Tuesday, July 15, 2008


The wife of the canoeist John Darwin who came back from the dead appears on the front of many of the papers as her trial opens.

She lied and lied again says the Mail

The astonishing lies told by the wife of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin were laid bare in court yesterday.
Anne Darwin played the role of a grieving widow with 'superb aplomb' - and convinced her heartbroken sons they would never see their father again.
The jury heard that on the night of his disappearance, 56-year-old Mrs Darwin even sobbed: 'I think I've lost him. He's gone.'


The mother of all liars says the Mirror

Weeping uncontrollably canoe wife Anne Darwin threw her arms around her son and wailed "He's gone!" after helping fake her husband's death, a court heard yesterday.
Grief stricken Mark Darwin, 32, and his brother Anthony, 29, had rushed to her side to comfort her, convinced that their dad John had drowned.
Heedless of their clear distress the 56-year-old doctor's receptionist did nothing to indicate that she knew their father was alive and well, it was claimed.


The Times says that

Mrs Darwin had driven her husband to Durham railway station on the day of his disappearance and was central to the deception from the outset, Andrew Robertson, QC, for the prosecution, said on the first day of her trial on fraud and money-laundering charges.


It leads with the story that,Unions turn the screw on business with new rights

Companies wanting to win government contracts will be told that they must promote trade union membership, The Times has learnt.
In the latest sign that ministers are bowing to the unions’ agenda, businesses seeking a share of the £115 billion on offer to deliver public services will be told today that they must demonstrate how they will “build good relations” with unions as part of their contract bids. Employees working on government projects in the private sector must also be given training if they do not have basic literacy and numeracy qualifications


The Guardian leads with

Torture: MPs call for inquiry into MI5 role

MPs are calling for an investigation into allegations that British intelligence has "outsourced" the torture of British citizens to Pakistani security agencies after hearing accounts of people being abducted and subjected to mistreatment and, in some cases, released without charge.
John McDonnell, the Labour member for Hayes and Harlington, and Andrew Tyrie, Conservative member for Chichester, say the allegations should be examined by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), the Westminster body that oversees the Security Service, MI5, and the Intelligence Service, MI6.


Knife crime continues in the headlines,

Brown admits people do not feel safe in their own homes says the Telegraph

The Prime Minister’s frank assessment of public fears over the threat posed by criminals overshadowed a Government drive to tackle knife crime and undermined Labour’s claims that violent offences are falling.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Mr Brown conceded that after 11 years of a Labour Government that promised to be "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime", thousands of people are living in daily fear of attack


The Independent meanwhile describes how a U-turn blunts PM's strategy to cut knife crime on streets

The Government's attempt to reassure the public over knife crime backfired when it was forced to retreat over a controversial plan for offenders to meet victims in hospitals.
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, who floated the idea on Sunday, was accused of making a hasty U-turn yesterday. She said she was talking about criminals who had used knives meeting doctors and other health staff – not patients who were victims of knife attacks.


The Sun reports that

THE number of pupils caught with knives at school is up more than 700 per cent, shock figures revealed last night.Sentences for pupils carrying blades in class have jumped from 902 in 1996, to 6,334 in 2006, Government records say
.

The Telegraph tells us that

Family food bills rise by £1,100 in 12 months

A basket of 24 staple products at Britain's three biggest supermarkets - Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's - has increased in price by 21 per cent compared to this time last year.
It means that a family with two or three children who typically spent £100 a week on groceries a year ago has seen its annual food bill rise from £5,200 to £6,292.



According to the Mail

Families turn to second jobs and sell cars to survive as cost of bread, milk and eggs climbs 21%

Millions of workers are hoping to beat the credit crunch by taking on second jobs to make ends meet.
As food, fuel and household bills continue to soar, nearly half of all Brits are planning to raise extra funds outside their normal jobs.
These include tuition, designing websites, PR and financial consultancy, photography and even dog walking.


Most of the papers report that

A&L succumbs to Santander's £1.25bn bid

Alliance & Leicester angered unions and shareholders yesterday after it succumbed to a bid from Banco Santander, the owner of Abbey, that is widely expected to result in a large number of job cuts and heavy losses for many investors.
The beleaguered lender said the sale, which valued the bank at £1.25bn, offered shareholders the security of a larger and better capitalised parent during a period of high anxiety in the UK banking sector. It said an offer to inject £1bn of capital into the business by Santander, Spain's largest bank, would act as a buffer against the malign effects of the credit crunch.


