for education funding in South Carolina, helping to reduce class sizes.

1980s Leaves legislature to become a social worker. Increasingly reclusive and estranged from her family who fear she is suffering from mental illness.

2009 Part of Highway 5 in Rock Hill, South Carolina, named after Goggins.

• United States
• US politics
• Race issues

Chris McGreal
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• Decision taken in the interests of the club
• Storrie will stay on as a consultant

Peter Storrie's reign at Portsmouth has come to an end after the club announced that he had stepped down as their chief executive.

Portsmouth's administrator, Andrew Andronikou, said Storrie made the decision after consulting his friends and family and decided it was in the best interests of the club if he were to leave full-time employment at Portsmouth.

"The administrators would like to thank Mr Storrie for his undivided assistance and support over the past few weeks," read a statement on Portsmouth's website.

Storrie will be kept on at the club in a consultancy role and the administrators expect him to assist on a "wide range of matters" including the sale of the club, the FA Cup semi-final arrangements and other projects. The administrators say he "will be remunerated accordingly".

• Portsmouth
• Premier League

Tom Bryant
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The Pope once unwittingly approved housing for a priest accused of child abuse, his former diocese in Germany says.

Report for United States Bankruptcy Court says City law firm approved off balance sheet transactions that disguised true state of Lehman Brothers' finances

Linklaters, one of London's premier law firms, is battling to defend its reputation after a US report into the failure of Lehman Brothers showed it approved controversial deals that shifted billions of dollars of debt off the balance sheet in the years before the bank collapsed.

The hard-hitting report found that the crucial deals, which were also sanctioned by Lehman's auditors, Ernst & Young, were described as "window dressing" by bank staff and masked the precarious state of its finances while it was under scrutiny from regulators and investors.

Linklaters is expected to come under intense pressure to reveal the full extent of its dealings with Lehman in the run-up to the bank's crash in September 2008. The firm is one of the "magic circle" of solicitors operating in the City, which in recent years have expanded rapidly to compete with US rivals.

The impact of the bank's crash has been described as incalculable by some economists after governments around the world were forced to implement trillion-pound bailouts for their own banks caught up in the disaster. Investors are preparing lawsuits against the bank and are expected to turn their fire on lawyers and auditors advising it.

The report, for the United States Bankruptcy Court by examiner Anton Valukas, claims Lehman booked fund transfers as sales and failed to disclose them in regulatory filings in the US. Valukas alleges that Lehman turned to Linklaters after New York law firms said that they were unable to approve the deals under US law.

It was common practice to use so-called "Repo 105" agreements at Lehman to sell and buy back funds, but their frequent adoption in the two years before its collapse amounted to balance sheet manipulation, the report said.

Linklaters dismissed suggestions that it played a central role in disguising Lehman's mounting debt pile. A spokesman confirmed that the firm gave opinions on several transactions, but said it was not aware of any "facts or circumstances that would justify any criticism".

He also pointed out: "The examiner, who did not contact the firm during his investigations, does not criticise those opinions or say or suggest that they were wrong or improper."

Valukas said that the part played by auditors Ernst & Young was also crucial to hiding the fund transfers, and amounted to professional negligence.

UK regulators came under scrutiny in the report for their role during Lehman's collapse. While Hector Sants, the Financial Services Authority chief executive, refused to give evidence directly to the US investigator, he published written evidence that showed a series of transatlantic telephone calls during which the US authorities begged the UK to help facilitate a possible takeover by Barclays.

The FSA's evidence claims that Christopher Cox, then chairman of the US regulator the securities and exchange commission, was still lobbying the FSA at 3pm on Sunday 14 September – hours before Lehman called in administrators. Cox wanted the FSA to waive rules that required Barclays to hold a shareholder vote before the deal could take place.

Barclays later bought Lehman's US businesses from the administrator.

• Lehman Brothers
• Law
• Barclays
• Financial crisis
• Credit crunch
• US economy

Phillip Inman
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A total of 55 people are charged over a climate change demonstration on the roof of the Houses of Parliament.

Political director Charlie Whelan says phone bank operation is largest ever undertaken by a British union

Britain's largest union is mobilising its members to canvass for Labour in key marginal constituencies, and help counteract the money being poured into the areas by the Conservative election team.

Unite's political director, Charlie Whelan, who is also Gordon Brown's former spin doctor, said the operation was the biggest ever undertaken by a British union.

Up to 100,000 Unite members in 90 marginals will be contacted by the union, in the hope that it will galvanise support for the government.

"In 90 key seats the Unite membership is larger than the current Labour majority," said Whelan. "If almost every Unite member voted Labour, we would win the election. If the union delivers votes it has a lot more influence than if it simply delivers cash. That is the brutal truth."

He added: "Unions traditionally had a policy of bunging money to the party and saying 'get on with it', but we have taken a different approach. In terms of resources there is no way in a million years we can match what Lord Ashcroft is putting in to the Conservative party."

The technique has been borrowed from Barack Obama's election team and Whelan is hoping that the union member-to-union member approach will generate new levels of Labour support.

