Both the Times and the Guardian lead with the news of a major cancer breakthrough.



Breakthrough in cancer screening says the Times



A revolution in cancer screening and treatment within 15 years is heralded today with the announcement of a leap in the ability to identify genes that cause the disease.
Researchers are confident that their findings will allow a screening programme, in which the inherited risk of developing cancer can be assessed for every patient, to be in place in an estimated 12-15 years.
Four common genes were identified and a fifth is on the verge of being pinpointed by researchers investigating the causes of breast cancer, almost doubling the number of known rogue genes.

New breast cancer genes identified reports the Guardian

The most significant advance in the understanding of breast cancer for a decade was announced last night with the identification of a new group of common genetic markers for the disease.
Scientists have discovered four genes which, if faulty, can increase a woman's chance of developing breast cancer - by up to 60% in the case of two of the genes. This helps explain why women with a close relative with breast cancer are twice as likely to develop the disease, and offers the hope of a test in the near future. The scientists also believe the techniques used will help them unravel other cancers.

Yesterday's announcement on the strengthening of police powers is the lead in the Telegraph

Labour turmoil over new police powers

The new anti-terror powers, now under consideration by the Home Office, emerged as Mr Blair warned that the civil liberties of the suspect had wrongly been placed before the safety of the public.
Within hours of the plans being leaked, Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, warned that it could bring about the "domestic equivalent of Guantanamo Bay".
He in turn was criticised by a rival for Labour's deputy leadership, Hazel Blears, who claimed that his Northern Ireland department was effectively behind the proposal.

Reid's 'stop and question' powers for police are 'UK's Guantanamo' says the Independent

John Reid has provoked a civil liberties storm and a cabinet split by floating plans to give police sweeping new anti-terror powers to stop and question anyone in the street.
The Home Secretary was accused of taking a further step towards an authoritarian state as the "draconian" proposals were condemned by politicians of all parties as well as by human rights and Muslim groups.
Strengthening police powers to stop passers-by is being considered among antiterrorist measures to be announced before Mr Reid steps down on 27 June, when Tony Blair leaves office.

Minister's plan for new stop-and-question powers takes senior officers by surprise reports the Guardian

Government plans for new police powers to stop and question people were greeted with a barrage of criticism yesterday, after it emerged that senior police officers had neither requested the change nor been consulted. The Home Office confirmed that the power would be included in a counterterrorism bill to be announced in early June. But the vehemence and breadth of criticism led Home Office ministers to signal a willingness to compromise after the idea was also attacked by MPs, civil liberties and Muslim groups as unnecessary and harmful.

Shambles of Blair plan for 'stop and question' powers says the Mail

Plans to give police draconian 'wartime' powers to stop and question anybody they choose about their identity and movements were in disarray last night.
The Prime Minister and his supporters want to introduce the power, backed by a fine of up to £5,000 for anyone refusing to co-operate, as part of a crackdown on terrorism.
But its future is already in doubt after Cabinet splits on the issue, a cool reaction from aides to Gordon Brown and backtracking by the Home Office.

Both the Mirror and the Sun continue to lead with the Maddy story

I SAW MAN CARRYING MADDY says the former

A WOMAN who believes she saw Madeleine McCann being carried away was racked with guilt last night.
Thinking the tot was the man's own child, the friend of parents Gerry and Kate made no attempt to stop him.
A source said: "The family believe this was Madeleine being taken. The woman feels dreadful guilt that she was the last person to see her and didn't do anything. But the family do not blame her."

Maddie suspect had kid porn reports the Sun

MADELEINE McCann suspect Robert Murat viewed child pornography on his computer, it was revealed yesterday.
Briton Murat, 33, visited a string of depraved websites.
He lives yards from the Portuguese holiday flat where Maddie, four, was snatched.
A police source said: “Examination of Mr Murat’s computer has confirmed an unhealthy appetite for deeply disturbing material.
“There is no direct link between what was found and Madeleine.
“But officers are describing it as a ‘relevant sexual history’.”

AUDIENCE WITH POPE FOR MADDY'S MUM says the Express


THE parents of missing Madeleine McCann are to meet the Pope, it was revealed last night.
Gerry and Kate McCann, both Roman Catholics, could be granted an audience with Benedict XVI as early as Wednesday.They are also to meet former England captain David Beckham in Madrid as part of their trip to Europe to raise awareness of their campaign to find Madeleine.

The Mail leads on the controversy over Channel 4's documentary about Diana

Trampling on Diana's grave: Outrage as C4 to show image of princess dying

Channel 4 has been accused of "trampling on Princess Diana's grave" after it defied appeals by her sons not to broadcast a photograph of their mother dying. Channel 4 has today defied calls to pull a programme.
William and Harry are said to be devastated by the decision to show the picture of the princess slumped in the back of a black Mercedes a few minutes after it crashed in a Paris underpass.
A French doctor is shown trying to fit an oxygen mask to her face while a passing student is helping her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, who lies seriously injured in the front of the car.
Channel 4 insists it will broadcast the paparazzo photograph next week in a documentary about the princess's death, despite the worldwide outcry provoked when an Italian magazine first published it last year.

