Cheap mortgage era ends with rate rise says the Times
The Bank of England pushed ahead with a fifth rise in interest rates in less than a year yesterday, lifting borrowing costs to a six-year high just as millions more homebuyers face a sudden jump in their mortgage bills.
The decision to order another quarter-point increase in base rates, to 5.75 per cent, the highest level since February 2001, will turn up the heat on hard-pressed households. Economists said yesterday that homeowners and businesses should get ready for further increases in rates this year.
The Bank’s move comes as many homeowners are hit by an abrupt end to cheap mortgage deals that have so far insulated them from the four previous rate rises.
Some 750,000 borrowers will reach the end of two-year fixed-rate loan deals, taken out when base rates were just 4.5 per cent, before the end of the year. They face a stark choice between a costlier variable rate from their lender, or switching to a new, but much more expensive, mortgage fix.
Interest rates rise hits millions of mortages reports the Telegraph
And there were warnings that a further rise could be on the horizon. More than half of City economists expect the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee to lift rates at least once more before the end of the year
Homeowner misery as another interest rate rise sparks repossession fears headlines the Mail
The latest increase means the monthly cost of a typical £125,000 mortgage is up to £130 more than this time last year.
As much as 44 per cent of the income of many families is now being swallowed up by mortgage costs, pushing household budgets into the red. The Bank's quarter point rise in the base rate, the fifth since last August, takes it up to 5.75 per cent.
This is the highest level for more than six years, and many City experts believe a further rise to 6 per cent - and even beyond - could be in the pipeline.
OUR MORTGAGES UP £960 claims the Express
Five rate hikes in less than a year mean people will now have to find an extra £80 a month – an eye-watering £960 annually – to pay the average £100,000 home loan.Borrowers with a £200,000 mortgage are paying £160 more a month now than they were last August when rates were 4.75 per cent.The move means mortgage misery for millions as debt charities and property experts warn of rocketing arrears and repossessions as families struggle to cope.
The Guardian leads with th story that
1.5m wrongly told they risk heart disease
Thousands of people have been wrongly told they are in danger of developing life-threatening heart diseases because of flaws in the way doctors routinely calculate the risk, according to a study of more than a million people published today.
Current estimates of the number at risk of cardiovascular diseases are 1.5 million too high, the report says, suggesting the anti-cholesterol drugs statins are massively and needlessly over-prescribed, inflating the £2bn annual bill to the NHS.
The study in the British Medical Journal made a series of other significant discoveries. It found that white middle-aged men have a lower risk of heart disease than previously thought and women from poorer backgrounds have a significantly higher risk. It also found one in three women in their 60s are at risk of heart disease, a figure previously thought to be one in four.
The weekend's terrorist attacks are not far from the headlines though
Bombs plot investigators look at role of al-Qaida cells in Iraq reports the same paper
MI5 and MI6 were yesterday investigating the role of al-Qaida cells in Iraq as they began to build up a picture of the foreign contacts of those involved in the plot to bomb London and Glasgow.
As police continued to question eight suspects - five from the Middle East and three believed to be from India - security and intelligence agencies were focusing on their international links, counter-terrorism officials said.
Officials close to the investigation declined to comment on a report by the American cable television network CNN that police had found a suicide note on one of the two men accused of trying to bomb Glasgow airport on Saturday.
Bombing suspects 'tried to radicalise Bangalore mosque' reports the Independent
Two Indian brothers at the centre of police investigations into the alleged NHS terrorist plot tried to persuade their local Indian mosque to adopt a more "hard line" form of Islam.
Sabeel and Khafeel Ahmed - one being questioned by police, the other under police guard in hospital where he is suffering from 90 per cent burns - challenged officials, but their requests were rejected and the brothers were ultimately forced to leave the mosque.
"Five or six years ago there was a problem with the kids. They wanted us to change the way we prayed," said Samiullah, the secretary of an Islamic trust which includes the Masjid-e-Kudadad, opposite the Ahmed's family home in Bangalore. "They were trying to change people into being more hard line. There was a fight. There was a problem. It did not go down very well."
