Saturday, December 01, 2007


All beacause of a teddy says the front page of the Sun as many of the papers carry pictures of the demonstations in Sudan

TERRIFIED teddy bear row teacher Gillian Gibbons was being held in a secret jail last night — after a 10,000-strong armed mob took to Sudan’s streets screaming: “Kill her, kill her.”
The Liverpool mum of two — convicted of insulting Islam by calling the bear Mohammed — was sneaked out of the capital Khartoum hours after being jailed for 15 days.

Kill her says the front of the Express

British teacher Gillian Gibbons had to be moved from prison in Sudan last night as extremists demanded her execution.
Up to 10,000 Muslims took to Khartoum’s streets shouting: “Kill her, kill her by firing squad.”
Armed with clubs, swords and axes, the mob burned her photograph because she allowed pupils to call a teddy bear Mohammed. The mother of two was taken from her cell to a secret location in case the demonstrations triggered an attempt on her life.

'I still cannot believe this is happening,' says teddy bear teacher as mob bays for her blood says the Mail

Earlier, during a visit from her lawyer, Mrs Gibbons described how her dream of working with children in Sudan had turned into a nightmare.
"I still cannot believe this," she said, "Never in my life would I have ever thought I would be accused of deliberately insulting someone or something. I am simply not like that.

The Times reports that

Muslim peer flies to Sudan in hope of freeing jailed teacher

Lord Ahmed, Britain’s first Muslim peer, is due to meet President el-Bashir of Sudan today in an effort to secure the release of a primary school teacher jailed for blasphemy.
A source close to the Sudanese Government said that it would consider offering Gillian Gibbons a pardon so she could fly home within days.

Sleaze is not far away from the headlines though

Secret funder: it was party's job to check donations says the Guardian

The millionaire businessman at the centre of the Labour donor crisis insists today the affair which has battered Gordon Brown's public standing is "a product of cock-up, not conspiracy".
Writing exclusively for the Guardian, David Abrahams admits mistakes were made over his £650,000-worth of covert donations, but claims he was not aware he risked breaking the law by funding the party through third parties.
He said he had acted in good faith out of desire for anonymity not secrecy, and defends the actions of the former Labour general secretary Peter Watt who was forced to resign for failing in his legal obligations.

Secret donor Abrahams: I told Brown's money man about secret donations EIGHT months ago reports the Mail

David Abrahams, who illegally gave more than £600,000 to the party through middlemen, claimed that Jon Mendelsohn knew about the practice months before he even started his job.
He told the Daily Mail he had discussed funnelling cash through go-betweens - an arrangement Mr Brown has admitted broke the law - with all the "appropriate party officials".

Brown allies try to pin blame for scandal on the legacy of Blair reports the Indpendent

Allies of Gordon Brown sought to blame Tony Blair for Labour's secret donations as the Prime Minister urged the police to carry out "the fullest possible investigation" into the scandal.
Mr Brown wrote to Scotland Yard yesterday promising full co-operation with its inquiries. He said: "What happened in relation to these donations was unacceptable and it is in the public interest that any question of impropriety is answered."

MI5 alert on China’s cyberspace spy threat is the lead in the Times

The Government has openly accused China of carrying out state-sponsored espionage against vital parts of Britain’s economy, including the computer systems of big banks and financial services firms.
In an unprecedented alert, the Director-General of MI5 sent a confidential letter to 300 chief executives and security chiefs at banks, accountants and legal firms this week warning them that they were under attack from “Chinese state organisations”. It is believed to be the first time that the Government has directly accused China of involvement in web-based espionage. Such a blunt and explicit warning from Jonathan Evans could have serious diplomatic consequences and cast a shadow over Gordon Brown’s first official visit to China as Prime Minister early in the new year.

The Telegraph leads with the Xmas drink driving campaign

One drink may put you over the limit says the paper

Department for Transport consultation to be launched in the New Year is set to propose reducing the legal blood-alcohol limit for driving by almost half.
It is thought that the limit could be cut from 80mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood to 50mg. The 80mg limit allows a man of average height and weight to drink as many as four units of alcohol, or two pints of normal-strength beer, and still remain within the law. Women can drink three units, the equivalent of a large glass of average strength wine.

Motorists face zero drink drive limit says the Mirror

An outright ban on drinking alcohol before getting behind the wheel could be introduced as early as next year.
Ministers are looking to shake up the drink-driving laws with a zero tolerance crackdown.
It would mean motorists caught after having half a pint or one glass of wine could be charged with a criminal offence. MPs argue it would cut the 500 deaths a year caused by drink-driving.

The paper's front page returns to the Maddy affair

New police blow for McCanns

Kate and Gerry McCann's hopes of being cleared over daughter Madeleine's disappearance were rocked last night by the news that police are set to question the Tapas Seven again.
The couple believed the case against them was on the verge of collapse after inconclusive DNA test results.

