In Brief: Paul Newman has weeks to live

Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning actor, has finished chemotherapy and has told his family that he wants to die at home. Reports suggest that Newman, who was recently pictured leaving a New York cancer hospital in a wheelchair looking frail, has only weeks to live and has returned home to his wife, the screen star Joanne Woodward to whom he has been married since 1958. One friend said that Newman, best known for films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, has been settling his affairs. "He gave a prized car - a Ferrari with his racing number 82 on it - to a long-time pal. That sudden move angered his children. It's especially hard for them to come to grips with what's going on."...

The London Evening Standard sent shockwaves around the world with its splash the other day. Now the climb down. A prominent paragraph in the latest edition reads: "In the Evening Standard of 6 August we stated that The Duke of Edinburgh has been diagnosed as suffering from cancer of the prostate. We now accept that the story was untrue and that he is not suffering from any such condition. We unreservedly apologise both to him and his family for making this distressing allegation and for breaching his privacy." But the newspaper may not get away with just that. In what will prove to be a test case that could change the face of royal reporting forever, the Duke has broken with royal tradition and lodged a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission...

Silvio Berlusconi, has been upsetting his opponents on the Left by flaunting his wealth. Italian newspapers have reported that he may be buying yet another property, a neo-classical villa on Lake Maggiore formerly owned by the Garavoglia family that founded the Campari drinks empire. The 71-year-old Italian Prime Minister already owns a mansion in Milan - which he wants to double in size - as well as seaside villas in Sardinia and Bermudsa and a Renaissance palace in Rome. La Stampa reported Berlusconi saying he wants the new villa to prevent "a piece of Italian history" falling into the hands of a Russian or Arab billionaire. This is not going down well in a country where the price of bread has gone up by 13 per cent and pasta by 25 per cent in a year... (Continued below)

Police 'wanted' leaflets are being handed out in Christchurch, New Zealand, declaring "Active burglar in the neighbourhood". Oddly, they carry a large photo of the Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane. New Zealand bans photographs of young offenders being published , so the cops decided that Coltrane was the next best thing. The leaflet says: "Robbie Coltrane is not the burglar but imagine him aged 16 and you have the picture.

The London Evening Standard sent shockwaves around the world with its splash the other day. Now the climb down. A prominent paragraph in the latest edition reads: "In the Evening Standard of 6 August we stated that The Duke of Edinburgh has been diagnosed as suffering from cancer of the prostate. We now accept that the story was untrue and that he is not suffering from any such condition. We unreservedly apologise both to him and his family for making this distressing allegation and for breaching his privacy." But the newspaper may not get away with just that. In what will prove to be a test case that could change the face of royal reporting forever, the Duke has broken with royal tradition and lodged a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission...