Human error may have led to outbreak leads the Guardian as the recriminationsa about the foot and mouth outbreak continue

Government officials believe human error at the private pharmaceutical firm Merial Animal Health is the most likely source for the return of foot and mouth disease, it emerged last night.
As health and safety inspectors began examining the firm's laboratories at Pirbright in Surrey, Whitehall sources suggested the potential biosecurity lapse would amount to a breach of procedures rather than negligence, which could give rise to criminal charges.
Senior officials believe the virus may have been transported by an individual or by a car from the research complex to the farm at the centre of the outbreak, about four miles away. If the virus had been airborne, it is difficult to explain why other herds closer to the site were not first affected, sources told the Guardian.


How could this happen asks the Telegraph

An independent inquiry was set up yesterday to determine whether the Institute for Animal Health (IAH), one of the world's leading laboratories investigating the prevention of foot and mouth, or Merial, a pharmaceuticals company providing vaccines, were to blame for the escape of the disease. adding that

Farmers spoke of their anger and frustration last night after an ageing government research facility and its commercial partner were identified as the most likely source of the foot and mouth outbreak

Foot and mouth 'virus cloud' casts 30-mile shadow of fear is the Mail's lead

A plume of foot and mouth virus could have infected farms 30 miles from the initial outbreak, a vaccine expert warned yesterday.
Professor Ian Jones said: "We know that this virus can, in the right conditions, spread for up to 30 miles on the air."
He added that while sunlight and warmth kill the virus, the colder wet conditions of the last few months were perfect for it to have dispersed from the suspected source in Surrey. "It could have spread as far as the south coast, or northwards across London."

The front page of the Independent asks

How secure are Britain's labs?

Gordon Brown has ordered an independent inquiry into growing suspicions that a virus may have escaped from a private science laboratory that led to the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
Scientists from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) went into a laboratory operated by an American company, Merial Animal Health, at Pirbright, three miles from the Surrey farm where the outbreak was discovered.
They were investigating whether the virus had escaped from the private laboratory, which is licensed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) or a publicly-run laboratory of the world-renowned Institute for Animal Health (IAH). Both laboratories denied any breaches of biosecurity.

The Mirror continues with the latest on Madeleine

Second Madeleine suspect on 24hr watch

UNDERCOVER police have been secretly watching the second Madeleine McCann suspect round the clock for weeks - tailing him and capturing his movements on video tape.
The man first came under suspicion days after Madeleine disappeared from her parents apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.
He was spotted by a police team who had taken over an empty holiday flat next door to the McCanns so they could film people hanging around the crime scene or acting strangely. Officers believe the man, who speaks Portuguese and is in his 30s, is not the actual kidnapper - but may be an accomplice.

As does the Express

MADDY: MAJOR NEW BREAKTHROUGH

A witness who saw Murat on the night Madeleine was snatched says he saw the suspect drunk in a bar the same evening and police believe the new evidence could blow Murat’s alibi wide open.
They are working on the theory that it would have taken more than one person to smuggle the four-year-old out of her holiday apartment and make a successful getaway. The suspected accomplice was seen, with a child wrapped in a blanket, heading towards the seafront at the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.


Madeleine detectives ‘scan’ home of suspect says the Times

Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann last night ended a two-day search of the home of the only official suspect in the case.
Officers had used dogs and scanning equipment, which can detect items buried underground and hidden behind walls, in the home and garden of Robert Murat in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.
Police did not reveal if anything had been found at the house, which is only 100 yards from the holiday apartment where Madeleine disappeared.

Which leads with the story that

Driving age set to rise to cut youth death toll

The minimum legal driving age is expected to rise to 18 as part of reforms to cut the number of deaths caused on Britain’s roads by novice drivers.
Ministers are to propose a 12-month training period for new drivers, in effect preventing 17-year-olds from holding a full licence, The Times has learnt.
A consultation paper, to be published this autumn, will also suggest a zero alcohol limit for newly-qualified drivers of all ages for a year after they pass the test. Novice drivers found behind the wheel with alcohol in their blood would be forced to retake their test. Motorway driving may also be restricted to more experienced drivers.

