Men face rape charges for using prostitutes who are illegally trafficked to Britain

Men who sleep with prostitutes face a criminal record and a fine of £1,000 unless they can prove the woman is working of her own free will.

If she has been trafficked into the UK or is working for a pimp the men could even face rape charges, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said yesterday.

The plan faced complaints - including from prostitutes themselves - for being over-complicated, and running the risk of driving the sex industry further underground.

Kerb-crawling: Under the proposed changes, those who pay a prostitute knowing she has been trafficked could face rape charges

But Miss Smith said the move would he 'protect the thousands of vulnerable women coerced, exploited or trafficked into prostitution in our country'.

She said that those who take advantage of such women must be brought to justice.

She added: 'That is why I am determined to shift the focus onto the sex buyer, the person responsible for creating the demand for prostitution markets which in turn creates demand for the vile trade of women being trafficked for sexual exploitation.

'There will be no more excuses for those who pay for sex.'

Under the changes, paying for sex with a woman 'controlled for another's gain' will become a 'strict liability offence' in England and Wales.

Sex trade crackdown: The government plans to make it illegal to pay for sex and will embark on a 'name and shame' campaign for men who visit prostitutes

Prosecutors will not have to prove that the man knew a prostitute was being exploited in order to charge him. The onus will be on the man to satisfy them that this is not the case.

Ignorance of the woman's circumstances will be no defence and those convicted will get a criminal record and a fine of up to £1,000.

In cases where the man knows that the woman is working as a prostitute against her will, he could be charged with rape, which carries a potential life sentence.

Jacqui Smith: 'Those who take advantage of prostitutes should be brought to justice'

The proposals, drawn up following a six month review which looked at vice laws in countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands, will also see kerb-crawlers prosecuted for a first offence.

And police will have greater powers to shut brothels associated with sexual exploitation, without having to prove that they are linked to class A drug use or anti-social behaviour.

The Home Office had considered banning payment for sex outright - as proposed by women's minister Harriet Harman - but found that there was no public support for it.

Cari Mitchell, of the English Collective of Prostitutes, warned that laws supposedly targeted only at women suffering exploitation would have a damaging impact on those who sell sex by their own choice.

She said: 'Bitter experience tells us that any law against consenting sex forces prostitution further underground and makes women more vulnerable to violence.

'Under the proposed offence, any client of a woman working for another could be convicted. But what is his crime? The woman is working voluntarily and is likely to be making a better income than most women in commonly available low-waged jobs.'

Tory women's spokesman Theresa May added: 'The risk is this will force this activity even further underground, putting vulnerable women in even more danger. The Government should be doing more to help women who find themselves forced into prostitution.'

BATTLE OF THE JUNGLE BIKINIS

Within hours of entering the celebrity jungle at the weekend, page three girl Nicola McLean was stripping to a barely-there bikini. The result: wall-to-wall coverage in the red tops. But is this well-worn publicity trick likely to work? Here we look at past I'm A Celebrity glamour girls and how stripping off has made them money... or not as much as they would have liked.

Nicola McLean: How much is my bikini worth?

MYLEENE KLASS

This shower under a waterfall went on to earn Myleene Klass £2 million

BIKINI ACTION:

The former Hear'say singer was catapulted back to fame in 2006 after showering under a waterfall in a now infamous white bikini in Series 6.

AFTER THE JUNGLE:

Inundated with work offers, she signed a £1 million deal to model clothes for M&S - including a white bikini.

Two albums reached No 1 in the classical chartes, and her TV career took off.

She recently launched her own Baby K range for Mothercare and is to replace Nicky Hambleton-Jones as presenter of TV's 10 years younger.

THIS BIKINI'S WORTH:

£2 million and rising rapidly.

Celebrity PR expert Nick Ede says: 'Presenting 10 Years Younger will be a huge earner this year.'

Gemma Atkinson became a lads' mag favourite after this showing

BIKINI ACTION:

The former Hollyoaks actress-turned-glamour-girl became a firm lads' mag favourite after cutting a curvacious figure on Series 7 last year - boosted by a breast enlargement (to a 34E).

Despite her quiet demeanor, the model is far from shy, so she took every opportunity to flash her bikini body.

AFTER THE JUNGLE:

Her annual calendar saw soaring sales and she rocketed up FHM's 100 Sexiest List to number 18.

She now features in video game Red Alert 3, which is reportedly lifting her profile in the U.S.

Next month she's playing Peter Pan at Manchester Opera House.

