24-hour drinking leads to surge in violence
A Home Office report disclosed that offences of assault, criminal damage and harassment between 3am and 6am rose sharply in the 12 months after the reforms came in. The figures are a blow to ministers who had argued that staggered and later closing times would reduce crime levels by avoiding the traditional 11pm rush on to the streets, which often resulted in ugly clashes between drunken revellers and police.
The Times says that
More than one million people were attacked by drunken thugs last year as the first official analysis of round-the-clock drinking revealed increasing public disorder in the early hours.
Alcohol-fuelled violence rose in the first full year of relaxed licensing laws, with a particular jump in the hours after midnight as clubs and pubs stayed open later.
The Mail though gets the scope of the day on its front page
Cash for honours: NOBODY will be charged
The decision, to be announced by the Crown Prosecution Service today, is certain to provoke a political storm.
It will be a major blow to Scotland Yard, which had been confident that court action would follow the £ 1 million inquiry.
Detectives spent 16 months investigating allegations that peerages were traded for donations to the Labour Party.
In April, they sent a report to the CPS which called for the prosecution of three people. They were two key aides to Tony Blair - fundraiser Lord Levy and Downing Street 'gatekeeper' Ruth Turner - and millionaire donor Sir Christopher Evans.
According to the Guardian
Shoot to kill inquiry to be reopened
One of the most controversial inquiries of the Troubles, involving claims that police officers in Northern Ireland secretly adopted a "shoot to kill" policy, has been reopened, the Guardian has learned.
The allegations that republican terrorist suspects were deliberately killed rather than being arrested led to an investigation by John Stalker, then deputy chief constable of Manchester, in the mid 1980s. But his report was never published, and there was political uproar after he was removed from his post just at the point where he believed he was about to obtain an MI5 tape of one of the shootings.
The Independent meanwhile leads with
In defence of the BBC
Bullied by a hostile government in the wake of row over Hutton reportBruised by attacks from rivals jealous of its licence fee subsidyCompromised by conflict between public service and need to compete
Defenders of the BBC rallied round the country's most famous media institution yesterday after it suffered a day of sustained attack over faked phone-in competitions for which it has issued a public apology.
As penitent executives filled the airwaves and the director general, Mark Thompson, admitted that the BBC had had "a rude awakening", outside the walls of the corporation's White City headquarters, a different mood was developing. A series of prominent commentators gave the BBC's management and the newly created BBC Trust credit for tackling a problem thrown up by the increasing pressures to cut costs and compete with commercial television. The Labour MP and former Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane, who lost his job as a young journalist after agreeing to a producer's request to pose as a caller to a BBC phone-in, said: "The BBC's overall contribution to making Britain a civilised country able to have a mature discussion with itself surely should outweigh the stupidities they have now been honest enough to own up to."
BBC executives given one year to restore viewers' trust reports the Guardian
Mark Thompson, the BBC's director general, was given a year yesterday to rebuild the BBC as Scotland Yard said it may open a criminal investigation into a spate of incidents in which viewers were misled.
Sir Michael Lyons, under scrutiny in his first big test since becoming chairman of the BBC Trust, said there was "no question of being asleep on the job here" and gave senior executives a year to make the corporation "a different place".
Seven Cabinet ministers: We took cannabis reports the Telegraph
It emerged that not only had Jacqui Smith, the new Home Secretary, smoked the drug but so had two of her ministers with responsibility for law and order. The admission further undermined Gordon Brown's efforts to demonstrate that he was bringing a moral dimension to his government.
Miss Smith admitted in a television interview that she used cannabis at Oxford University in the early 1980s. She had smoked it "just a few times", had "not particularly" enjoyed it and now realised it was "wrong".
On Wednesday, Mr Brown announced that she would head a review of drugs strategy, including whether to reverse the earlier decision to downgrade cannabis from a class B to a class C drug. Although several senior Tory and Labour politicians, including the former Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, had previously admitted smoking cannabis, Miss Smith's frank admission forced a string of other ministers into the open.
And they inhaled... cabinet ministers line up to admit youthful cannabis use says the Indy
Ms Smith added: "I've learnt my lesson and I've got a responsibility as Home Secretary now to make sure we put in place the laws, the support, the information to make sure we carry on bringing cannabis use down."
Her confession - and Downing Street's insistence that Gordon Brown was relaxed over the issue - opened the floodgates as a succession of other cabinet ministers confirmed they had taken the drug during student days.
