Tuesday, October 14, 2008


The papers reflect the sigh of relief across the financial markets this morning.

The Day the markets breathed again says the Guardian as it reports

Bold and unprecedented bail-out plans for banks in Britain, Europe and the US brought markets back from the brink yesterday, after last week's turmoil knocked a fifth off the value of stockmarkets.
Share prices rebounded around the world and frozen interbank lending markets showed some signs of thawing. The FTSE 100 recovered almost half of last week's losses to close 8.3% higher, up 325 points at 4,256.9. It was its second-biggest one-day percentage rise ever


Markets soar as World acts to rescue banks says the Times the papers says that

Gordon Brown sought to don the mantle of Churchill and Roosevelt yesterday as he called for world leaders to gather for a new Bretton Woods, the conference held in 1944 to draw up a postwar financial order.
“First Britain, then Europe, now the world,” a Conservative frontbencher said, reflecting on Mr Brown’s new-found confidence as he tackled the financial crisis, making a plethora of speeches, press conference appearances and trips on the international stage.
Only an hour after outlining his plan for a £37 billion public injection to rescue three British banks, Mr Brown turned his attention to reforming the world’s financial system.


Brown takes over the banks says the Telegraph reporting that

Bank executives are growing increasingly confident that the package represents a turning point in the financial crisis. It also bolsters Mr Brown's position and makes a challenge to his leadership unlikely before the next election.
Five of the biggest banks have now been completely or partly nationalised under Mr Brown and the Treasury effectively controls more than £500 billion of residential mortgages following the deals to save Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley.


The Express simply says Britain bounces back

BRITAIN led the world yesterday as it began a major fightback against the ravages of the global financial crisis.
After weeks of misery, British investors finally had something to cheer about.


But there are recriminations as well,the banker who wouldn't say sorry is the front page of the Independent

He may have been forced to resign as chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland after going cap in hand to the Government for up to £20bn, but there was one thing Sir Fred Goodwin could not utter. Sorry is always the hardest word. Sir Fred, who earned £4.1m last year, said he would not have chosen to leave in the circumstances under which he is stepping down, but declined invitations to apologise for events that have seen RBS transformed from one of the top 10 banks in the world to a state-controlled lender


The Mail reports on the Greed that fuelled the crash

The scale of City greed was laid bare today after taxpayers handed British banks an historic £37billion lifeline.
As the seeds of the current financial crisis were being sown, bosses awarded themselves a record £17billion in bonuses.


The Telegraph reporting that

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) found that 60 per cent of all bonuses came from the financial services sector, was similar to the previous year.
Across all sectors bonuses awarded during this year's main "bonus season", from December 2007 to April 2008, were up £1.5 billion on last year.
In both 2006 and 2007 overall bonus payments were up £3 billion - twice the current rate of increase


What would have been front page news is relegated to the inside pages

Home Secretary forced into 'humiliating retreat' says the Independent

Plans to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge were dramatically abandoned last night after the proposals were overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Lords.
In an emergency statement to MPs last night, Jacqui Smith announced a major U-turn, confirming she would pull the hugely contentious plans out of the Counter Terrorism Bill.


Smith's announcement came after the former lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, dismissed the government's arguments as "fanciful". His comments came in a lengthy debate which ended in peers rejecting the 42 day plan by 309 to 118.
Government sources said Brown's hand was forced because whips in the Commons told Downing Street that they would struggle to muster a majority in favour of the proposal. The 42 day plan was only passed by MPs in June by nine votes after the prime minister won the support of the nine Democratic Unionist MPs.
says the Guardian

The Times reports that

A senior police surveillance officer is under investigation after he admitted yesterday that he deleted evidence relating to the shooting in July 2005 of Jean Charles de Menezes.
The officer, based in the Metropolitan Police special operations squad, told the Brazilian electrician’s inquest that he deleted a line in his computer notes only last week.
The line in his notes claimed Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick initially said that Mr de Menezes could “run on to Tube as not carrying anything”.