Whelan is relying on a virtual phone bank, software that lets activists access a list of members living in a region's marginal seats and phone them. "You don't need to go to the union's local office or a call centre any longer to make these calls," he said. "The beauty of the system is that it can work anywhere. Unite members are quite happy talking to other members."

Whelan is a controversial figure inside Labour and increasingly a target of attacks by the media. He is often portrayed as a bully, and is also one of the most technology-friendly union workers, remorselessly using Twitter to broadcast his views.

There has been talk of him returning to the Labour campaign in a media role, perhaps buttering up or bullying the broadcasters, or even working with Brown on the campaign trail.

So far, 1,000 activists are using the phone bank regularly. Unite's head office can see how many calls are made daily, and monitor the running issues.

Whelan was coy about how many contacts have been made, but said: "At present we are on course for 100,000 members being called in the key seats, by the time of the election. All I can say in terms of feedback, is how much union members enjoy doing it, and how pleased they are to get a call from another member. One reason it works because it is not coming from a political party."

Whelan added: "It is not just about asking members to vote Labour. If it was, it would not work. It is also about ascertaining their views. One goal is to find out what issues are motivating union members."

The answers, he said, were often immigration and protection of wages and conditions. This cannot be a cynical exercise. They want to know their views are going to be listened to. So if we ask them their views, we have to push them inside the union. It's true our members have not been happy with Labour, but at no stage has there been a mass desertion from Labour to the Tories. We have been doing a real opinion poll every day."

The idea of direct member-to-member contact has been influenced by how Obama drew on organisations such as the United Steelworkers of America (USW).

The Steelworkers Union membership might naturally be profiled as being Republican. Indeed, Sarah Palin began her vice-presidential campaign in the US by pointing out that her husband was a proud member of the USW.

Whelan said: "For many years the USW has had a successful strategy of talking to its members on a regular basic. It knew what they thought. As a result, the union managed to persuade 90% of those who voted, to vote for Obama."

• Trade unions
• Labour
• General election 2010
• Conservatives

Patrick Wintour
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Striking images from around the world

Socialists and Greens expect significant gains in regional elections as ruling party blamed for poor economic situation

Nicolas Sarkozy faces an embarrassing setback at the polls over the next week as France votes in elections that look likely to hand a significant victory to the opposition Socialist party.

Although not officially on the ballot for the regional elections, whose first of two rounds will be held on Sunday, the embattled leader is expected to be punished indirectly as voters shun his rightwing UMP party in favour of leftwing and green alternatives.

With opinion polls showing the Socialists – who won control of 20 of the 22 mainland regions at the last vote in 2004 – will consolidate their "pink tide" or even increase it, commentators say the predicted defeat will reflect voters' dissatisfaction with Sarkozy.

Today, Sarkozy attempted today to distance himself from his party's impending drubbing, insisting local elections had little to do with national politics. He told Le Figaro Magazine: "The vote … is a regional vote: its consequences will therefore be regional."

However, because the significance of the poll – which elects regional presidents and assemblies – is limited, many are predicting it will be seen as an unofficial referendum on Sarkozy's leadership. The president is more than halfway through his five-year term, and this is the last major electoral exercise France will see before his mandate expires in 2012.

Opposition parties have urged voters to use the election as a means of expressing their dislike of the president, whose approval ratings, according to a CSA poll this week, are at 36% – the lowest since he came to power in 2007. The Socialist leader, Martine Aubry, said at a campaign rally: "The left must win in all regions to beat UMP and force Sarkozy to backtrack on all his projects."

Amid rising unemployment and concerns about how the country will recover from the recession, frustrations with the ruling centre-right party have been mounting among both its opponents and its traditional supporters. A series of reform setbacks, a damaging nepotism row surrounding Sarkozy's son and a poorly orchestrated debate on national identity have deepened those concerns.

According to pollsters, the UMP looks likely to fall victim to the changing dynamics of French politics. While the first round is expected to be close, it is unlikely to fend off the combined force of the Socialists and the Europe Ecologie (EE) party in the second round on 21 March.

For Sarkozy and UMP chiefs, the worst-case scenario would be to then see Corsica and Alsace fall to the PS, and Aubry's dreams of a "grand slam" in all 22 mainland regions come true. That, however, would involve a victory for Aubry's bitter rival, Ségolène Royal, in her region of Poitou Charentes.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the head of France's burgeoning green movement, believes his allies have succeeded in making his party the third political power in France. After an unexpectedly strong showing in last year's European elections, the EE are now the kingmakers, he claimed at a triumphant party rally this week. "Without us, the Socialists won't win any region," he said.

The impact of other parties on the result is expected to be limited. Despite the candidacy of Marine Le Pen in the region around Calais, the far-right Front National run by her father is not predicted to fetch more than 9% of the vote. Meanwhile, the centrist Modem party of Francois Bayrou- the "third man" of the 2007 presidential vote – is polling at a mere 4.5%.

