Wednesday's Papers

New curbs on bank bonuses says the Times as it leads with the story that Gordon Brown writing in the paper Gordon Brown claims that banking’s “old excesses” are coming to an end after Royal Bank of Scotland bowed to pressure and slashed its cash bonuses for staff by 90 per cent.

The Mirror carries the headline Fat Cat Cut across its front page

After yesterday's inflation figures the Telegraph reports that Workers in the UK are being warned to expect pay freezes as the cost of living rises at its slowest rate for almost 50 years.

Both the Mail and the Express are also concerned about the workforce.They both pick up on the report that according to the Mail,foreign workers are taking a greater share of British jobs than ever.The paper says

They now hold more than 3.8million jobs - 13 per cent of the total. In 1997, when Labour came to power, people born outside the UK held only two million jobs, 7.5 per cent of the workforce.

Many of the papers report on the downfall of Sir Allen Stanford who says the Independent has been charged along with and two associates with a “massive” $8.5bn (£6bn) fraud at his Antigua-based bank,

And there is more reporting of corruption in the Guardian which tells us that David Mills,estranged husband of Tessa Jowell was sentenced to four and a half years in an Italian jail for taking a $600,000 (£400,000) bribe as a reward for withholding court testimony to help Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

It leads with the story that Syria expects the US to send an ambassador to Damascus soon to make good on Barack Obama's offer to engage in dialogue with countries the Bush administration shunned,after President Bashar al-Assad was interviewed by the paper.

Staying with foriegn affairs the Times reports that after an investigation by the paper,it has discovered that the CIA is secretly using an airbase in southern Pakistan to launch the Predator drones that observe and attack al-Qaeda and Taleban militants on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan.

Another investigation on the front of the Indepedent.

Tonnes of toxic waste collected from British municipal dumps is being sent illegally to Africa in flagrant breach of this country’s obligation to ensure its rapidly growing mountain of defunct televisions, computers and gadgets are disposed of safely.

Finally the Sun claims that the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has been classified low risk and recommended for release from Broadmoor.The paper says that

The top-security hospital’s doctors have told lawyers representing the Ripper — who murdered 13 women and tried to kill seven others — that he is no longer dangerous.