SAS SNATCH SQUAD GO IN the paper reports
SAS men were yesterday preparing to snatch the British hostages from one of the most inhospitable places on earth.
The group was seized from North-East Ethiopia's Afar region - a scorching, rocky landscape littered with active volcanoes and salt mines.
Bandits and rebel militiamen prowl regularly and visitors are told to travel with gun guards.
But the 60 troops who landed in neighbouring Djibouti yesterday ahead of the mission will go in suitably armed to the teeth.
Accompanying them will be two RAF Chinook helicopters loaded with Land Rovers, motorbikes and weapons specially adapted for the area.
The unit are members of the SAS's Standby Squadron- set up to respond to crises around the world at a moment's notice.
Eritrea denies kidnapping British diplomats says the Independent
Eritrea has dismissed as "crazy" accusations that it was responsible for the kidnapping of five British diplomats in northern Ethiopia, as British special forces in the region were preparing for an armed rescue should diplomatic attempts to free the hostages fail.
Ethiopian administrators in the Afar region had earlier claimed that the hostage takers were from the Arat military camp in Eritrea. British Foreign Office officials are now privately speculating that the five Britons are being held in Eritrea. British diplomats are in contact with the Eritrean authorities, but are not satisfied with the responses they have been given so far.
Meanwhile the front page of the Sun also concentrates on rescue plots this time in Iraq if Prince Harry is somehow taken captive.
Al-Qaeda target Prince Harry
PRINCE Harry and his men will pose as hooded hostages in a training exercise — after hate-filled threats to kidnap or kill him in Iraq.
The Royal soldier, 22, will take part in role-play exercises where “armed enemy kidnappers” take hostages. Then troops storm a building in a rescue mission.
Other drills will involve crack troops using tear gas and stun grenades.
The threats to Harry were exposed by a Sun investigation into extremists’ websites. Last night internet terror expert Neil Doyle said the website messages “represent clear incitement”.
Taxes and house prices dominate in the Mail,Telegraph and the Express,
Oil giants set to profit from petrol debacle says the front of the Mail,
Millions of motorists will pay more for petrol this week in the wake of the tainted fuel chaos.
Wholesale prices have surged as Asda, Tesco and Morrisons seek new supplies to replace the petrol which put thousands of cars out of action.
Oil giants have been accused of cashing in with instant rises at the pumps of up to 3p a litre (14p a gallon).
Whereas the Express leads with
MILLIONS IN HOME TAX TRAP
HARD-hit families face crippling levels of stamp duty in the struggle to buy a house.New figures today reveal that a record one in five house deals is hit by higher rates of the tax on property.Over the past five years there has been a 281 per cent rise in purchases above the £250,000 threshold at which the Government rakes in a three per cent tax bill of at least £7,500.
Tax increase 'will harm middle Britain' according to the Telegraph
Middle income families are being hit hardest by Gordon Brown's taxes which will rise to their highest level for 25 years in two years' time, an influential think tank claims today.
The report from Reform, a centre-Right group, warns that the Chancellor must cut taxes and spending in this summer's Comprehensive Spending Review or "take the UK backwards in the next decade".
Its report reveals how middle income earners are paying more tax as a proportion of their disposable income.
It leads though with the story that
Labour activists demand contest for leader according to yougov poll of party members
The survey of more than 1,000 members found that 73 per cent wanted a contest and just 11 per cent thought it better if Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, was elected unopposed. If no one came forward to take on Mr Brown, more than half want an "affirmative ballot" so members can decide whether or not to endorse Mr Brown as the new leader.
The Times continues to ponder the developments over the weekend in the cash for honours enquiry
Police set to gag media as honours inquiry ends
Scotland Yard will seek further gagging orders against anyone who could jeopardise the inquiry into whether Downing Street offered loans for honours.
As the 11-month investigation reaches its climax, police are now so concerned that deliberate leaks of information could undermine the chance of a successful prosecution that government lawyers are on alert to prevent the media from publishing more details.
