Top Stories:

Telegraph – Prince Harry is facing a formal Army inquiry over a video in which he called a high-flying Pakistani officer cadet a “Paki”. The Prince of Wales has also spoken to his son about the footage in which he also refers to Muslim insurgents as “rag-heads” and makes a spoof telephone call to the Queen. The 24-year-old Household Cavalry Lieutenant has issued a public apology but his comments were widely condemned as “sickening” and racist in tone. The Ministry of Defence indicated that the prince could face disciplinary action and announced that the matter would be dealt with “in line with normal Army procedures”.

Sky – Israel has indicated an end to its war on Hamas was in sight – amid some of the fiercest battles yet in the 16-day-old offensive. Troops backed by tanks pushed deeper into the Palestinian region’s main city, as the Jewish state’s warplanes continued their blitz. Almost 900 Gazans have reportedly been killed in the fighting. Israel first started the assault when Islamist group Hamas began firing rockets at its neighbours.

Express – FORENSIC investigators have recovered the charred remains of most of the 9/11 hijackers – to honour a pledge that they would never be buried with the victims. The £30million CSI-style probe has taken seven years. Flesh or bone from 13 of the 19 Al Qaeda terrorists who flew passenger jets into the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington have now been identified. In the most intense crime scene investigation in history, scientists sifted through a mountain of concrete dust, buckled iron and shattered glass to find what was left of the terrorists.

ITN – New rules requiring UK visitors to America to register online before travelling could lead to thousands of tourists being turned away by immigration officials at US airports. The Foreign Office said those who have not registered are likely to be detained and sent home. “Holidaymakers could get caught out if they fail to apply in time and it may prove a disincentive to people who like to travel spontaneously and book last-minute weekend breaks to cities like New York and Boston” Andrew Spice of Post Office Travel Services

From Monday, Britons travelling to the US on the visa waiver scheme will need to fill in an electronic travel authorisation form 72 hours before their trip.

Business:

Observer – Britain’s high street fashion giant Primark was at the centre of a storm last night over allegations that illegal immigrants paid just over half the minimum wage had been employed to make fashionable knitwear for one of the firm’s bestselling ranges. Primark announced yesterday that it had launched an inquiry after an investigation by the Observer and the BBC revealed that Manchester-based garment firm TNS Knitwear may have breached key employment and immigration laws. Breaches of the legislation could lead to fines of up to £10,000 for each illegal worker and potential prosecution for tax evasion and employment law abuses.

Times – TWO of Britain’s biggest retailers, Tesco and DSG International, will this week report their weakest Christmas sales figures since the recession of the early 1990s. Tesco will unveil a small rise in like-for-like sales of about 2.5%, which analysts believe would be its worst festive performance since 1993 after notching up 15 years of impressive sales growth. The grocer’s sales figures are expected to be the weakest of all the big supermarket chains. But Clive Black, head of research at Shore Capital, said: “While muted for Tesco, we should not forget that it still has the highest sales, cash and profit densities in the industry.” Meanwhile, DSGI, the group behind Currys and PC World, is expected to report that like-for-like sales plunged 10%-12% during the period. Analysts said that although sales of electrical goods had leapt in January, the rise would not make up for a difficult Christmas in which customers shunned big-ticket items.

Also In The News:

News of the World – Top Gear Stig unmasked: SOME say he was built from a stolen Ferrari blueprint, others that he’s an alien from the Planet Speed. But they’re all wrong. NOTW can tell you he’s MARRIED, lives quietly in a comfortable £300,000 home and was once TERRIFIED of driving. We can also report that when he’s not screaming around the show’s famous Gambon corner at breakneck speed in his white suit and black-visored helmet, the racetrack ace likes pootling around in a £15,000 car that would even bore James May.

Times – Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research. While millions of people tap into Google without considering the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.” Google is secretive about its energy consumption and carbon footprint. It also refuses to divulge the locations of its data centres. However, with more than 200m internet searches estimated globally daily, the electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by computers and the internet is provoking concern. A recent report by Gartner, the industry analysts, said the global IT industry generated as much greenhouse gas as the world’s airlines – about 2% of global CO2 emissions. “Data centres are among the most energy-intensive facilities imaginable,” said Evan Mills, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. Banks of servers storing billions of web pages require power.

Independent – Energy-guzzling flatscreen plasma televisions will soon be banned as part of the battle against climate change, ministers have said. “Minimum energy performance standards” for televisions are expected to be agreed across Europe this spring, they say, and this should lead to “phasing out the most inefficient TVs”. At the same time, a compulsory labelling system will be drawn up to identify the best and worst devices. The moves, which follow last week’s withdrawal of the 100W incandescent lightbulb, are part of a drive to slow the rapid growth of electricity consumption in homes by phasing out wasteful devices and introducing more efficient ones. Giant plasma televisions – dubbed “the 4x4s of the living room” – can consume four times as much energy as traditional TVs that used cathode ray tubes (CRTs). Over the past 30 years, the number of electric appliances and gadgets in a typical home has almost trebled – from 17 to 47 – as a host of devices from scanners to security systems, cappuccino makers to computer game consoles have joined the more traditional kettles, irons, vacuum cleaners and cookers. And the number of televisions in homes has also grown rapidly; there are now 60 million of them, one for every person in the country.

Links to more news stories, from the UK and around the world, and email subscription details for these summaries at WhitDawg.com

Recommended Blogs:

Fly The World – Articles about just about anything, from technology to politics, an excellent read.

Joels Blog – It’s like recess without all the dangerous playground equipment. Fun daily posts. Give it a click.

Letters From A Tory – Does what it says on the tin. Daily letters addressing topics currently making the news headlines.

Maggies Notebook – Daily articles centred around US politics, with a Republican accent, a great read.

Order Order – Guido Fawkes blog of plots, rumours and conspiracy.

Pickled Politics – Current affairs for a progressive generation.

Time In Moments – Makes compelling reading. Stories from all around the world and all subjects.

Wake Up America – A must read blog following the ins and outs of US politics, and other interesting stories.