THIS BIKINI'S WORTH:

£500,000 maximum. 'Her appeal is limited, as she still hasn't found her niche - not a presenter, not an actress any more and not yet a household name,' says Nick Ede.

NANCY SORRELL

Nancy Sorrell has picked up modelling contracts with High Street brands since appearing on I'm A Celebrity

BIKINI ACTION:

The former lapdancer and wife of Vic Reeves - who joined her in the jungle - scored on good looks and warm personality, but was first out of Series 4 in 2004.

AFTER THE JUNGLE:

Since the show, which Sorrell, 34, credits with changing her earning potential, her modelling contracts have expanded to include many big High Street names, including Next and Pampers.

Designed a lingerie range for Ann Summers.

THIS BIKINI'S WORTH:

£400,000. 'She has a great personality, but has done only small endorsement deals,' says celebrity PR Nick Ede.

'Her Ann Summers range looks good, but won't be a huge earner.

'With such a strong personality I think she and Vic could be the new Richard and Judy.'

KATIE PRICE

Katie Price has been the most successful of the glamour models to graduate from I'm A Celebrity, earning £4 million since the show

BIKINI ACTION:

If it wasn't for I'm A Celebrity Series 3 in 2004, Jordan, 30, would never have met and married fellow jungle contestant Peter Andre.

AFTER THE JUNGLE:

She released her autobiography, Being Jordan, to coincide with I'm A Celebrity and sold more than 97,000 copies in a year.

She then put her married life up for public consumption with Jordan & Peter Laid Bare, a fly-on-the-wall TV documentary.

It was so popular that another six episodes followed in 2005 and there have been yearly instalments ever since.

She is paid a minimum of £25,000 for public appearances and her perfume, Stunning, has earned her a small fortune along with her Perfect Ponies children's books, and a workout DVD.

THIS BIKINI'S WORTH:
£4 million. Nick Ede says: 'She is a money-making machine.'

LINDA BARKER

Linda Barker posing in skimpy bikini has transformed herself

BIKINI ACTION:

When she appeared in this khaki string vest over a minuscule animal print bikini, no one could believe the TV presenter was in her 40s.

AFTER THE JUNGLE:

The style guru, 47, used her appearance in 2003's I'm A Celebrity to launch her own interiors catalogue under the brand name Really Linda Barker.

She has also appeared in TV adverts for sofa store DFS and Currys, modelled Asda underwear, made personal appearances and launched a yoga DVD.

THIS BIKINI'S WORTH:

£1.5 million. 'She is a very popular woman and was the first to really maximise on her potential.

'No one thought she would be the one from I'm A Celebrity to get so many endorsement deals and do so well from it,' says Nick Ede.

SOPHIE ANDERTON

Sophie Anderton, might have looked stunning, but her fiery character turned the public off

BIKINI ACTION:

The supermodel, 31, famous for risque Wonderbra adverts, looked stunning in Series 4 in 2004, but her fiery disposition turned people against her.

AFTER THE JUNGLE:

Anderton's post-show success was somewhat overshadowed by her exposure as a call girl and cocaine addict, which cost her a £100,000 contract with tanning company Fake Bake.

A contestant on Celebrity Love Island, in 2006, she also modelled bigname lingerie.

Lined up for the first series of reality show Cirque de Celebrite, but withdrew due to injury.

After a traumatic break-up, she is reportedly in rehab.

THIS BIKINI'S WORTH:

£1 million. 'She was clever and used the controversy to boost her earnings,' says Nick Ede.

'But people have lost interest in her, and the scandal stops companies affiliating their brand with her.'

TARA PALMER-TOMKINSON

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson is popular with a lot of people

BIKINI ACTION:

The original London It-girl was known for her drug habit during the Nineties, but after rehab, her appearance on the first series of I'm A Celebrity in 2002 was the perfect remedy.

AFTER THE JUNGLE:

Tara, 31, exploded into our living rooms.

She appeared on Top Gear and Footballer's Wives.

Just finished filming canine show The Underdog for Living TV and has been recording her debut album, Flawed, since winning Fame Academy last year.

THIS BIKINI'S WORTH:

£400,000. Nick Ede says: 'She is popular with a lot of people and as she has her own family money, this is not really Tara's biggest drive.'

Behind the scenes of bombshell Scarlett Johansson's smouldering new photoshoot

Scarlett Johansson looked every inch a modern day bombshell in a behind the scenes sneak peek at her latest smouldering photoshoot.

The Hollywood screen siren slipped into a series of seductive outfits for the December issue of Allure magazine, including an Agent Provocateur bustier and a leopard print body suit.

