The Times headlines
British soldier 'gave Army secrets to Iran'
A British soldier has been charged with passing secret information linked to the military campaign in Afghanistan to Iran, The Times has learnt. Corporal Daniel James, 44, appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London yesterday, charged under Section 1 of the Official Secrets Act with communicating information “useful to the enemy”.
The Telegraph tells
It was said he had communicated with a "foreign power" in the incident on Nov 2, believed to be Iran.
Most of the hearing at Westminster magistrates' court yesterday was held in secret and no mention was made of James's job or his address.
Elsewhere the papers have quite a mixed bag of stories.The Guardian leads on an exclusive
Exclusive: inside the secret and sinister world of the BNP
Its reporter Ian Cobain joined the Bnp and became a central London organiser for the party.
Activists are being encouraged to adopt false names when engaged on BNP business, to reduce the chance of their being identified as party members in their other dealings with the public.
The BNP has also been instructing its activists in the use of encryption software to conceal the content of their email messages, and to protect the party's secret membership lists.
AS Tony Blair's Middle East tour comes to a end,the papers report on comments that he made in Dubai.The Times reports his comments
Iran is “at war” with the moderate Arab world and Western forces trying to bring peace and stability to the region, Tony Blair said yesterday.
Speaking at the end of his six-day trip to the Middle East, the Prime Minister said that he believed that Iraq and Afghanistan could still become holiday hotspots for tourists, following the example set by Dubai, which had more than a million British visitors this year. But before this could happen Arab nations needed to “wake up” to the threat posed by Iran, which he blamed for undermining peace in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories.
The Indy though looks behind the rhetoric
'Brainwashed' Blair losing battle to prove his influence
The Prime Minister returned yesterday from his seven-nation visit to the Middle East, apparently without achieving any significant breakthrough in the peace process.
The trip has been overshadowed by a growing perception that Mr Blair's relationship with President Bush is very much a "one-way street" in which Britain gets very little in return for his unwavering public backing for Washington. Even some Blairites are starting to question the Prime Minister's stance. They are appalled that President Bush has refused to honour his 2004 promise to expend "capital" on the Middle East peace process during his second term. "He doesn't cut Tony much slack," one Blair aide said yesterday.
The Guardian reports that
Bush plans bigger army amid fear of new Iraq deployment
President George Bush called yesterday for an increase in the size of the US military, deepening expectations that he will send up to 30,000 more troops to Iraq in the new year. In a sign of forthcoming changes at the Pentagon after the departure of Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary, Mr Bush acknowledged that he had been taken aback by the eruption of sectarian violence in Iraq, and that it had been a difficult year.
Lembit Opik continues to make the news in both the Broadsheets and the Tabloids
The Sun reports that
GEEKY Lib-Dem MP Lembit Opik stepped in to help his Cheeky Girl lover beat deportation, it was revealed yesterday.
He spoke to immigration minister Liam Byrne as singer Gabriela Irimia, 24, faced being sent home to Transylvania.
The Lib-Dems said Mr Opik, 41, also urged her MP — Labour’s Michael J Foster — to take on their case.
The Telegraph tries to clarify the situation
A Lib Dem spokesman said Mr Opik, MP for Montgomeryshire, had passed on details about the twins' status to their local MP and briefly discussed the case with Liam Byrne, the immigration minister.
The spokesman said Mr Opik had acted properly in passing on information to Michael Foster, the MP for Hastings and Rye, who raised it with the Home Office. "He passed on information about their immigration status to the MP who covers their constituency," he said.
"Later he mentioned to Liam Byrne in a corridor that he had passed the case on to Michael Foster, and reiterated that he knew them in a personal capacity.
The Indy reports on comments made by Al Queida's second in command
Al-Qa'ida chief in jihad plea to Hamas
In a video messagebroadcast by the Arabic language channel Al Jazeera, Ayman al-Zawahiri said that voting would lead to the Palestinians' land being taken by Israel. "Any road other than jihad will only lead to loss," he said. "Those trying to liberate the land of Islam through elections based on secular constitutions or on decisions to surrender Palestine to the Jews will not liberate a grain of sand of Palestine."
