Sunday Papers.

Mortgage bank Halifax says the UK housing market is falling at 10 per cent a year, the most dramatic collapse on record.

New figures show the average property is now worth £180,000. Last year, the same home would have sold for £199,600. Even during the 1990s slump, the fall never hit double figures. (Independent on Sunday)

The Royal Bank of Scotland is about to admit the biggest loss in UK banking history, caused by the continued effects of the credit crisis. RBS, the country's second-biggest bank, is expected this week to unveil pre-tax losses of £1bn for the first six months of this year, five times the previous worst UK loss. (Sunday Times)


Blair lambasts Brown’s leadership and ‘dissing’ of Labour’s record

Tony Blair has accused Gordon Brown of playing into David Cameron's hands with a "lamentable confusion of tactics and strategy". In a secret memo written last autumn, the former PM warns that Brown may have made a "fatal mistake" by "dissing" the government's own record. Meanwhile, former cabinet minister Stephen Byers has today said Brown's policies are inadequate. (Sunday Times, Observer)
The Mole: ministers believe Brown's days are numbered

Pollution lifts but clouds gather as Games near

With just five days to go before the opening of the Olympic games in Beijing, air pollution is at last beginning to ease as a result of last-minute measures. However, some activists say China is being allowed to sidestep the pledges it made to secure the games, with some web sites remaining blocked despite the Communist Party's promise to ensure press freedom for the 2008 games. (Independent on Sunday)
Olympics: speedy comment, strong analysis, enduring images
China's Olympic plan to topple America

George faces struggle to adjust

Barry George, found not guilty of murdering TV presenter Jill Dando after a re-trial and eight years in prison, will take years to adjust to a life of freedom, two clinical forensic psychologists who treated him have warned. Professor Gisli Gudjonsson said George, who has a low IQ, will need long-term psychological support. He is expected to receive a six-figure compensation pay-out. (Observer)
When police frame the usual suspects
The long arm of the telly

Rockefeller kidnap girl found

Reigh Storrow Boss, nicknamed Snooks, the seven-year-old daughter of a ritish businesswoman who was kidnapped by her American father has been found unhurt in a Baltimore flat. The FBI and police swooped on the apartment last night and arrested her father Clark Rockefeller, who had been posing as a member of the banking dynasty, after a huge international manhunt. (Sunday Times, Observer)
People: kidnapper is not a 'real Rockerfeller'

Ofcom probes Gov’t funded TV

TV watchdog Ofcom is investigating an ITV documentary about Police Community Support Officers said to be in breach of the broadcasting code because it was not made clear that it was funded by the Home Office. The Government has spent almost £2m funding at least eight TV documentaries in the past five years. Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow said: "I find it extraordinary". (Sunday Telegraph)

The Conservatives have shelved a range of 'green' policies because of rising fuel prices and the economic situation.

A senior party source said: "We can't possibly sell the idea of green taxes to voters during an economic downturn." Elaborate plans for electricty micro-generation are also being dropped. (Sunday Telegraph)

Thousands of companies are dumping raw sewage into more than 80 British rivers and around the coast via unregulated overflow pipes.

These outlets can discharge sewage without risk of prosecution. Despite a £10bn investment programme by water companies, one in four British beaches are still polluted. (Sunday Times)

Doctors are warning of a second wave of CJD (

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) cases which could hit Britain in the next 20 or 30 years. The disease first appeared in cattle as BSE in 1986. The Government is now considering winding up CJD research, but some scientists feel this may be premature. (Observer)

The air ambulance that brought Ben Mullany back to the UK after he and his new wife were shot in Antigua developed a fault and took 22 hours to make the trip, stopping in the US, Canada and Iceland.

He will now be treated at the hospital where his wife, killed by the gunman, had trained as a doctor. (Mail on Sunday, Sunday Mirror)
A fifth of the RAF's Sea King helicopter search and rescue crews will have to be moved to Afghanistan to help protect soldiers from roadside bombs. The cuts will leave most search and rescue stations with only one crew on standby, with no scope for backup in the event of a major incident. (Sunday Times)
A plan for Britain's new model army

Colonel Richard Iron, the British soldier who leads the team mentoring the Iraqi army in Basra, has said the Army cut a secret deal with a Shia prisoner to withdraw from the city, so that his gang could put a stop to killings.

Col Iron said the deal had involved the release of 120 prisoners, but was not honoured. (Independent on Sunday)
Let the Iraqis sort out the mess in Basra

Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister who hopes to become her country's first female leader since 'Iron Lady' Golda Meir was elected in 1969, has hired Ariel Sharon's aides.

In an attempt to toughen her image, Ms Livni hopes to associate herself with 'the Bulldozer', as Sharon was known. (Sunday Telegraph)
After Olmert: step forward 'Mrs Clean'

Russia has launched an aggressive state-sponsored campaign to win control of Arctic oil and gas with a scientific survey to prove that large areas of the seabed belong to it. A Kremlin insider said: "It's too rich a region for us to forget about. The race is on and we have a head start." (Sunday Times)
Why big oil is not to blame for fuel prices

Kenya is demanding more than 2,000 historical artefacts from the British Museum which the African state says were taken from it illegally during the colonial period. Officials are compiling lists of objects held the UK and around the world in museums including the Smithsonian in the USA. (Independent on Sunday)


Centrica is to revive its plan for a £22.5bn merger with nuclear operator British Energy after France's state-owned nuclear firm EDF pulled out of a takeover at the last minute. The gas and electricity supplier is to sound out institutional shareholders before approaching the Government, which owns 35 per cent of British Energy. (Sunday Telegraph)



A fierce row has broken out because one of Europe's leading conductors, Sir Roger Norrington, wants to play Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory chorus at the last night of the Proms without vibrato. Norrington feels playing with straight tone, making the instruments sound less like the human voice, is historically apt. (Observer)



Martin Bashir (left) was booed for telling the Asian American Journalists Association: "I'm happy to be in the midst of so many Asian babes.
I'm happy the podium covers me from the waist down." (Independent on Sunday)

Actress Emma Thompson has written to George Clooney asking him to stop endorsing Nestle products because the company sells baby milk in the developing world. (Observer)

"He is a rock star... I think he will win and I am anxious to meet him" - Rupert Murdoch backs Barack Obama. (Sunday Telegraph)

Boris Johnson (left), Mayor of London, who once claimed to have a slave as an ancestor, is a direct descendent of King George II, a new BBC documentary has found. (Sunday Times)

"We're all probably related to the royal family because they put it about so much over the last 1,000 years" - Ken Livingstone. (Sunday Times)

Maria Dolores Dieguez, a former Miss Switzerland finalist, has moved to the UK to live with her boyfriend, actor Joseph Fiennes. (Sunday Telegraph)

Top Gear presenters Richard Hammond and James May have accepted a pay rise of £10,000 per episode. (Mail on Sunday)

Mohammed al-Fayed (left) is about to start selling beef raised on his Highland estate, putting him in competition with the Prince of Wales. (Observer)