UK breaking news and pictures

LONDON (AP) — Occupy London protesters braced for eviction and prepared to take down their tents Wednesday after a court ruled that local authorities can remove the 4-month-old campsite outside St. Paul's Cathedral.

Following the Court of Appeal ruling, officials said they would enforce an order allowing them to remove the dozens of tents — though it did not say when the eviction would begin. "I would call on protesters to comply with the decision of the courts and remove their tents and equipment voluntarily right away," said Stuart Fraser, policy chairman of the City of London Corporation.

The protesters against capitalist excess said they would debate whether to leave the cathedral at a meeting Wednesday evening. The movement has another camp a mile (1.6 kilometers) away in London's Finsbury Square.

Their lawyer, Karen Todner, said the protesters "are seeking to discuss the best way to evacuate the camp in a peaceful and orderly fashion," and urged officials to say when they planned to start the eviction.

Occupy spokeswoman Tammy Samede said that whatever happened, "Occupy is far from over" and that the group is "maturing, growing and learning." Last month, a High Court judge backed local authorities who are trying to remove the protest, but lawyers for the demonstrators sought to challenge the decision.

Three appeals court judges said Wednesday that the protesters had raised no compelling new legal arguments and could not appeal. "We accept that there is a right to assemble and protest on the highway, but it is by no means an unfettered right," said David Neuberger, one of the judges.

Protesters inspired by New York's Occupy Wall Street movement have been camped outside the 300-year-old church since October. They say they are exercising freedom of speech and drawing attention to a warped capitalist system that spawned a global financial crisis.

The City of London Corporation, the local authority, argued the right to protest does not justify a semi-permanent campsite. During a five-day court hearing last month, lawyers for the city claimed the camp was harming nearby businesses, causing waste and hygiene problems and attracting crime and disorder.

Occupy's lawyer, John Cooper, said protesters would likely seek to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. He said that even if the camp is removed "the Occupy message has been heard and will continue to be heard."

"This dysfunctional system needs to be called to account," he said. The protesters set up camp outside the cathedral after they were prevented from camping in front of the nearby London Stock Exchange.

Their proximity to Christopher Wren's icon embroiled the church in a conflict between bank-bashing protesters and the city's finance industry. The church's position on the protesters has shifted several times, and the cathedral's dean and a senior priest have both resigned over the crisis.

"For the past five months we have sought to focus on the important ethical issues raised by the Occupy movement, and we remain committed to engage with these issues," the cathedral's governing chapter said Wednesday in a statement.