Bombshell: Scarlett Johansson prepares for a fashion shoot for the December issue of Allure magazine

Siren: Scarlett's look was inspired by Brigitte Bardot

Celebrity hairdresser Garren created a 'girlie, Brigitte Bardot' style for the actress, while makeup artist Stephane Marais continued the theme by giving her face an 'updated '50s-style look.'

The result delighted the Lost In Translation star, who said: 'I can't believe this is all my own hair! It's perfect for a holiday party.'

During an accompanying interview, Scarlett discusses her surprise September marriage to actor Ryan Reynolds.

On the prowl: Scarlett slipped into a leopard print body suit for another take

Ready for fun: Scarlett said her hair and make-up was perfect for a party

Cover girl: Scarlett appears on the December issue of Allure

She says: 'I always wanted to get married and have kids. I just never had any preconceived idea about what that would be like.'

'Some girls have envisioned their whole wedding forever. My life seems to be happening naturally.'

But she declined to reveal how the couple met, saying only: 'Nobody knows. It's private. It's our story.'

She also addresses her long-standing feud with rival Lindsay Lohan.

Lindsay reportedly called her 'ugly' and 'fat' and scrawled an unprintable obscenity about Scarlett on the wall of a club toilet two years ago.

'I really don’t know that person. I only met her, like, three times,' the 23-year-old says.

'I don’t know what the motivation was behind that. I remember it was something really vulgar - I mean, shockingly so, like, "Whoa, what, who are you?"'

While Lindsay isn't a fan, singer Katy Perry certainly is - Scarlett inspired her hit song I Kissed A Girl.

'I had no idea,' Scarlett responded. 'I should get a cut!'

She added that while it was flattering, 'my lips are kind of taken.

Rejects reunited: Laura White enjoys her fifteen minutes with X Factor loser Austin Drage

Laura White may have been unceremoniously booted off the X Factor, but it hasn't stopped her celebrating.

The singer's social life has been going from strength to strength as she spent another night out enjoying her fifteen minutes of new-found fame.

And last night, Laura hit the town with fellow X Factor loser, former boy-band member Austin Drage.

Rejects: Laura White parties with former contestant Austin Drage at London's Cafe de Paris last night

Austin was voted off at the start of the month after judges failed to save him but the rejection doesn't seem to have hit him too hard.

The pair were partying into the early hours at a charity event held at London's Cafe de Paris.

Sporting a short lace baby doll-dress which showed off plenty of her curvy figure , the singer was also joined by her TV executive boyfriend, Matthew Firsht.

Laura, 21, recently defended her image, claiming she was 'proud of her curves' after she came under fire from judges Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh before her shock elimination.

Laura was also joined by her TV executive boyfriend, Matthew Firsht

She said: 'I’m a 21-year-old girl, and being told there’s a problem with my appearance in front to f 12 million viewers was horrible.'

'No one ever directly mentioned my weight, but it did make me worry a bit.

Laura had been the favourite to win the talent contest, but was booted out after judges Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell failed to save her. Instead, Ruth Lorenzo, 25, was kept in the competition.

Judge Dannii said: 'The Laura debacle has highlighted that anything can happen each week. Now Laura’s gone, the main Team Minogue competition is Diana and Alexandra – they’re great.'

Organisers of an online petition backing Laura have urged Ofcom to start an investigation into voting procedures on the show.

Astronaut who lost tool bag admits making mistake

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The astronaut who lost her tool bag on a spacewalk admitted Wednesday that she made a mistake by not checking to see if the sack was tied down, and said she's still smarting over the whole thing.

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper said in an interview with The Associated Press that it was "very disheartening" to lose her bag full of tools. She was trying to clean up grease that had oozed out of a grease gun in the backpack-size bag, when the tote and everything in it floated away Tuesday.

The bag was one of the largest items ever lost by a spacewalking astronaut. NASA put the price tag of the tool bag at $100,000.

For a split second, she thought she might be able to grab it and she tried to judge how far away it was. Just as quickly, "I thought, no, that would probably just make things worse and the best thing to do would be to just let it go."

"There's still the psychological thing of knowing that we made a mistake and having to live through that," she said. "During the spacewalk ... it was easy to put it aside because I knew that we still had five hours of spacewalk work to do and the work needed to get done and you can't dwell on a mistake. It was hardest coming back in and having to face everybody else."

She noted there were three more spacewalks and promised not to let the mistake happen again.

"You're not going to see us lose another bag. We're going to double- and triple-check everything from here on out," she said.

