Britannia Radio

Tories face calls to return £1m de Rothschild loan

The Conservative Party faces calls to return a £1m loan from Lady Victoria de Rothschild after an Observer investigation found that the money was channelled through a company set up with the sole purpose of protecting her identity. The company, Ironmade Ltd, has remained dormant since it was created in April 2005. Legislation barring loans from anonymous donors and non-trading companies was introduced in 2006, after Lady de Rothschild's loan was made. Lady de Rothschild is the former wife of banker Evelyn de Rothschild, and a distant cousin of Nat Rothschild, the young business tycoon at the centre of the Osborne-Rothschild-Deripaska controversy. (Observer)People: Osborne drawn into Deripaska row People: Nat Rothschild, playboy to tycoon

Mandelson under pressure over Derispaska
Lord Mandelson has come under pressure from opposition MPs to declare the full extent of his links to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska after admitting yesterday he had known the aluminium baron since 2004 – two years earlier than he had previously stated and before he took up his post as EU trade commissioner. Meanwhile, a High Court Judgment has revealed that powerful Russian mobster Anton Malevsky had a 10 per cent stake in Deripaska's company. (Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times)The Mole: Rothschild claim confirms fears that will not go away Deripaska - last man standing

Darling spending plans ‘misguided’
Plans by Chancellor Alistair Darling to spend his way out of recession are "misguided" according to a letter sent to the Sunday Telegraph and signed by 16 leading economists. The letter's signatories say that taxes must be cut and interest rates varied to cope with economic downturns. They argue that high spending and public works programmes could boost the state to such a dominant position that it would stunt the private sector's recovery when the recession is over. (Sunday Telegraph)Peregrine Worsthorne: a time for pragmatism not principles
Hutton backs European army

Defence Secretary John Hutton has backed the idea of a European army, and said that those who dismiss such a force out of hand are "pathetic". His support goes beyond Gordon Brown's previous statements and will antagonise those who think closer European co-operation will undermine Nato by excluding America. Hutton also says budget shortfalls mean a big defence procurement project, such as the £9bn Joint Strike Fighter, may have to be cut. (Sunday Times)Pros and Cons: a European army

Banks accused over repossessions
Banks and credit card companies are exploiting obscure legal loopholes that allow a person's house to be repossessed for defaulting on trivial, unsecured debts. The spread of these 'charging orders', which allow creditors to force the sale of a property, comes at a time when chief secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper is calling for banks to do more to allow people to keep their homes. Nationalised bank Northern Rock is among the most aggressive of the banks in pursuing charging orders. (Sunday Times)Book Review: put not your trust in bankers

Documents detailing the minutes of secret meetings between the Gordon Brown and other EU leaders reveal that European governments are planning to "speed up" the introduction of genetically modified crops and to "deal with" public resistance to them.(Independent on Sunday)

The great organic con-trick
Gordon Brown's flagship plans to build 10 eco-towns across the country are struggling to get off the ground. A combination of the credit crunch, local opposition and a collapsing construction industry means that only one or two sites are no viable, according to officials at the Department for Communities and Local Government. (Observer)People: Nettles and Dench angry over eco-town plan

Cancer sufferers are missing out on new drugs that could save their lives because of badly run claims procedures, according Macmillan Cancer Support. The report says the system that Primary Care Trusts in England use to consider appeals for 'exceptional' funding for last-chance treatments waste the little time patients have left and are subject to a 'postcode lottery'. (Observer)

Mountain rescue teams are trying to account for hundreds of fell runners who were stranded in farms and on exposed hillsides after a storm caused the abandonment of the Original Mountain Marathon in the Lake District. Up to 2,000 runners and spectators may have been on the course when the race was called off at lunchtime yesterday. (Independent on Sunday)

Scientists have produced a genetically modified tomato using genes from the snapdragon flower. The new tomatoes contain high levels of antioxidants, which offer protection against cancer, and are coloured purple. Normal tomatoes contain high levels of the antioxidant lycopene. (Sunday Times)The wholesome truth about organic food

Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah visited Glenrothes yesterday, breaking a convention that dictates prime ministers do not campaign in by-elections. Labour is concerned that the SNP might eat into its 10,664 majority. Aides say Brown plans another visit before polling say on November 6. (Sunday Telegraph)The Mole: first stop Brussel and then the world for rejuvinated PM

Senator John McCain has read the riot act to his campaign staff for their defeatist attitude. The Republican presidential candidate's aides were labelled "incontinent" for leaks last week that exposed falling morale and recriminations within his inner circle as his rival Senator Barack Obama maintains a healthy lead in polls. (Sunday Telegraph)US Election: the latest news, gossip and analysis Alexander Cockburn: would President McCain survive a full term?

