Mr Schwarzenegger said he was proud of California despite the crisis

The governor of California has declared a fiscal emergency in the US state to address a budget deficit of some $24.3bn (£14.5bn).

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also ordered many state offices to close for three days each month until June 2010, with staff unpaid for those days.

California has been one of the US states hardest hit by the recession.

The moves comes after state legislators missed a 1 July deadline to approve a budget for the coming financial year.

State Controller John Chiang has said the failure to meet the deadline means the state deficit will increase by up to $6.5bn by September.

Mr Chiang told the BBC that many vulnerable people had been put in harm’s way by the state’s failure to agree the budget and to provide “essential dollars to help these people pay their rent, to put food on the table or to pay their utility bill”.

He had earlier warned that drastic measures would have to be taken to conserve cash, including delaying payments to companies working for the state and to those relying on benefits and grants.

Under the emergency measures, some state offices will be closed on the first, second and third Friday of every month until June 2010, with staff not paid for those days.

Mr Schwarzenegger said in a statement that although the legislature had failed to remedy the budget problems, “solving the entire deficit” remained his “first and only priority”.

“I will not rest until we get it done. I will not be a part of pushing this crisis down the road - the road stops here,” he said.

The White House said it was closely monitoring the situation in the state.

‘Still proud’

State workers will be unpaid when their offices close for three days a month

On Tuesday, the Californian Senate failed to agree on Democratic proposals to shave $3.3bn from education and other programmes as a stopgap measure to address the shortfall.

Democrats believe cuts should not slash vital social programmes while Republicans argued that much deeper spending cuts were needed to balance the budget.

Republicans and Mr Schwarzenegger have also ruled out tax increases.

California struggles to balance its budget every year, but this year has been particularly difficult.

And the size of the Californian economy - it is the world’s eighth largest economy and generates nearly 13% of US gross domestic product - means what happens there matters for the rest of the country.

But Mr Schwarzenegger said that despite the crisis, he was proud of California, saying 30 more states were also yet to agree a budget.

For many states, 30 June heralded the end of the fiscal year, but several were facing crucial decisions to balance the books as the deadline neared.

Many of the states are legally required to have a balanced budget, which can mean cutting services and firing workers.

Today’s California visionaries are calling for a constitutional convention to rewrite the plainly dysfunctional rules by which the state governs itself. It is not only Californians but also America that has a stake in their success. A California that decimates itself during recessions drags the rest of the nation down with it.

Harold Meyerson, writing in the Washington Post, says California has become a state with “no vision for the future”.

Democrats and the governor, and the Republican lawmakers who take pride in never voting in favour of any budget, have set us on a road toward two possible cataclysms: a popular revolt that will further diminish the power of government as we know it, and ruinous default that keeps the recession alive for another decade and plunges Californians, and perhaps all Americans, into nearly unimaginable misery. Sacramento players should check their rear view mirrors. Both objects are closer than they appear.

A Los Angeles Times editorial also warns that financial collapse in California will have wider national consequences.

Why is this happening to California? The worst economic downturn in 60 years is playing a big role. But so is the US Senate’s moronic decision to cut nearly $100 billion in state stabilization funds from the stimulus earlier this year. That money would have gone to states like Illinois and California, helping keep schools open, keep kids on health care, and prevent budget cuts from strangling economic recovery.

Blogger Eugene, writing in the Daily Kos, says Republicans are using the crisis to “destroy government, regardless of the economic consequences”.

Both the social and physical infrastructure of California is deficient and continues to degrade. It is no exaggeration to say that the health, welfare and safety of our society are endangered. “California has become ungovernable” has evolved from an observation to a cliche… The state now stares into a $24.3 billion budget hole. As the governor and the legislature play more political games, California faces the possibility of literally going broke.
On SDNN, Chris Crotty and Tom Murray say the budget crisis has

exposed “catastrophic” structural flaws in California’s politics.

The unemployment rate is creeping towards 10%

The number of jobs lost in the US last month came in at 467,000, which was much more than had been expected.

