'London's bridge is falling down'

Is the Front page lead in the Times.In a damming report about our relationship with the Bush administration:

“a US State Department official has said that Britain’s role as a bridge between America and Europe is now “disappearing before our eyes”.

Kendall Myers, a senior State Department analyst, disclosed that for all Britain’s attempts to influence US policy in recent years, “we typically ignore them and take no notice — it’s a sad business”.

And on the Iraq war Myers told the Times correspondent that

“It was a done deal from the beginning, it was a onesided relationship that was entered into with open eyes . . . there was nothing. There was no payback, no sense of reciprocity.”

The report that radioactive material has been discovered on board planes that have been
travelling between London and Moscow is the headline in both the Guardian and the Telegraph

33,000 BA passengers alerted over radiation

“Thousands of British Airways passengers were caught in a radiation scare last night after traces of a substance, thought to be the same that killed the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, were found on two planes.”

According to the Guardian
“Two BA Boeing 767s were grounded at Heathrow following tests ordered by Scotland Yard, and a third aircraft was being tested in Moscow after its pilot was warned not to take off.
Last night the airline appealed to around 800 passengers to come forward. They flew on four flights between London and Moscow in the days either side of Litvinenko's poisoning on November 1.”

The Sun meanwhile interviews a waitress in the sushi bar where Litvinenko ate

“A SCARED sushi bar girl who served Alexander Litvinenko said last night: “I feel like I’m caught in the middle of some mad spy movie.”
Stunning Ela Malek, 22, fears she may have been contaminated by the radiation poison that slowly killed the ex-KGB agent.
She said she is “terrified” she could suffer the same grisly fate.”

The Guardian reports that
“Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, postponed a a meeting in Jordan with George Bush yesterday after a leaked White House memo revealed deep US misgivings about Mr Maliki's willingness or ability to curb sectarian violence. The 12-hour delay was officially to allow Mr Bush the chance to have a bilateral meeting with the host, Jordan's King Abdullah, but White House officials were forced to assure Mr Maliki that he still had the US president's confidence.”


The Indy reports that

“The leak to The New York Times of the five-page document in its entirety may or may not have been a deliberate move by the White House. But it came as Washington's entire strategy in Iraq seemed to be unravelling, with America's patience all but exhausted at the sight of US troops trapped in what amounts to a civil war. “

The news that Gordon Brown’s youngest has been diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis is the front page of the Mirror and the Sun

BROWNS: OUR BABY HAS CYSTIC FIBROSIS

is the headline in the Mirror

FRIENDS of Gordon and Sarah Brown last night called their second baby heartache an “enormous blow” — but said the couple were determined to stay strong.

They insisted the Chancellor and his wife are keeping upbeat about the cruel news that their four-month-old son Fraser has cystic fibrosis.

They will ensure the mite gets the best care possible — and hope advances in medical science will give him a longer life.

Quotes the Sun

Lord Ramsbotham exclusive: Justice system is absurd. Broken. Chaotic

Headlines the front page of the Independent this morning

“Yesterday's announcement that the prison population now exceeds 80,000 is the latest low point in what one can only describe as the Government's headlong and self-induced race to absurdity as far as the conduct of imprisonment is concerned. “

Says the former prison chief

The Times reports on
“Turkey reacted furiously yesterday to the proposed suspension of a large section of its talks on joining the EU as a punishment for its refusal to open trade with Cyprus.


Eight of 34 areas of negotiation will be frozen under the European Commission’s plan until Ankara fulfils an agreement signed last year to open its ports to Cyprus, an EU member that it does not recognise. “


Journalism made the news itself yesterday with the start of the trial at the Old Bailey of Clive
Golman who was accused of phone tapping.The Guardian reveals that

“Revelations of a sustained bugging campaign targeting two government ministers, a newspaper editor, an England footballer and a string of celebrities prompted calls yesterday for tougher sentences for the buying and selling of confidential personal data.

The government's information commissioner spoke out after Clive Goodman, the News of the World's royal editor, admitted at the Old Bailey yesterday to tapping into mobile phones belonging to aides of the Prince of Wales and his son, Prince William, over a 20 month period.”

The Independent reports that

“As he sat in the Old Bailey dock, his counsel John Kelsey-Fry QC said: "He wishes through me to take the first opportunity to apologise publicly to those affected by his actions. He accepts they were a gross invasion of privacy.
"He therefore apologises unreservedly to the three members of the Royal Household staff concerned and their principals, Prince William, Prince Harry and the Prince of Wales."

News of the falling dollar makes a number of the pages.The Telegraph reports that
“The pound has risen to its highest level against the dollar since Britain crashed out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992. Sterling strengthened 0.77 cents to $1.9571, having gained nearly 7 cents in the past week, as the US dollar continued to weaken over fears that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates to boost the ailing economy.
Speculation that the Bank of England will raise rates in the new year, fuelled today by another set of forecast-busting house price inflation figures, further underpinned the pound.

Adding that

“The strong pound has made the streets of New York a bargain-hunter's paradise for British shoppers, with iPods, cameras and clothes costing substantially less than on the UK high street. But it has not been good news for many major UK companies which export goods to the US, where they will now cost more, and report profits in US dollars.”

The Mc Cartney’s return to the news today.According to the Express

“ONLOOKERS didn’t have to read between the lines to discover Heather Mills’ divorce tactics.It was plain for all to see on the document she was gripping.After leaving a restaurant in London, Heather, 38, seemed to be “accidentally” allowing the public into her plans.Spotting waiting photographers, the wife of ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney clutched a pad to her chest – conveniently showing off her wish-list for a smooth divorce.”

The Mirror reveals its contents
FURIOUS Heather Mills has launched another bitter legal battle with Sir Paul McCartney - to be allowed access to their old matrimonial home.
Heather, 38, was humiliatingly barred from the mansion when she arrived with daughter Bea in August and found all the locks changed.

She believes she should be allowed to visit for the sake of the couple's three-year-old youngster and held talks this week with her legal firm Mishcon de Reya.

And news of other properties makes the Sun

Pop star Jord of the manor

“JORDAN has raided her treasure chest to fork out £2.6million on a whopping new country pile.
The balloon-busted glamour girl and hubby Peter Andre moved into the seven-bedroom Surrey manor house last week.”

The Guardian’s science section reveals
“A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer salvaged from a Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unravelled the secrets of how the sophisticated device works.
The machine was lost among cargo in 65BC when the ship carrying it sank in 42m of water off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. By chance, in 1900, a sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck and recovered statues and other artifacts from the site.
The machine first came to light when an archaeologist working on the recovered objects noticed that a lump of rock had a gear wheel embedded in it. Closer inspection of material brought up from the stricken ship subsequently revealed 80 pieces of gear wheels, dials, clock-like hands and a wooden and bronze casing bearing ancient Greek inscriptions.”

Meanwhile the Times reports another mystery

“A holidaymaker was killed by a bolt of lightning from an almost clear blue sky after he had climbed out of a swimming pool, an inquest was told yesterday.

Michael Haffenden, 49, died instantly when he was struck as he relaxed with his family at a medieval castle near Siena, in Tuscany. His widow, Fenella, 42, told the hearing that the lightning followed a couple of drops of rain. It had been so unexpected that her first thought was that a bomb had gone off.”