Israel kills Hamas chief and threatens to march on Gaza City
Israeli forces say they killed the mastermind of Hamas's long-range rocket attacks in a helicopter attack in Gaza yesterday. An Israeli spokesman said Amir Mansi had "played a big role in Grad rocket attacks on Israeli communities". Last night, Israel threatened to escalate the conflict in which 820 Palestinians, 300 of them children, have been killed by sending troops into Gaza City, while in London thousands of anti-Israeli demonstrators clashed violently with riot police. (Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday, Sunday Telegraph)
The Gaza file: latest news, comment and analysis on the crisis 
In pictures: Gaza barrage continues
Harry sorry for racial slurs
Prince Harry has apologised for using the term 'Paki' in a video recorded in 2006 while he was training to be an army officer. In one sequence, the Prince's voice is heard while he seems to be behind the camera. He focues on one member of his platoon and can be heard saying "our little Paki friend, Ahmed". Later he tells a caucasian colleague that he looks like a "raghead". Clarence House said the Prince "understands how offensive this term can be" and "is extremely sorry". (Sunday Times)
Will Self: Sir Ian Blair was right in his fight against racism
Milburn back, Campbell says no
Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alistair Campbell is understood to have rebuffed a proposal by Gordon Brown to give him a peerage so that he can take a ministerial job in time for the next general election. Campbell, for many Labour supporters a controversial figure, has been subjected to "intensive courtship" from the Prime Minister since October, sources say. Meanwhile, another former Brown enemy, Alan Milburn, has been brought in to chair a White Paper on social mobility. (Independent on Sunday)
The Mole: Brown desperately tries to prove he is doing something
Children die after council blunders
Newly-public official reports show that three children died after a catalogue of errors by social workers, with echoes of the so-called Baby P case. In one case a three-year-old girl died after taking her mother's illegal drugs, just three weeks after social workers had decided not to put her into care and even though she was found in the back of a criminal's car after a police chase. The cases raise fears that critical errors made by social services in Harringey are being repeated across the country. (Sunday Telegraph)
Baby P: the language of nothing that says everything
Primark in illegal immigrant row
High street fashion giant Primark is at the centre of a storm of controversy over allegations that illegal immigrants paid just over half the minimum wage were employed to make knitwear for one of its best-selling clothing ranges. It is claimed that Manchester-based firm TNS Knitwear could have breached key employment and immigration laws after its workers were filmed by an undercover journalist using a hidden camera. They were allegedly being paid £3 an hour to work 12-hour days. (Observer) (Sunday Times)
The collapse in the housing market is now expected to hit Treasury finances much more severely than expected, economists say. Falls in revenue from stamp duty, capital gains and inheritance tax will create a £15bn 'black hole' in Alistair Darling's account sheet. (Observer)
Bankruptcy beckons for not-so-Great Britain
The fiancee of a sub-postmaster's son murdered by armed robbers has said that his death has left her feeling as if someone has "ripped out her insides". Lisa Bundy was planning to marry Craig Hodson-Walker, who was shot in his family's Worcestershire post office on Friday. (Sunday Telegraph)
Lord Tebbit (left) has taken the lead in an attempt by the right of the Conservative Party to block the return of former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke to the shadow cabinet. Lord Tebbit said the europhile minister was too "lazy" and would "split the party". (Observer)
The Mole: Tory donors warn against return of Ken Clarke
Some top civil servants and heads of quangoes are claiming as much as £40,000 in housing allowances, it has emerged. David Nicholson, head of the NHS, claims £37,600 a year despite living in the same flat he was installed in before he started his job. (Sunday Times)
The parents of the first British baby born after being screened to be free of the breast cancer gene have spoken about their "beautiful, healthy baby girl" and say they plan to have more children guaranteed to be safe from the hereditary condition. (Sunday Times)
Systems biology will revolutionise medicine
A review is expected to recommend that the 30-year embargo on official secrets be halved later this month. It was previously thought the length of time that official secrets remain secret might be reduced to 20 years, but now the panel is expected to recommend 15. (Independent on Sunday)
US president-elect Barack Obama will mark a radical change in American foreign policy this week when he reveals Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's team of diplomats and advisers, the virtual opposites of the hawkish appointees chosen by president George W Bush. (Observer)
Alexander Cockburn: Obama's team is a slap in the face
Profiles of Obama's inner circle
American Transition: the latest news, comment and analysis
German chancellor Angela Merkel (left) is to make a U-turn this week and unveil a €50bn package of tax cuts and other incentives to save the German economy. In the past, Merkel has been critical of the "crass Keynesianism" she saw in British attempts to stimulate economic growth. (Indpendent on Sunday)
People: merkel pulls out of WWI commemoration