The jobless rate rose to 9.5% in June, from 9.4% in May, as the US economy continued to struggle.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of jobless people has risen by 7.2 million, the Department of Labor said.

The unemployment rate was slightly lower than had been expected, but was still the highest since August 1983.

The number of people losing their jobs can be higher than expected at the same time as the jobless rate is lower than expected, because they are measured in different ways.

The former is a measure of how many people are working, while the latter shows the number of people looking for work.

Not everybody who has lost a job will be looking for another one.

‘Terrible’ market

The non-farm payrolls number would usually be released on a Friday, but has been announced a day early because US markets will be closed on Friday.

The latest set of figures also included revisions to data for the two previous months, with the number of jobs lost in April rising 15,000 to 519,000 and the number lost in May falling 23,000 to 322,000.

Average hourly earnings were unchanged at $18.53 (£11.33).

A total of 14.7 million people were unemployed in June, the figures showed.

The job losses come despite recent signs of optimism from surveys.

“The job market is terrible. It’s as bad as we’ve seen in our lifetime,” said Keith Hembre, chief economist at FAF Advisors in Minneapolis.

“The light at the end of tunnel is that we see some stability in domestic demand and some demand overseas.”

‘Longer process’

In its separate weekly jobs report, the Department of Labor said that the number of newly laid-off workers applying for employment benefits last week fell to 614,000, while the number of people continuing to claim benefits unexpectedly fell to 6.7 million.

The average working week for production and non-supervisory workers fell 0.1 hour to 33.0 hours, which was the lowest since records began in 1964, suggesting that more people are working part-time.

The average working week for manufacturers rose 0.1 hour to 39.5 hours.

“I don’t think it means that the story that the economy is bottoming out is wrong, I still think that is the right story,” said Nigel Gault, chief US economist at IHS Global Insight.

“But it’s evident that it’s going to be a much longer process to bottom out in the labour market than it is to bottom out in the auto market or industrial production or GDP.”

Miss Radmacher, 39, is one of Germany’s richest women

A court ruling over a divorced couple’s pre-nuptial agreement could pave the way for such contracts to become legally binding in England and Wales.

Katrin Radmacher, a German heiress, has overturned an earlier court decision to award her ex-husband £5.8m of her £100m fortune despite their agreement.

Frenchman Nicolas Granatino had agreed not to make a claim if they divorced.

Such contracts are enforceable in Germany, where the couple’s was signed, but not in England where they married.

Ultimately, this case has been about what I regard as a broken promise Katrin Radmacher

They are also enforceable in Mr Granatino’s home country.

Miss Radmacher, one of Germany’s richest women, won a ruling from the Court of Appeal that such contracts should be taken into account by the courts when they divide assets after a marriage fails.

Appeal judge Lord Justice Thorpe said he believed it had become “increasingly unrealistic” for courts to disregard pre-nuptial agreements.

“It reflects the laws and morals of earlier generations,” he said.

“It does not sufficiently recognise the rights of autonomous adults to govern their future financial relationship by agreement in an age when marriage is not generally regarded as a sacrament and divorce is a statistical commonplace.”

He said a “carefully fashioned contract” should be available as an alternative to the “stress, anxieties and expense” of going through the court.

Mr Granatino is expected to seek permission to take the case to the House of Lords.

‘Broken promise’

Miss Radmacher, 39, said she was “delighted” by the decision.

“Ultimately, this case has been about what I regard as a broken promise,” she said.

From today grown ups can agree in the best of times what will happen in the worst of times Miss Radmacher’s solicitor, Ayesha Vardag

“The agreement was at my father’s insistence as he wanted to protect my inheritance - this is perfectly normal in our countries of origin, France and Germany. Like all wealthy parents, he feared gold-diggers.

“As an heir himself, Nicolas perfectly understood this. The agreement gave me reassurance that Nicolas was marrying me because he loved me as I loved him… that we were marrying for the right reasons.”

Her solicitor, Ayesha Vardag, said: “In a landmark judgment, three of the most highly respected judges in the land have ruled that pre-nups can be decisive in determining the financial division on divorce.

