The Iranian hostage crisis continues to dominate the headlines this morning.The Guardian leads with
Tehran raises the stakes in hostage crisis
The Iranian hostage crisis took a sinister turn last night when Tehran withdrew an earlier offer to release one of the 15 captive sailors and marines and issued a second, strangely-worded letter in her name calling for Britain to withdraw from Iraq.
The letter, signed by Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only woman in the naval crew seized last Friday, was addressed to "representatives of the House of Commons". Although the letter was handwritten, it was stilted and lacked the personal tone of the first letter, sent to her family the day before. The second letter appeared to have been dictated to her.
The Mail says
Iran releases hostage marine's 'anti-war' letter
Iran has piled the pressure on Tony Blair using hostage Faye Turney in a cynical new propaganda stunt.
Iranian diplomats in London published a handwritten note claiming to be from the kidnapped sailor calling for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq.
The move came minutes after the Prime Minister had demanded the "unconditional release" of the 25-year-old mother and her 14 comrades.
CAPTIVE FAYE IS FORCED TO LIE AGAIN is the Mirror's headline,
The Sun describes the latest news as CALLOUS AND CRUEL
HOSTAGE Faye Turney was forced by Iran to write a second letter, released last night — this time calling for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.
The scribbled note — in the same handwriting as Faye’s emotional letter to her family on Wednesday — was delivered by the Iranians to Sky News.
The front page of the Independent has a slightly different take on the events
Free,Held and Missing claims the paper
A British resident held for nearly five years at Guantanamo Bay is to be set free after a breakthrough in negotiations between the US and Britain.
Bisher al-Rawi, 39, whose family escaped persecution in Iraq to live in London, was on a business trip when he was arrested in the Gambia after a tip-off by the Security Service, MI5.
In a statement to MPs, the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, said Mr Rawi would be "returned to the UK shortly as soon as practical arrangements have been made".
It is believed that the Americans only agreed to Mr Rawi's release because ministers gave personal assurances that they would take full responsibility for his security.
Held in Iran:
The confrontation between Iran and Britain became increasingly grave last night with the crisis moving to the United Nations and the appearance of a new letter from the hostage Faye Turney criticising the British presence in Iraq.
Missing in Gaza:
Alan Johnston, the BBC correspondent in Gaza who was kidnapped at gunpoint 18 days ago, has been held longer than any of the other foreign journalists seized in a series of abductions over the past two years.
The Times leads with the story that
Millions are caught in great credit card heist
The world’s biggest theft of credit card details has left 45 million customers exposed to fraud.
Everyone who paid with credit or debit cards at any branch of TK Maxx between January 2003 and June 2004 is at risk.
Customers of the fashion chain’s 210 stores in Britain have already had their card details used to make fraudulent transactions.
The company admitted that details of credit and debit cards used in its shops had been stolen by sophisticated computer hackers and warned its customers last night to monitor their credit and debit card statements for suspicious transactions.
With the announcement of the spliting of the Home Office yesterday the Telegraph leads with the news that
Only one in 40 officers free to answer calls
The report, from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), found that only 2.5 per cent of uniformed officers in one area were allocated to "response duties". This meant that out of 800 officers at work only 20 were free for emergency response, which included patrolling alcohol-scarred towns and cities at night.
In another force, which was also unnamed, 50 officers were on duty but only three - six per cent - were allocated to "incident management".
Describing the new structure in the home office it reports
Home Office sets up centre to fight terrorists
A counter-terrorism centre is to be set up inside the Home Office as part of a reorganisation of Whitehall's public protection and security structures, as announced by Tony Blair yesterday.
The Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism will be responsible for developing a strategy to combat al-Qa'eda and home-grown bombers.A national security committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, will meet each month. The Home Secretary will chair a national security board, which will meet weekly. A research, information and communications unit will be established in the Home Office "in support of the struggle for ideas and values".The Home Office's shift towards immigration, terrorism and crime means it is to be split up.
Home Office will be split into security and justice departments says the Indy
Tony Blair's decision to split the Home Office into separate security and justice departments has provoked a storm of protest from judges and MPs in all parties.
The Prime Minister was accused of a "botched job" after rushing through the sweeping changes before he stands down this summer. Although Mr Blair argued that the shake-up would strengthen the fight against terrorism, critics warned they would undermine the battle against crime.