Six of the Somali pirates who hijacked the biggest tanker ever taken at sea drowned with their share of the ransom, the group's leader says. The $3m payoff was parachuted to the Sirius Star on Friday. As the pirates left the ship, one of their overloaded vessels capsized. (Sunday Times)
Somalia: home of free marketeers and buccaneers
In pictures: Pirates of Somalia
Actress Kate Winslet (left) is up for two Golden Globe awards, in two separate categories tonight. Winslet has received five Oscar nominations and five Golden Globe nominations in her career, but never won. However, it's possible the judges may find her roles too downbeat. (Independent on Sunday)
People: Winslet leads the Brits in Golden Globe nominations
Film critics are trumpeting a new dawn for British filmmaking after it was announced that the Sundance festival, one of the most prestigious in the US, will showcase twice the usual number of UK productions, including satirist Armand Iannucci's In the Loop. (Observer)
Controversy over James Bond actor Daniel Craig's latest film Defiance, which tells the story of a band of Jewish partisans in World War II, has taken another twist. A veteran of the group, Jack Kagan, has defended the brothers who led it, saying they were not ruthless killers. (Sunday Telegraph)
This week's film reviews
Will Self: Don't laud Jewish defiance and ignore Israeli abuse
The Prime Minister is hosting talks with top bank bosses at Chequers today as the Treasury prepares a new multi-billion pound package designed to kick-start bank lending. Chief executives of Barclay's, Standard Chartered and Lloyds TSB are among those meeting Gordon Brown. (Sunday Times)
The Mole: Broons gather round the fireside after a long and turbulent year
The credit crunch is threatening rail and bus services in the UK. It is thought that chief executives from Britain's biggest transport groups will seek assurances from transport secretary Geoff Hoon (left) that he is open to them reducing services at a meeting later this month. (Observer)
Accountants Ernst & Young will warn today that more UK companies issued profit warnings last year than in any year since 2001, a clear sign that this year will be even more volatile than last. There were 449 warnings last year, an increase of 17 per cent on 2007. (Sunday Telegraph)
The top business stories
British climber Rob Gauntlett (left) and an un-named companion died in the French alps yesterday. Two years ago, aged 19, Gauntlett became the youngest Briton to climb Everest. (Sunday Times)
Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone staged his own launch of the Docklands Light Railway extension yesterday. The project will be officially opened by Boris Johnson tomorrow. (Independent on Sunday)
James Bond actor Daniel Craig is the latest big name to refuse to be a guest on Jonathan Ross's chat show after his suspension for leaving obscene messages on Andrew Sachs's answerphone. (Sunday Telegraph)
Journalist Andrew Marr has made his acting debut, recording clips to be shown during the Old Vic production Complicit starring Richard Dreyfuss. He plays a TV interviewer. (Observer)
Actress Sienna Miller (left) was dropped from an upcoming Robin Hood film because she was too slim in comparison to co-star Russell Crowe. (Sunday Telegraph)
Author Sir Terry Pratchett is testing a new anti-dementia helmet which its inventor claims will slow the progress of his Alzheimer's. (Sunday Times)
U2 singer Bono has signed a contract to write for the New York Times on a "broad range of topics". (Independent on Sunday)
Joanna Lumley is to act out the part of a mother pig about to give birth in a cramped farrow for a new documentary about cruel farming practices by TV chef Jamie Oliver. (Sunday Times)
Prince Andrew (left) has been criticised by opponents of nuclear power for proposing to host a lunch for big names in the nuclear industry at Buckingham Palace. (Observer)
John Redwood is being "monitored" by the Tory leadership for daring to question Barack Obama's silence on Gaza. (Independent on Sunday)
"We even invented our own version of Countdown. We really were bored" - Journalist Colin Freeman on being held by Somali kidnappers. (Sunday Telegraph)
John Sullivan, writer of Only Fools and Horses, is to bring back his creations as teenagers for a long-awaited prequel. (Independent on Sunday)
"That's something I've done wrong that will stick with me forever" - Sir Alan Sugar (left) on sending his wife a birthday card signed 'Alan Sugar', rather than just 'Alan'. (Sunday Telegraph)
Tony and Cherie Blair, about to sell one of the infamous Bristol flats whose 2002 purchase caused them such embarrassment, will make a loss even if they get their asking price thanks to falling property prices. (Sunday Times)
Singer Amy Winehouse has pledged to quit drugs. She has met a new man while on an extended holiday at a luxurious resort in the Caribbean. (News of the World)
The estranged husband of Celebrity Big Brother contestant Michelle Heaton (left) says she cheated on him with a string of men, including one of his erstwhile best friends. (Sunday Mirror)
Shilpa Shetty, the Indian actress who was the victim of racist bullying from Jade Goody on Celebrity Big Brother in 2007, is to fly to the UK to comfort Goody as she faces cancer, undergoing chemotherapy. (People)
Sir Paul McCartney's ex-wife, Heather Mills, has celebrated the new man in her life, 34-year-old aspirant snooker player Jamie Walker, with a new short hair cut. (News of the World)
Troubled singer Kerry Katona, facing bankruptcy, has been asked to rejoin her former Atomic Kitten bandmates for a series of gigs which could earn her £25,000. (People)
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