Police hunt 14 escaped foreign convicts reports the Telegraph

The fugitives were among 26 men who broke out of Campsfield House in Oxfordshire after a fire was started.
Saturday night's break-out came just five months after another blaze at the privately-run centre left seven people in hospital.
There have also been protests by detainees in recent days. Opposition politicians warned that the disturbances were a consequence of mixing foreign convicts - who have been decanted from over-crowded jails while they await deportation - with failed asylum seekers and other immigration detainees.

The Guardian reports that

Thousands denied fertility treatment as half of England's health authorities fail to honour pledge

The survey, the first monitoring by officials of how local NHS provision measures up to national guidelines, reveals that more than half of England's health authorities fail to provide the most basic treatment of a full IVF cycle, including freezing and replacement of embryos not transferred in the initial cycle.
Many women and their partners who fulfil strict criteria for a free IVF cycle are being denied it altogether, while others are receiving partial treatment which falls short of guidelines set up to standardise provision.


Couples therapist who tells clients to strip uses loophole to cheat ban reports the Times

A psychotherapist accused of encouraging his patients to take illegal drugs and join nude workshops is continuing to practise despite being suspended by the official regulators.
Derek Gale is able to carry on charging up to £75 an hour for “couples therapy” to help with relationship and sexual problems because of a loophole in the regulations governing the profession. Critics say that the failure to prevent Mr Gale practising highlights the lax control of the country’s estimated 100,000 psychotherapists and therapists who operate without any legal regulation

Asians less likely to 'marry out' reports the Independent

Five times as many young Asians as white people would only marry someone of their own race, a survey has revealed.
Nearly half of Asians aged between 16 and 34 would only marry someone from the same racial group, compared to just 9 per cent of white respondents.
The survey, by ICM for the BBC Asian Network, also found that more than half of young Asians would not consider dating a black person. And it showed that five times as many young Asians as whites believe homosexuality to be immoral.


The heat is on ... then off says the Sun as the papers celebrate the arrival of summer

BRITAIN basked in the hottest day of the year yesterday — but the mini-heatwave is coming to an end.
Temperatures soared to 86°F (30°C) in many places as Brits enjoyed a rare glimpse of summer.Beaches and parks were packed with people desperate to make the most of the scorching heat.
London was the hottest spot at 87°F (30.3°C). But last night the Met Office said the sizzling weather was on its way out for the forseeable future.
Forecaster Nigel Bolton said: “It has been a great weekend but I’m afraid that’s it. We expect showers overnight and the temperature to drop again.”

It leads though with a Coronation street story

I QUIT CORRIE BEFORE IT KILLED ME

BRAVE Liz Dawn has told how agonising lung disease left her screaming for breath — and on the verge of COLLAPSE at a Buckingham Palace bash.
The stricken actress, quitting after more than three decades as Coronation Street favourite Vera Duckworth, was diagnosed with deadly emphysema five years ago.
She continued to work, despite doctors giving her ten years to live. But in an exclusive interview, she told The Sun how her illness took a heavy toll.
Liz, who smoked 30 cigarettes a day for 55 years before finally kicking the habit, says she was left barely able to WALK across the set, relying on TV hubby Bill Tarmey to perform “action” scenes for her.

'Sack soames' in BNP row Says the Mirror

Tory MP Nicholas Soames faced calls to resign last night over a Commons speech on immigration.
It had similarities to a leaflet by the far-right BNP circulated in his constituency.
A voter complained: "We cannot have a Tory MP using BNP leaflets as a basis for research." Labour MPs said it showed the real face of David Cameron's Conservatives. The leaflet - circulated in Mid-Sussex last month - claimed: "Immigrants and their descendents account for 83 per cent of future population growth."
In his speech on July 17, Mr Soames said: "83 per cent will be due to new immigrants and their descendants."

