The papers have a mixed bag of stories today
The Mirror leads with the news that
I AM THE 274M DADDY
JUBILANT Larry Birkhead last night celebrated winning the battle for Anna Nicole Smith's baby daughter - and then yelled: "I'm off to the toy shop!"
Birkhead, ex-lover of the tragic model, was overjoyed after a court was told DNA tests proved he had fathered seven-month-old Dannielynn, who stands to inherit a £274million fortune.
The 34-year-old celebrity photographer has been in a bitter paternity battle for the toddler with lawyer Howard K Stern, Smith's partner at the time of her drug overdose.
Birkhead is dad of Anna tot reports the Sun
PHOTOGRAPHER Larry Birkhead was last night sensationally revealed to be the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby.
DNA tests proved Birkhead, who had a two-year affair with the tragic model, was the dad of million-dollar tot Dannielynn.
The news was a huge blow to Anna Nicole’s partner when she died, Howard K Stern, who was named as the dad on Dannielynn’s birth certificate and had been battling to keep her.
The Sun revels in the news that Sir Trevor McDonald is to return to the 10.00 news
AND FINALLY I'M BACK
THE famous Big Ben bongs that began News at Ten are to be heard again at 10pm under secret plans by new ITV boss Michael Grade.
He wants the former flagship news programme to be exactly as it was — complete with host Sir Trevor MacDonald, 68, and his pay-off phrase “And finally..”
News at Ten was axed in 1999, resurrected in 2001 and killed off again in 2004. ITV has never attracted as many viewers to its current 10.30pm news slot.
Mr Grade, who has pulled off a deal to win more soccer for ITV, believes losing the show was “the worst catastrophe” in the station’s history. And he wants ITV to take on the BBC head-to-head for the prestigious 10pm news slot.
The move is being discussed with ITV’s top management.
EMBRYO WOMAN: ROBBED OF LAST CHANCE says the Express
A WOMAN left infertile from cancer treatment wept yesterday after being told her embryos must be destroyed, ending any hope of having a child.
The news marked the end of a hearbreaking legal wrangle that saw Natallie Evans try to stop her frozen embryos from being destroyed after losing her ovaries in a cancer battle.
Natallie breaks down as three-court battle ends reports the Telegraph
She has now exhausted all her legal remedies. Two courts in London and one in Strasbourg have upheld legislation requiring the consent of both potential parents before a child can be born through IVF treatment.
Miss Evans, 35, from Melksham, Wiltshire, is infertile because of cancer treatment - although doctors believe that she could still carry a child conceived from a donated embryo.
Her own eggs were harvested in 2001 and fertilised with sperm from her then partner, Howard Johnston, 30, from Cheltenham.
The Mail leads with the news that
Classroom thugs told: Disrupt school and win an iPod!
School tearaways are to be offered mountain bikes and iPods in return for good behaviour.
In a government campaign against soaring indiscipline, teachers are being told to reward disruptive pupils with prizes and privileges.
Badly-behaved youngsters must be praised five times as often as they are punished or criticised under guidelines unveiled by Education Secretary Alan Johnson.
They can be offered prizes and privileges ranging from non-uniform days and extended breaktimes to CDs, cinema tickets, personal music players and state-of-the-art bicycles.
The scheme has been branded 'absurd'.
A theme that a number of the papers pick up
PRAISE UNRULY PUPILS says the Times
Schools should not “over discipline” persistently unruly pupils for fear of alienating them and should instead hand out praise five times more often than punishments, the Government has said.
New guidance on school discipline published yesterday cautions teachers against repeatedly praising only “the same good pupils”, suggesting that rewards also be given to persistent miscreants who show an improvement in behaviour, however small. It cites research recommending a “rewards/sanctions ratio of at least 5:1”. Rewards might include “good news” postcards sent home, “special privileges” or “prizes”.
“Striking the right balance between rewarding pupils with consistently good behaviour and those achieving substantial improvement in their behaviour is important. This can help improve relations with parents who have become tired of receiving letters and phone calls when things go wrong,” the guidance states.
It also advises teachers to take account of pupils’ race and culture when telling them off, suggesting that they go easy on those insubordinate youngsters for whom being “loud” or “overfamiliar” may be a cultural norm or “social style”.
