Farmers organizations welcomed the decision and ICMSA secretary general Ciaran Dolan and said that the EU “had been trampling on the fundamental rights of farmers to satisfy the unjust and unwarranted curiosity of third parties”.

Lawyers in Brussels are now studying the decision by the Luxembourg-based court and some experts believe it may just apply to publishing the names of private individual farmers, and not to companies.

The court said that publishing people’s names and the exact amounts they have received breached their right to personal data protection in the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Most of the big payments go to huge companies last year the top 10 payments went to mushroom producers, multinationals Abbott and Wyeth and the manufacturers of Baileys.

Yesterday’s court finding resulted from an action taken by two German farmers against the publication each April of the annual list of recipients of the EU’s €56 billion in farm subsidies.

The European Commission argued that since the money comes from European taxpayers, they were entitled in the interests of transparency to have access to the names of the recipients.

However, the court said that while it accepted the taxpayers in a democratic society had a right to be informed of the use made of public funds, the courts also needed to protect the privacy rights of individuals.

They found that the online publication by each member state of the names, addresses and amounts received by individuals went too far, noting that no indication was given as to how long the persons were receiving such aid, how frequently they got it or the nature and amount for each individual grant.

A commission source said the court ruling had given several hints as to how the legislation could be changed to allow publication of data in future, and lawyers were studying this.

One of the main issues seemed to be that the ruling referred just to “natural persons” which meant that information on companies could possibly continue to be published.

MEP Mairéad McGuinness said the EU will now have to revisit the controversial issue of publication of payments to individual farmers. “They will have to examine a way of dealing with the issue of transparency for taxpayers while at the same time not breaching individuals’ right to privacy.”

The CAP payments amount to more than 40% of the EU’s annual budget and accounts for the vast amount of money that Ireland receives. The names of recipients has been published for the past few years following public pressure to do so.

The 40-year-old singer – who announced she is expecting her first child with husband Nick Cannon last month – doesn’t plan to have any help when her new arrival comes.

She said: “I’m going to be hands on, ‘I wouldn’t be like, ‘Oh, I’m a having a child, yay! Let me get a nanny so I can give her the baby. Take the kid.’ That doesn’t work for me. I don’t believe in that.”

Mariah has also hinted she is planning to put her career on hold so she can completely focus on her child.

She added to Britain’s OK! magazine: “You can get caught up in Hollywood-land and that’s maybe not the best thing for kids, because they didn’t ask for it. I don’t know that I always felt safe as a child and that’s nobody’s fault. I feel like it’s important to be responsible and to think, well maybe if I do this it’s not the best thing for my child. You have to take a backseat a little bit, and as someone in the public eye you’re not used to doing that.”

Mariah is confident she and Nick, 30, will make great parents, although she isn’t sure if she wants a big family.

She said: “I think we will make good parents and that we will be able to figure out how to do it properly. We’d be happy with one. We’re so busy – if you have six kids running around no one gets what they need. What I want is to have children in a good way, with the right husband, with the right family life.”

One man from Manchester said smashed windows and wounded police officers were “a necessary evil” as young people fought to get their message across.

About 50 riot police moved in just after 5pm as the majority of the protesters began to leave the scene.

One student barring the way of the helmeted officers was hit in the face with a police shield.

Others questioned whether protesters had gone “too far” as smoke from burning placards filled the air outside 30 Millbank.

The atmosphere remained extremely volatile at sunset as some demonstrators threw pieces of burning wood at a small group of riot squad officers guarding the entrance.

Students using scarves to cover their faces and at least one wearing a gas mask mingled with hundreds of onlookers, some sitting on sofas and chairs.

Some students also posed for pictures alongside spray-painted graffiti saying, “Tory pigs” and “Tory scum” beside the smashed window of a media company.

There were also incongruous scenes in Millbank as diners continued to eat their meals at a branch of Pizza Express on the ground floor of the Millbank Tower, despite violent clashes outside.

At one point, an office worker was met with chants of “Tory scum” from hundreds of demonstrators after using his phone to take pictures of them from a nearby office.

When he waved his red tie at them and mouthed the word “Labour”, the jeering turned to loud cheers.

While her family praise her for not needing a man, the 22-year-old singer admits she was reduced to tears when she recently went on holiday on her own.

She said: “My sister calls me the girl that never needs a man. She says, ‘You may as well just marry yourself.’ But I hate being alone. That’s a different ball game.

“The other week I went away on holiday for five days to Morocco, and it’s the first time I’ve been away by myself. I cried on the plane. But I went to the souk, I ate every night alone, and I thought, ‘I can do this.’”

The ‘Start Without You’ hitmaker – who won Simon Cowell’s pop star search show ‘The X Factor’ in 2008 – also revealed she was forced to move away from the area she grew up in after she won the competition.

