Thursday, May 01, 2008


The papers continue to report on the Cellar girl as the Mirror's front page puts it

Haggard and grey-haired, this is the haunted face of cellar mum Elisabeth
Fritzl kept captive by her rapist dad for 24 years.
The artist's impression
of how tortured Elisabeth looks now sits in stark contrast to the
picture of her taken at 15, in 1981, before the dungeon horror and suffering
began.
A source who helped draw this impression of Elisabeth, 42, in
Amstetten, Austria, said: "She could be 65. There's no spark. It's clear she's
suffered."


The Sun has an exclusive reporting

CELLAR monster Josef Fritzl bought raunchy undies for his sex-slave daughter – describing her as his “bit on the side.”
Best pal Paul Hoerer told yesterday how he spotted the beast at a market stall while on a trip with him to Thailand, where evil Fritzl spent up to a month venting his lust in fleshpots.


According to the Mail

The children cut off from the outside world from birth by their father developed an animal-like language of growling and cooing as their mother tried to give them a "normal" upbringing.
She read to them, told them fairy stories and sang them lullabies to help them to sleep.


Police questions as Josef Fritzl clues suggest accomplice reports the Times

Pressure mounted on the Austrian authorities yesterday amid claims that bungling by police and local officials may have prolonged the agony of Elisabeth Fritzl, who was held in a dungeon and sexually abused by her father for almost a quarter of a century.
The investigation - though it has resulted in a confession and detention of the father, Josef Fritzl - is increasingly being questioned by Austrians who have been shocked by the case.


The Independent marks Holocaust day

Wanted: The last Nazis says its front page

More than 60 years after the Nuremberg trials put the first of Hitler's henchmen in the dock, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre yesterday released its most wanted list of the remaining Nazi war criminals. The battle to bring them to justice is complicated by a mix of political apathy, legal wrangling, legendary powers of evasion and what Nazi-hunters term "misplaced sympathy" for the craggy-faced men in their twilight years.


Its local election day and the Times leads with

Gordon Brown set to fight for his future after poll

The Prime Minister is already planning an aggressive “relaunch” campaign, with new policies, a contrite and listening tone and a fresh attempt to expose divisions with the Conservatives, party sources said. His closest advisers were drawing up plans last night to limit the damage.


Tories hope to turn poll leads into seats says the Telegraph

Gains of 200 seats in today's local elections and a victory for Boris Johnson in the London mayoral contest would enable him to claim the Conservative party's most important breakthrough while in opposition.
Mr Cameron is looking for the Tories to record more than 40 per cent of the vote – a share which could see the party elected to Government if repeated at a general election


The Guardian reports that

Police reject tougher action on cannabis

Police will not adopt a tougher approach to cases of simple possession of cannabis when ministers upgrade the legal status of the drug to class B, the Guardian can disclose.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) confirmed last night that the current policy of "confiscate and warn" would continue, despite Gordon Brown's determination to reclassify the drug in an attempt to "send a tough message" to young people about its use.


Both the Mail and the Express lead on prices

Milking the motorists says the Mail

One in three drivers is caught each year by a parking warden or speed camera.
The total rises to more than four in ten when the number of motorists trapped by the police is included.
The collective fines are worth up to £800million. The number of more serious offences punished by the courts, such as dangerous or drink driving, has slumped however.


The Express says

FAMILIES have suffered an 11.5 per cent rise in the cost of living over the past year, the Daily Express can reveal today.
For a family on an annual household budget of £10,000, this is an increase of £1,152. The true extent of the crippling effect of price rises, soaring mortgage bills and the suffocating tax burden has been laid bare by this newspaper’s essential Cost of Living Index
.

The Telegraph leads with the news that

150 bail hostels built in secret

despite there having been little or no consultation with local people.
The hostels, in major cities and market towns, will house offenders released before the end of their sentences and suspects awaiting trial.
Unlike state-run facilities, they will not be constantly staffed, leaving offenders unsupervised for much of the day.


The Independent meanwhile asks

How much do prisoners earn, and why was their pay rise blocked?

Prisoners were due from today to receive their first pay increase for more than decade. That was until Gordon Brown learned of the planned 37.5 per cent rise and vetoed it on the spot.


Zimbabwe braced for presidential run-off says the Guardian

Zimbabweans are bracing for a bloody second round of elections after government sources yesterday said a recount of the presidential vote held a month ago showed that President Robert Mugabe lost to Morgan Tsvangirai but that neither won an outright majority.
Senior government sources told Reuters that Tsvangirai took 47% of the vote to 43% for Mugabe, a remarkable admission that the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years was beaten.


The Times adds

Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), claimed to have won 50.3 per cent of the vote based on results published at polling stations, but a month later the official tally has still not been released, prompting accusations of vote rigging against the Government.


More news from abroad and the Telegraph reports

Rome's new mayor promises purge of migrants

Gianni Alemanno, 50, a firebrand neo-fascist and the first Right-wing mayor of the city since the Second World War, vowed to make Rome "secure" as he was sworn into office after his election at the weekend.
The election of Mr Alemanno confirmed a strong shift to the Right by Italians, who have been sickened by a spate of violent crimes committed by immigrants.


Colombian drug kingpin killed in shootout with security forces reports the Guardian

Victor Manuel Mejía Múnera, who was wanted by the US with a $5m (£2.5m)bounty on his head, was gunned down in the north-western state of Antioquia on Tuesday. The authorities initially confused him with his twin brother, Miguel Angel, who is also wanted in the US. Fingerprints later revealed the correct identity.


MURDERED...FOR REFUSING TO HAND OVER HIS PHONE reports the Express

THE family of a grandad beaten to death because he wouldn’t give two thugs his mobile phone said last night it symbolised “the death of a generation”.
Adrian Hutchinson, 25, and Keith Buckley, 22, battered James Smith, 62, and left him to die, just for his £20 phone.
The “brainless” yobs were yesterday jailed for a total of 54 years for the latest in a spate of shocking murders by feral youngsters.


Breast cancer risk up in boozy British women reports the Mirror

Alcohol could be to blame for a shock rise in breast cancer, experts warn.
A massive 40 per cent rise in women's drinking has been blamed for the surprise increase in the killer disease.
Despite better screening and improved awareness of the disease, breast cancer has leapt up five per cent in a ten-year period.


The Guardian meanwhile reports

Filthy as a loo seat: hazard of computer keyboards

Another peril can be added to the hazards of the innocent-looking computer keyboard. Not content with encouraging repetitive strain injury, the type-pads sometimes harbour more filth than the average loo seat and house millions of bacteria which can cause diarrhoea and vomiting, a study has shown.
A microbiologist carrying out research published today for Which? Computing magazine examined samples from 33 keyboards and found a variety of bugs including E coli and S aureus, which can cause skin infections and make people ill.


Finally the Sun tells us that

A MAN’S severed finger has GROWN BACK — thanks to a miracle powder dubbed "pixie dust".
The incredible medical breakthrough — revealed yesterday — offers a genuine new hope for burns victims and people who lose limbs.
adding

Scientists developed their miracle medication using PIG BLADDERS, then tested it daily on 69-year-old Lee Spievack after half an inch of his finger was sliced off by a model plane’s propeller.

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