Disruptive pupils 'should be given prizes' reports the Telegraph
A system of rewards - including good news postcards home, special privileges or prizes - is the best way to encourage troublemakers to behave, says the document on keeping order in class.It urges schools to adopt a more positive approach that it suggests will help improve relations with parents "tired" of receiving letters about children's poor behaviour.But the Department for Education document is likely to cause alarm among teachers, who have called for tough action to clamp down on increasingly violent pupils.
It leads with the news that
Mortgages on offer for six times salary
Halifax, the biggest mortgage lenders, said yesterday that the average price reached £194,400 last month, more than eight times average earnings of £23,600 a year.Faced with this widening gulf between property prices and income, the number of loans to first-time buyers dropped in February to its lowest level for two years, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).Ray Boulger, of the independent mortgage brokers John Charcol, said the maximum income multiple limits of three to three and a half times' salary were now "old hat".
Russia threatening new cold war over missile defence is the Guardian's lead story
Russia is preparing its own military response to the US's controversial plans to build a new missile defence system in eastern Europe, according to Kremlin officials, in a move likely to increase fears of a cold war-style arms race.
The Kremlin is considering active counter-measures in response to Washington's decision to base interceptor missiles and radar installations in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move Russia says will change "the world's strategic stability".
The Independent meanwhile reports from Baghdad where
Divide and rule - America's plan for Baghdad
Robert Fisk reports that
Faced with an ever-more ruthless insurgency in Baghdad - despite President George Bush's "surge" in troops - US forces in the city are now planning a massive and highly controversial counter-insurgency operation that will seal off vast areas of the city, enclosing whole neighbourhoods with barricades and allowing only Iraqis with newly issued ID cards to enter.
The campaign of "gated communities" - whose genesis was in the Vietnam War - will involve up to 30 of the city's 89 official districts and will be the most ambitious counter-insurgency programme yet mounted by the US in Iraq.
The system has been used - and has spectacularly failed - in the past, and its inauguration in Iraq is as much a sign of American desperation at the country's continued descent into civil conflict as it is of US determination to "win" the war against an Iraqi insurgency that has cost the lives of more than 3,200 American troops. The system of "gating" areas under foreign occupation failed during the French war against FLN insurgents in Algeria and again during the American war in Vietnam. Israel has employed similar practices during its occupation of Palestinian territory - again, with little success.
The same paper speculates that
Brownites fear blame for losses in Scottish vote
Labour has unveiled its manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections on 3 May, the fallout from which is likely to spread beyond Edinburgh and could have huge implications for the future of the United Kingdom and for Gordon Brown.
With most opinion polls north of the border putting the Scottish National Party (SNP) on course to be the largest party in the Edinburgh parliament, an ominous "blame game" between Blairites and Brownites has already begun.
Mr Brown and other Scottish members of the Cabinet were absent yesterday when Jack McConnell, the Labour First Minister, launched a manifesto which put education at the heart of the party's efforts to retain power. Since devolved government was introduced in 1999, the Scottish Executive, its ministerial arm, has been run by a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition.
The Telegraph reveals
Brown's plan to halt Miliband challenge
Under the plan Mr Miliband, who has so far resisted pressure from Blairites to stand in a succession battle, would take over responsibility for energy in an enlarged environmental department.A new eco super-ministry is said to be part of the Chancellor's programme for his first 100 days as prime minister, assuming that, as expected, he succeeds Mr Blair in 10 Downing Street this summer.Westminster insiders said the move would also allow Mr Brown to carry through another long standing aim of abolishing the Department of Trade and Industry.
The Times carries the story that
Parents denied ‘Megan’s law’ information on paedophiles
The Home Office backed down yesterday over plans to introduce a US-style “Megan’s law” to deal with child sex offenders living in the community.
Parents will not be given the right to information about paedophiles in their neighbourhoods except in very specific circumstances. Nor are they to be told how many sex offenders live near local school routes and playgrounds after the proposals were criticised by children’s charities and senior police officers.
John Reid was told that proposals for a “Megan’s law” could leave children more at risk from paedophiles rather than giving them greater protection.