Alexandra added: “Growing up, all I knew was the Caledonian Road in north London. But after I won ‘X Factor’ living there was difficult because of the kids. I remember once as I was driving in the gate they were trying to open the boot of my car, and then they started throwing stones. A week later I was gone.

“My mum said, ‘You really should move somewhere greener’, so I moved to Hertfordshire and I live in an area with a lot of old people so no one knows who I am. You just talk about your dogs.”

Stoke boss Tony Pulis made four changes to his side for the visit of Birmingham to the Britannia Stadium as the Potters looked to halt a run of four straight defeats in the Barclays Premier League.

With Ryan Shawcross suspended after being sent off in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Sunderland, Danny Higginbotham came into the defence with Robert Huth assuming the captain’s armband.

Ricardo Fuller, Jermaine Pennant and Rory Delap were also handed starting places as Tuncay Sanli, Jon Walters and Marc Wilson dropped to the bench.

Birmingham boss Alex McLeish made two changes to his side, promoting Craig Gardner and Jean Beausejour to the starting XI in place of Keith Fahey and Alexander Hleb, who were among the substitutes.

The troubled actress has successfully completed her first phase of treatment at the Betty Ford rehabilitation centre so is now staying at a property near the main facility, where she is receiving “residential day treatments”.

While she is there, Lindsay is able to enjoy supervised activities as well as doing her own grocery shopping.

A Betty Ford representative said of the sober house: “It’s a buddy system and no patient is allowed to go out by themselves.”

However, Lindsay’s family won’t be able to visit her there as meetings can only take place in the main house and on Sunday afternoons.

Lindsay’s mother Dina has revealed her daughter is doing well in the clinic and believes she is finally on the road to recovery.

She said: “She’s just a different person. She’s been in a couple facilities, but this one to me has really changed her.”

Dina – who is divorced from Lindsay’s father Michael Lohan – also admitted Lindsay, 24, is an addict, something she has always denied in the past.

When asked why she hadn’t admitted it before, Dina told US TV programme ‘Today Show’: “That was for Lindsay to admit. As a mother it wasn’t for me to come to tell the world about her problem. That was for her to do. I wasn’t in denial.

“We take it one day at a time. Addiction is difficult. I don’t know. I don’t have a crystal ball. I pray hard … We can only be positive and look to the future to help other families.”

Lindsay was ordered by a Los Angeles court to stay in rehab until January 3, 2011 after she tested positive for cocaine during a random drug test in September.

A train carrying tanks of oil was stopped on the tracks when it was hit from behind by another cargo train, Bialystok fire department spokesman Marcin Janowski said.

Some 17 of the 33 oil tanks that the train was carrying caught fire. Two of the tanks exploded before the fire could be put out.

Janowski said one of the train drivers was hurt in the crash but the explosion caused no injuries.

A primary school near the site was closed for the day as a precaution.

Some 40 teams of firefighters worked to put out the fire.

Chirac is already set to be tried in March in one City Hall jobs scandal.

The judicial officials said today a judge in the Paris suburb of Nanterre has ordered him to be tried over an “illegal conflict of interest” in a similar case.

In the new case, Chirac has faced questions about seven jobs at his former Conservative Party that were improperly paid for by City Hall or by construction companies.

The two cases against Chirac could be tried at the same time.

Chirac has denied any wrongdoing.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that the particular strain of cholera that is implicated in the outbreak matches certain strains found in South Asia. Leading infectious disease experts in the field say they have evidence that Nepalese soldiers, who arrived in Haiti following cholera outbreaks in Nepal, were to blame.

However, the U.S. CDC and the World Health Organization are skirting the issue, stating that it is impossible to pinpoint the source of the outbreak and further investigation could distract from disease containment efforts. But, as all public health officials know, finding the source of any outbreak is paramount in disease containment efforts. Are politics at play? Certainly, especially in international medicine, where health is too often used as a political tool.

The soccer player – who has modelled briefs for Emporio Armani – wants to follow his wife Victoria into the fashion world once he has retired from the sport.

A source said: “David is 35 and knows he won’t be playing soccer forever. But he’s an icon for men all over the world and he wears pants like no one can – so it makes sense for him to launch his own.”

David – who is currently playing for Los Angeles Galaxy – is being backed in his plans by his manager Simon Fuller and fashion designer Stella McCartney’s husband Alasdhair Willis.

He also wants Victoria – who launched her debut collection in 2008 and is now a well-respected member of the fashion world – to be heavily involved in the project.

The source added to the News of the World newspaper: “Alasdhair and Simon are focused on turning David into a major fashion presence. Victoria’s also very excited. She obviously thinks David is the sexiest man in the world and perfect to front the range.”