The next spacewalk is Thursday; Stefanyshyn-Piper will venture back out of the international space station for more work on a jammed joint at the space station that controls some of the solar wings.

Her spacewalking partner Tuesday, Stephen Bowen, also took the blame for the mishap.

"I didn't go back and triple-check everything. So I'm just as guilty at this as Heide is," Bowen told AP. In the packing and repacking of all the tools and sacks, it's possible that bag became untethered, Stefanyshyn-Piper said.

Flight director Ginger Kerrick was withholding judgment.

"We don't know that this incident occurred because they forgot to tether something. We don't know if perhaps the hook just came loose inside the bag," Kerrick stressed at a news conference. "You've got to remember, we are working with humans here and we are prone to human error. We do the best we can, and we learn from our mistakes."

Kerrick said precautions will be taken to help prevent any more leaking grease guns or loose bags.

The grease guns will be attached to the outside of the bag rather than packed inside, to prevent the plungers from being activated accidentally.

Stefanyshyn-Piper said some air might have gotten in with the grease and forced the grease out. She said it seeped out in half-inch and one-inch bits and was all over the inside of the bag.

Two grease guns were in the bag that got away. That leaves just two guns aboard the space shuttle Endeavour and space station, each with a different nozzle for reaching different parts of the clogged joint.

Meanwhile, the bag that got away was still in the neighborhood of the shuttle-station complex but was expected to fall out of orbit fairly soon.

During Thursday's spacewalk, Stefanyshyn-Piper and Shane Kimbrough will share the grease guns and alter their work in order to cut down on the guns' use. There is a caulking-style gun on Endeavour that is intended for shuttle repairs, but space station flight controllers won't borrow it unless absolutely necessary, Kerrick said.

The gummed-up joint is full of metal shavings, the result of grinding parts. It's been used sparingly for more than a year and, as a result, has hindered energy production at the space station.

Over the course of four spacewalks, astronauts will clean and lubricate the joint and replace the bearings inside, and do a little work on another joint. The first three spacewalks concentrate on the bad joint, the fourth will focus on the good joint.

The joint is supposed to keep the solar wings on the right side of the space station pointed toward the sun. A twin on the left side is operating fine, but the astronauts will squirt on some extra grease as a precaution.

In other space station business Wednesday, the astronauts hooked up some of the gear that was delivered by Endeavour, including a new recycling system for turning urine into drinking water.

___

On the Net:

NASA: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov

Arraignment set for Cheney, Gonzales in Texas

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas – A Texas judge has set a Friday arraignment for Vice President Dick Cheney, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others named in indictments accusing them of responsibility for prisoner abuse in a federal detention center.

Cheney, Gonzales and the others will not be arrested, and do not need to appear in person at the arraignment, Presiding Judge Manuel Banales said.

In the latest bizarre development in the case, the lame-duck prosecutor who won the indictments was a no-show in court Wednesday. The judge ordered Texas Rangers to go to Willacy County District Attorney Juan Guerra's house, check on his well-being and order him to court on Friday.

Half of the eight high-profile indictments returned Monday by a Willacy County grand jury are tied to privately run federal detention centers in the sparsely populated South Texas county. The other half target judges and special prosecutors who played a role in an earlier investigation of Guerra.

One indictment charges Cheney and Gonzales with engaging in organized criminal activity. It alleges that the men neglected federal prisoners and are responsible for assaults in the facilities.

The grand jury accused Cheney of a conflict of interest because of his influence over the county's federal immigrant detention center and his substantial holdings in the Vanguard Group, which invests in private prison companies.

The indictment accuses Gonzales of stopping an investigation into abuses at the federal detention center.

An attorney for the private prison operator The GEO Group filed motions accusing Guerra of "prosecutorial vindictiveness."

One motion said Guerra had hijacked "the grand jury process and disregarded the requirements of the Code of Criminal Procedure designed to protect defendants' due process rights."

Some attorneys argued that Banales may not have the authority to schedule an arraignment because the indictments were invalid. One lawyer said Guerra never should have been allowed to present the cases to the grand jury because at least four of the indictments deal with people who had some role in the investigation of his office last year.

"He is the witness, the victim and the prosecutor," said the attorney for Mervyn Mosbacker Jr., a former U.S. attorney who was appointed special prosecutor to investigate Guerra.

District Clerk Gilbert Lozano, District judges Janet Leal and Migdalia Lopez, and special prosecutors Mosbacker and Gustavo Garza, a longtime political opponent of Guerra, were all indicted on charges of official abuse of official capacity and official oppression.

