Cameron a ‘better leader’ as Labour head for Crewe defeat
Only one in five voters thinks Gordon Brown is doing a good job according to a new survey which also sees him rated worse than Tory leader David Cameron on every key leadership quality. The results are from an 'opinion tracker' of 5,000 voters. Meanwhile, the first opinion poll carried out in the Labour stronghold of Crewe suggests the Tories may win the by-election there on May 22. (Observer, Mail on Sunday)
The Mole: Labour trail Tories by stunning 26 points 
New Labour has been a trillion-pound folly
Junta exports rice while Burma starves
Burma is still exporting rice, even though a generation of the country's children could be wiped out by the after-effects of a cyclone that killed as many as 116,000 people. The military regime which rules Burma has a monopoly on rice exports and says it plans to meet all committments. Meanwhile, charities have warned of a disaster of "apocalyptic proportions" as people starve and disease spreads. (Observer, Sunday Times)
Pros and cons: a 'relief invasion' of Burma
Burma file: all the latest in the wake of Nargis
In pictures: Burma cyclone
Prescott: I told Blair to sack Brown
Former Deputy PM John Prescott claims he urged Tony Blair to sack Gordon Brown, but that Blair was "scared" of his Chancellor. Prescott, who makes the claim in his memoirs, says he urged Brown to resign and fight the then PM from the back benches. He also claims that Blair reneged on a promise to stand down in favour of Brown halfway through his second term in 2003. (Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday)
Schoolboy stabbed to death
Jimmy Mizen, a 16-year-old schoolboy and son of a school governor, has become the 13th teenager to be murdered in London this year. Mizen was stabbed to death with a piece of glass in a baker's shop on Saturday, the day after his 16th birthday, when he intervened to try and protect workers from a violent customer. A witness described the scene as "something out of a Tarantino movie". (Sunday Telegraph)
Army is ‘heading for the rocks’
A highly sensitive internal report into the state of the British army has revealed that some soldiers are so poor they are forced to rely on loans from the MoD to eat. Senior military figures have reacted angrily to the report's findings. Colonel Clive Fairweather, former deputy commander of the SAS said: "I really do think the Army is heading for the rocks and I don't say this lightly." (Independent on Sunday)
An attitude that adds insult to injury
Gordon Brown says he will do "whatever is necessary" to preserve the United Kingdom. Brown called on pro-Union parties, business and trades unions to come together to promote the Union after a week in which Labour's internal divisions over Scottish independence made news headlines. (Sunday Telegraph)
A very British divorce
A Tyneside comprehensive school is to teach all GCSE subjects in eight-minute bursts interspersed with physical exercise such as basketball. A pilot scheme run by the school and based on neuroscience research improved results by an average of half a grade for science pupils. (Sunday Times)
Former Labour cabinet minister Stephen Byers (left) has added to Gordon Brown's troubles by writing a newspaper article hinting that the Prime Minister may suffer a leadership challenge in the autumn and accusing him of being "distant and uncaring" and manipulating the tax system. (Sunday Times)
The Mole: will Gordon go for the good of the party?
A new report by the independent board set up to advise the Government on its plans to introduce ID cards has warned that the system will be open to fraud by the people running it. The Independent Scheme Assurance Panel (Isap) also warned the scheme will be subject to errors. (Observer)
Children will not be allowed to start school unless they have had the once-controversial MMR jab to protect them from measles, mumps and rubella under new Government plans. The proposal, in which primary schools will demand proof of innoculation, will feature in Labour's next manifesto. (Sunday Telegraph)
MMR: parents deserve an answer
Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the MDC, Zimbabwe's main opposition party, says he is ready to fight Robert Mugabe in a run-off election - but it may be a year before the vote is held. The MDC had been split over whether to take part in the polls, after they claimed they had won the original election outright. (Independent on Sunday)
Zimbabwe Today: all the latest from our man in Harare
Would-be Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama (left) is so confident he has the private support of enough of his party's superdelegates to win the nomination he has shifted his campaign focus from beating Hillary Clinton to the election battle against Republican candidate John McCain. (Sunday Telegraph)
US election: all the latest news, gossip and analysis
Khartoum has been placed under dawn-to-dusk curfew after Darfur rebels attacked a suburb of the Sudanese capital yesterday. Advance rumours that 3,000 members of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) planned to march on the capital had earlier prompted a security clamp-down by the government. (Observer)
The Iraqi army led a victory parade in Basra with the corpses of two Mahdi Army fighters displayed on the bonnets of Humvees, it has been claimed. The corpses are seen to be prodded and to have their trousers pulled down in mobile phone video footage, but it is impossible to corroborate the claims. (Sunday Times)
Basra, Iran - it all comes down to oil
British Airways is seeking a new chief operating officer to replace two directors who lost their jobs after the disastrous opening of Heathrow's Terminal 5. BA has approached head-hunter Whitehead Mann to fill the newly-created role with a heavyweight industrialist. (Independent on Sunday)
HSBC is expected to announce it is writing off yet more bad debts incurred by US consumers on mortgages, credit cards and other loans tomorrow. Analysts expect the bank to reveal it is writing off a further $4.6bn, making its total over the last 15 months almost $17bn. (Observer)
British telecoms giant Vodafone is considering a £19bn bid for the South African mobile company MTN, the country's third-largest. The group operates in some of the world's fastest growing telecoms markets, with assets in countries such as Nigeria, Rwanda, Cyprus and Syria. (Sunday Telegraph)
Nuala O'Faolain - writer, columnist and one of the leading figures in Irish culture - has died at the age of 68. Diagnosed with terminal cancer only eight weeks ago, the Dublin born writer refused chemotherapy and instead embarked on a tour of her favourite cultural sites in Europe with a group of close friends. (Observer)
The Turner prize-winning artist Steve McQueen (left), best known recently for his stamps commemorating British Iraq and Afghanistan war dead, has provoked controversy with his first feature film. Hunger tells the story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who died in the Maze prison 27 years ago after a hunger strike. (Observer)
Two competing adaptations of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights are to begin shooting this year, offering radically different takes on the 1847 novel. An ITV production will co-star Tom Hardy and Katie Riley, while a British film version will feature Michael Fassbender, star of 300. (Sunday Telegraph)
People: Portman pulls out of Wuthering Heights