The girl of 18 who has had SIX abortions reports the Mail

As many as one in 22 teenage girls in some parts of the country had an abortion last year, according to official figures.
In total, a record 18,619 under-18s had terminations - despite a multimillion-pound Government campaign to bring down the numbers.
One 18-year-old had her sixth abortion in 2006. Another 135 girls under 14 terminated their pregnancies.
The statistics - released by the Department of Health after a freedom of information request - show the number of teenage abortions has increased by more than 2,500 each year since Labour came to power.

Average English house price will top £300,000 in five years, says study reports the Guardian

The average house price in England will rise by 40% in five years to break the £300,000 barrier, according to research published today by the National Housing Federation.
It said the boom might provide short-term reassurance for homeowners, who would profit from the increase, but warned that the rise "carried a sting in its tail" as a growing number of parents would face paying their children's mortgages. The federation, which represents 1,300 housing associations, also said that a generation of first-time buyers would have their aspirations dashed or be able to buy a home only at "enormous personal and financial cost".

Labour 'failed' to narrow wealth gap says the Telegraph

Famously known as Tony Blair's favourite think-tank, the IPPR puts part of the blame on "inadequate" targets set by Prime Minister Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor.
The report, produced by IPPR North, accuses the Government of being "in denial" on the North/South divide and calls for greater effort to reduce regional inequalities.


The Times reports on the

Rival to Nato’ begins first military exercise

Russian and Chinese troops are joining forces this week in the first military exercises by an international organisation that is regarded in some quarters as a potential rival to Nato.
Thousands of soldiers and 500 combat vehicles will take part in “Peace Mission 2007”, organised by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. Russian officials have also proposed an alliance between the SCO and a body representing most of the former Soviet republics

Iranian morals police arrest 230 in raid on 'satanist' rave reports the Guardian

Iran's drive to enforce Islamic morals netted revellers from Britain and Sweden after police swooped on a "satanic" concert organised over the internet.
Police arrested 230 people and seized drugs, alcohol and 800 illicit CDs after raiding the event in Karaj, 12 miles west of Tehran. Those arrested included young women in skimpy and "inappropriate" clothing, officers said.
Reza Zarei, Tehran's provincial police chief, said the operation also resulted in the confiscation of 20 video cameras, with which organisers allegedly planned to shoot "obscene" films and then blackmail female participants


Spain's biggest bullfight: The militant Catalans waging war against the 'Osborne bulls' reports the Indy

As an act of sabotage, it certainly showed dedication. So impassioned was the loathing of Catalonian militants for the symbol of everything Spanish that they devoted three hours to sawing through the cast-iron legs of the Osborne bull and bringing the iconic silhouette crashing to the ground.
The giant bull weighed four tonnes and stood 14 metres high, supported on its blind side by a massive structure of scaffolding, and dominating the hillside at El Bruc, near Barcelona. And for a little-known group of pro-independence nationalists, it was a potent symbol of Spain's domination of their homeland.
The group, Catalan Brotherhood of the Black Flag, defiantly claimed responsibility for this spectacular piece of political sabotage, saying "brave Catalans" had "cleaned the sacred Montserrat mountain from the horned Spanish filth that sullied it. The Osborne bull of El Bruc has fallen ignominiously like a giant with feet of clay".

Finally the same paper reports

After Blair, Labour MPs opt for 'God Delusion'

Where last year a fluffy thriller would do, this summer seems to have been set aside for serious reading by holiday-going MPs. A survey of the books they have packed in their travel bags suggests that they are more interested in the abolition of the slave trade or whether God exists, than in lighter subjects such as the adventures of teenage wizards.
In the annual survey of MPs' holiday reading, released today by the bookshop chain Waterstone's, first place was taken by William Hague's biography of William Wilberforce, which was published to coincide with the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. It came well ahead of books that received more hype at the time of publication, such as the latest Harry Potter fantasy, or the diaries of Alastair Campbell.