The Independent leads with how the restaurant chains pocket your tips

Britain's restaurants are creaming off millions of pounds of customers' tips to boost their profits, an investigation by The Independent has found.
A series of legal ploys are being used by major companies including Strada, PizzaExpress and Carluccio's to take a slice of the £4bn a year that diners leave for low-paid staff in tips.
with the paper launching

a campaign to improve the treatment of the country's 231,845 waiters and waitresses – and ensure that customers know where their money is going when they leave a tip
.



The Telegraph reports that

Sats results of thousands delayed until September

Exam bosses have admitted just under 95 per cent of English papers are ready, meaning thousands of 14-year-olds will not have their grades in July as initially promised, and will probably have to wait until "well into the holidays" before they are ready


According to the Express,

SPEED cameras face the axe amid growing claims they are a “blatant tax” on motorists and there are much better ways to improve road safety.
One town in Britain is already threatening to stop funding the hated devices and spend its £400,000 road safety budget on other initiatives.



Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, charged with genocide reports the Times

Sudan promised to turn Darfur into a graveyard yesterday as it reacted with fury to charges laid by an international prosecutor accusing President al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The threat was made by an official in Darfur after Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), called for the arrest of Omar al-Bashir for his Government’s ruthless campaign of violence in the war-torn region.


The Guardian adds

The indictment will now be considered by three ICC tribunal judges, before a decision on an international arrest warrant is taken, which is likely to take months
.

Other foreign news and the same paper reports that

Obama promises 10,000 more troops for Afghanistan

He was speaking after the US lost nine soldiers at the weekend in the deadliest attack on its forces in the country since 2005.
Obama has promised, soon after becoming president in January, to begin scaling back the 156,000 US troops in Iraq and Kuwait, and to shift the focus to Afghanistan.
He is to fill out his plans in a foreign policy speech in Washington today ahead of his first visit to Iraq and Afghanistan since he launched his presidential bid early last year.


And staying with Barack Obama,the Independent reports

The New Yorker magazine seems to have winkled out an essential truth about Barack Obama – he doesn't do satire.
The Democratic contender's crankier side was on full display yesterday as his campaign launched an offensive against – of all things – the cartoon cover of the latest edition. It shows the presidential candidate dressed in a turban, fist- bumping his wife, Michelle, in an afro, with an AK47 over her shoulder. An American flag goes up in flames in their fireplace, while a portrait of Osama bin Laden hangs above the mantelpiece.


Ahmadinejad attacks nuclear policy critic says the Telegraph

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rounded on a powerful domestic critic who accused him of weakening the country's position with his belligerent rhetoric.The comment sounds mild, but in the context of Iran's frequently understated public debate it counts as a stinging rebuke.



Mercenaries join Mugabe's ruthless terror campaign reports the Independent

Foreign mercenaries have joined so-called "war veterans" and militiamen attacking opposition supporters in rural parts of Zimbabwe, human rights workers have confirmed.
Eyewitnesses say the men are more vicious than their Zimbabwean counterparts, with the marauding gangs attacking suspected members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), forcing them to renounce the party.


The Sun leads with more pictures from Ronnie Wood's Russian liason

RUSSIAN beauty Ekaterina Ivanova has fallen head-over-heels in love with Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, her pals said last night.
And The Sun can reveal that the alcoholic rocker, 61, seduced 20-year-old Ekaterina after telling her his marriage had effectively ENDED five years ago.
The Sun told exclusively yesterday how Ronnie’s shattered wife Jo, 53, had told HIM it was over because of his relationship with the Russian.


The Mail asks is it all over for Legover Lembit?

As Lembit Opik splits from his Cheeky Girl fiancée, her mother launches a blistering tirade, and claims HE was only in it for the fame


Finally the Times on St Swithin's day says

Pack away the sun lotion: the not-so-great British summer is back

The Met Office has apparently aligned itself with the law of St Swithin’s, which asserts that the weather today will be the norm for the next 40 days — a mixture of sunshine and clouds, average temperatures, lots of rain and no heat waves, a summer combination seen rarely in recent years. The sun will come, eventually, the preliminary forecasts suggest, in September when there will be dry, warm weather.

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