Brown calls on European leaders to bail out banking system
Gordon Brown will today try to persuade European leaders to follow his lead and bail out failing banks with state money in interventions modelled on Britain's £500bn rescue package. In Paris, Brown will brief leaders from within the eurozone on how his government's three-pronged strategy to buy stakes in banks, inject cash and kick-start lending could be copied across Europe. Meanwhile, it is thought the Government may have to buy much larger stakes in banks than it expected. (Observer, Sunday Telegraph)
The First Post business pages 
The Mole: will financial turmoil drive voters back to Brown?
Palin shrugs off report findings
US Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has attempted to shrug off a report issued on Friday by an investigator for the Alaska legislature which judged she had abused her power as Governor when she and her husband tried to have her former brother-in-law removed from his job as a state trooper. At a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, she said: "If you read the report, you will see there was nothing unlawful... or unethical about replacing a cabinet member." (Independent on Sunday, Observer)
US election: McCain 'pressed' to pick Palin
Mandelson receives £1m pay-off
Britain's new business secretary, Peter Mandelson, is under fire after it emerged he will receive a £1m pay-off and pension from Brussels after four years as Britain's European commissioner. He is also facing criticism after it emerged he accepted hospitality from a Russian billionaire who was a beneficiary of policy decisions he made while he was commissioner: Mandelson is thought to have spent the night on Oleg Deripaska's 238ft super-yacht after a drinks party. (Observer, Sunday Times)
People: Mandelson exacts revenge on Osborne
Brown needs to improve his spin
IMF chief warns of meltdown
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the world is on the brink of financial meltdown after a week in which share prices crashed by more than 20 per cent across the globe. Dominique Strauss-Kahn said: "Intensifying solvency concerns about a number of the largest US-based and European financial institutions have pushed the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown." Strauss-Kahn predicted more interest rate cuts would have to be made. (Sunday Times)
Airtime: News shows make a drama out of the financial crisis
Cash was king - now gold is God
Blair did act in Ecclestone row
Documents newly-released under the Freedom of Information Act show that Tony Blair personally intervened to secure an exemption for Formula 1 racing from the tobacco advertising ban after meeting the sport's boss, billionaire Bernie Ecclestone. The scandal over the exemption was new Labour's first crisis after Tony Blair became Prime Minister in 1997, and the Government has always insisted that his meeting with Ecclestone did not influence the final decision. (Sunday Telegraph)
The earnings of hundreds of thousands of UK council workers, from chief executives to frontline staff, are at risk after the Icelandic bank collapse, it has emerged. It had been thought that councils had only invested capital savings in Iceland, but now it has emerged that staff may not be paid this month. (Independent on Sunday)
Air travel is in decline for the first time in two decades. Traffic at 18 leading UK airports fell by 4.5 per cent last month, with almost 1 million fewer peope flying. Gatwick airport's flights fell by 6.8 per cent; Heathrow's by 3.6 per cent. Analysts blame hard economic times and poorly-run airports. (Independent on Sunday)
A British soldier is facing a court-martial after allegedly mistakenly guiding a US warplane to bomb British positions in a notorious "friendly fire" incident in Afghanistan. Initially the US Air Force was blamed, then equipment failures, but after a 12-month investigation, an NCO is to be charged. (Observer)
Tim Collins attacked over Iraq speech
Al Qaeda is losing but the West isn't winning
A new mandatory code of practice for the drinks industry will ban pubs and bars from offering free alcohol to women. The new code, which has alarmed the industry, shows a hardening in the Government's stance after the failure of a voluntary code designed to curb binge drinking. (Sunday Times)
The Government is ready to scrap controversial plans to deny free GP treatment to asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected after a revolt by doctors who argued the move - intended to stop "health tourism" - would be unethical and potentially illegal and threatened to flout it. (Observer)
NHS database awaits legal diagnosis
Sightings of killer whales have increased around the UK, perhaps due to recovering fish stocks, scientists say. Pods of as many as 100 of the predators have been seen in waters around the Scilly Isles and in the English Channel. Killer whales are more normally associated with colder seas. (Sunday Telegraph)
The Zimbabwe power-sharing agreement between president Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai is in crisis after Mugabe annexed top cabinet posts for members of his Zanu-PF in what opposition leaders called a "midnight ambush". Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has been asked to return to Harare to resolve the crisis. (Observer)
Zimbabwe Today: exclusive reports from Moses Moyo in Harare
The US is to remove North Korea from its list of countries that "sponsor" terrorism after the isolated regime agreed to American demands over nuclear inspections, it has been announced. Neo-conservatives in the US were quick to damn the deal as a sell-out rewarding a rogue state. (Sunday Telegraph)
North Korea: beyond the hermit state
Far-Right Austrian leader Jorg Haider (left) has been killed at 58 in a traffic accident. Haider was forced to step down as leader of his party in 2000 after the EU imposed sanctions on Austria when he was elected to form part of a national coalition government. Haider was driving alone when he lost control of his vehicle yesterday. (Independent on Sunday)
People: Haider wants to be Chancellor
Europe's modern fascists
The board of failed US bank Lehman Brothers approved huge packages totalling more than $100m to five top executives just three days before the investment bank went bankrupt. The executives never received the payments because of the bankruptcy, but will now be treated as unsecured creditors. (Sunday Times)
Lehman exposes Wall Street's moral bankruptcy
The danger of a banker with a power complex
Topshop tycoon Sir Philip Green (left) has flown to Reykjavik in a dramatic bid to seize control of ailing Icelandic retail giant Baugur. Green could invest up to £2bn in Baugur, which is thought to be on the brink of administration after its accounts were frozen when Iceland's three largest banks were nationalised. (Observer)
People: Sir Philip Green is a thorn in Stuart Rose's side
Britain's second-largest building society, Britannia, is in talks to merge with the Co-operative Bank, though there is no suggestion that either institution is in trouble. The banks are understood to believe that a single, larger business - which would have £75bn assets – will be stronger. (Sunday Telegraph)
The First Post business pages
A special concert was held in Durness, in the far north of Scotland, last night to raise funds for the maintenance of a memorial to John Lennon. Lennon visited the area as a child and as an adult. His cousin, Stan Parkes, said: "John really loved hill walking, shooting and fishing... He would have been quite a laird." (Observer)
People: Lennon and Jagger attacked in book
The British director of Opera Australia, which stages productions at the Syndey Opera House, has been accused of favouring British artists in a bitter row which is splitting Australia's cultural establishment. Sixty-year-old Richard Hickox (left) has also been accused of ageism, bullying and "un-Australian" activities. (Sunday Times)
For the last three days, Paris has been playing host to France's first "alternative" pornographic film festival. Organised by a group of intellectuals, the festival is said not only to titillate but to "empower" with films focussing on both genders and transexuals. Almost half the films on show were made by and for women. (Observer)
People: Lily Cole to model for French Playboy
