Harman implicates Brown is the headline in the Guardian as the papers once again hav a field day over the Labour Donor scandal

Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader, was forced to implicate Gordon Brown deeper into the donor scandal last night as Scotland Yard was called in to investigate the affair.
Harman revealed it had been Brown's campaign coordinator who had recommended she seek a donation from the proxy of David Abrahams, the controversial businessman who has secretly bankrolled the party with £600,000.

Gordon Brown faces full police inquiry after admitting links to donor reports the Times

The Sun has a rather more apt headline

Ello Ello Ello What's going on here

GORDON Brown was reeling last night as Scotland Yard launched a full-scale sleaze probe into the Donorgate scandal.
Detectives were called in by the Electoral Commission in a devastating blow for the PM — four days after the row over Labour Party funding erupted.
The investigation will focus on £650,000 given to Labour by tycoon David Abrahams in other people’s names — a breach of electoral law.

The Telegraph carries more bad news for the government

Tories open historic lead over Labour in poll

An exclusive YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph puts the Tories on 43 per cent - 11 points ahead of Labour, who have sunk to just 32 per cent.
Only two months ago the Tories trailed Labour by 11 points and were facing the prospect of a landslide defeat in an early election.

Is the roof falling in on the housing market? asks the Independent

Five increases in interest rates from the Bank of England in just over a year had begun to do their work, even before the recent credit crunch. House price rises began to moderate in the summer, and values in the past couple of months have been falling, albeit modestly and from a very inflated level. The Nationwide and the Halifax have reported drops of one to two per cent since the autumn, the worst performances since the housing recession of the early 1990s. Yesterday the Bank of England said the number of mortgage approvals slumped in October to its lowest level in nearly three years, and mortgage lending slowed sharply. The Bank has, in unprecedented terms, voiced its concerns about the buy-to-let market, a particularly vulnerable part of the market, as well as commercial property, another area where some amateurish speculation has become part of the scene. Fewer people are popping into the estate agents. Houses are staying on the market for longer. Not good.

The Times carries the same lead

House price plunge heralds fears of ‘double whammy’ for investors

House prices fell at their fastest pace for 12 years in November, Nationwide said yesterday. The 0.8 per cent fall was heralded by City economists as evidence that the downturn in the market had arrived.
Every leading survey of the state of the market – Nationwide, Halifax, Rightmove, Hometrack and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) – has now reported falls in prices. Experts say that Britons face a “double whammy” of higher bills and sustained falls in the value of their homes.

As does the Express

SHOCK FALL IN HOUSE PRICES

HOUSE prices are falling at their fastest rate for more than 12 years, Britain’s biggest building society revealed yesterday.

The Mirror and the Mail carry the same headline

15 DAYS IN HELL

Terrified Gillian Gibbons was last night paying the cruel price of a simple desire to help the children of Sudan.
The 54-year-old Brit believed that teaching seven-year-olds in Khartoum would in some small way make for a better world.
But when she allowed her class to name a teddy mascot Mohammed she was blasted by Islamic zealots out to cause trouble.
And last night amidst global condemnation the mum of two was starting a 15-day sentence in notorious Omdurman jail for inciting hatred and insulting religion.

The Mail reports on the

Squalid, overcrowded and infested with mosquitoes: The jail where teddy bear teacher will serve her sentence

Hugely overcrowded, the jail on the outskirts of Khartoum, was originally built to hold 100 women and then expanded to hold 200, but in recent years has housed more than 1,200.
Hundreds of children also throng its corridors, leaving inmates at risk of disease.

The Guardian tells us that

The Foreign Office said it was "extremely disappointed" by the sentence, and David Miliband, the foreign secretary, again summoned the Sudanese ambassador to explain the verdict. During the 45-minute meeting, Miliband expressed concern at the continued detention of Gibbons "in the strongest terms". The Foreign Office said in a statement last night that there would be further contact today "in the search for a swift resolution of this issue".

Stealth curriculum is ‘threat to all toddlers’ reports the Times

A new national curriculum for all under-5s will cause untold damage to the development of young children, a powerful lobby of academics says today.
The highly prescriptive regime for pre-school children, which is due to become law next year, has been introduced by stealth, they say. It will induce needless anxiety and dent children’s enthusiasm for learning, according to the group of experts in childhood development.

Specalist schools criticised reports the Mirror

Ofsted boss Christine Gilbert said staff brought in to teach in areas of excellence were having little effect despite millions of pounds of investment.
She warned: "If teaching has not improved, it's hard to see learning would."

According to the Guardian

Boys of 12 using anabolic steroids to 'get girls'

The government's expert advisers on illicit drugs yesterday warned of the growing use of anabolic steroids by boys as young as 12 as they confirmed they are reviewing the legal status of ecstasy as well as cannabis.
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is to write to the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, voicing grave concerns about the growing abuse of anabolic steroids which are now being used by "tens of thousands" of bodybuilders and teenagers.

The Sun reports that

ALMOST 1,500 children under 14 were admitted to hospital after boozing last year, shock figures revealed yesterday.
The 1,441 kids were suffering from alcohol poisoning or had fallen victim to drink-related illnesses or accidents.
A quarter of the admissions were in the North West, with 139 treated in Greater Manchester, 128 in Cumbria and Lancashire and 106 in Cheshire and Merseyside. Another 138 were seen in London.