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, said he had tried cannabis "occasionally in my youth", while his deputy, Andy Burnham, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said he had smoked it "once or twice at university and never since".
A spokeswoman for Ruth Kelly said the Transport Secretary had tried cannabis in "her youth", adding: "She realised it was foolish and gave up."
John Hutton, the Business and Enterprise Secretary, also dabbled with the drug as an undergraduate more than 30 years ago. His spokesman said: "He regrets doing it now having seen the damage that cannabis can cause."
CABINET SPLIFF says the Mirror
CABINET ministers fell over themselves to admit smoking dope yesterday - but Tory chief David Cameron is still keeping schtum.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith set the ball rolling when she admitted taking the drug as a student, saying she now saw it as a mistake.
By the end of the day, SIX of her Cabinet colleagues - including Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling - had confessed to trying cannabis.
Putin hits back at UK by expelling diplomats reports the Guardian
Russia yesterday expelled four British diplomats and banned its officials from travelling to the UK in a move denounced as "completely unjustifiable" by Britain.
In a tit-for-tat response over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, Russia's foreign ministry announced that four UK diplomats had been declared persona non grata. They had 10 days to leave, it said.
Foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin also announced that the Kremlin was suspending its cooperation with the UK in fighting terrorism and would stop issuing visas to British officials. Russian officials would also no longer seek visas for Britain, he said,effectively ending any prospect of face-to-face government contact for the foreseeable future.
We will survive this mini-crisis, says Putin after Moscow expels four diplomats says the Times
President Putin intervened last night to try to defuse the escalating diplomatic row between Russia and Britain. He said that the two countries would soon recover from what he dismissed as a “mini-crisis”.
In his first public comments since the tit-for-tat explusions of diplomats in London and Moscow plunged relations to their worst state since the Cold War, the Russian leader predicted that “everything will be alright”.
He said: “I think that Russian-British relations will develop normally. On both the Russian side and the British side we are interested in the development of these relations. I’m sure we will overcome this mini-crisis.”
The weather once again makes the news
The Express warning
2 months of rain today
BRITAIN will be battered by two months of rain in just 24 hours today as storms cause widespread chaos.
The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings across England and Wales, with downpours of at least four inches leading to yet more flooding.With ground already saturated from last month’s floods, which caused up to £2billion worth of damage, this latest deluge could bring even greater mayhem.
Downpours launch holiday season says the Times
The torrential rain and heavy flooding that has affected much of the Midlands and the North is likely to hit southern England today as thunderstorms sweep across the country.
As a huge clean-up operation gathered pace in North Yorkshire after a sudden deluge, parts of Wales and central and eastern England were also on alert last night, with rainfall of up to 100mm (4in) predicted.
The Met Office said that some areas could expect two months’ rain in under nine hours, leading to flash floods and large amounts of surface water on the roads. It issued a severe weather warning last night for all of England and Wales until midday tomorrow.
According to the Telegraph
British medics in Helmand buy own dressings
Medics on the front line in Afghanistan are so short of life-saving equipment they have to buy items on the internet, Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, has been told.The aunt of a combat medic working in Helmand province informed Mr Browne that her nephew had to buy two £10 chest seals from a website. The scandal of poor medical provision comes after The Daily Telegraph disclosed this week that casualty rates in Afghanistan and Iraq were close to passing the 11 per cent rate sustained by units in the Second World War.
Meanwhile the Independent reports that
Suicide bombers kill 48 in Red Mosque backlash
Suicide bombers killed at least 48 people in three separate attacks in Pakistan yesterday, as the militant backlash against the army's storming of the Red Mosque intensified.
In one attack about 30 people were killed when a bomber targeted a convoy of Chinese workers being escorted by police in the southern town of Hub. In the second, a bomber detonated a device in his car at a police academy in the north-western city of Hangu, killing seven. The third bomb went off during evening prayers at a mosque in an army cantonment in Kohat, south of Peshawar, killing at least 11.
Mixed reaction in Middle East as Blair makes debut as envoy says the Guardian
Less than a month after leaving office, Tony Blair returned to a new and high-profile international role yesterday as envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers, which insisted there would be no dealings with the Islamist movement Hamas.
Statements in Lisbon by the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the Portuguese foreign minister for the EU, underlined the huge difficulty in making real progress towards peace when a key Palestinian player is excluded. The UN and Russia make up the rest of the Quartet.
"Hamas, I think, knows what is expected for international respectability," said Ms Rice, alluding to demands that it recognise Israel, end violence and accept existing peace agreements.
