The details of journeys taken by millions of motorists are to be handed to police under a government “Big Brother” plan to use road pricing technology in the fight against crime.
Police would be given instant access to number plate data from “smart” cameras monitoring congestion in cities and the movement of traffic on Britain’s major roads.
The proposal to pass to police a huge amount of data tracking individual journeys has caused a split between the Home Office and the Department for Transport, which fears that it will set back plans for road pricing.
The Telegraph leads with the news that
George Galloway may face criminal inquiry
Scotland yard is to take the first steps toward a possible criminal investigation against George Galloway, who faces an 18-day suspension from the Commons over his financial links to Saddam Hussein's regime, The Daily Telegraph can disclose today.
Detectives are to seek documents from the Serious Fraud Office, which carried out a previous investigation, to establish whether there are grounds to prosecute Mr Galloway.
Galloway faces Commons suspension reports the Guardian
George Galloway should be suspended from the Commons for 18 days, a committee of MPs recommended yesterday, after the parliamentary standards commissioner said it was likely that the outspoken Respect MP knew a charity appeal by him was partly financed through Saddam Hussein's Iraqi dictatorship.
Sir Philip Mawer, the commissioner, said he had "no evidence" that Mr Galloway directly and personally received money from the Saddam regime via diverted funds from the UN oil for food programme. But there was "clear evidence" that his Mariam Appeal "did benefit" from money from Iraq through its chairman, Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat, who donated £448,000 of the £1.4m raised by the appeal.
GALLOWAY BLASTS BACK says the Mirror
GEORGE Galloway yesterday hit back at a move to throw him out of the Commons by insisting he should be honoured for his anti-war campaigns.
The outspoken MP stormed: "They should be striking a medal for me for my work in Iraq, not suspending me."
Public sector targets to be scrapped
A bonfire of government targets to ease red tape affecting schools, hospitals and town halls will be ordered tomorrow as part of a sweeping reform of public services, the Guardian can reveal. Most of the 110 Whitehall-imposed priorities that have dominated the public sector for the past nine years will be abandoned .
Andy Burnham, the chief secretary to the Treasury, is coordinating a move to end one of the defining characteristics of the Blair years by scrapping all but 30 top-down targets used to vet performance.
The targets - from raising the GCSE pass rate to reducing the fear of crime - helped to drive through the big pledges in Labour's election manifestos. But they rankled with doctors, teachers and other public servants who felt their professional discretion had been curtailed.
The fallout from the expulsions of 4 russian diplomats continues
Russia ridicules expulsion of diplomats and promises a 'targeted' retaliation says the Independent
Russia has revealed that the British Government has ended co-operation with the successor agency of the KGB in the extradition row with Moscow. Russia also promised to respond to Britain's expulsion of its diplomats in a "targeted and appropriate" way.
Amid British hopes that the fallout from the Litvinenko affair could be contained by a tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Grushko, told journalists yesterday that the British authorities would be told the details of the response "in the nearest future".
He ridiculed Britain's decision on Tuesday to expel four Russian diplomats. The measure was announced by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to protest against Russia's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the chief suspect wanted for the murder of the former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. "We are being punished for observing our own constitution," said Mr Grushko.
Meanwhile according to the Times
Security services ‘foil plot to kill Berezovsky at the London Hilton’
Boris Berezovsky fled Britain three weeks ago on the advice of Scotland Yard, amid reports that he was the target of an assassination attempt by a suspected Russian hitman.
The exiled tycoon and fierce critic of President Putin of Russia told The Times last night that he had been warned that it was not safe for him to remain in London, where he had been living since being granted asylum in Britain.
HITMAN AT THE HILTON reports the Sun
A RUSSIAN hitman planned to execute an outspoken “enemy of Moscow” at the Hilton Hotel on London’s Park Lane, The Sun can reveal.
He sought to shoot exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky — who has called for the violent overthrow of Russian president Vladimir Putin — in the back of the head.
The assassin was accompanied by a CHILD in a cold-blooded attempt to avoid raising suspicion.