Olmert: 'If talks fail, Israel will be finished' says the Independent

The state of Israel would be "finished" if prospects of a two-state solution collapsed, its Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has warned. Two opinion polls have shown widespread scepticism among the Israeli public about this week's Annapolis summit.
Mr Olmert told the liberal daily Haaretz: "If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished."

Israel risks apartheid-like struggle says the Guardian

Military seige puts end to hotel-lobby revolt reports the Times

A spectacular show of strength by the elite forces of the Philippine military ended a seven-hour attempted coup d’état staged in the lobby of one of Manila’s top hotels yesterday.
About 30 heavily armed rebels, led by a senior Philippine politician, stormed and occupied the Peninsula Hotel around lunchtime, demanding the resignation of the nation’s increasingly reviled President, Gloria Arroyo.

Fraud, intimidation and bribery as Putin prepares for victory says the Guardian

The Kremlin is planning to rig the results of Russia's parliamentary elections on Sunday by forcing millions of public sector workers across the country to vote, the Guardian has learned.
Local administration officials have called in thousands of staff on their day off in an attempt to engineer a massive and inflated victory for President Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party. Voters are being pressured to vote for United Russia or risk losing their jobs, their accommodation or bonuses, the Guardian has been told in numerous interviews with byudzhetniki (public sector workers), students and ordinary citizens.

The Sun meanwhile reports on

OSAMA OUTRAGE AT EUROPE

TERROR boss Osama bin Laden has issued a chilling warning to Europe to stop helping America fight Taliban thugs in Afghanistan.
In an audio tape aired on Al-Jazeera TV, the al-Qaeda chief said Europe just followed the US and ranted: “The American tide is ebbing.”
He gloated over the 9/11 attacks in New York, saying: “They were retaliation for American-Israeli aggression against our people in Palestine and Lebanon.

Bin Laden warns Europe to stop following US says the Telegraph

Osama bin Laden has released a recorded message warning European countries to stop following America and withdraw their forces from Afghanistan.
The al-Qa'eda leader also stated once again that he was responsible for presiding over the September 11 attacks.
He said the US had "insisted on invading" Afghanistan even though it knew that the Afghans were not behind the attacks, and that "Europe walked behind it".
"The American tide is ebbing," he said in a message addressed to the European public.

The Mail reports that

Only 1 in 20 criminals faces justice in a court

Only around one in 20 crimes resulted in the offender being charged by the police or dragged before a court last year in another lurch towards "soft justice".
The remainder escaped punishment altogether - or were let off with fines, community punishments, fixed-penalty notices or a slap-on-the-wrist.

The Times meanwhile reports on the

Jack Straw has begun an urgent inquiry into allegations that hundreds of criminals, including sex offenders, have escaped prosecution because warrants were not issued when they failed to turn up at court.
Mr Straw told MPs he had asked three inspectorates — those covering the courts, police and Crown Prosecution Service — to conduct a “thorough inspection” of warrant processes at Leeds Magistrates’ Court over the recording of case outcomes, principally between 1997 and 2003.

Warrant failure 'let hundreds of suspects go free'

CALL TO CLEAR MCCANNS reports the Express

A TEAM of senior Portuguese police and forensic experts will fly home today after a DNA summit knowing their evidence about Gerry and Kate McCann is unlikely to support a prosecution.

Donald Trump's £1bn golf course rejected says the Telegraph

Donald Trump's controversial plans to build a £1billion golf resort along a stretch of unspoilt coastline have been dealt a fatal blow.Councillors have rejected the proposals for two links courses, a five-star hotel, a golf academy, nearly 1,000 holiday homes and 500 private houses in one of the biggest single property developments seen in Scotland. Following the decision, the flamboyant American property tycoon threatened to pull out of Scotland and take the scheme, which would be worth more that £100 million a year, elsewhere in Europe.

The Mirror reports that

Redknapp hits back in arrest row

Harry Redknapp yesterday denied having anything to do with alleged transfer bungs and insisted: "I've got nothing to be afraid of."
The Portsmouth manager said he was baffled why police were quizzing him since he does not deal with football agent fees.
And he attacked officers for upsetting his wife Sandra with a dawn raid on their £10million luxury home.

One of those Mail stories

Health and safety killjoys force Santa to wear a seatbelt in his 5mph sleigh

Every Christmas Eve he whizzes around the world at top speed, without incident.
But Santa's unblemished driving record is not enough to satisfy the health and safety brigade.
They have ordered him to wear a seatbelt - at least when he visits Halesowen, West Midlands.
The local rotary club has been forced to fit a belt to the sleigh he uses there - or face a £200 increase in its insurance premiums.

The Telegraph adding

Barry Wheeler, the president of the West Midlands club, said: "Every year we have made sure Santa gets to go through the town and wave to the children. It just seemed ridiculous, especially because he doesn't actually ride on the sleigh that often.

"He would be more likely to injure himself getting in and out of the sleigh than actually falling out of it."



FANCY A STIFF DRINK FELLAS asks the Sun

FELLAS needing a boost in the bedroom are being told to try POMEGRANATE juice.
A daily glass can act like Viagra, new research shows.Nearly half the men who drank it for a month in the American study said they found it easier to rise to the occasion.

Finally many of the papers report that

Former Midnight Oil rocker named Australia's environment minister

The Guardian reports that

For 25 years Peter Garrett was the frontman of Midnight Oil, an Australian rock band known for its raucously loud music and protest songs about social and environmental issues. Then the bald 6ft 6in singer hung up his microphone, disbanded the group and exchanged his rock star clothes for the sombre suits of a politician.