Gagged to stop printing of email says the Sun reporting that the paper
was gagged last night to prevent us revealing details of a bombshell memo at the centre of the cash-for-honours probe.
The Attorney General, acting on behalf of the Met Police, demanded assurances we would not print the explosive contents of an email.
They warned it risked “impeding” the year-long police inquiry into loans-for-lordships allegations. Last night The Sun agreed not to publish details of the email between two of Tony Blair’s closest aides.
It was sent by the PM’s gatekeeper Ruth Turner to No10 chief of staff Jonathan Powell. Sources say detectives have yet to put its contents to those they still intend to quiz and insisted on a news blackout.
The Guardian reports that
UK plans to cut CO2 doomed to fail - scientists
An independent scientific audit of the UK's climate change policies predicts that the government will fall well below its target of a 30% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 - which means that the country will not reach its 2020 milestone until 2050.
The report condemns government forecasts on greenhouse gas emissions as "very optimistic" and projects that the true reduction will be between 12 and 17%, making little difference to current CO2 emission levels.
And the Independent stays on the Green theme
The Big Green Fuel Lie
The ethanol boom is coming. The twin threats of climate change and energy security are creating an unprecedented thirst for alternative energy with ethanol leading the way.
That process is set to reach a landmark on Thursday when the US President, George Bush, arrives in Brazil to kick-start the creation of an international market for ethanol that could one day rival oil as a global commodity. The expected creation of an "Opec for ethanol" replicating the cartel of major oil producers has spurred frenzied investment in biofuels across the Americas.
But a growing number of economists, scientists and environmentalists are calling for a "time out" and warning that the headlong rush into massive ethanol production is creating more problems than it is solving.
Hutton's carrot and stick welfare reforms reports the Telegraph
Welfare reforms to be unveiled today will include an element of compulsion to get the long-term jobless and lone parents into work.
The changes could see the long-term unemployed offered help buying suits or getting haircuts for job interviews, and might even include measures to help them get problems with debt under control
Seek work earlier, lone parents told says the Guardian
Single parents will be expected to look for work when their child reaches 12 - rather than the current age of 16 - under new government plans published today.
A long-awaited report into state welfare provision, by Sir David Freud, a City banker, was launched this morning by Tony Blair and the chancellor, Gordon Brown.
It proposes offering benefit claimants in-house care for three years after they find work but also calls for more private and voluntary sector involvement in getting people off benefits and into work, offering "bounty" payments for placing the long-term jobless in employment and making sure they stay in work.
According to the Times
Could 650,000 Iraqis really have died because of the invasion?
The statistics made headlines all over the world when they were published in The Lancet in October last year. More than 650,000 Iraqis – one in 40 of the population – had died as a result of the American-led invasion in 2003. The vast majority of these “excess” deaths (deaths over and above what would have been expected in the absence of the occupation) were violent. The victims, both civilians and combatants, had fallen prey to airstrikes, car bombs and gunfire.
But the paper points out
The statistics made headlines all over the world when they were published in The Lancet in October last year. More than 650,000 Iraqis – one in 40 of the population – had died as a result of the American-led invasion in 2003. The vast majority of these “excess” deaths (deaths over and above what would have been expected in the absence of the occupation) were violent. The victims, both civilians and combatants, had fallen prey to airstrikes, car bombs and gunfire.
The Independent reports from the Liberal spring conference where
Campbell drops Lib Dems' insistence on electoral reform
Sir Menzies told activists at the Liberal Democrats' spring conference yesterday that the party's "ambition" remained to create "a government elected by a system where every vote counts". But his "five tests" for a Gordon Brown premiership did not include electoral reform. Instead, they covered scrapping ID cards; tackling climate change; combating poverty; devolving power to local communities; and distancing foreign policy from Washington.
Finally the Sun reports that
George set to open Wembley
GEORGE MICHAEL will be the lucky singer who gets to perform first at the new Wembley Stadium.
The superstar has been booked to christen the venue, on June 9, as part of his UK and European stadium tour.
Muse were already booked to open the venue on June 16. They will keep that date.
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