Ministers rule out emulating America's hardline 'Megan's Law' says the Independent
The introduction of a British version of "Megan's Law", giving communities the automatic right to know about paedophiles living locally, has been ruled out by the Government. Parents will only have the right to information about convicted sex offenders in their neighbourhoods in specific circumstances, such as when a single mother has suspicions about a new partner.
Home Office ministers have studied the operation of the American law, which provides the public with details of the history and the whereabouts of high-risk offenders.
Critics have warned that it encourages vigilantism and could drive paedophiles underground.
Storm over Sarah's Law reports the Sun
A row erupted last night as ministers took the first steps towards a Sarah’s Law for Britain — to protect kids from sex beasts.
Under changes in trial schemes, single mums will be able to ask police whether a new boyfriend is a paedophile on the sex offenders’ register.
The ruling also applies to parents employing a babysitter or anyone else who is to work exclusively with their children.
But last night campaigners complained the trials did not go far enough.
Selling off the rainforest - a modern-day scandal reveals the Guardian
Vast tracts of the world's second-largest rainforest have been obtained by a small group of European and American industrial logging companies in return for minimal taxes and gifts of salt, sugar and tools, a two-year investigation will disclose today.
More than 150 contracts covering an area of rainforest nearly the size of the United Kingdom have been signed with 20 companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the past three years. Many are believed to have been illegally allocated in 2002 by a transition government emerging from a decade of civil wars and are in defiance of a World Bank moratorium.
The Express leads with a medical story
DIABETES: NEW BREAKTHROUGH
A TREATMENT using stem-cell transplants could provide a revolutionary breakthrough in controlling diabetes.
A ground-breaking study has shown that patients were able to live without normally life-saving insulin injections for up to three years after the treatment.Now it is hoped that the procedure could one day finally bring hope to patients with type 1 diabetes.
Boss who sacked staff by text is killed in car crash reports the Indie
He was the cold-hearted boss who became notorious for sacking 2,500 employees of his "ambulance-chasing" solicitor's firm by text message. The man who, through his "no win, no fee" deals, built a considerable fortune on the misfortune of others. A man who lived the expat dream while the Inland Revenue pursued him for £4.1m in unpaid taxes. But now, Mark Langford has met the great creditor in the sky.
The Mirror leads with the news that
I AM THE 274M DADDY
JUBILANT Larry Birkhead last night celebrated winning the battle for Anna Nicole Smith's baby daughter - and then yelled: "I'm off to the toy shop!"
Birkhead, ex-lover of the tragic model, was overjoyed after a court was told DNA tests proved he had fathered seven-month-old Dannielynn, who stands to inherit a £274million fortune.
The 34-year-old celebrity photographer has been in a bitter paternity battle for the toddler with lawyer Howard K Stern, Smith's partner at the time of her drug overdose.
Birkhead is dad of Anna tot reports the Sun
PHOTOGRAPHER Larry Birkhead was last night sensationally revealed to be the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby.
DNA tests proved Birkhead, who had a two-year affair with the tragic model, was the dad of million-dollar tot Dannielynn.
The news was a huge blow to Anna Nicole’s partner when she died, Howard K Stern, who was named as the dad on Dannielynn’s birth certificate and had been battling to keep her.
The Sun revels in the news that Sir Trevor McDonald is to return to the 10.00 news
AND FINALLY I'M BACK
THE famous Big Ben bongs that began News at Ten are to be heard again at 10pm under secret plans by new ITV boss Michael Grade.
He wants the former flagship news programme to be exactly as it was — complete with host Sir Trevor MacDonald, 68, and his pay-off phrase “And finally..”
News at Ten was axed in 1999, resurrected in 2001 and killed off again in 2004. ITV has never attracted as many viewers to its current 10.30pm news slot.
Mr Grade, who has pulled off a deal to win more soccer for ITV, believes losing the show was “the worst catastrophe” in the station’s history. And he wants ITV to take on the BBC head-to-head for the prestigious 10pm news slot.
The move is being discussed with ITV’s top management.
