Top Stories:
Sky – Questions are being asked about preparations for the arctic weather after another day of travel chaos and forecasts of more heavy snowfalls. Over five million people have taken the day off work while thousands of schools across the UK have remained closed. Rail services have been hit again with commuter lines into London among the worst affected. There have also been further delays at major airports, although tube and bus services in London have begun to recover.
BBC – Concern: Iran says it has launched its first domestically made satellite into orbit. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the launch had been successful and that with Iran had “officially achieved a presence in space”. The satellite, carried on a Safir-2 rocket, was meant for telecommunication and research purposes, state TV said. A US state department official said the launch was of “great concern” and could lead to ballistic missile development. Iran insists its intent is peaceful. France has also expressed concern, saying the technology used was “very similar” to that used in ballistic missiles. Iran is subject to United Nations sanctions because some Western powers think it is trying to build a nuclear bomb.
ITN – North Korea is preparing to test-launch its longest range ballistic missile, according to reports. The news comes just days after Pyongyang warned that the Korean peninsula was on the brink of war. The hermit kingdom typically launches missiles in periods of political tension. Last week, North Korea said it was scrapping all agreements with South Korea in a move analysts said was aimed at pressuring Seoul and grabbing the attention of new US President Barack Obama.
Star – Dungeon rape monster Josef Fritzl is to make a fortune by flogging his horror home. The Austrian incest beast could get more than a million pounds for the house because sick buyers will want to turn it into a museum. Neighbours fear businessmen will pay three times its £400,000 value to see the place where evil Fritzl imprisoned and raped his daughter Elisabeth for 24 years. Fritzl, 73, is selling the horror apartment from prison, where he is awaiting trial charged with rape, incest, kidnap, false imprisonment and slavery.
Business:
Guardian – Britain’s battered banks have borrowed a total of £185bn from the Bank of England in just nine months under the Special Liquidity Scheme, the emergency measure set up last April to relieve them of some of their toxic debts and unblock the credit markets. The SLS, which was designed to remove the need for further bank bail-outs, allowed financial institutions to swap hard-to-value securities, including “toxic” mortgage-backed debt, for more liquid government bonds, over a term of up to three years. Because taxpayers’ money is at stake under the scheme, the Bank has demanded “haircuts”, insisting that the 32 participating banks pledge securities worth considerably more than the gilts they received. The SLS closed at the end of January, and in a statement published today, the Bank reported that, as a result, it is now sitting on a pile of securities with a face value of £287bn. Most of these are mortgage-backed securities, or residential mortgage covered bonds.
Scotsman – THE chairman of part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland stepped down two months early today. Sir Tom McKillop – originally due to retire in April – brought forward his departure to allow successor Sir Philip Hampton to complete an overhaul of the troubled bank’s board. RBS is set to be 70% owned by taxpayers after a year of financial turmoil which could leave it as much as £28 billion in the red, due to bad debts and write-downs on the value of past acquisitions.
Also In The News:
Times – An Australian pigeon fancier was apprehended at Melbourne airport today for smuggling two birds into the country – while stuffed inside his trousers. The 23-year-old man wrapped the pair of pigeons in newspaper and concealed one on the inside of each of his legs for the duration of a ten-hour flight from Dubai. Customs officials say he would have escaped detection if they had not discovered two eggs hidden in his pocket and decided to carry out a full body search. The officers also uncovered seeds inside a money belt hidden in his luggage and an undeclared aubergine in his holdall. Australia has some of the strictest customs laws in the world. As an island nation it is particularly fearful of importing new animals or plant life, which could spread disease or threaten its native species.
Express – England fans are celebrating after finally beating Germany on penalties in a world cup final – at table football. Joe Hamilton, 22, and Rob Atha, 25, beat 500 players from 36 countries before meeting Germany in the final of the Inter national Table Soccer Federation World Championships. Joe saved a penalty in the last minute of normal time, forcing the two sides, who were drawing 1-1, into a sudden-death shoot-out which England won 1-0.
Telegraph – Doctors in California have been stunned by the birth of Kamani Hubbard, a boy with 24 fingers and toes. The six digits on each of Kamani’s hands and feet are so perfectly formed and fully functioning that experts at St Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco said that they do not constitute a deformity or disability. It is not especially unusual for children to be born with additional digits, a condition known as polydactylism. However, cases in which each hand and foot is affected, and each with extra digits that look and function normally, are extremely rare. It appears that the baby looked so normal that maternity staff at the hospital didn’t even notice the discrepancy after he was born three weeks ago. Nor was it picked up by the radiographer who conducted pre-natal ultrasound scans.
ITN – No headline acts have been announced but tickets for Glastonbury 2009 have already sold out. An early ticket deposit scheme was launched in October, and organisers said the “vast majority” of festival-goers completed their full payment by February 1. Emily Eavis, who runs the Glastonbury Festival with her father Michael, said: “We’re chuffed to bits that we’ve managed to sell so many tickets so far ahead, especially when you look at the weather outside.
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