Bombing plots ‘were carried out with bin Laden’s blessing’ says the Times
The London and Glasgow bomb plots were carried out with the approval of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, a top foreign intelligence source said last night.
“It was an established fact from Day 1 that al-Qaeda was behind this and it was planned by its followers in Great Britain with bin Laden’s blessing,” the source told The Times.
British security officials were more guarded, saying that it was too early to say whether the plot was masterminded by some foreign hand or hatched in Britain.
The warning an al-Qaeda leader in Iraq delivered to Canon Andrew White, a British cleric working in Baghdad, in April certainly suggested that he knew of the doctors’ plot. “Those who cure you will kill you,” the man said.
BOMB DOCTORS FOILED BY DUD NHS SYRINGES headlines the Express
CAR bombs allegedly planted by a terrorist cell of doctors failed to explode because NHS syringes malfunctioned, it was claimed yesterday.
The plastic syringes were a vital part of the firing mechanism designed to turn each vehicle into a gigantic fireball.The makeshift detonators have been used successfully by Al Qaeda groups in the past. An electrical circuit links the syringe, a nine-volt battery and a mobile phone. Once the mobile is rung, the electrical circuit is made, igniting liquid in the syringe which explodes and sets off the main charge.But despite “multiple calls” to the mobiles by the terrorists, the faulty syringes did not work and the cars – packed with petrol, gas cylinders and nails – failed to explode.
Meanwhile the Telegraph reports
Pc tells of Glasgow airport suicide attack
Pc Stewart Ferguson, 40, whose bravery was captured on film, described the frenetic events of the car bombing, which sent hundreds of passengers running for cover. The father-of-two said he and a colleague ran towards the burning Jeep Cherokee shortly after it was rammed into the airport's main terminal, laden with gas canisters.
He said he thought he was dealing with a road rage incident, but quickly realised "this was no angry motorist" when one of the two occupants - believed to be Dr Kafeel Ahmed - got out and set himself ablaze.
While his colleague, Sgt Torquil Campbell, traded punches with the Jeep's other occupant - said to be the Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdulla - Pc Ferguson grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed the human fireball in front of him.
Meanwhile the Mirror reports
PANIC STATIONS
TERRIFIED commuters thought they had been hit by a terror attack when their packed London Tube train derailed yesterday during the morning rush hour.
Carriages were filled with dust and smoke, prompting fears of a 7/7-style strike almost two years to the day after Britain's worst al-Qaeda bombing.
But investigators believe the Central Line train hit a plastic sheet that had fallen on to the line near Mile End station in East London.
Events in Pakistan are covered in most of the papersthe Guardian reporting
Fresh fighting reported near besieged mosque
Fighting intensified around the besieged Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad in the early hours of this morning, diminishing hopes for a peaceful end to the three-day standoff.
Hours earlier the cleric leading the militants offered a conditional surrender. As smoke poured from the mosque roof Abdul Rashid Ghazi said his followers would lay down their weapons in exchange for safe passage and immunity from prosecution.
The government responded brusquely, with the interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, saying that "the time for negotiation is over". Shortly afterwards the media was pushed back from the vicinity of the mosque and the army launched a fresh assault.
Stand-off at siege mosque after the army blasts through perimeter walls says the Times
A battle for the soul of Pakistan neared resolution last night as militants holed up in a besieged mosque in central Islamabad agreed to lay down their weapons in return for amnesty after three days of fierce fighting with government forces.
As dusk fell Pakistani troops blew holes in the perimeter wall surrounding the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, as US-made helicopter gunships hovered overhead and a barrage of mortars struck the compound.
Which also reports on the
British girl, 3, is seized by gang of masked gunmen
Masked gunmen kidnapped a three-year-old British girl yesterday as she was on her way to school in the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt. The child, Margaret Hill, is the daughter of Mike Hill, a Briton married to a Nigerian.