“The Court of Appeal, in a carefully reasoned, thoroughly modern judgment has enabled English matrimonial law to catch up with the rest of the world.

“From today grown-ups can agree in the best of times what will happen in the worst of times.”

Legal analyst Joshua Rozenberg said it was the first time a senior court had given “a great deal of weight” to a pre-nuptial agreement.

He said it would not happen in every case and the issue would remain unclear until Parliament changed the law.

Marriage contract

The couple’s pre-nuptial was signed in Germany before the couple married in London in 1998.

The pair’s marriage was said to have broken down after Mr Granatino, 37, gave up a lucrative investment banker job in 2003 to become a £30,000-a-year biotechnology researcher at Oxford University.

They divorced in 2006 and a High Court ruling last year awarded her ex-husband £5.8m.

Miss Radmacher appealed against that decision and her lawyer, Richard Todd QC, told a panel of three Court of Appeal judges the freedom to agree a contract was “at the heart of all modern commercial and legal systems”.

He said Miss Radmacher had never said her former husband would leave the marriage with nothing.

The Court of Appeal judges ruled that Mr Granatino’s pay-out of £5.8m should be cut to about £1m as a lump sum in lieu of maintenance.

In addition, there will be a fund of £2.5m for a house that will be returned to Miss Radmacher when the younger of their two daughters, who is six, reaches the age of 22.

Mr Granatino’s debts, of about £700,000, are also to be paid off by the heiress, who had always agreed to this part of the settlement.

Rights groups have long campaigned for a repeal of the law

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ruled that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults is not a criminal act.

The ruling overturns a 148-year-old colonial law which describes a same-sex relationship as an “unnatural offence”.

Homosexual acts were punishable by a 10-year prison sentence.

Many people in India regard same-sex relationships as illegitimate. Rights groups have long argued that the law contravened human rights.

Delhi’s High Court ruled that the law outlawing homosexual acts was discriminatory and a “violation of fundamental rights”.

The court said that a statute in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which defines homosexual acts as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” and made them illegal, was an “antithesis of the right to equality”.

‘India’s Stonewall’

The ruling is historic in a country where homosexuals face discrimination and persecution on a daily basis but it is likely to be challenged, says the BBC’s Soutik Biswas in Delhi.

Activists welcome ‘historic’ ruling

It also promises to change the discourse on sexuality in a largely conservative country, where even talking about sex is largely taboo, our correspondent says.

Gay rights activists all over the country welcomed the ruling and said it was “India’s Stonewall”.

New York’s Stonewall riot in 1969 is credited with launching the gay rights movement.

“It [the ruling] is India’s Stonewall. We are elated. I think what now happens is that a lot of our fundamental rights and civic rights which were denied to us can now be reclaimed by us,” activist and lawyer Aditya Bandopadhyay told the BBC.

“It is a fabulously written judgement, and it restores our faith in the judiciary,” he said.

Leading gay rights activist and the editor of India’s first gay magazine Ashok Row Kavi welcomed the judgement but said the stigma against homosexuals will persist.

he social stigma will remain. It is [still] a long struggle. But the ruling will help in HIV prevention. Gay men can now visit doctors and talk about their problems. It will help in preventing harassment at police stations,” Mr Kavi told the BBC.

But the decision was greeted with unease by other groups.

Father Dominic Emanuel of India’s Catholic Bishop Council said the church did not “approve” of homosexual behaviour.

“Our stand has always been very clear. The church has no serious objection to decriminalising homosexuality between consenting adults, the church has never considered homosexuals as criminals,” said Father Emanuel.

“But the church does not approve of this behaviour. It doesn’t consider it natural, ethical, or moral,” he said.

The head cleric of Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque, criticised the ruling.

“This is absolutely wrong. We will not accept any such law,” Ahmed Bukhari told the AFP news agency.

In 2004, the Indian government opposed a legal petition that sought to legalise homosexuality - a petition the high court in Delhi dismissed.

But rights groups and the Indian government’s HIV/Aids control body have demanded that homosexuality be legalised.