EMBRYO WOMAN: ROBBED OF LAST CHANCE says the Express
A WOMAN left infertile from cancer treatment wept yesterday after being told her embryos must be destroyed, ending any hope of having a child.
The news marked the end of a hearbreaking legal wrangle that saw Natallie Evans try to stop her frozen embryos from being destroyed after losing her ovaries in a cancer battle.
Natallie breaks down as three-court battle ends reports the Telegraph
She has now exhausted all her legal remedies. Two courts in London and one in Strasbourg have upheld legislation requiring the consent of both potential parents before a child can be born through IVF treatment.
Miss Evans, 35, from Melksham, Wiltshire, is infertile because of cancer treatment - although doctors believe that she could still carry a child conceived from a donated embryo.
Her own eggs were harvested in 2001 and fertilised with sperm from her then partner, Howard Johnston, 30, from Cheltenham.
The Mail leads with the news that
Classroom thugs told: Disrupt school and win an iPod!
School tearaways are to be offered mountain bikes and iPods in return for good behaviour.
In a government campaign against soaring indiscipline, teachers are being told to reward disruptive pupils with prizes and privileges.
Badly-behaved youngsters must be praised five times as often as they are punished or criticised under guidelines unveiled by Education Secretary Alan Johnson.
They can be offered prizes and privileges ranging from non-uniform days and extended breaktimes to CDs, cinema tickets, personal music players and state-of-the-art bicycles.
The scheme has been branded 'absurd'.
A theme that a number of the papers pick up
PRAISE UNRULY PUPILS says the Times
Schools should not “over discipline” persistently unruly pupils for fear of alienating them and should instead hand out praise five times more often than punishments, the Government has said.
New guidance on school discipline published yesterday cautions teachers against repeatedly praising only “the same good pupils”, suggesting that rewards also be given to persistent miscreants who show an improvement in behaviour, however small. It cites research recommending a “rewards/sanctions ratio of at least 5:1”. Rewards might include “good news” postcards sent home, “special privileges” or “prizes”.
“Striking the right balance between rewarding pupils with consistently good behaviour and those achieving substantial improvement in their behaviour is important. This can help improve relations with parents who have become tired of receiving letters and phone calls when things go wrong,” the guidance states.
It also advises teachers to take account of pupils’ race and culture when telling them off, suggesting that they go easy on those insubordinate youngsters for whom being “loud” or “overfamiliar” may be a cultural norm or “social style”.
Disruptive pupils 'should be given prizes' reports the Telegraph
A system of rewards - including good news postcards home, special privileges or prizes - is the best way to encourage troublemakers to behave, says the document on keeping order in class.It urges schools to adopt a more positive approach that it suggests will help improve relations with parents "tired" of receiving letters about children's poor behaviour.But the Department for Education document is likely to cause alarm among teachers, who have called for tough action to clamp down on increasingly violent pupils.
It leads with the news that
Mortgages on offer for six times salary
Halifax, the biggest mortgage lenders, said yesterday that the average price reached £194,400 last month, more than eight times average earnings of £23,600 a year.Faced with this widening gulf between property prices and income, the number of loans to first-time buyers dropped in February to its lowest level for two years, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).Ray Boulger, of the independent mortgage brokers John Charcol, said the maximum income multiple limits of three to three and a half times' salary were now "old hat".
Russia threatening new cold war over missile defence is the Guardian's lead story
Russia is preparing its own military response to the US's controversial plans to build a new missile defence system in eastern Europe, according to Kremlin officials, in a move likely to increase fears of a cold war-style arms race.
The Kremlin is considering active counter-measures in response to Washington's decision to base interceptor missiles and radar installations in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move Russia says will change "the world's strategic stability".
The Independent meanwhile reports from Baghdad where
Divide and rule - America's plan for Baghdad
Robert Fisk reports that
Faced with an ever-more ruthless insurgency in Baghdad - despite President George Bush's "surge" in troops - US forces in the city are now planning a massive and highly controversial counter-insurgency operation that will seal off vast areas of the city, enclosing whole neighbourhoods with barricades and allowing only Iraqis with newly issued ID cards to enter.