The grand jury tied all of their charges to an earlier investigation of Guerra's office.

Banales dismissed an indictment against Guerra last month charging him with extorting money from a bail bond company and using his office for personal business. An appeals court had earlier ruled that a special prosecutor was improperly appointed to investigate Guerra.

After Guerra's office was raided as part of the investigation early last year, he camped outside the courthouse in a borrowed camper with a horse, three goats and a rooster. He threatened to dismiss hundreds of cases because he believed local law enforcement had aided the investigation against him.

Guerra has been in office nearly 20 years, but was defeated in the March Democratic primary.

Bush set to relax endangered species rules

WASHINGTON – Animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct could lose the protection of government experts who make sure that dams, highways and other projects don't pose a threat, under regulations the Bush administration is set to put in place before President-elect Obama can reverse them.

The rules must be published Friday to take effect before Obama is sworn in Jan. 20. Otherwise, he can undo them with the stroke of a pen.

The Interior Department rushed to complete the rules in three months over the objections of lawmakers and environmentalists who argued that they would weaken how a landmark conservation law is applied.

A Nov. 12 version of the final rules obtained by the Associated Press has changed little from the original proposal, despite the more than 250,000 comments received since it was first proposed in August.

The rules eliminate the input of federal wildlife scientists in some endangered species cases, allowing the federal agency in charge of building, authorizing or funding a project to determine for itself if it is likely to harm endangered wildlife and plants.

Current regulations require independent wildlife biologists to sign off on these decisions before a project can go forward, at times modifying the design to better protect species.

The regulations also bar federal agencies from assessing emissions of the gases blamed for global warming on species and habitats, a tactic environmentalists have tried to use to block new coal-fired power plants.

Tina Kreisher, an Interior Department spokeswoman, could not confirm whether the rule would be published before the deadline, saying only that the White House was still reviewing it. But she said changes were being made based on the comments received.

"We started this; we want to finish this," said Kreisher.

If the rules go into effect before Obama takes office, they will be difficult to overturn since it would require the new administration to restart the rule-making process. Congress, however, could reverse the rules through the Congressional Review Act — a law that allows review of new federal regulations.

It's been used once in the last 12 years, but some Democratic lawmakers have said they may employ it to block the endangered species rules and other midnight regulations by the Bush administration.

Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said Wednesday that he and other Democrats were committed to "the change that is needed."

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House will be looking at ways to overturn the endangered species rules and other midnight regulations.

"The House, in consultation with the incoming administration and relevant committees, will review what oversight tools are at our disposal regarding this and other last minute attempts to inflict severe damage to the law in the waning moments of the Bush administration," Hammill said.

The Bush administration has made no secret of its intent to complete the endangered species changes quickly.

When the proposal was first announced in August, the public was initially given 30 days to comment. That period was later doubled after Democratic lawmakers pressed for more time.

Then, last month, the head of the endangered species program corralled 15 experts in Washington to sort through 200,000 comments in 32 hours.

"This is definitely lightning quick," said John Kostyack, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation's Wildlife Conservation and Global Warming initiative. "I would be surprised that they spent all this time rushing it through if it wasn't greased."

If successful, the Bush administration will accomplish through rules what conservative Republicans have been unable to achieve in Congress: ending some environmental reviews that developers and other federal agencies blame for delays and cost increases on many projects.

Supporters of the changes also expected it to be finalized later this week.

The Pacific Legal Foundation, which advocates for property rights, urged that the rules be approved.

"Litigious activists have used the Endangered Species Act to fight projects," Reed Hopper, the foundation's principal attorney, said in a statement. "The administration's current proposal is a step toward curbing these abuses."

___

On the Net:

Interior Department: http://www.doi.gov

President-elect promised change, picking insiders

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama promised the voters change but has started his Cabinet selection process by naming several Washington insiders to top posts.

Obama is enlisting former Senate leader Tom Daschle as his health secretary. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a well-known Washington personality, seemed more likely than ever to be his secretary of state. Clinton is deciding whether to take that post as America's top diplomat, her associates said Wednesday

Obama is ready to announce that his attorney general will be Eric Holder, the Justice Department's No. 2 when Clinton's husband was president. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, is another veteran of the Clinton White House.

Daschle's selection to head the Health and Human Services Department — confirmed Wednesday but not yet announced — isn't at the same level of Cabinet prestige as the top spots at the State and Justice departments. But the health post could be more important in an Obama administration than in some others, making Daschle a key player in helping steer the president-elect's promised health care reforms.