More climate news on the Front page of the Indy
Climate Change vs Mother Nature: Scientists reveal that bears have stopped hibernating
Bears are supposed to slumber throughout the winter, slowing their body rhythms to a minimum and drawing on stored resources, because frozen weather makes food too scarce to find. The barely breathing creatures can lose up to 40 per cent of their body weight before warmer springtime weather rouses them back to life.
But many of the 130 bears in Spain's northern cordillera - which have a slightly different genetic identity from bear populations elsewhere in the world - have remained active throughout recent winters, naturalists from Spain's Brown Bear Foundation (La Fundación Oso Pardo - FOP) said yesterday.
And climate news closer to home in the same paper
Christmas misery as heavy fog brings chaos to airports
British Airways has cancelled 180 flights out of Heathrow today, including all domestic services. Many European flights will also be affected as only 220 of its usual 400 flights will take off. Passengers travelling long-haul were also warned to expect severe delays. The airline, the worst affected by the weather, is urging customers booked on domestic flights not to travel to the airport today, as Heathrow will only be able to handle 50 per cent of its usual traffic.
The Mail asks
Who would travel at Christmas?
Britain's creaking transport system looked to be on the verge of collapsing under the extra strain. The entire rail network will be closed for 58 hours from late on Christmas Eve, forcing more travellers on to the roads.
Experts are already forecasting massive jams, with the evening rush hour expected to start at 2pm and last until 7pm.
The Times reports on then case of the bullying family
Bully's parents get 32 years for double murder in arson attack
Natalie Connor, 18, who was jailed for 11 years for manslaughter, developed a trivial obsession with Lucy Cochrane, 17, and persuaded her mother and father to pursue a campaign against the Cochrane family. The pair were jailed for life.
In his closing remarks, Judge Maddison noted that prosecution counsel had described the case as being “as bad as it gets”.
In January last year, Natalie goaded her drunken father Michael Connor, 40, to pour petrol through the letterbox of the Cochranes’ home as the family slept upstairs. The fire trapped and killed Lucy’s father Alex, 54, a baggage handler at Manchester airport, and mother Maureen, 45, who worked in a craft shop.
The Suffolk murders continue to get a lot of coverage,The Guardian reporting
Police reopen two prostitute murder cases
Natalie Pearman, 16, was found strangled on the outskirts of the city in 1992. Michelle Bettles, 22, died in similar circumstances 10 years later. A third Norwich prostitute, Kellie Pratt, 29, disappeared from the red light area of the city six years ago and has never been found.
A Norfolk police spokesman said: "We are continuing to check our database to see if there is any information with the inquiries into prostitutes' murders that have occurred in Norfolk over recent years that may assist Suffolk police with inquiries."
The Mirror has an exclusive interview with the ex wife of the second suspect
THE ex-wife of Ipswich Ripper suspect Steve Wright told yesterday of their nightmare marriage.
Diane Cole, 52, described the relationship as a "total disaster" - and revealed that he was cheating on her within two months.
But she says she was stunned when she learned he had been arrested over the murder of five prostitutes
The Sun claims
Suspect No2 knew Suzy Lamplugh
A FORMER QE2 steward told last night how Suffolk Strangler suspect Steve Wright “sniffed around” lost estate agent Suzy Lamplugh when they were shipmates.
Steve Adler, 47, and Wright, 48, were among a close-knit group of stewards working on the exclusive liner in 1983.
And Suzy — then a trendy 22-year-old Londoner taking a break to see the world — was a beautician on the Cunard flagship.
Mr Adler said: “Steve wasn’t really one of the lads and was on the periphery — but he liked the girls.
The Front page of the Express follows up on one of yesterday's stories
Airport veil farce goes on
THE security loophole that lets passengers in veils board flights without checks showed no sign of being closed yesterday.Hours after the Daily Express exposed how a police killer fled the UK disguised as a Muslim woman, the Home Office admitted there is no automatic check on those in full-face niqabs.