Mr Blair confirmed yesterday that John Reid, the Home Secretary, would become Britain's "security supremo". He will take over the co-ordination of anti-terrorism work from the Cabinet Office and gain "lead responsibility for strategy in relation to security threats in the UK, including their overseas dimension".
The Mirror uses the news to attack the Home Secretary
HOME OFFICE SPLIT
..AND GUESS WHO'D RATHER FIGHT AL-QAEDA THAN TACKLE YOBS AT THE END OF OUR STREETS?
YOBS on the rampage. Terrorists on the loose. Prisons overflowing...
And John Reid's response - rearrange the desks of some civil servant bureaucrats.
Yesterday he announced a shake-up of the Home Office which has existed since 1823 Prisons, the probation service and the courts are to be managed by a new Ministry of Justice, in reality a new name tag on the Department of Constitutional Affairs.
The Home Office will then supposedly be free to tackle terrorism, international crime and mass immigration.
Mr Reid announced it would allow him to head "a seamless response to a seamless threat".
The Mail has a similar thread
Reid splits the Home Office and off-loads jails crisis
Plans to split the Home Office in two were last night condemned by the country's most senior judge and chief constables.
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, warned that John Reid's shake-up could plunge the justice system into "recurrent crisis".
His remarks opened a damaging rift with the Government on a day when the prison population hit yet another record high.
The Guardian reports
The strange case of the Met chief and the IRA siege
At the time it seemed the perfect antidote to the Metropolitan police commissioner's image as a soft-skinned bureaucrat more comfortable discussing strategy with Home Office mandarins than rounding up villains on the mean streets of the capital.
In an interview with the Guardian published last year Sir Ian Blair described the most dramatic experience of his early police career: after responding to a radio call about a "bandit car" being used by a group of IRA men fleeing the scene of an attack, he and a sergeant had found themselves confronted with the terrorists.
But the paper continues
Sir Ian's account of his role in the incident attracted little attention until Steve Moysey, a US-based British academic, read the interview earlier this month while researching a book about the siege. Moysey, who has a PhD in organisational psychology, was puzzled by a number of apparent inconsistencies between the commissioner's account and what he had learned during a year spent investigating the events leading up to it.
"They made me sit up and say that doesn't look right," he said. He was particularly bemused by one detail of Sir Ian's story: "The statement that as they [the IRA men] got out of the car 'they started shooting at us' is just inconsistent with what I know to have occurred. It just didn't add up." Moysey contacted John Purnell - who with his partner Phil McVeigh were the first policemen to confront the Balcombe Street gang - who was equally puzzled. "Steve Moysey said: 'I've never heard this before, it's the first time it's ever been mentioned' and I said 'snap'," recalled Mr Purnell. "I've never for one second associated Ian Blair with Balcombe Street in any shape or form and his account of seeing [the terrorists] get out of the car and being shot at as they got out of the car is totally impossible."
The Times reports
Snatch of the day for Grade as ITV closes in on England and FA Cup
Michael Grade, the new chairman of ITV, is on the verge of seizing the rights to show live FA Cup and England home matches from the BBC and Sky in a deal worth more than £100 million a year.
This will leave the BBC without live football outside big international tournaments, and is a coup for Mr Grade, who is battling to restore ITV’s reputation as a popular, mass-market broadcaster.
It is understood that, under the new four-year deal being negotiated, ITV and Setanta Sports, its partner, will secure the cup and international games for just over £420 million, with the two companies splitting the rights to matches.
More Television news in an exclusive on the front of the Mirror
TARRANT HAS HIDDEN £15M FROM ME
CHRIS Tarrant's wife Ingrid furiously claims he is hiding £15million of his cash - to give her a smaller divorce payout.
The star says he has £20million and has offered half. But bitter Ingrid, 51, believes the real figure is £35million and is now demanding a whopping two-thirds - nearly £24million.
One of her friends said last night: "She's convinced he's lying and won't let this rest."
A legal source close to the wrangle added: "There will be blood on the walls over this.
"This could turn out to be more savage than even the McCartney divorce."
The Sun reveals
The £1million X FacDer host
BIG Brother star Dermot O’Leary is to be the new host of X Factor after landing a £1million contract.
Dermot, 33, signed a two-year deal to replace Kate Thornton after being wooed by X Factor bosses, including judge Simon Cowell.
He said last night: “I was very flattered to be offered the job of hosting such a hugely successful show.
“I’m really looking forward to working with Simon and the team on the kind of show I grew up watching.”