Daschle could push Obama for quick action on health care reform next year, if he follows his own advice.

Daschle said efforts during the Clinton administration, led by Hillary Clinton, took too long and went into too much detail, giving every interest group an opportunity to find something they didn't like about the plan.

"The next president should act immediately to capitalize on the goodwill that greets any incoming administration. If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it," Daschle wrote in a book he released this year, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis." "This issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol."

The former South Dakota senator's return to the government will be a vindication of sorts. He was the Senate Democratic leader when he was defeated in 2004 by Republican John Thune, who convinced voters back home that Daschle was more concerned with Washington than with them.

In fact, Daschle stayed in the capital city after his defeat, becoming a public policy adviser and member of the legislative and public policy group at the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird. Daschle isn't registered as a lobbyist. He advises clients on issues including health care, financial services, taxes and trade, according to the firm's Web site.

Health care interests, including CVS Caremark, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, Abbott Laboratories and HealthSouth, are among the firm's lobbying clients.

Daschle's appointment was not formally announced, but Democratic officials said the job was his barring an unforeseen problem as Obama's team reviews his background. One area of review will include the lobbying connections of his wife, Linda Hall Daschle, who has worked mostly on behalf of airline-related companies over the years. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Republicans sniped at what they saw as an unwelcome trend. Alex Conant, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said, "Barack Obama is filling his administration with longtime Washington insiders."

Calif. Supreme Court to take up gay marriage ban

SAN FRANCISCO – California's highest court agreed Wednesday to hear several legal challenges to the state's new ban on same-sex marriage but refused to allow gay couples to resume marrying before it rules.

The California Supreme Court accepted three lawsuits seeking to nullify Proposition 8, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that overruled the court's decision in May that legalized gay marriage.

All three cases claim the measure abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change.

As is its custom when it takes up cases, the court elaborated little. However, the justices did say they want to address what effect, if any, a ruling upholding the amendment would have on the estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages that were sanctioned in California before Election Day.

Gay rights groups and local governments petitioning to overturn the ban were joined by the measure's sponsors and Attorney General Jerry Brown in urging the Supreme Court to consider whether Proposition 8 passes legal muster.

The initiative's opponents had also asked the court to grant a stay of the measure, which would have allowed gay marriages to begin again while the justices considered the cases. The court denied that request.

The justices directed Brown and lawyers for the Yes on 8 campaign to submit arguments by Dec. 19 on why the ballot initiative should not be nullified. It said lawyers for the plaintiffs, who include same-sex couples who did not wed before the election, must respond before Jan. 5.

Oral arguments could be scheduled as early as March, according to court spokeswoman Lynn Holton.

"This is welcome news. The matter of Proposition 8 should be resolved thoughtfully and without delay," Brown said in a statement.

Both opponents and supporters of Proposition 8 expressed confidence Wednesday that their arguments would prevail. But they also agreed that the cases present the court's seven justices — six of whom voted to review the challenges — with complex questions that have few precedents in state case law.

Although more than two dozen states have similar amendments, some of which have survived similar lawsuits, none were approved by voters in a place where gay marriage already was legal.

Neither were any approved in a state where the high court had put sexual orientation in the same protected legal class as race and religion, which the California Supreme Court did when it rendered its 4-3 decision that made same-sex marriage legal in May.

Opponents of the ban argue that voters improperly abrogated the judiciary's authority by stripping same-sex couples of the right to wed after the high court earlier ruled it was discriminatory to prohibit gay men and lesbians from marrying.

"If given effect, Proposition 8 would work a dramatic, substantive change to our Constitution's 'underlying principles' of individual equality on a scale and scope never previously condoned by this court," lawyers for the same-sex couples stated in their petition.

The measure represents such a sweeping change that it constitutes a constitutional revision as opposed to an amendment, the documents say. The distinction would have required the ban's backers to obtain approval from two-thirds of both houses of the California Legislature before submitting it to voters.

Over the past century, the California Supreme Court has heard nine cases challenging legislative acts or ballot initiatives as improper revisions. The court eventually invalidated three of the measures, according to the gay rights group Lambda Legal.

Andrew Pugno, legal counsel for the Yes on 8 campaign, said he doubts the court will buy the revision argument in the case of the gay marriage ban because the plaintiffs would have to prove the measure alters the state's basic governmental framework.