• France
• Nicolas Sarkozy

Lizzy Davies
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Moscow signs agreement that will see Russia help construct up to 20 atomic plants

India and Russia today signed a nuclear co-operation agreement, which paves the way for the building of about a dozen nuclear reactors in India, with Russian help, over the next few decades.

The agreement came at the end of talks between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi.

"We are building a strategic partnership with India in the nuclear sector," Putin told business leaders in a video conference earlier.

No exact figures on construction of nuclear reactors were immediately available but last December Russia's nuclear energy chief, Sergei Kiriyenko, had said Moscow would build up to 20 reactors at three sites in India.

Singh said the two sides had completed several important defence co-operation projects, emphasising that ties between the cold war allies remained close. "We regard Russia as a trusted and reliable strategic partner," he said.

The two countries signed a $1.5bn (£1bn) deal for Russia to sell MiG-29K aircraft carrier-based fighter jets to India, with the first deliveries to begin in 2012. The leaders also agreed to intensify their consultations on Afghanistan in tackling the challenges posed by terrorism and extremism in the region, Singh said.

Earlier, Putin told the business leaders that the activities of extremist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan were a "matter of worry for the entire region and the whole world". "Parts of Afghanistan's soil continue to be used by terror groups. We understand the concerns of India regarding the activities of banned outfits in Pakistan," he said.

Other agreements signed Friday included one on the production of satellite navigation systems and others relating to hydrocarbons and the energy sectors, officials said.

Putin also held talks today with India's President Pratibha Patil and ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi.

Discussions between Putin and Singh focussed on strengthening the decades-old bilateral ties between the two countries and examined ways to take them forward as India's burgeoning economy is courted by other players.

India remains one of the world's biggest arms importers and a top Russian arms client, with Moscow supplying nearly 70% of New Delhi's military hardware. Putin said Russia was pursuing technical military co-operation with India that included joint work on a next-generation fighter jet. The two sides further signed a series of agreements marking the end of a protracted dispute over the cost of refurbishing a Soviet-built aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, for the Indian navy.

• India
• Nuclear power
• Russia

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The father of a five-year-old boy kidnapped in Pakistan is helping officers in the search for his son, police have said.

Labour peer Baroness Uddin says she is "relieved" after being told she will not be prosecuted over her expenses.

Dozens killed as two suicide bombers try to blow up military convoy passing busy market

A bombing in the eastern city of Lahore has killed at least 43 people – the fifth terrorist attack this week as extremists in Pakistan demonstrate their continued ability to strike.

The bloodiest terrorist strike in Pakistan this year was carried out by two attackers wearing suicide jackets who walked into a busy market in a high security military district and blew themselves up. The target appeared to be passing military vehicles but most of the victims were civilians.

Shops in the market were ripped apart, with children crossing the road and people waiting at a bus stop among the victims. About 10 soldiers were killed and 100 injured, said the Lahore police chief, Parvaiz Rathore.

"There were about 10 to 15 seconds between the blasts. Both were suicide attacks," a senior local government official, Sajjad Bhutta, said at the site.

"The maximum preventative measures were being taken but these people find support from somewhere."

The bombers struck at 1pm, around the time of Friday prayers, in the cantonment area, home to the local army garrison and one of Lahore's most upmarket residential districts.

Lahore is the bustling cultural hub of Pakistan and had enjoyed several weeks of relative peace. It is the capital of the eastern Punjab province, Pakistan's most densely populated area and its political heartland.

The suicide bombings were followed in the evening by three smaller blasts in a residential area across town. They caused panic but damage was reported to be minor.

The authorities repeated their regular assertion that the Taliban and other extremist groups have been defeated. The provincial law minister, Rana Sanaullah , said: "We broke their networks. That's why they have not been able to strike for a considerable time."

But it was the second bombing this week in Lahore. A car bombing on Monday at a police interrogation centre killed 14 people. Other attacks this week included a gun and grenade assault on a US Christian aid agency's office in the north-west, killing six of its staff, all Pakistani nationals.

"They (the extremists) are trying to project their power, telling the government that they are still alive," said analyst Imtiaz Gul, author of The al-Qaida Connection. "They are still far from broken. It's going to be a long haul."

In 2009 that Lahore was dragged into the bloody insurgency in Pakistan, which claimed around 3,000 lives last year, with a series of spectacular attacks including a gun assault on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team. The last major attack in Lahore was in December when a market was bombed, killing at least 49 people.

The launch of a military offensive in South Waziristan, on the Afghan border, the base of the Pakistani Taliban, in October last year was accompanied by a vicious spate of terrorist reprisals but the country had been relatively peaceful this year.

• Pakistan
• Global terrorism
• Taliban
• al-Qaida

Saeed Shah
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Russia's state-owned nuclear company says the country will build at least 12 nuclear reactors in India.

Pope Benedict XVI defends celibacy for Catholic priests, amid a new controversy about child sex abuse in European countries.

Oil demand in China rose by an "astonishing" 28% in January compared with a year ago, the International Energy Agency says.

The mother of a girl who starved to death is sentenced to 15 years and her stepfather jailed indefinitely.

The British National Party is forced to rewrite its membership rules again after a court rules them discriminatory.