The Guardian reports that the pressure has been lifted off President Mugabe
Diplomacy allows Mugabe to escape censure at summit
African leaders yesterday avoided a confrontation with President Robert Mugabe and appointed Thabo Mbeki, Sout
h Africa's president, to mediate in the growing political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. The meeting of regional leaders also urged Britain to honour its commitment to fund land redistribution in Zimbabwe.
Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe denounced the outcome of the meeting as "stupid".
Mr Mugabe tried to persuade his neighbours that rising political violence, which prompted the extraordinary summit of southern African leaders, is the fault of terrorist tactics by the opposition backed by whites nostalgic for the old Rhodesia.
The Times reports from the French elections
Soft? So they call me soft, eh? ‘Rocky’ Royal comes out fighting
Mr Sarkozy had dared on Wednesday to call Ms Royal soft on crime after she attacked the former Interior Minister for harsh police tactics in a youth riot in the Paris Gare du Nord station.
In the final stretch before the first round of the election on April 22, Ms Royal was in Tours on a jaunt through the Loire Valley doing what she does best: preaching her vision of feminine redemption for a nation in crisis.
According to a BVA poll yesterday, Ms Royal has pulled almost level with Mr Sarkozy, with 27 per cent voting intentions for the first round. Mr Sarkozy, leader of the Union for a Popular Movement, is at 28 per cent and François Bayrou, the centrist who is Ms Royal’s most immediate threat has fallen to 20. Mr Sarkozy would still win easily in a run-off with Ms Royal, according to the poll.
Ms Royal’s team say that the polls are out of date and that she has the wind in her sails as she focuses on medium-size rallies and encounters with voters.
Finally the Telegraph reports
Duke meets gorillas on Love Island
The Duke of Edinburgh wisely kept his distance yesterday as he officially opened the £5 million Gorilla Kingdom at London Zoo.
Safe behind a window of strengthened glass, he watched as keepers explained that they hoped the new enclosure would encourage romance among the residents.
Though amazingly gentle animals, they can be extremely dangerous because of their size. So feeding the gorillas - Bobby, 23, Zaire, 33, and Effie, 14, - was left to the keepers. Prince Philip was no doubt extremely grateful.
"The gorillas are so reactive to strangers, particularly the males," said a keeper, Jo Cook. "If they see someone they don't like the look of, they tend to get wound up
Tehran raises the stakes in hostage crisis
The Iranian hostage crisis took a sinister turn last night when Tehran withdrew an earlier offer to release one of the 15 captive sailors and marines and issued a second, strangely-worded letter in her name calling for Britain to withdraw from Iraq.
The letter, signed by Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only woman in the naval crew seized last Friday, was addressed to "representatives of the House of Commons". Although the letter was handwritten, it was stilted and lacked the personal tone of the first letter, sent to her family the day before. The second letter appeared to have been dictated to her.
The Mail says
Iran releases hostage marine's 'anti-war' letter
Iran has piled the pressure on Tony Blair using hostage Faye Turney in a cynical new propaganda stunt.
Iranian diplomats in London published a handwritten note claiming to be from the kidnapped sailor calling for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq.
The move came minutes after the Prime Minister had demanded the "unconditional release" of the 25-year-old mother and her 14 comrades.
CAPTIVE FAYE IS FORCED TO LIE AGAIN is the Mirror's headline,
The Sun describes the latest news as CALLOUS AND CRUEL
HOSTAGE Faye Turney was forced by Iran to write a second letter, released last night — this time calling for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.
The scribbled note — in the same handwriting as Faye’s emotional letter to her family on Wednesday — was delivered by the Iranians to Sky News.
The front page of the Independent has a slightly different take on the events
Free,Held and Missing claims the paper
A British resident held for nearly five years at Guantanamo Bay is to be set free after a breakthrough in negotiations between the US and Britain.
Bisher al-Rawi, 39, whose family escaped persecution in Iraq to live in London, was on a business trip when he was arrested in the Gambia after a tip-off by the Security Service, MI5.
In a statement to MPs, the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, said Mr Rawi would be "returned to the UK shortly as soon as practical arrangements have been made".
It is believed that the Americans only agreed to Mr Rawi's release because ministers gave personal assurances that they would take full responsibility for his security.
Held in Iran:
The confrontation between Iran and Britain became increasingly grave last night with the crisis moving to the United Nations and the appearance of a new letter from the hostage Faye Turney criticising the British presence in Iraq.