Joel Franklin, a constitutional law professor at Monterey College of Law, said that even though the court rejected similar procedural arguments when it upheld amendments reinstating the death penalty and limiting property taxes, those cases do not represent as much of a fundamental change as Proposition 8.

"Those amendments applied universally to all Californians," Franklin said. "This is a situation where you are removing rights from a particular group of citizens, a class of individuals the court has said is entitled to constitutional protection. That is a structural change."

The trio of cases the court accepted were filed by six same-sex couples who have not yet wed, a Los Angeles lesbian couple who were among the first to tie the knot on June 16 and 11 cities and counties, led by the city of San Francisco.

Fed sees economic woes persisting into next year

WASHINGTON – Pounded by a fierce financial crisis, the country is sinking deeper into economic despair and is likely to be in the hole well into next year, forcing more Americans into the ranks of the unemployed.

The gloomy outlook from the Federal Reserve came as hopes dimmed that Congress could secure a fresh $25 billion rescue package for the tottering U.S. auto industry before lawmakers quit for the year.

With economic troubles cutting into customers' appetites, businesses will remain in a cost-cutting mode, keeping layoffs high.

Although economists predict a government report out Thursday will show that the number of newly laid-off workers filing applications for unemployment benefits last week dipped to 505,000, that figure would still point to an ailing jobs market, they say.

In the prior week, new applications filed for jobless benefits zoomed to 516,000, the most since right after the September 2001 terror attacks.

Despite a flurry of bold government actions, including $700 billion financial bailout package now being rolled out by the Treasury Department, financial and economic problems rage on.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — who is overseeing the rescue effort — will deliver an assessment of the economy in a speech Thursday in Simi Valley, Calif.

Paulson's outlook comes one day after the Federal Reserve dramatically lowered its projections for economic activity this year and next, and signaled that additional interest rate reductions may be needed to revive the economy.

Given all the worrisome economic news, Wall Street nosedived. The Dow Jones industrials on Wednesday lost 427 points, or about 5 percent, at 7,997 — its lowest close since March 2003.

To cushion Americans from all the fallout, many economists believe the Fed will ratchet down its key interest rate — now at 1 percent — by one-quarter or one-half percentage point on Dec. 16, the last session of the year for its policy-making committee.

The economy will log little, if any, growth this year, and could jolt into reverse, according to various Fed projections released Wednesday. And, the frailty will extend into next year, the Fed said, where the economy could shrink or turn in subpar growth.

The economy "would remain very weak next year" and "the subsequent pace of recovery would be quite slow," the Fed said in its new economic projections. "The unemployment rate would increase substantially further."

The Fed projected that the national unemployment rate will rise to between 6.3 percent and 6.5 percent this year. That would be up sharply from last year's average rate of 4.6 percent.

For 2009, the Fed expects the jobless rate to climb to between 7.1 percent and 7.6 percent.

General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner, meanwhile, warned the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that the collapse of the U.S. auto industry could lead to a loss of 3 million jobs within the first year.

Top Senate Democrats suggested a bill to rescue Detroit's Big Three was stalled, and they challenged the Bush administration to act to save the industry if congressional efforts falter. The White House rebuffed the suggestion.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada sought to lower expectations of reaching a deal on the $25 billion proposal before Congress quits for the year. Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., called the possibility of reaching agreement "remote."

Meanwhile, with economic slowdowns both in the United States and overseas, inflation will moderate, the Fed predicted.

On that front, American consumers got a reprieve and saw prices actually fall by a record amount in October, just a few months after getting hammered by runaway costs.

The shift away from inflation worries to a possible bout of dropping prices, or "deflation," however, underscored just how quickly dangers faced by the economy can change in what many fear will be a painful recession.

For the average person, falling prices sure sounds like a good thing. But a prolonged and widespread price decline — which would drag down incomes, further clobber home and stock prices and shrivel corporate profits — would spell disaster for the economy. All that would make it harder for people and businesses to pay off debt.

America's last serious case of deflation occurred during the Great Depression of the 1930s. For now, economists think the chances are slim that the country will tip into a deflationary spiral. But they aren't ruling it out, either.

The Fed, in documents Wednesday, said "more aggressive easing" of interest rates "should reduce the odds of a deflationary outcome."

Once established, deflation is hard for Fed policymakers to break. That's partly because the Fed can lower its key rate only so far — to zero — to combat it.

Finger-pointing begins as Senate nixes auto vote

WASHINGTON – A Democratic Congress, unwilling or unable to approve a $25 billion bailout for Detroit's Big Three, appears ready to punt the automakers' fate to a lame-duck Republican president. Caught in the middle of a who-blinks-first standoff are legions of manufacturing firms and auto dealers — and millions of Americans' jobs — after Senate Democrats canceled a showdown vote that had been expected Thursday. President George W. Bush has "no appetite" to act on his own.