The campaign of "gated communities" - whose genesis was in the Vietnam War - will involve up to 30 of the city's 89 official districts and will be the most ambitious counter-insurgency programme yet mounted by the US in Iraq.
The system has been used - and has spectacularly failed - in the past, and its inauguration in Iraq is as much a sign of American desperation at the country's continued descent into civil conflict as it is of US determination to "win" the war against an Iraqi insurgency that has cost the lives of more than 3,200 American troops. The system of "gating" areas under foreign occupation failed during the French war against FLN insurgents in Algeria and again during the American war in Vietnam. Israel has employed similar practices during its occupation of Palestinian territory - again, with little success.
The same paper speculates that
Brownites fear blame for losses in Scottish vote
Labour has unveiled its manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections on 3 May, the fallout from which is likely to spread beyond Edinburgh and could have huge implications for the future of the United Kingdom and for Gordon Brown.
With most opinion polls north of the border putting the Scottish National Party (SNP) on course to be the largest party in the Edinburgh parliament, an ominous "blame game" between Blairites and Brownites has already begun.
Mr Brown and other Scottish members of the Cabinet were absent yesterday when Jack McConnell, the Labour First Minister, launched a manifesto which put education at the heart of the party's efforts to retain power. Since devolved government was introduced in 1999, the Scottish Executive, its ministerial arm, has been run by a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition.
The Telegraph reveals
Brown's plan to halt Miliband challenge
Under the plan Mr Miliband, who has so far resisted pressure from Blairites to stand in a succession battle, would take over responsibility for energy in an enlarged environmental department.A new eco super-ministry is said to be part of the Chancellor's programme for his first 100 days as prime minister, assuming that, as expected, he succeeds Mr Blair in 10 Downing Street this summer.Westminster insiders said the move would also allow Mr Brown to carry through another long standing aim of abolishing the Department of Trade and Industry.
The Times carries the story that
Parents denied ‘Megan’s law’ information on paedophiles
The Home Office backed down yesterday over plans to introduce a US-style “Megan’s law” to deal with child sex offenders living in the community.
Parents will not be given the right to information about paedophiles in their neighbourhoods except in very specific circumstances. Nor are they to be told how many sex offenders live near local school routes and playgrounds after the proposals were criticised by children’s charities and senior police officers.
John Reid was told that proposals for a “Megan’s law” could leave children more at risk from paedophiles rather than giving them greater protection.
Ministers rule out emulating America's hardline 'Megan's Law' says the Independent
The introduction of a British version of "Megan's Law", giving communities the automatic right to know about paedophiles living locally, has been ruled out by the Government. Parents will only have the right to information about convicted sex offenders in their neighbourhoods in specific circumstances, such as when a single mother has suspicions about a new partner.
Home Office ministers have studied the operation of the American law, which provides the public with details of the history and the whereabouts of high-risk offenders.
Critics have warned that it encourages vigilantism and could drive paedophiles underground.
Storm over Sarah's Law reports the Sun
A row erupted last night as ministers took the first steps towards a Sarah’s Law for Britain — to protect kids from sex beasts.
Under changes in trial schemes, single mums will be able to ask police whether a new boyfriend is a paedophile on the sex offenders’ register.
The ruling also applies to parents employing a babysitter or anyone else who is to work exclusively with their children.
But last night campaigners complained the trials did not go far enough.
Selling off the rainforest - a modern-day scandal reveals the Guardian
Vast tracts of the world's second-largest rainforest have been obtained by a small group of European and American industrial logging companies in return for minimal taxes and gifts of salt, sugar and tools, a two-year investigation will disclose today.
More than 150 contracts covering an area of rainforest nearly the size of the United Kingdom have been signed with 20 companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the past three years. Many are believed to have been illegally allocated in 2002 by a transition government emerging from a decade of civil wars and are in defiance of a World Bank moratorium.
The Express leads with a medical story
DIABETES: NEW BREAKTHROUGH
A TREATMENT using stem-cell transplants could provide a revolutionary breakthrough in controlling diabetes.
A ground-breaking study has shown that patients were able to live without normally life-saving insulin injections for up to three years after the treatment.Now it is hoped that the procedure could one day finally bring hope to patients with type 1 diabetes.
