Anglican bishops in secret talks with Vatican amid split fears
A group of Church of England bishops has had highly confidential meetings with senior advisers of the Pope, to discuss the crisis in the Anglican Communion. The conservative bishops have expressed fears over the liberal direction of the Church of England in meetings with members of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In addition, 600 clergy have publicly warned that they may leave the Church of England if women bishops are introduced. (Sunday Telegraph)
Wimbledon has a new darling
Laura Robson yesterday became the first Briton to take a Wimbledon singles title since Annabel Croft won the girls' tournament in 1984. The unseeded 14-year-old defeated the number three seed from Thailand, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, in three sets. Robson is in most ways a very normal girl, who does chores round the house and is embarrassed to be seen out with her parents. The family planned to celebrate at Pizza Hut last night, with or without her. (Mail on Sunday)
The Sports Pages 
Anti-stab vests for public servants
Tens of thousands of stab- and bullet-proof vests are being ordered for frontline public servants including A & E staff, teachers, benefit officers and traffic wardens, reflecting the rising fear of knife crime. The Local Government Association said that council staff were now demanding "a greater level of protection". The revelation came as Scotland Yard announced that knife crime had overtaken terrorism as the number one priority for the Metropolitan Police. (Observer)
Forces drive al-Qaeda from Mosul
American and Iraqi forces are driving al-Qaeda out of its last stronghold in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, in a major victory for the 'war on terror'. Operation Lion's Roar has cleared the militants from the rest of the country, and dramatically reduced their numbers from over 12,000 to around 1,200. The insurgents in Mosul have been reduced to hit-and run attacks, including one that killed two off-duty policemen yesterday, and sporadic bombings. (Sunday Times)
The October surprise Republicans dream of
Thatcher fears kidnap over coup
Sir Mark Thatcher fears that he may be targeted by an international snatch squad, with orders to extradite him to Equatorial Guinea, because of his part of the botched coup of 2004. The country's Attorney General, Jose Olo Obono, confirmed that prosectution proceedings will be launched tomorrow against Thatcher and several other conspirators. He is accused of supplying aircraft for the coup, as well as £13,000 in cash. (Sunday Express)
People: Met keen to talk to Mann about Thatcher
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne received up to £10,000 for a speech to business chiefs, in defiance of his party's own rules. The Institute of Directors flew him to their annual dinner in Jersey last November, for a question-and-answer session. (News of the World)
The Mole: all the latest from our Westminster insider
Peter Mandelson, the European Union's trade commissioner, has escalated his argument with the French president Nicolas Sarkozy by publicly criticising "protectionist" French politicians who are putting crucial world trade talks at risk. In an article for the Sunday Telegaraph he says that the "populist and self-serving" habits of French leaders jeopardise development and security throughout the world. (Sunday Telegraph)
Senior Tory aides yesterday accused Church of England bishops of "sitting on" a file of damaging accusations made against Ray Lewis (left), one of Boris Johnson's deputy mayors, when he was a vicar. A church spokesman countered that the Tories had failed to make proper checks, and had even ignored explicit warnings. Lewis has stood down pending an investigation. (Sunday Times)
People: Boris's deputy Lewis faces inquiry
A 21-year old man was arrested in the early hours of Saturday, in south-east London, in connction with the murders of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, the two young Frenchmen discovered bound, gagged and stabbed to death in a flat in New Cross last Sunday. Police said they might have died for the sake of two hand-held games consoles. (Independent on Sunday)
Labour's leading candidate for the Glasgow East by-election has pulled out of the race, leaving the party struggling to appear united. George Ryan withdrew last week due to fear of "pressures" on his family life. A replacement was quickly found: Margaret Curran, currently a Glasgow MSP. (Observer)
The Mole: grumbling on the terrace as another by-election crisis looms
Security sources have warned that Britain's risk of a terrorist attack is increased by the diversion of resources to the monitoring of Russian spies. So many of MI5's 3,600 staff are tied up tracking around 30 Russian agents operating in Britain that it is feared the surveillance of Muslim extremist groups may suffer. (Sunday Telegraph)
Gordon Brown's attempts to show leadership on Zimbabwe have been damaged by claims that Britain is ordering as many as 11,000 Zimbabwean refugees to return home to face possible torture or death. Failed asylum seekers from the African country, including some who work for the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, have been told to leave Britain at once. (Observer)
Zimbabwe Today: all the latest from our man in Harare
Barack Obama (left) is in danger of losing the fervent support of his enthusiastic young fans, by pledging to stay in Iraq for another five years if he becomes president. He has also said that he would expand Bush's policy of involvement of religious groups in public service provision, and defended the right to bear arms. (Sunday Telegraph)
American Election 2008: Obama's Iraq problem
Shell was last night preparing to pull out of Zimbabwe after it was claimed that President Mugabe was reserving petrol for his party supporters. Shell is considering selling its oil stake in the country to a third party. Meanwhile the UN and the EU are both drawing up tough new sanctions against Mugabe's regime. (Observer)
Zimbabwe Today: new film backs vote rigging report
A new report by the Commons foreign affairs committee has uncovered widespread corruption in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British territory in the Caribbean. The report criticises the Foreign Office for allowing a "palpable climate of fear" to take root on the islands, and reveals that the territory's Premier, Michael Misick, is accused of various corrupt practices. (Sunday Telegraph)
Trouble in paradise: Charles Laurence on the Turks and Caicos scandal
The number of permanent jobs available in Britain has fallen for the first time in five years. A survey of employment agencies also reveals that the number of people looking for work rose last month and the growth in demand for temporary staff is easing. Unemployment is predicted to rise by 100,000 over the next two years. (Sunday Telegraph)
The house-building industry is to be hit by a huge fall in the value of land assets. If, as predicted by a new report, the housing market falls by 17.5 per cent, land assets will suffer a £3bn fall. This week the top house-builder Persimmon will announce at least 1,000 job losses. (Observer)
Up to a third of M&S shareholders are likely to vote against the appointment of Sir Stuart Rose (left) as executive chairman this week, or abstain. In the biggest revolt in recent City history, the rebels will express their anger at the manner in which Rose was appointed to the job, while remaining chief executive. (Sunday Times)
People: sparks fly at M&S over Rose appointment
A waxwork of Adolf Hitler that went on display in Madame Tussauds in Berlin was decapitated by anti-fascist protesters within minutes of the exhibition opening. Though it is illegal to promote Nazism in Germany, Madame Tussauds argued that the exhibit was historically important, and that this depiction, dejected in his bunker, was no glorification. (Observer)
Hitler has reappeared peacefully in Israel
A vicious row has broken out between two female biographers. The writer Kathryn Hughes says that the art of biography has been demeaned by the publicity-hunger of Amanda Foreman, a fellow biographer. Hughes criticises her for posing in the nude to publicise her first book on the Duchess of Devonshire, and for telling juicy details of her own life story. (Sunday Times)
Books: a review of reviews
Four months after his death, it has emerged that the final novel of the science fiction master Arthur C Clarke (left) will be published. The Last Theorem, which was bought for a six-figure sum by HarperCollins earlier this year, is about an alien invasion of Earth and an astronomy student's obsession with Fermat's last theorem. (Independent on Sunday)
People: tributes paid to 'visionary' Clarke