But MI5 and MI6 intercepted intelligence about the plot — due to have been carried out within the last fortnight.
And the hitman was seized before he could open fire
Derailed: Government's green promises on transport policy says the front page of the Indy
Dramatic new evidence that car travel has become far cheaper while buses and trains have soared in cost led to renewed attacks on Labour's transport policy last night, as MPs said the Government was undermining its own battle against climate change.
According to newly disclosed statistics, the cost of car travel has fallen by 10 per cent over the past 30 years, while the price of bus and train tickets has risen by more than 50 per cent. The respective trends have continued throughout Labour's period in office.
Campaigners warned that the figures, revealed by the Department of Transport in a parliamentary answer yesterday, laid bare the huge disincentive for Britons to choose environmentally friendly forms of travel.
The Guardian reports on the
Gift of a lifetime: Scotland's richest man to give away £1bn before he dies
The billionaire retail entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter has pledged to give away more than £1bn to good causes in one of the UK's biggest ever charitable donations.
Sir Tom, a self-made billionaire who began his business life selling trainers out of a garage in New Cumnock, Ayrshire, is Scotland's richest man and intends to give the money away during his lifetime. He has a track record of supporting projects ranging from supporting young Scottish entrepreneurs to backing development projects in Africa.
Whilst the Times reports on another bequest
Son’s fight for £10m bequest his deluded father left to the Tories
The son of a mentally deluded man who believed that Margaret Thatcher could save the world from a satanic plot is fighting the Conservative Party over who should get his father’s £10 million bequest. The pharmaceutical mogul Branislav Kostic left a will giving his entire fortune to the Tories after deciding that his relatives were part of an international conspiracy of dark forces out to kill him.
The document was drawn up during the Thatcher era by a law firm with Conservative connections whose senior partner the sick man addressed as “Saint Anthony”, according to papers put before the High Court.
The Mirror leads with the story of one soldiers experience in Afghanistan
IN the baking heat, British soldiers advance through a poppy field in the wilds of Afghanistan towards the Taliban.
Dark rings under their expressionless eyes show they have been through hell. Their cheeks are hollow from weight loss. They wince from bleeding sores on their bodies caused by carrying more than 70lbs of kit for up to 10 miles in 50C heat.
The grim toil of war makes them look like battle-hardened veterans with at least 10 years' service - but their average age is just 19.
Its leading article saying
FIGHT NOW FOR PEACE
We have nothing but admiration for them. They are the proof that their generation has the courage to stand up and be counted when the going gets nasty.
But we are concerned about the longterm impact on young servicemen and servicewomen of the intolerable strains and stresses of military combat.
The average age of the young men encountered by the Mirror is just 19 - the average age of American servicemen killed in Vietnam.
A political and economic solution to the conflict that is tearing Afghanistan apart must be the government's goal.
Because our children's young lives are too precious to lose.
Iraq war has helped al-Qa'eda, says Bush ally reports the Telegraph
Senator George Voinovich, a close ally of Mr Bush, delivered a withering assessment of the situation in Iraq, declaring that the Bush administration had "f****d up the war".
The Ohio senator revealed that he warned Karl Rove - the President's chief political adviser - last week that Mr Bush must devise a new plan for Iraq or he would vote with Democrats on Capitol Hill to withdraw troops from Iraq.
He spoke out as a declassified National Intelligence Estimate of the terrorist threat to the US indicated that the Iraq war has helped al-Qa'eda "raise resources and to recruit and indoctrinate operatives, including for homeland attacks".
Bush Middle East plan starts to unravel says the Guardian
George Bush yesterday encountered the weakest of welcomes for his call for an international peace conference on the Middle East.
A day after he unveiled his plan for a conference of Israelis, Palestinians and Arab governments in the autumn, there were few signs of optimism that such a gathering could produce a final resolution to the conflict.
The White House moved to douse expectations. "I think a lot of people are inclined to try to treat this as a big peace conference. It's not," Tony Snow, the White House's press secretary, told reporters.