She was snatched from the back seat after the Jeep carrying her to school was surrounded by gunmen when it stopped at a traffic light on the busy Ada George highway. Her Nigerian driver was stabbed several times in the arm.
The kidnappers, who sped off in a saloon car, later telephoned Mr Hill to say that his daughter was safe. Police declined to say how much ransom they were demanding, but it is likely to be several thousand pounds.
Gang kidnap little Maggie, 3 says the Sun
Terrified Margaret Hill was dragged from a Jeep after the five-strong ransom gang forced it off the road — firing a shot to scare off passers-by in Nigeria.
They smashed a side window to reach the screaming youngster — stabbing the Nigerian driver several times in the arm as he fought desperately to save her.
Sobbing Margaret was driven away after being thrown into the kidnappers’ blue Honda saloon.
Margaret's mother, Oluchi Hill, said today that the kidnappers threatened to kill her daughter unless father Mike Hill agreed to take the child's place.
Captured on film: The final moments of man killed by raging floodwaters reports the Mail
The father of the man who died with his foot trapped in a flooded drain yesterday accused emergency services of bungling the rescue operation.
Mike Barnett condemned them as incompetent as he released dramatic footage of his son's last moments.
The victim, also called Mike, got his foot trapped in a grate covering a storm drain and was stuck for more than four hours as police, firemen and ambulance crews tried in vain to pull him free.
The video shows the distressed 28-year-old being held just millimetres above filthy water that turned a suburban road in Hessle, near Hull, into a raging river.
Meanwhile the Independent reports that
Council chief claims government pledge on flood damage bill
Ministers finally arrived at some of northern England's flood-hit cities yesterday and indicated that emergency payments would be made to those deluged in the wettest June for almost 150 years.
The council leader in Hull - the disaster's "forgotten city", where 17,000 properties have been affected and 10,642 homes evacuated - said the Floods minister, John Healey, had provided him with strong indications, after a two-hour tour of affected sites, that money would be available to make good an expected £200m of damage.
Hull's plight has been overshadowed by that of Sheffield and Doncaster because it is "not a short drive up the M1 for TV crews," Carl Minns, the leader of city council said.
AID POURS IN..AT LAST says the Mirror
GORDON Brown will this weekend unveil a multi-million pound emergency aid package for flood victims as he tours the UK's hardest-hit areas.
But the news was long overdue for many thousands of stricken families who feel they have been forgotten by the Government and left to fend for themselves.
A senior source said: "The Prime Minister has been working behind the scenes to sort out a financial package. We will be in a position to announce something in the next few days."
It leads with claims that
UNDER 21 BOOZE BAN
UNDER-21s could be banned from buying booze in stores and off-licences in a bid to halt soaring alcohol-fuelled violence.
The Government is considering plans by police to prevent yobs tanking up on cut-price drink before rampaging through city centres.
Senior police and doctors point out it could also stem the health risks of binge-drinking in youngsters.
The front page of the Independent carries a
Message from the melting slopes of Everest
Fifty-four years after Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to scale Everest, their sons have said the mountain is now so ravaged by climate change that they would no longer recognise it.
On the eve of the Live Earth concerts this weekend, Peter Hillary and Jamling Tenzing yesterday issued a timely warning that global warming is rapidly changing the face of the world's highest mountain and threatening the survival of billions of people who rely on its glaciers for drinking water.
The base camp where Sir Edmund and Norgay began their ascent is 40 metres lower than it was in 1953. The glacier on which it stands, and those around it, are melting at such a rate that scientists believe the mountain, whose Nepalese name, Qomolangma, means Mother of the World, could be barren rock by 2050.
According to the same paper
Gaza economy on the brink as 85% of residents live on aid
Gaza's industry is in a state of collapse because imports and exports to the Strip have been blocked by Israel since Hamas won internal control of the territory three weeks ago after the civil conflict.
