Conrad Black guilty of multiple fraud charges
Conrad Black, the former media tycoon, last night faced years in jail after an American jury found him guilty of criminal fraud and obstructing justice.The Canadian-born peer, once the head of the world's third largest newspaper group, which included The Daily Telegraph, was cleared of nine other charges, including racketeering. His lawyers said he would appeal.
Prosecutors said he could expect to go to jail for at least 15 years, though the potential sentence is more than twice that.
Lord Fraud: says the Independent
Lord Black of Crossharbour remained stone-faced as the unanimous verdicts were read: guilty on three counts of defrauding outside shareholders in his newspaper company, and one of obstructing justice. His wife, the columnist Barbara Amiel, rushed to his side after the result, and huddled with her husband while members of Black's legal team shielded the couple from journalists who have followed all the salacious details in the trial of a man who was once one of the most feared media bosses in the UK and North America.
Downfall of Citizen Black headlines the Guardian
The US government petitioned for Black to go straight to prison, describing him as a "flight risk" who could flee to Canada or Britain. Defence counsel Edward Greenspan pleaded for bail to continue, insisting his client would appear for sentencing: "His life - his past, his present and his future - are all wrapped up in this case." The judge allowed Black to remain at liberty pending a hearing on Thursday, but she ordered he remain in Chicago; the peer was forced to hand his UK passport to the court clerk before hurrying away without a word.
The Times reporting that
The verdict completes the public disgrace of the Canadian-born peer, a friend of Baroness Thatcher who was elevated to the House of Lords by Tony Blair at the request of William Hague. The Conservative Party withdrew the whip from him last night, removing his right to sit as a Tory in the Lords.
Will Conrad survive jail? asks the Mail
Last night, the peer's friends expressed fears that, at 63, he might not withstand the rigours of jail after a lifetime of excessive luxury.
Arrogant to the last, however, Black reclined in his chair and wore the same aloof expression he had maintained throughout his 12-week trial as the jury pronounced him guilty on four of 13 counts. He was cleared of abusing company resources to fund his extravagant lifestyle.
Elsewhere the Telegraph looks towards futre foreign policy in an interview with Lord Malloch Brown
Brown's new man strains links with Bush
Interviewed in The Daily Telegraph, Lord Malloch Brown said that it was time for a more "impartial" foreign policy, building new relationships with the French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the German chancellor Angela Merkel as well as the growing economic powerhouses of India and China.
He said: "It is very unlikely that the Brown-Bush relationship is going to go through the baptism of fire and therefore be joined together at the hip like the Blair-Bush relationship was.
House vote to withdraw adds to pressure on Republicans reports the Guardian
The division between President George Bush and Congress over the Iraq war hardened yesterday as the House of Representatives again voted to withdraw most US combat troops from Iraq by April 1.
Although the vote was largely symbolic, the Democrats are planning a further series of votes in the House and the Senate over the next few weeks to try to tempt Republican dissidents.
The political manoeuvring in Washington came as US forces killed 13 people in a clash with Iraqi policemen in a Shia district of Baghdad. The shootout at an Iraqi police checkpoint highlighted the extent of American distrust in the police force it helped establish. In the Bush administration's report on progress in Iraq, delivered to Congress on Thursday, the state of the Iraqi police was judged unsatisfactory.
GORD: I WON'T SNUB U.S. reports the Mirror
AN angry Gordon Brown swatted claims he was ready to end Britain's special relationship with the US.
The PM insisted he would not be snubbing President Bush.
He said: "I will continue to work, as Tony Blair did, very closely with the American administration.
"We will not allow people to separate us in dealing with our common challenges
Bush pressed on withdrawal of troops says the Independent
Two leading Republican senators delivered a sharp blow to President George Bush's Iraq policy yesterday, demanding that he seek Congressional approval for the war again and draw up plans to reduce American forces by the end of the year.
A coalition of Republicans and Democrats is taking shape that could force the President's hand and end the US role in this unpopular war against his wishes. The move by John Warner and Richard Lugar, critics of the current buildup of troops in Iraq, is to be considered next week.
With the Congress and the White House in open conflict over the Iraq policy, the senators want a bipartisan plan that will force the President to alter course. Mr Lugar said he wanted a "sustainable policy in Iraq that reduces our troop commitments" and to change the role of the US military which is now caught "between sectarian factions".
The Times meanwhile reports that
Millionaire rapist at Labour fundraiser
The Labour Party last night ordered an investigation into why a convicted rapist who is also a millionaire businessman was invited to attend a fundraising evening at Wembley.
In an embarrassment for the new Prime Minister, who promised to impose a new moral compass on Labour, Owen Oyston was invited to pay £10,000 for a table at the event, which was hosted by Gordon Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair.
The businessman, a former chairman of Blackpool Football Club, was jailed in 1996 for the rape of a 16-year-old girl at his mansion in Lancashire.
A triple murder in Manchester
Teenage singer found murdered alongside brother and mother reports the Indy
Bewildered neighbours expressed their horror last night after a talented teenager who found fame on Stars In Their Eyes Kids was discovered battered to death alongside her mother and young brother. Greater Manchester Police named a man that they were hunting after launching a multiple murder inquiry into the deaths of Kesha Wizzart, 18, her mother, Beverley Samuels, 35, and her brother Fred, 13. Ms Wizzart became a national favourite three years ago when she appeared on the ITV talent show as the American R&B singer Toni Braxton, but had returned to school to finish her A-levels and was looking forward to going to university to study law.