The National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) has said that infected people were being driven underground and efforts to curb the virus were being hampered.

According to one estimate, more than 8% of homosexual men in India were infected with HIV, compared to fewer than 1% in the general population.

A US soldier has been captured by militants in eastern Afghanistan, the US military has said.

The soldier is believed to be the first seized in either Iraq or Afghanistan for at least two years.

News of the capture came as US and Afghan forces began a major operation against Taliban forces in southern Helmand province.

The US military says the aim of the offensive is to provide security ahead of presidential elections this August.

Helmand has seen the worst violence anywhere in Afghanistan, and military commanders say they need to break what they call the stalemate in the south of the country, says the BBC’s Martin Patience in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The captured soldier was not involved in the operation, codenamed Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword.

A hardline Taliban faction called Haqqani said it had the soldier, but this has not been confirmed by the main Taliban spokesman.

The army was using all its resources to find the missing serviceman, who was taken on Tuesday, spokeswoman Capt Elizabeth Mathias said.

AFP news agency said a commander of Haqqani, named only as Bahram, said the soldier was captured along with three Afghans in the Yousuf Khail district of Paktika province.

The commander said the soldier had been taken to “a safe place”.

Another Haqqani commander, Mullah Sangeen, told Reuters the soldier would be held until Taliban fighters detained by the US were released.

Caroline Wyatt BBC defence correspondent The US marines say the operation will be decisive and is intended to seize almost the entire lower Helmand River valley, which remains the heartland of the Taliban insurgency in Helmand and a major area for the production of opium, which helps fund the insurgency. US commanders hope this offensive will help turn the tide in the current stalemate against the Taliban. The aim of this major operation is to “clear, hold and build” in areas under Taliban influence ahead of Afghan presidential elections this August. The hope is also that if US and other Nato forces are seen as clearly winning the military battle against the insurgents, middle and lower-ranking Taliban leaders and fighters are more likely to defect back to the Afghan government’s side, with US and UK sources in Kabul convinced that the US troop surge is already unsettling the Taliban leadership. Operation hits Taliban heartland

The BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner says the circumstances of this capture are strange and potentially very embarrassing for the Pentagon.

The Taliban are claiming he was drunk when they caught him, he says.

There is no indication he became separated during a firefight - rather that he wandered off out of his base with the three Afghans, our correspondent adds.

‘Massive force’

The US military says about 4,000 marines as well as 650 Afghan troops - supported by Nato planes - are involved in the Helmand operation.

Marines spokesman Brig Gen Larry Nicholson said the operation was different from previous ones because of the “massive size of the force” and its speed.

A Taliban spokesman said the group would resist in various ways and that there would be no permanent US victory.

It is the first such large-scale operation since US President Barack Obama authorised the deployment of 21,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan, as part of a new strategy for winning the conflict.

Many of those troops are being redeployed from operations in Iraq.

The operation began when units moved into the Helmand River valley in the early hours of Thursday.

Helicopters and heavy transport vehicles carried out the advance, with Nato planes providing air cover.

Our correspondent in Kabul says the idea is that they will move into towns and villages which are under Taliban control.

With the fresh US deployments, military commanders say they are confident that they will make “significant” gains this summer, even if, as our correspondent says, a decisive victory is unlikely.

UK-led forces in Helmand launched their own operation to combat the Taliban insurgency last week, in what the UK’s Ministry of Defence described as one of the largest air operations in modern times.

Thousands of British forces under Nato command have been fighting the Taliban in Helmand since 2006, but there has been criticism that they have been overstretched and under-resourced.

Rural couples are allowed two children under China’s family planning laws

Dozens of baby girls in southern China have reportedly been taken from parents who broke family-planning laws, and then sold for adoption overseas.

An investigation by the state-owned Southern Metropolis News found that about 80 girls in one county had been sold for $3,000 (£1,800) to foreigners.

The babies were taken when the parents could not pay the steep fines imposed for having too many children.

Local officials may have forged papers to complete the deals, the report said.