The President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang, has held out hope that Simon Mann, imprisoned for his part in a failed coup attempt, might be sent back home. Obiang said, "If the British police arrest the people we say were also involved - Ely Calil, Mark Thatcher and others - and bring them to court, then maybe we will transfer Simon to an English jail." (Mail on Sunday)In pictures: the descent of Mann

A Spanish judge has opened the way for the prosecution of General Franco's henchmen for atrocities committed during and after the Spanish Civil War. Although Judge Baltasar Garzon only named 35 deceased Fascist generals and ministers, experts in international law say it will now be possible to prosecute those still living for kidnapping if the bodies of their victims have not been found. (Observer)People: Lorca's body to be exhumed

America's Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates by 0.5 per cent to just one per cent this week as government figures reveal the US has joined Britain on the brink of recession. Paul Ashworth, senior US economist at consultancy Capital Economics, warned that GDP looked likely to contract until late 2009. (Observer)What happens when a Western economy dies America enters a new depression

The London Stock Exchange is looking for a successor to its chief executive Dame Clara Furse (left) . There is no official timetable, but Furse is unlikely to leave before autumn 2009. Internal candidates to replace her include Massimo Capuano, deputy chief of the LSE group and Doug Webb, the chief financial officer. (Sunday Telegraph)The danger of a banker with a power complex

Highbridge Capital Management, the world's biggest hedge fund, is to be restructured – a move that spells the end for several funds it considers unsustainable. Majority owned by JP Morgan Chase, the fund will also cut 10 per cent of its New York staff. Hedge funds have been hard hit by the financial crisis, which has forced them to liquidate their positions. (Sunday Telegraph)The First Post business pages

The soon-to-be-published diaries of Humphrey Lyttelton (left) reveal the jazz trumpeter, writer, cartoonist and host of Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue thought the radio panel show had run its course by 1975, just three years into the programme's 36-year run. (Independent on Sunday)

Jeanette Winterson, the novelist who had a lesbian affair with Pat Kavanagh, the literary agent wife of the writer Julian Barnes, has described her final telephone conversation with her ex-lover, who died of a brain tumour. "I was saying, 'I'm sorry' and all the things you do say. 'It's a shock' and 'It's terrible' and 'It will be all right' – and you do think it will be all right, as I'm sure Julian thought too." (Sunday Times)People: Pat Kavanagh dies of brain tumour

British Oscar hopes have been dashed by the postponement of two high-profile films. The release of The Soloist, directed by Briton Joe Wright, has been put back to March 2009, while Defiance, starring Daniel Craig and Jamie Bell, has slipped to the end of December. The move has been blamed on the credit crunch: Paramount will save $70m on its Oscar marketing campaign. (Independent on Sunday)The latest film reviews People: Craig's Quantum of Solance drubbed by the critics

Brief.

"I have been looking for six years now and I still haven't found anyone… no one wants to come forward and admit they look like him." – Photographer Alison Jackson on finding a lookalike for Gordon Brown (left). (Sunday Telegraph)

Author Beryl Bainbridge has revealed that she suffered a heart attack earlier this year, but the treatment has helped her overcome writer's block. (Sunday Times)

The mother and elder brother of actress Jennifer Hudson, who won an Oscar for her role in Dreamgirls, have been shot dead at the Chicago home she bought for them. Hudson's brother-in-law is being questioned by police. (Independent on Sunday)

Cherie Blair has earned £68,000 in a week of lectures in America that took in Aspen, Chicago and Houston. (Mail on Sunday)

Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman (left) has cut the price of her Thameside flat, which overlooks Parliament, by £800,000. She put the flat up for sale in May for £5.75m. (Sunday Times)

World Cup winning England rugby star Mike Tindall has sold his first racehorse, Collection, for $1m to a Hong Kong buyer. (Sunday Telegraph)

Leading stem cell scientist Professor Colin McGuckin is moving to France because he says British science gives too much priority to embryo experiments over "more ethical" alternatives, such as experiments on adult stem cells. (Sunday Times)

The BBC faces calls to discipline Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross after leaving telephone messages for Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs live on air in which they suggested Brand had had sex with Sachs's granddaughter. (Mail on Sunday)

Aravind Adiga (left), who won this year's Booker Prize with his debut novel The White Tiger, has sacked his agent, the William Morris Agency. (Sunday Telegraph)

Police were called to a noisy party in London's exclusive Chester Square where Princess Eugenie was celebrating with her new boyfriend Hugo Taylor, after neighbours complained. (Mail on Sunday)

TV chef Jamie Oliver is to launch his own monthly magazine before Christmas. The magazine will feature recipes by the chef and articles written by his wife, Jools. (Sunday Telegraph)

"Nat's a very naughty boy… We don't want anything to do with the Rothschilds." – Nat Rothschild's former mother-in-law Elizabeth Neilson. (Mail on Sunday)

Zara Phillips (left) has broken her collarbone in a fall that killed her horse. She was riding Tsunami II in a competition in the French Pyrenees. (Mail on Sunday)

Viewers of BBC show Strictly Come Dancing have been accused of racism after black contestants Don Warrington and Heather Small were voted last in a telephone poll despite impressing the show's judges. (News of the World)

Ronnie Wood's children have told the Rolling Stones legend they want nothing more to do with him after his affair with a Russian waitress. Wood, 61, has set up home with Ekaterina Ivanova, 20, and faces a £50m divorce. (People)

'Vice queen' Natalie Rowe has revealed how she and George Osborne bonded over his interest in her dominatrix paraphernalia and their shared feelings of exclusion during his Bullingdon Club days at Oxford University. She claims to have supplied drugs and prostitutes to a Bullingdon party at the Rothschilds' family home, Waddesdon Manor, in Buckinghamshire. (News of the World)

Kerry Katona has called TV host Philip Schofield "ignorant and arrogant" after he stopped her appearance on his show because he was concerned over her slurring of her words. Meanwhile, MTV bosses say Katona regularly slurs her words on appearances in their documentaries, blaming her medication. (People)

Guy Ritchie has been left seething with anger after his son Rocco was photographed wearing a New York Yankees baseball shirt. Ritchie's estranged wife Madonna has been linked with Yankees star Alex 'A-Rod' Rodriguez. (Sunday Mirror)