GERRY AND KATE ‘STILL PRIME SUSPECTS’ says the Express

Portuguese police will come to Britain next week to re-interview the seven friends who were dining with the couple on the night the little girl vanished, a highly placed source claimed yesterday.adding

It shatters the couple’s hopes that they will be cleared by Christmas.

The front page of the Indy goes red

World Aids Day: the battle has only just begun reminding us

Last year, a special issue of The Independent, edited by Bono, introduced a new way of raising money to fight HIV/Aids. Since then, the (Red) initiative has raised more than $50m and helped more than one million people. In an exclusive interview, Bono tells Paul Vallely why people in rich nations can make a difference to the Aids disaster

Many papers report on the

Hostage-taker at Clinton office surrenders

A man claiming to be armed with a bomb took over one of US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's campaign offices for more than five hours yesterday before surrendering to police. says the Telegraph adding

The man, believed to have a history of mental illness, walked into the New Hampshire office at around 1:00 pm local time, taking three women, a man and a baby hostage and reportedly demanding to speak to the former first lady.

Other foreign news and the Guardain claims

Bush handed blueprint to seize Pakistan's nuclear arsenal

The man who devised the Bush administration's Iraq troop surge has urged the US to consider sending elite troops to Pakistan to seize its nuclear weapons if the country descends into chaos.
In a series of scenarios drawn up for Pakistan, Frederick Kagan, a former West Point military historian, has called for the White House to consider various options for an unstable Pakistan.

Nuclear project will continue, says Iran reports the Independent

Iran's new "Dr No", the Iranian chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, came to London yesterday for the first time since his appointment at the end of October for talks billed as Iran's last chance to avert a new round of UN sanctions.
The Iranian official spoke as softly as his predecessor, Ali Larijani, but the message was just as uncompromising: Iran will continue to reject the central US and European demand for his country to suspend uranium enrichment, the process which could eventually lead to a nuclear bomb.

The Times reports on

The horror of a stricken nation waiting to die

Over nine days spent travelling clandestinely around this beautiful, once-bountiful country, The Times found a nation where millions now struggle to survive on barely a bowl of sadza (a mealie-meal porridge) a day, the most basic services have all but collapsed and thousands die every week in a perfect storm of poverty, hunger and disease. Aids, like corruption, is rampant.

Staying with the paper and back to the Uk,it reports on

Migrants and the murder rate

Most murders in London this year were committed by foreigners, according to Scotland Yard figures obtained by The Times.
Of 47 killings between April and September where the nationality of the accused is known, 26 of the suspects — 55 per cent — are not Britons. In 19 cases the killer is believed to be British. In a further 23 cases the nationality of the killer has not been determined. At least 23 of the victims were foreign, including Somali, Brazilian, Irish and Vietnamese citizens.

Whitehall spends £150,000 on a poll that tells them what we all knew - Britons feel there are too many immigrants in the UK says the Mail

They had hoped to produce reassuring data to comfort ministers wrestling with the shambles of Labour's asylum and immigration policy.
Instead, an overwhelming majority of the population said there were too many immigrants in Britain and strict quotas should be imposed on the numbers entering.

The Telegraph reports that

Four in 10 primary schoolers failing three Rs

Four in 10 children left primary school this summer without a solid grounding in all of the three Rs, official league tables will show next week.Up to 240,000 pupils are failing to reach the expected levels in reading, writing and numeracy at the age of 11, the figures are expected to disclose.

The 1st day of December and the Guardian reports that

Online Christmas shopping hits high streets

Consumer confidence has slumped to its lowest level since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 because of growing pessimism over the health of the economy, leaving high street shops facing a difficult Christmas.
Although seasonal spending is still expected to hit a new record this year, much of it is online. Analysts said yesterday that the Christmas rush had finally started on the high street, "but with a whimper, not a bang".
Research firm GfK NOP reported that consumers had been hit by rising prices and concern over the global credit crunch. Its monthly barometer of confidence showed the third consecutive monthly drop, falling to its lowest point since March 2003.

Meanwhile the Telegraph tells us

Extend Christmas opening hours, say shops

Britain's biggest retailers are planning to ask the Government to extend opening times by four hours on the last Sunday before Christmas.Extending Sunday trading would be controversial as well as legally very difficult, but the retailers argue that it is essential if they are to rescue what is proving to be one of the most difficult periods of trading in recent years.

Finally,most of the papers report on the death of Evil Knieval

LEGENDARY motorbike stunt daredevil Evel Knievel died yesterday aged 69.
He was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon in Idaho on a rocket-powered bike - and a spectacular crash at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. says the Sun

The Independent adds

His promoter and longtime friend Billy Rundel said Knievel had had trouble breathing at his Florida home, and died before an ambulance could get him to a hospital. "It's been coming for years," Mr Rundel said, "but you just don't expect it. Superman just doesn't die, right?"

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