Missing in Gaza:
Alan Johnston, the BBC correspondent in Gaza who was kidnapped at gunpoint 18 days ago, has been held longer than any of the other foreign journalists seized in a series of abductions over the past two years.
The Times leads with the story that
Millions are caught in great credit card heist
The world’s biggest theft of credit card details has left 45 million customers exposed to fraud.
Everyone who paid with credit or debit cards at any branch of TK Maxx between January 2003 and June 2004 is at risk.
Customers of the fashion chain’s 210 stores in Britain have already had their card details used to make fraudulent transactions.
The company admitted that details of credit and debit cards used in its shops had been stolen by sophisticated computer hackers and warned its customers last night to monitor their credit and debit card statements for suspicious transactions.
With the announcement of the spliting of the Home Office yesterday the Telegraph leads with the news that
Only one in 40 officers free to answer calls
The report, from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), found that only 2.5 per cent of uniformed officers in one area were allocated to "response duties". This meant that out of 800 officers at work only 20 were free for emergency response, which included patrolling alcohol-scarred towns and cities at night.
In another force, which was also unnamed, 50 officers were on duty but only three - six per cent - were allocated to "incident management".
Describing the new structure in the home office it reports
Home Office sets up centre to fight terrorists
A counter-terrorism centre is to be set up inside the Home Office as part of a reorganisation of Whitehall's public protection and security structures, as announced by Tony Blair yesterday.
The Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism will be responsible for developing a strategy to combat al-Qa'eda and home-grown bombers.A national security committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, will meet each month. The Home Secretary will chair a national security board, which will meet weekly. A research, information and communications unit will be established in the Home Office "in support of the struggle for ideas and values".The Home Office's shift towards immigration, terrorism and crime means it is to be split up.
Home Office will be split into security and justice departments says the Indy
Tony Blair's decision to split the Home Office into separate security and justice departments has provoked a storm of protest from judges and MPs in all parties.
The Prime Minister was accused of a "botched job" after rushing through the sweeping changes before he stands down this summer. Although Mr Blair argued that the shake-up would strengthen the fight against terrorism, critics warned they would undermine the battle against crime.
Mr Blair confirmed yesterday that John Reid, the Home Secretary, would become Britain's "security supremo". He will take over the co-ordination of anti-terrorism work from the Cabinet Office and gain "lead responsibility for strategy in relation to security threats in the UK, including their overseas dimension".
The Mirror uses the news to attack the Home Secretary
HOME OFFICE SPLIT
..AND GUESS WHO'D RATHER FIGHT AL-QAEDA THAN TACKLE YOBS AT THE END OF OUR STREETS?
YOBS on the rampage. Terrorists on the loose. Prisons overflowing...
And John Reid's response - rearrange the desks of some civil servant bureaucrats.
Yesterday he announced a shake-up of the Home Office which has existed since 1823 Prisons, the probation service and the courts are to be managed by a new Ministry of Justice, in reality a new name tag on the Department of Constitutional Affairs.
The Home Office will then supposedly be free to tackle terrorism, international crime and mass immigration.
Mr Reid announced it would allow him to head "a seamless response to a seamless threat".
The Mail has a similar thread
Reid splits the Home Office and off-loads jails crisis
Plans to split the Home Office in two were last night condemned by the country's most senior judge and chief constables.
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, warned that John Reid's shake-up could plunge the justice system into "recurrent crisis".
His remarks opened a damaging rift with the Government on a day when the prison population hit yet another record high.
The Guardian reports
The strange case of the Met chief and the IRA siege
At the time it seemed the perfect antidote to the Metropolitan police commissioner's image as a soft-skinned bureaucrat more comfortable discussing strategy with Home Office mandarins than rounding up villains on the mean streets of the capital.
In an interview with the Guardian published last year Sir Ian Blair described the most dramatic experience of his early police career: after responding to a radio call about a "bandit car" being used by a group of IRA men fleeing the scene of an attack, he and a sergeant had found themselves confronted with the terrorists.
But the paper continues
Sir Ian's account of his role in the incident attracted little attention until Steve Moysey, a US-based British academic, read the interview earlier this month while researching a book about the siege. Moysey, who has a PhD in organisational psychology, was puzzled by a number of apparent inconsistencies between the commissioner's account and what he had learned during a year spent investigating the events leading up to it.
