MI5 agent quits after wife exposed as prostitute in Mosley orgy
An MI5 agent has been forced to resign after it was revealed his wife was a prostitute who took part in the 'Nazi-orgy' with Formula 1 racing boss Max Mosley. The intelligence officer, who has not been named, left the service last month after the sado-masochistic sex session was revealed in the News of the World. MI5 has been forced to deny through Whitehall channels that the orgy was a 'sting' designed to discredit Mosley. (Sunday Times)
Tsvangirai cancels return over ‘death plot’
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been forced to cancel plans to return home after being informed of a plot by Robert Mugabe to have him killed. The MDC leader has now said he will not return to contest the presidential election run-off in June unless he is given personal security by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). He has also called for peacekeepers to be installed to enable Zimbabweans to be able to vote without fear. (Sunday Times)
Zimbabwe Today: all the latest from our man in Harare 
Labour fightback flounders
Gordon Brown's attempts to launch a fightback have failed. Two polls show that Labour is still lagging way behind the Tories in the run-up to the Crewe by-election. The Independent on Sunday places the government 17 points behind the Conservatives and in the Sunday Times the gap is 20 points. The Tories' lead is equivalent to that held by Labour in the run-up to the 1997 landslide election. (Independent on Sunday, Sunday Times)
The Mole: our man in Westminster
Weapons found in schools
The parents of murdered schoolboy Jimmy Mizen say society needs to change its values to halt the rise of violence among children. Over the last two years more than 900 weapons, including knives, claw hammers and even guns have been confiscated from schoolchildren, some as young as eight. Shadow home secretary David Davies said: "This shocking figure reveals just how big a part violence has become of everyday school life." (Sunday Telegraph)
Brown defends embryo research
Gordon Brown has mounted a passionate defence of scientific research using animal-human hybrid embryos calling it an "inherently moral endeavour". The Prime Minister's interest is described as personal as his son, Fraser, has cystic fibrosis, a condition that could one day benefit from embryo research. MPs have a free vote on the use of hybrid embryos, in which the nuclei of human cells are inserted into animal eggs and allowed to grow for a few days, allowing the creation of "saviour sibling" children, who could donate tissue to help older brothers and sisters. (Observer)
Two senior employees of the British aerospace firm BAE Sytems have been arrested in Houston, Texas. Mike Turner, the company's chief executive, and a colleague had their Blackberrys and laptops seized and examined at Houston airport. The company has been at the centre of bribery allegations following a deal to supply Saudi Arabia with armaments. (Observer)
The price of school dinners is set to increase because of the worldwide rise in the cost of food, new nutritional standards and a decline in the number of pupils opting to take the meals. (Observer)
Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Ian Blair (left) has been told his contract will not be renewed when it expires in January 2010. Although he wanted to continue until after the 2012 Olympics, his pleas for a second term have been ignored and the search for his replacement will begin soon. (Sunday Times)
One in four children in deprived areas grow up in single-parent households it has emerged. The problems are particularly acute in inner London, parts of South Wales and towns and cities in the North. In more affluent areas like Buckinghamshire almost 90 per cent of homes have two parents. (Sunday Express)
A piece of 'human bone' found at the Jersey care home at the centre of child abuse allegations is actually a small piece of wood or coconut shell it has been claimed. Police were told six weeks ago that the fragment was not bone, but are expected to reveal more evidence this week whcih they say shows that two more dead children were buried in the cellar. (Mail on Sunday)
Thousands of British women have undergone four or more abortions, including dozens who have had six or more before they turn 30. The figures paint a "grotesquely bleak" picture of British society, according to the Christian Medical Fellowship. (Sunday Telegraph)
The number of deaths linked to superbug C. difficile has risen four-fold in five years. More than 6,000 people died of the infection across England and Wales in 2006, more than four times as many as in 2001. (Sunday Telegraph)
The Chancellor is facing the prospect of another tax rebellion from inside his own party. Labour back benchers are threatening to rebel over plans to increase vehicle excise duty on more polluting cars. More than 20 MPs have signed an early day motion calling on Chancellor Alistair Darling to drop the idea. (Observer)
The Mole: unfair car tax is embarrassing for Brown
Democrats have taken heart from a stunning by-election reversal in the Deep South this week and now believe that they are on course for a win over the Republicans in this November's presidential election. The loss of the seat in Mississippi, which had gone to the Republican party with 62 per cent in 2004, coupled with a solid week for Barack Obama in which he has finally turned his guns on GOP rival John McCain, have led Republicans to push the panic button. (Observer)
US election special: the latest news, gossip and analysis
Rescue workers searching for survivors of Tuesday's earthquake in China found 63 people alive yesterday amid the rubble in Sichuan province. Fifty-six were found in Yingxiu township in Wenchuan county, the area closest to the epicentre of the 7.9 magnitude quake which is believed to have killed 50,000 people. (Sunday Telegraph)
In pictures: after the quake
The son of French president Nicolas Sarkozy is following his father into politics. Jean Sarkozy, 21 and a town councillor in Neuilly, the affluent Parisian suburb where his father was mayor, has launched a movement of young conservatives which centre around meetings called Jeudis Jeunes - young Thursdays - at which members of the right discuss policy and question members of the government. (Sunday Times)
Marks & Spencer is expected to announce profits this week of more than £1bn, the first time they have been that high for a decade. But Sir Stuart Rose, the retailer's controversial boss, will miss out on a bonus because the company has not hit self-imposed tough targets. M&S's 56,000 staff will also see performance related bonus fall from 10 per cent to four per cent. (Sunday Times, Observer)
A consumer watchdog will tell MPs this week that British energy suppliers are behaving like the oil cartel Opec in their control of the market. The big six suppliers of electricity and gas, most of whom are owned by multinational groups, should be investigated for hiking prices by the Competition Commission, says Energywatch, which also charges that the energy regulator Ofgem is irrelevant. (Observer)
A £10bn hole could be blown in corporation tax receipts for the government, as companies are buffeted by the credit crunch and widening deficits in their pension plans. Last year the Treasury allowed companies to avoid paying £10bn in tax in return for them contributing £30bn to their pension funds. If the Government loses £10bn of receipts, they are unlikely to balance the books for the next financial year. (Sunday Telegraph)
The Royal Tournament, the military pageant of the British Army which was scrapped by Tony Blair in 1999 after more than 100 years, could be revived by Gordon Brown. The return of the summer event, which features the world’s oldest military tattoo, massed military bands and equestrian displays, has been advocated by Labour MP Quentin Davies in a report out tomorrow. (Sunday Times)
Jack Vettriano (left), the millionaire Scottish artist, has collaborated with former Formula 1 driver and fellow Scot Sir Jackie Stewart on a triptych celebrating Stewart's victory in the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix. Vettriano got the idea for Tension, Timing and Triumph, Monaco 1971 after watching a film of the event, and spoke of the "romance in risk and danger" of motor racing. (Sunday Telegraph)
The woman who Lucian Freud painted naked in his Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, which sold this week at Christies International in New York for £17m, has been inundated with offers from newspapers and magazines for her to pose naked for them too. Sue Tilley, 51, a job centre worker from London, sat for Freud in the early 1990s, after meeting him through the performance artist Leigh Bowery. (Observer)