Unpopular policy

Parents in rural areas are allowed two children, unlike urban dwellers who are allowed one.

But if they have more than that, they face a fine of about $3,000 -several times many farmers’ annual income.

The policy is deeply unpopular among rural residents, says the BBC’s Quentin Somerville in Beijing.

Nearly 80 baby girls in a county in Guizhou province, in the south of the country, were confiscated from their families when their parents could not or would not pay the fine, Southern Metropolis News said.

The girls were taken into orphanages and sold to couples from the United States and a number of European countries.

The adoption fee was split between the orphanages and local officials, the newspaper said.

Child trafficking is widespread. A tightening of adoption rules for foreigners in 2006 has proved ineffective in the face of local corruption.

A pet python broke out of its holding tank and strangled a two-year-old girl in the bedroom of her home in Florida, local authorities said.

The 8ft (2.5m) albino Burmese python had also bitten Shaiunna Hare on her forehead several times.

Charles Darnell, the snake’s owner and boyfriend of Shaiunna’s mother, stabbed the python and prised the child away, but she died before paramedics arrived.

Authorities removed the snake from the home after obtaining a search warrant.

Officials said Mr Darnell did not have a permit for the snake. He could face child endangerment or other charges.

Everglades breeding

According to police, Mr Darnell said he had put the snake in a bag in an aquarium container on Tuesday night, but awoke the next morning to find it missing.

Bobby Caruthers, from the sheriff’s office in Sumter County, central Florida, said Mr Darnell “ran immediately to the infant’s room” and discovered “the snake on the child”.

“He also said he observed bite marks on the forehead of the child,” Mr Caruthers said.

Wildlife officials say they are growing increasingly concerned by the proliferation of pythons in the Florida wilderness.

It is believed that some have been released by pet owners who can no longer care for them.

The snakes are breeding in the Everglades, where they have no natural predators.

Burmese pythons can reach a length of 16ft (5m) and live for 30 years.

The US Humane Society told Associated Press news agency that at least 12 people have been killed in the US by pet pythons since 1980, including five children.

Search teams recovered 51 bodies from the crash areaFrench investigators trying to find out why an Air France plane crashed in the Atlantic say they believe it broke up on contact with water, not in the air.

They also found that the plane’s speed sensors had been “a factor but not the cause” of the crash.

All 228 people on the plane were killed when it plunged into the ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on 1 June.

Teams looking for the plane’s flight data recorders will continue operations for another 10 days.

Alain Bouillard, of the BEA accident investigation agency, said the crash had been an extremely difficult one to understand.

But he said an examination of the recovered wreckage led them to believe the plane probably hit the water “in the direction of flight and with a strong vertical acceleration”.

The BBC’s Transport Correspondent Tom Symonds said if the plane had broken up in the air, pieces of the fuselage would have been found twisted in a variety of directions.

Instead they showed signs of compression in one direction, resulting from the plane hitting the water on its belly.

Life jackets found in the wreckage had not been inflated, indicating that the passengers had little warning of a water landing.

Many factors

There has been speculation that the old-style speed sensors may have given the plane’s pilots faulty information.

Timeline of Flight AF 447 Air disasters timeline Mystery of Air France flight Challenge of deep-sea debris

But Mr Bouillard said they had been “a factor but not the cause” of the crash.

In the wake of the crash, Air France accelerated an existing programme to replace speed monitors on its Airbus planes.

Mr Bouillard said there was also concern about the length of the delay between the crew failing to contact air traffic controllers in Dakar, western Africa, as planned and the alarm being raised.

He said his team was “still some distance away from establishing the causes of the accident” but that the search for the Airbus A330’s data recorders would be extended to 10 July.

The French investigation appears to contradict earlier reports attributed to Brazilian pathologists.

They said last month that the injuries sustained by the passengers whose bodies had been found suggested the plane had been in pieces before it hit the sea.

Mr Bouillard said France had not yet been given access to those autopsy reports.

Search teams have recovered 51 bodies from the ocean but said last month that finding any more remains was “impossible”.