According to the Mail's lead story
Half of all criminals aren't even hauled before a court
Instead, they escaped with on-the-spot fines, cautions and warnings, said the chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Stephen Wooler said that the "over-zealous" use of such penalties - rather than taking criminals to court - could damage public confidence.
And, in his annual report, he warned yesterday that the public could begin to view the criminal justice system as a "revenue-raising initiative".
The Telegraph reports on the
Shop attacked 200 times in 10 years
A corner shop run by an Asian couple has been attacked 200 times in the past decade by thieves and robbers using guns, knives and CS spray.
The owners of the K&S corner shop, in east London, have been threatened, assaulted and racially abused by thugs and feel let down by police. They fear they may be killed.
KATONA IN SLEEP HELL AFTER RAID reports the Mirror
KERRY Katona is having nightmares following the armed raid on her home.
The ex-Atomic Kitten, who had a knife held to her throat while cradling five-month-old daughter Heidi, has dreamed they were both stabbed.
Now Kerry, 26, and her husband Mark, 36, are fleeing the country.
Her spokesman Max Clifford said she was on medication.
"She has had nightmares about the attack, of her being stabbed and her child being stabbed.
"She's decided to go away for a couple of weeks for counselling. She is still devastated."
Good news form the Sun
Harry Potter & half price prints
HARRY Potter fans had magical news last night as Asda got the go-ahead to sell 500,000 half-price copies of the final book.
Publishers Bloomsbury had refused to supply Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to the supermarket after it accused them of charging too much.
Asda chiefs, who plan to sell the volume for around £8.50 rather than the recommended £17.99, had said in a statement: “We will be championing the right of young readers, not the profits we make.”
But last night a peace deal was struck — and Bloomsbury will hand over half a million copies to go on sale on Saturday.
The Express leads with the news that Britian is being gradually softened up to give Camilla the title of Queen
PRINCE Charles was buoyed by an opinion poll yesterday showing a four-fold increase in support for Camilla becoming Queen.
On the day his wife celebrated her 60th birthday, he and Camilla received an unexpected gift with the first serious indication that the public is warming to her.Millions who blame the couple’s adultery for the break-up of Charles’s first marriage to Diana and the subsequent tragedy that befell the late Princess still vow they will never support them.
The Sun however is reporting that
Camilla 'I won't be your queen'
Camilla told friends she wants to be known as the princess consort when Prince Charles becomes king.
She let it be known she would be happy if she never became queen and wants only a supporting role in Charles’s official duties.
There is no precedent for a UK king married to a wife who is not queen.
But a senior royal figure said: “No matter what the precedent is, the duchess fully intends to be known as the princess consort when the time comes.
Commuter claims £1.5m after slipping on 'killer' petal outside florist reports the Mail
It was one yellow petal lying forlornly on the ground next to Bella Patel's flower shop.
But it caused a whole bunch of problems.
A commuter who says he slipped on the floral fragment and damaged his back is claiming £1.5million in damages
The Independent reports that
Mediterranean drowning in a hidden sea of plastic rubbish
The Mediterranean suffers more pollution from discarded plastics than any other sea, especially the north-west sector that washes up on holiday resorts in Spain, France and Italy, an ecological study has found.
Around 6.5million tons of rubbish lie below the surface of the world's oceans. The highest concentration by far - including almost 2,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometre - is in the Mediterranean, according to the study. It was carried out by Greenpeace, the environmental group, for the University of Exeter.
A separate Spanish study also predicts global warming will bring hurricanes to the Mediterranean, whipping usually tranquil waters into cyclones. This means the garbage may not remain on the sea bedfor long.
Finally the Sun continues to report on the Beckhams
Becks enters Vic's lucky dip
DAVID BECKHAM could get a yellow card for handball in public for this er, foul play.
The LA Galaxy star was snapped slipping a hand through wife VICTORIA’s legs as she manoeuvred out of their car in LA.
But I’m slightly baffled as to what he was doing.
Did he drop his keys? Was he explaining the offside rule? Or was he covering her modesty?
Posh slated BRITNEY SPEARS for not wearing knickers so could it be possible she’s going out without any undercrackers?
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