"They made me sit up and say that doesn't look right," he said. He was particularly bemused by one detail of Sir Ian's story: "The statement that as they [the IRA men] got out of the car 'they started shooting at us' is just inconsistent with what I know to have occurred. It just didn't add up." Moysey contacted John Purnell - who with his partner Phil McVeigh were the first policemen to confront the Balcombe Street gang - who was equally puzzled. "Steve Moysey said: 'I've never heard this before, it's the first time it's ever been mentioned' and I said 'snap'," recalled Mr Purnell. "I've never for one second associated Ian Blair with Balcombe Street in any shape or form and his account of seeing [the terrorists] get out of the car and being shot at as they got out of the car is totally impossible."
The Times reports
Snatch of the day for Grade as ITV closes in on England and FA Cup
Michael Grade, the new chairman of ITV, is on the verge of seizing the rights to show live FA Cup and England home matches from the BBC and Sky in a deal worth more than £100 million a year.
This will leave the BBC without live football outside big international tournaments, and is a coup for Mr Grade, who is battling to restore ITV’s reputation as a popular, mass-market broadcaster.
It is understood that, under the new four-year deal being negotiated, ITV and Setanta Sports, its partner, will secure the cup and international games for just over £420 million, with the two companies splitting the rights to matches.
More Television news in an exclusive on the front of the Mirror
TARRANT HAS HIDDEN £15M FROM ME
CHRIS Tarrant's wife Ingrid furiously claims he is hiding £15million of his cash - to give her a smaller divorce payout.
The star says he has £20million and has offered half. But bitter Ingrid, 51, believes the real figure is £35million and is now demanding a whopping two-thirds - nearly £24million.
One of her friends said last night: "She's convinced he's lying and won't let this rest."
A legal source close to the wrangle added: "There will be blood on the walls over this.
"This could turn out to be more savage than even the McCartney divorce."
The Sun reveals
The £1million X FacDer host
BIG Brother star Dermot O’Leary is to be the new host of X Factor after landing a £1million contract.
Dermot, 33, signed a two-year deal to replace Kate Thornton after being wooed by X Factor bosses, including judge Simon Cowell.
He said last night: “I was very flattered to be offered the job of hosting such a hugely successful show.
“I’m really looking forward to working with Simon and the team on the kind of show I grew up watching.”
The Guardian reports that the pressure has been lifted off President Mugabe
Diplomacy allows Mugabe to escape censure at summit
African leaders yesterday avoided a confrontation with President Robert Mugabe and appointed Thabo Mbeki, Sout
h Africa's president, to mediate in the growing political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. The meeting of regional leaders also urged Britain to honour its commitment to fund land redistribution in Zimbabwe.Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe denounced the outcome of the meeting as "stupid".
Mr Mugabe tried to persuade his neighbours that rising political violence, which prompted the extraordinary summit of southern African leaders, is the fault of terrorist tactics by the opposition backed by whites nostalgic for the old Rhodesia.
The Times reports from the French elections
Soft? So they call me soft, eh? ‘Rocky’ Royal comes out fighting
Mr Sarkozy had dared on Wednesday to call Ms Royal soft on crime after she attacked the former Interior Minister for harsh police tactics in a youth riot in the Paris Gare du Nord station.
In the final stretch before the first round of the election on April 22, Ms Royal was in Tours on a jaunt through the Loire Valley doing what she does best: preaching her vision of feminine redemption for a nation in crisis.
According to a BVA poll yesterday, Ms Royal has pulled almost level with Mr Sarkozy, with 27 per cent voting intentions for the first round. Mr Sarkozy, leader of the Union for a Popular Movement, is at 28 per cent and François Bayrou, the centrist who is Ms Royal’s most immediate threat has fallen to 20. Mr Sarkozy would still win easily in a run-off with Ms Royal, according to the poll.
Ms Royal’s team say that the polls are out of date and that she has the wind in her sails as she focuses on medium-size rallies and encounters with voters.
Finally the Telegraph reports
Duke meets gorillas on Love Island
The Duke of Edinburgh wisely kept his distance yesterday as he officially opened the £5 million Gorilla Kingdom at London Zoo.
Safe behind a window of strengthened glass, he watched as keepers explained that they hoped the new enclosure would encourage romance among the residents.
Though amazingly gentle animals, they can be extremely dangerous because of their size. So feeding the gorillas - Bobby, 23, Zaire, 33, and Effie, 14, - was left to the keepers. Prince Philip was no doubt extremely grateful.
"The gorillas are so reactive to strangers, particularly the males," said a keeper, Jo Cook. "If they see someone they don't like the look of, they tend to get wound up
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