The Telegraph reports that

Footage of the moment two alleged terrorists drove a burning car bomb into Glasgow airport has been released for the first time
adding that

The images, taken from CCTV cameras at the airport, show one of the men trying to fight off police and members of the public who are trying to tackle him, although he has been doused in burning petrol.
In other pictures, members of the public can be seen running from the airport departure lounge in panic on what was one of the busiest days of the year


'He seduced you': Married housewife who had sex with boy, 14, walks free from court after judge's extraordinary ruling reports the Mail

A judge caused outrage yesterday after he refused to jail a woman who had sex with a 14-year-old boy and instead told her: 'He seduced you.'
Sharon Edwards, 40, bombarded the boy with as many as 50 text messages and emails a day, offered to buy him cocaine and regularly lured him into her bed.


Both the Sun and the Mirror lead with the same story,the Mirror reporting that

Beckham housekeepers held over stolen items sold on eBay

The Sun says that

SHAKEN VICTORIA and DAVID BECKHAM don’t know who to trust after the arrest of their housekeepers on suspicion of theft, pals said last night.
ERIC and JUNE EMMETT — on the superstars’ payroll for more than ten years — were held after items from the Beckhams’ home were spotted for sale on internet site eBay


the Independent reports how

A British soldier working as an interpreter for the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan began spying for Iran because he felt he was the victim of racism in the Army, a jury at the Old Bailey has heard.
adding that

At the start of one of the most high-profile espionage trials in recent times, the court heard that Cpl Daniel James, 45, used his position, working for General Sir David Richards, to offer secrets to an officer at the Iranian embassy in Kabul. The Iranian-born reservist of 18 years' service had become "aggrieved and bitter" at his treatment by the military, blaming his lack of promotion on prejudice, Mark Dennis, for the prosecution, told the court.


Iraq makes historic return to oil sales reports the Telegraph

The recent drop in violence across Iraq has increased the prospects of Baghdad doubling its oil output by 2012 by allowing foreign investors to bring the most advanced production techniques to the war-torn country.
Iraq was at the forefront of world-wide oil production until the Ba'athist regime nationalised the industry in the 1970s. Although Saddam Hussein made deals with French, Russian and Chinese oil companies in the 1990s, United Nations sanctions barred the country's re-emergence as a leading source of energy supplies.


John McCain comes out fighting in 'underdog' speech reports the Times

John McCain yesterday declared himself the underdog who “never gives up” even after falling far behind in the polls against an opponent already "measuring the drapes" for the White House.
At a rumbustious rally with 18,000 supporters at Virginia Beach he claimed that even now Barack Obama, together with the Congressional Democratic leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, were plotting on how to concede defeat in Iraq or raise spending.


Another election in that part of the world and the Independent reports that

Canada's ruling Conservatives look set to retain power today in the first national election held in a major industrialized nation since the market meltdown this month.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper triggered the campaign five weeks ago on the grounds that his minority government could no longer work with opposition parties who hold the balance of power in Parliament.


Many of the papers report on the

GAY chef accused of killing a pal and frying pieces of his body treated his victim like meat at work, a court heard yesterday.
Former Mr Gay UK Anthony Morley, 36, said he slit Damian Oldfield’s throat after he tried to rape him.
Police found six lightly-fried pieces of 33-year-old Mr Oldfield’s leg mixed with herbs on a chopping board in Morley’s kitchen.
A seventh piece — which Morley had chewed — was in a bin bag.
reports the Sun

Finally the Mail reports on a new trend in dating

Teenage girls sunbathing in Australia have been warned against painting their mobile phone numbers on their backs to attract boys.
By using blue zinc cream, the impression of the number is left on their skin. The stunt has been seen on at least two Sydney beaches.
A group of girls aged 14 and 15 who were photographed on Manly Beach with phone numbers on their backs said they wanted to meet boys.

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