UK MPs’ expenses published

The roughly 1.2 million pages of documents on parliament's Web site seem unlikely to throw up many fresh surprises, partly because the Daily Telegraph newspaper has already published swathes of leaked information showing how MPs claimed lavishly for everything from a duck island to moat cleaning. But there was fresh controversy as it emerged that large sections of the information put online Thursday have been blacked out, including lawmakers' addresses, prompting claims of "censorship". Alistair Graham, former chairman of the independent Committee On Standards In Public Life, which advises the government on ethical standards, said that too much information had been held back. "I am against the sort of redaction and censorship which has clearly taken place," he told the BBC.

And Maurice Frankel of the Campaign for Freedom of Information said the incomplete published details were a "very poor substitute" for full disclosure.

Junior Treasury Minister Kitty Ussher became the latest casualty in the expenses row Wednesday night when she quit after it was reported she had avoided paying tax worth up to 17,000 pounds ($28,000) on the sale of her house by "flipping".