Stars In Their Eyes girl is killed reports the Sun
A PRETTY teenager who won the hearts of millions on ITV’s Stars In Their Eyes talent show has been bludgeoned to death with her mother and brother.
Kesha Wizzart, 18, and mum Beverley Samuels, 35, are believed to have been found dead together in bed.
The body of Fred Wizzart, 13, was in a locked wardrobe.
All died from head injuries in a bloodbath at their home.
The Express leads with
MADDY: SUSPECT'S ALIBI IS IN DOUBT
KEY witnesses cannot agree on crucial events surrounding Madeleine McCann’s kidnap.
The officer leading the hunt last night revealed the impasse thwarting the investigation.In particular, chief suspect Robert Murat’s alibi has been thrown into doubt by a number of discrepancies in evidence about the night she was snatched in Praia da Luz on May 3.Speaking for the first time about the frustration facing officers, Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa said police wanted to compare the statements of four main witnesses, including Murat, which vary widely over crucial events before and after the kidnap.
The fallout from the BBC'S autumn trails continues
Will BBC chief's head roll over the Queen's tiara saga? asks the Mail
The future of BBC1's controller hung in the balance last night after it emerged he had failed to stop doctored documentary footage of the Queen being screened around the world.
Peter Fincham told a press launch on Wednesday the Queen had been filmed "losing it a bit" and "walking off in a huff" from a photo shoot when asked to remove her tiara.
That afternoon Buckingham Palace made furious calls to tell the BBC the footage was wrong.
However, Mr Fincham failed to stop a trailer of the footage, which had been wrongly edited, being shown on news programmes and reported in newspapers.
BBC orders inquiry as pressure mounts says the Guardian
The BBC has launched a wide-ranging internal investigation into the mistakes that led the controller of BBC1 to claim that the Queen had walked out of a photoshoot "in a huff".
Peter Fincham was forced to apologise after wrongly claiming, while unveiling the BBC's autumn schedules, that a fly-on-the-wall documentary to be screened later in the year showed the Queen storming out of a photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz.
As pressure mounted on the BBC yesterday, Mr Fincham repeated his determination not to resign. His fate may now hang on a crucial meeting between BBC trustees and the corporation's director general, Mark Thompson, due to take place next Wednesday.
The Beckham's arrival in LA makes the front of the Mirror and the Sun
AMERICAN IDOL says the latter
BECKHAM-MANIA hit America yesterday as David and Victoria swept into LA amid amazing scenes echoing the Sixties arrival of The Beatles.
Becks, hailed “the saviour of US soccer” BEFORE kicking a ball, was greeted with his wife by the largest US airport crowd to welcome a star in decades.
The pair brought Los Angeles International airport to a standstill as they arrived in their new home country.
And last night it emerged they planned their entrance after watching film of The Beatles’ triumphant US arrival in 1964. A source close to the Beckhams said: “Victoria and David know they’re the biggest Brits to hit America since The Beatles.
POSH & BECKS IN LA FRENZY says the Mirror
there was a delirious ticker tape reception at David's new club LA Galaxy - where 11,000 fans cheered with delight as Posh struck a Statue of Liberty pose.
One said: "You'd think they were the king and queen of England."
Mrs Sarkozy strides on to the world stage reports the Telegraph
Barely seen in public since her husband became president of France in May, Cécilia Sarkozy shot to the forefront of European diplomacy yesterday after making an unscheduled trip to meet Col Muammar Gaddafi of Libya.
The surprise visit appeared to be Mrs Sarkozy's "coming out" after weeks of doubt and speculation over what role she might play as France's Première Dame.
The 49-year-old former model once said the idea of being First Lady "bored" her. Polls suggest that the French are keen on Mrs Sarkozy playing a "humanitarian or charitable" role, but not a diplomatic one.
Here is the forecast for winter. It will be wetter, but drier. Perhaps says the Times
Having been caught unawares by the torrential rain this summer, the Met Office was somewhat diffident in issuing its first forecast for next winter.
It will be warmer and wetter than usual, but colder and drier than last year, and but for global warming it would be colder than usual too.
Got that? In other words, the forecast is for an unexceptional winter. Perhaps.
EXPERTS WARN OF WEEKEND FLOODS RISK says the Express
Heavy rain is expected to dampen the English summer once again this weekend, with forecasters warning of more floods.
Localised storms on Sunday are expected to deliver more than 50mm of rainfall to parts of the country and homeowners in the north are again expected to bear the brunt of the conditions.The Met Office has issued a severe weather warnings for the whole of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales for Sunday and Monday, while the Environment Agency said more flooding was a possibility.
Finally the Guardian reports
Found: the giant lion-eating chimps of the magic forest
Deep in the Congolese jungle is a band of apes that, according to local legend, kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the moon. Local hunters speak of massive creatures that seem to be some sort of hybrid between a chimp and a gorilla.
Their location at the centre of one of the bloodiest conflicts on the planet, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has meant that the mystery apes have been little studied by western scientists. Reaching the region means negotiating the shifting fortunes of warring rebel factions, and the heart of the animals' range is deep in impenetrable forest.But despite the difficulties, a handful of scientists have succeeded in studying the animals. Early speculation that the apes may be some yeti-like new species or a chimp/gorilla hybrid proved unfounded, but the truth has turned out to be in many ways even more fascinating. They are actually a population of super-sized chimps with a unique culture - and it seems, a taste for big cat flesh.
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