Channel 4 defies call to pull Diana crash programme reports the Times

Channel 4 today defied calls to pull a programme featuring graphic pictures of the car crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, insisting it was a responsible documentary.
The Conservative Party called for the broadcaster to cancel Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel after newspaper reports said it included the first public airing of images taken by French photographers immediately after the Paris collision in 1997.
The film, to be broadcast on June 6, shows one picture of Diana receiving oxygen from a French doctor and other explicit images of the interior of her car, the Observer reported at the weekend.

And more trouble for the channel according to the Star which reveals

BIG BRO HOUSEMATE MISSING

BIG Brother bosses have been thrown into a panic by a sex starved housemate doing a runner days before the show starts. The randy teen wannabe was meant to be in hiding in France to avoid his identity being blown before the launch.A BB chaperone escorted him to a hotel in Normandy a week ago and was meant to be keeping an eye on him to make sure he stayed out of trouble. But yesterday the contestant, who made the final line-up for BB8, sparked mayhem by going missing.It is feared he has gone in search of one last romp before entering the BB house.

According to the Express

TAX SPIES TAKE PHOTOS OF OUR HOMES


COUNCIL tax snoopers have secretly taken photographs of almost a million homes, it emerged last night.
The cloak and dagger attempt to gather information on the nation’s households was immediately branded “Big Brother by stealth”.The Conservatives described it as a blatant attempt to find out whether already hard-pressed Britons should be paying even more council tax. Figures reveal that the tax spies have already taken nearly 1.3 million photos of more than 800,000 private homes across the country.

The front page of the Independent shows refugees clinging to a fishing net under the headline

Europe's shame the paper reports

For three days and three nights, these African migrants clung desperately to life. Their means of survival is a tuna net, being towed across the Mediterranean by a Maltese tug that refused to take them on board after their frail boat sank.
Malta and Libya, where they had embarked on their perilous journey, washed their hands of them. Eventually, they were rescued by the Italian navy.
The astonishing picture shows them hanging on to the buoys that support the narrow runway that runs around the top of the net. They had had practically nothing to eat or drink.
Last night, on the island of Lampedusa, the 27 young men - from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sudan and other countries - told of their ordeal. As their flimsy boat from Libya floundered adrift for six days, two fishing boats failed to rescue them. On Wednesday, the Maltese boat, the Budafel allowed them to mount the walkway but refused to have them on board.

Talks over Iraq hint at thawing of US-Iran relations reports the Times

Iran and the United States are due to hold groundbreaking talks on Iraq today that could lead to a thawing in diplomatic relations.
The talks, to be hosted by Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, in Baghdad, are designed to focus purely on Iraqi issues, according to both sides, whose diplomatic relations have been on ice for more than a quarter of a century.
Iran’s nuclear ambitions, however, are not on the agenda. “It is not about US-Iranian relations, it is about how direct contact between us can help the situation inside Iraq,” Ryan Crocker, the newly appointed US Ambassador to Iraq, said.

The Guardian reports from Moscow

Gay activists beaten and arrested in Russia

Riot police used violence to break up a gay rights demonstration in Moscow yesterday and arrested several European parliamentarians in what critics say is the latest violation of human rights in Russia.
A group of gay rights activists came under attack from neo-Nazi thugs when they tried to present a petition asking Moscow's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, to lift a ban on a Gay Pride parade. He has previously dubbed gay rallies "satanic". Witnesses said riot police watched as far-right skinheads chanting "death to homosexuals" beat up several activists.

Britain suffers another dank holiday weekend headlines the Telegraph

Beach resorts were deserted as holidaymakers who had travelled to the coast were forced to stay indoors, and the forecast for today promised little improvement.
By the end of today much of the country will have endured a month's worth of rain in 48 hours, completing a miserable pair of May bank holidays this year. Both May Day holiday and this weekend's Whitsun break have seen damp weather bring an end to preceding spells of glorious sunshine.

The Mirror calls it

BLANK HOLIDAY

A CHILDREN'S play area on a soggy and windswept beach is deserted... it must be a British bank holiday weekend.
This was the gloomy sight greeting visitors to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset yesterday and a scene mirrored up and down country.
And forecasters predict things will get colder today - with Britain CHILLIER than Russia and Norway.
Can't get any worse? Think again. Count on frustrating tailbacks as 18 million cars clog up the motorways and the AA predicting 57,000 breakdowns over the weekend.

Finally the Guardian reports that

Chinese project may revive Wigan's cotton industry

First there were coals to Newcastle, but a new phrase should be coined today: cotton to Wigan.
Almost 27 years after the last cotton mill closed its doors in the northern industrial town, synonymous with George Orwell's The Road To Wigan Pier, Chinese investors are proposing a new manufacturing hub for cotton.
Wigan has a well-established industrial history which centres around the cotton mills which helped power the industrial revolution. But since the early 20th century the cotton industry has shifted to cheaper markets in eastern Europe and Asia - including China. May Mill, Wigan's last cotton mill, closed in 1980.