U.S. auto companies employ nearly a quarter-million workers, and more than 730,000 other people have jobs producing the materials and parts that go into cars. About 1 million on top of that work in dealerships nationwide. If just one of the auto giants were to go belly up, some estimates put U.S. job losses next year as high as 2.5 million.

"If GM is telling us the truth, they go into bankruptcy and you see a cascade like you have never seen," said Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, who was working on one rescue plan Wednesday. "If people want to go home and not do anything, I think that they're going to have that on their hands."

The automakers — hobbled by lackluster sales and choked credit — are burning through money at an alarming and accelerating rate: about $18 billion in the last quarter alone. General Motors Corp. has said it could collapse within weeks, and there are indications that Chrysler LLC might not be far behind. Ford Motor Co. has said it could get through the end of 2008, but it's unclear how much longer.

For now, however, with the federal emergency loan plan stalled in the Senate, lawmakers in both parties are engaged in a high-stakes game of chicken, positioning themselves to blame each other for the failure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., scrapped plans Wednesday for a vote on a bill to carve $25 billion in new auto industry loans out of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund.

It's really up to Bush's team to act, he said.

"I don't believe we need the legislation," Reid said. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson can tap the financial industry bailout money to help auto companies, Reid said, but "he just doesn't want to do it."

Not our responsibility, countered the White House.

"If Congress leaves for a two-month vacation without having addressed this important issue ... then the Congress will bear responsibility for anything that happens in the next couple of months during their long vacation," said Dana Perino, the White House press secretary.

She said there was "no appetite" in the administration for using the financial industry bailout money to help auto companies.

The White House and congressional Republicans instead called on Democrats to sign on to a GOP plan to divert a $25 billion loan program created by Congress in September — designed to help the companies develop more fuel-efficient vehicles — to meet the auto giants' immediate financial needs.

Voinovich and Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., along with Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, were at work on that measure Wednesday, trying to placate skeptical Democrats by including a guarantee that the fuel-efficiency loan fund would ultimately be replenished.

"It is the only proposal now being considered that has a chance of actually becoming law," said Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

If an acceptable deal emerges, Reid said it could be passed as part of a measure to extend jobless aid to unemployed workers whose benefits have run out. A vote on that bill is likely on Thursday. Negotiators were discussing a scaled-down aid package of $5 billion to $8 billion to help the automakers survive through year's end.

But there was little sign that Democratic leaders would go along.

"We have to face reality," Reid said.

They are vehemently opposed to letting the car companies tap the fuel-efficiency money — set aside to help switch to vehicles that burn less gasoline — for short-term cash-flow needs.

All of which leaves the Big Three bracing for a bleak winter without government help.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner told a House committee Wednesday that the downfall of his industry would ripple through communities around the nation. Pressed by lawmakers, Wagoner wouldn't say precisely when GM would run out of money without a government lifeline, but he disclosed that the company now was burning through $5 billion a month.

Still, with the $25 billion emergency package, "we think we have a good shot to make it through this," Wagoner said.

Many lawmakers in both parties are now openly discussing whether bankruptcy might be a better option for auto firms they regard as lumbering industrial dinosaurs that have done too little to adjust their products and work forces for the 21st century.

The carmakers argue that bankruptcy would devastate their companies, but proponents say it would give them a chance to reorganize and emerge stronger and more competitive.

It's unclear, though, whether Democrats controlling Congress are willing to risk being blamed for letting one of the Big Three — symbols of the nation's once-mighty manufacturing sector — go under.

Bailout-shy lawmakers got an earful from jittery constituents last month when the House let an early version of the Wall Street rescue fail, sending the Dow Jones industrials tumbling and erasing more than a trillion dollars in retirement savings and other investments. Congress took a deep breath and reconsidered, passing the plan a few days later.

Faced with a similar collapse in the auto industry, the Bush administration might yet decide to step in to help the auto companies, or the Federal Reserve could step in — though both have steadfastly refused to do so.

If not, lawmakers have left themselves a contingency plan: Come back to Washington in December for yet another postelection session where they might be able to strike the deal that now seems beyond reach.

Democratic leaders are planning to gather for an economic conference the week of Dec. 8, noted House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md.

"That is available," Hoyer said this week. "The year has not ended."

___

Associated Press writers Sam Hananel in Washington and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.