Rice: I'm in charge of Middle East peace not Blair reports the Mail
Tony Blair suffered a humiliating put-down from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as he started his job as Middle East envoy.
Dr Rice made it clear she was in charge of brokering peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, not the former prime minister.
She said Mr Blair should instead stick to his narrow remit of mending the Palestinian economy and political system, a role merely complementary to her job as leading peacemaker to the region.
Conrad Black to remain free on $21m bail reports the Telegraph
Judge Amy St Eve, sitting in Chicago, rejected demands by prosecutors that Black be held in custody immediately on the grounds that he no longer had the assets to cover his bail and might flee the country.
The judge ruled that Black, the former owner of The Daily Telegraph, had to stay either in the Chicago area or in the vicinity of Palm Beach, Florida, where he has a home.
Prosecution demands 30 years for Black says the Times
A straightforward application of the sentencing guidelines to the counts of conviction for Black yields a sentencing range of between 25 and 30 years in prison,” the government motion said. “Simply put, Black faces the potential of spending the rest of his life in a US prison
McCartney 'will pay £70 million to silence Heather' reports the Mail
Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills are understood to have thrashed out a divorce deal in which she will receive almost £70 million.
Miss Mills, who split from the former Beatle in May last year after four years of marriage, is believed to be in line for a lump sum of £15 million.
If the deal goes through she will get another £3.5million every year until their daughter Beatrice, who will be four in October, reaches her 18th birthday.
The divorce settlement - which would be the largest in British legal history - will include a clause ensuring that neither party ever speaks publicly about what led to the breakdown of their marriage, the Daily Mail has learned.
One day to go and the Telegraph reports that
Harry Potter spoilers anger J K Rowling
With copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows apparently available in some American stores, and other newspaper reviews written from leaks on the internet, Rowling and her publishers hit out against "spoilsports" who wanted to wreck the excitement engendered with the last instalment of the epic story being released just after midnight tonight.
Rowling said: "I am staggered that some American newspapers have decided to publish purported spoilers in the form of reviews in complete disregard of the wishes of literally millions of readers, particularly children, who wanted to reach Harry's final destination by themselves, in their own time. I am incredibly grateful to all those newspapers, booksellers and others who have chosen not to attempt to spoil Harry's last adventure for fans."
The front page of the Sun reveals that readers are to be
QUIDDS IN
ASDA triggered a spellbinding store war yesterday by cutting the cost of the new Harry Potter book to just a fiver.
The move was a swift response to rivals WOOLWORTHS, who earlier announced the final Harry yarn would be priced £6.99 as long as fans spent another tenner in the shop.
MORRISONS waded in by dropping the price to £5.99, but will limit each customer to one copy.
And the battle sent TESCO bosses scurrying into emergency meetings to decide their policy.
They later announced they would sell the book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, for £5 — as long as shoppers spend £50 in store.
The Mirror leads with the news that
WILLS ENDS FAYED FEUD
PRINCE William's dramatic peace gesture to the al-Fayed family is rooted in shared heartbreak at the loss of a loved one.
Wills and Harry have invited Mohamed al-Fayed's daughters Camilla and Jasmine to join them at a memorial service for Princess Diana, killed 10 years ago with the girls' brother Dodi.
Mr al-Fayed has waged a long and bitter campaign blaming the Royal Family for his son's death in a Paris car crash.
The Independent reports on
Wiltshire's own lost city of Atlantis: the mystery of Mannings Hill
At first sight, the lake in the Wiltshire village of Bowood is a scene of almost total tranquillity. Nestled in the lush, verdant banks of the surrounding countryside, its surface broken only by the occasional and leisurely circling of a bevy of swans, it looks as if nothing has disturbed its perfect serenity in all its 250 years.
But nothing, as any Bowood resident familiar with the lake's eventful and complex past would tell you, could be further from the truth. Beneath its still waters lurks a centuries-old mystery that has fascinated and perplexed archaeologists for years, a story of raging controversy and historic drama that belies its apparent calm.
Finally the Sun reports that a
Seagull is a feathered fiend
A SNEAKY seagull has turned shoplifter — by wandering into a store and helping himself to his favourite crisps.
The fearless bird lies in wait every day and pounces at a corner shop in Aberdeen when staff open the door to get some fresh air.
He then flies off with a packet of spicy Doritos — and shares them with other birds.
The seagull, nicknamed Sam by staff and customers, has become so popular locals have started paying for his crisps.
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