Yesterday as dozens of veil-wearers passed unchecked through Manchester, Heathrow and other airports, MPs called for all passengers to be made to show their faces to security staff before boarding a plane. Currently immigration officers will ask a Muslim woman to lift her veil only if they are acting on specific intelligence or carrying out a random sweep.
All of the papers report on the outcome of the Whiter Shade of Pale case
The Times says
Song ruling leaves organist skipping the light fandango
For those wrangling over the authorship of the cult classic A Whiter Shade of Pale, the truth was never plain to see. But it was clarified yesterday, in the eyes of the law at least, when the singer-songwriter Gary Brooker was told to share his pot of royalties with a computer programmer from Croydon.
A High Court judge ruled that Matthew Fisher, 60, who played the distinctive Hammond organ parts that made the song a worldwide hit, is entitled to a 40 per cent share of the musical copyright.
The Telegraph revealing that
Gary Brooker, who still leads the 1960s group Procol Harum, faces a legal bill estimated at £500,000 after a High Court judge supported former band member Mathew Fisher's claims to have co-written A Whiter Shade of Pale. It has sold 10 million copies since release.
The Guardian reports on the strange case of
Injured hiker survived 24 days on mountain by 'hibernating'
A Japanese civil servant has described for the first time how he survived for more than three weeks in a mountain forest without food or water in what doctors believe is the first known case of a human going into hibernation.
Mitsutaka Uchikoshi went missing on Mt Rokko in western Japan on October 7 after a barbecue with colleagues. Rather than joining them for the return trip by cable car, the 35-year-old decided to walk down the mountain, but lost his way, slipped in a stream and broke his pelvis.
Whilst a number of the papers give some news for Harry Potter fans.The Mirror reveals
JK Rowling is so stressed at writing the final instalment of Harry Potter that she's dreaming about him.
The 41-year-old author told about the "epic dream" on her website.
Now fans of the boy wizard will analyse it for clues on what could happen to him in the fifth book, Order of the Phoenix. JK has already hinted that two characters may be killed off - and one could be Harry.
In her dream she told about searching for a magical object called a Hor-crux in the Great Hall surrounded by 15ft tall waiters and waitresses.
The Telegraph says
Coffee and creative juices flowing again as Rowling goes back to the cafe
More than 15 years after she began scribbling in the corner of a small cafe, JK Rowling has returned to her old habits to finish the final Harry Potter book.
The multi-millionaire author has disclosed that she is once again writing in longhand in a cafe in Edinburgh.
To the back pages and the Steven's enquiry into football bungs is well covered
The Guardian reporting that
Premier League in row over bungs report
Richard Scudamore was last night involved in a row over the report into corruption in football after it emerged that he sent a memo to Premiership club chairmen yesterday which suggested that Lord Stevens' text had been influenced by Premier League representations.
The memo, which was leaked to Channel 4 News last night, included the following passage: "... in respect of the [Stevens] recommendations we did feed back in the strongest possible terms the sentiments expressed by the clubs in our meeting of November 9. It would appear that these have been taken on board ... save for the concern regarding the agents of managers not being allowed to act for players at the same club. Lord Stevens was 'not for turning' on this and we will have to consider it in due course."
The Telegraph reports that
Although the Premier League were last night embroiled in claims they forced Stevens to "water down" his report and recommendations, The Daily Telegraph has learned that a number of the 17 transfers still under investigation are thought serious enough to warrant the attention of the SFO or the police.
After an eight-month inquiry the former Metropolitan Police commissioner yesterday failed to name any club managers or senior executives who had taken or made irregular payments in transfer deals.
Instead, he delivered a damning report on the way the game is regulated, attacking the Football Association and outlining 39 recommendations on how to tighten up the policing of transfers. But he was also granted more time to pursue 17 deals involving eight "major" agents, which he has been unable to sign off as "clean".
No comments:
Post a Comment