The emergency Palestinian government in Ramallah, in the West Bank, is being urged to do more to avert an economic collapse in the Gaza Strip; 75 per cent of its factories are unable to function because of Israel's closure of the Karni cargo crossing. The emergency administration was set up by President Mahmoud Abbas after the formal dismissal of the Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh.
IT'S BACK ON says the front page of the Sun,the paper that broke the split reports
PRINCE William and Kate Middleton are “closer than ever” — 12 weeks after they split up.
Their on-off relationship is officially back on after the prince persuaded her to give it another go, The Sun can reveal.
A source said: “William has persuaded Kate that the problems of dating a future king are a price worth paying.” The couple’s four-year relationship hit the buffers in spring. Kate wanted commitment but Wills wanted to enjoy Army life before becoming a working royal.
The strain was clear at Cheltenham races in March — the last time they were seen together in public — and by April it was over.
But they found they missed one another and were soon spending time together again.
Files 'expose Chirac plot to smear Sarkozy' claims the Telegraph
The alleged plot was directed against Mr Sarkozy when he was interior minister in 2004, at a time when his two superiors were desperate to quash his presidential ambitions.
The fresh evidence, recovered by computer experts from the hard disc of a laptop belonging to a retired spymaster, could lead to Mr de Villepin being placed under official investigation.
It also stood to further tarnish Mr Chirac's legacy even though he cannot be questioned about the case because he was president when the events took place.
Jazz singer George Melly dies reports the same paper
Tributes have poured poured in for George Melly, the jazz singer, larger-than-life fixture on London’s bohemian circuit, author and flamboyant raconteur following his death at the age of 80. Melly, the sometime bisexual, heavy drinking former public schoolboy famous for wearing flamboyant suits, loud ties and fedora hats, had been suffering from lung cancer for two years but he refused any treatment.
Though he also developed dementia, he continued singing and made his last stage appearance only last month.
The Guardian reports that
He always said he wanted to die either coming off stage with applause ringing in his ears or by a riverbank with two trout by his side. It didn't happen quite like that for George Melly. And he would probably have been withering about some of the more flamboyant tributes paid to him yesterday.
Many of the papers carry the story of the
Dinner party guest finds bodies in freezer the Independent reports
A dinner guest found the bodies of her host's wife and their 12-year-old stepson in the deep freeze while helping to clear up after a party in eastern Belgium.
She had been one of several guests tidying up in the home of their 42-year-old host in the city of Verviers,78 miles east of Brussels, on Tuesday evening. She had just finished washing dishes and went to the freezer to store some leftover food when she made the gruesome discovery.
After telling fellow guests, they alerted police, but did not let on to their host about their find. He was then arrested and detained by Belgian police.
Police believe the bodies had been stored in the deep freeze for several weeks. They said that the party host, who has not been named, had a history of violent domestic disputes with his wife.
No more children, mothers tell lazy partners says the Telegraph
Working mothers who "do it all" are rebelling against having more than one child unless their husbands roll up their sleeves at home, it was claimed yesterday. study of fertility among two-income couples suggests that women who go out to work full or part-time want a more equal balance in responsibilities at home. They are deterred from having a second child because they say they already carry the triple burden of a job, most of the child care and the majority of the housework.
However, if men share the child care, or do more than a third of the housework, the likelihood of a second child rises by up to 50 per cent.
Finally the Telegraph carries pictures on its front page of
Eggs for breakfast as soon as mum gets back
An amateur wildlife photographer has managed to capture images of the vixen swimming backwards and forwards from an island, gently cradling the eggs of a Canada goose in her mouth.
The photographs show the extraordinary lengths a mother will go to to feed her young.Unable to carry more than one egg at a time, the vixen undertook the 80-yard return trip from the bank to the island four times until the nest was empty.
After each raid the eggs, which had been retrieved unbroken, were fed to her cubs waiting in their den.
On the final trip, the fox retrieved a fifth egg that she had hidden on the island, then ate it herself.
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