Boss who sacked staff by text is killed in car crash reports the Indie
He was the cold-hearted boss who became notorious for sacking 2,500 employees of his "ambulance-chasing" solicitor's firm by text message. The man who, through his "no win, no fee" deals, built a considerable fortune on the misfortune of others. A man who lived the expat dream while the Inland Revenue pursued him for £4.1m in unpaid taxes. But now, Mark Langford has met the great creditor in the sky.
Why Britain is no longer at peace with itself reports the Telegraph
Complaints about noise and noisy neighbours have reached unprecedented levels as Britain becomes an overcrowded and fractious nation, according to an official report published today.
So many people are having to live cheek by jowl, especially in large cities, that noise pollution is a blight on many lives, it says.
Since the 1980s there has been a fivefold increase in complaints about noise from rowdy neighbours. Campaigners say the problem is likely to worsen with summer looming because many home owners have begun to treat their gardens as "outdoor rooms" and have acquired the noisy outdoor habits more usually associated with Australians.
Since the 1980s there has been a fivefold increase in complaints about noise from rowdy neighbours. Campaigners say the problem is likely to worsen with summer looming because many home owners have begun to treat their gardens as "outdoor rooms" and have acquired the noisy outdoor habits more usually associated with Australians.
Whereas the Mail tells us
Now we're all battling to better the Joneses
What used to be simply keeping up with the Joneses has escalated into a full blown "comparison culture" with millions insecure about everything from property prices to their physique or salaries.
New research shows the obsession to match friends or family now includes showing off the latest expensive gadget or boasting about this year's holiday destination ... and how much it costs.
It comes as many feel under pressure to not only match but better what the next person has got, said the study for price comparison website Carrentals.co.uk.
And while men have always been mocked for any "my dad's bigger than your dad" hang-up, it seems women are equally as afflicted.
New research shows the obsession to match friends or family now includes showing off the latest expensive gadget or boasting about this year's holiday destination ... and how much it costs.
It comes as many feel under pressure to not only match but better what the next person has got, said the study for price comparison website Carrentals.co.uk.
And while men have always been mocked for any "my dad's bigger than your dad" hang-up, it seems women are equally as afflicted.
Nevermind perhaps we have found a new oasis as the Indy reports that
Distant planet has water
Water has been found for the first time in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system.
The discovery increases the chances of life being found among the stars.
The planet, nicknamed Osiris by astronomers, orbits so close to its parent star that its surface reaches a scorching 1,100C.
It has already given scientists a number of surprises. Osiris, which is 150 light years from Earth and has the official title HD 209458b, was the first extra-solar world known to have an atmosphere, mainly composed of hydrogen. But its atmosphere was found to be boiling away into space.
Finally most of the papers feature the demise of a grand piano
Grand escape! Lorry Piano loss says the Sun
The discovery increases the chances of life being found among the stars.
The planet, nicknamed Osiris by astronomers, orbits so close to its parent star that its surface reaches a scorching 1,100C.
It has already given scientists a number of surprises. Osiris, which is 150 light years from Earth and has the official title HD 209458b, was the first extra-solar world known to have an atmosphere, mainly composed of hydrogen. But its atmosphere was found to be boiling away into space.
Finally most of the papers feature the demise of a grand piano
Grand escape! Lorry Piano loss says the Sun
A DELIVERY man holds his head in horror after a £45,000 grand piano crashed off a lorry.
Music lovers spent two years raising cash for the Bösendorfer.
Proud organiser Penny Adie, 54, was ready with her camera as specialist removers arrived at an arts centre in Barkham, Devon. But she watched in horror as it fell 14ft off the tail-lift.
Penny said: “We are numb.” Her husband John, 61, added: “We’ll have to start fund-raising again.” The removal firm refused to comment.
Music lovers spent two years raising cash for the Bösendorfer.
Proud organiser Penny Adie, 54, was ready with her camera as specialist removers arrived at an arts centre in Barkham, Devon. But she watched in horror as it fell 14ft off the tail-lift.
Penny said: “We are numb.” Her husband John, 61, added: “We’ll have to start fund-raising again.” The removal firm refused to comment.
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