The Lawyer: Legal bodies run the gauntlet of creating contracts for sets’ fees

Legal bodies run the gauntlet of creating contracts for sets’ fees

The Lawyer: The issue of barristers’ fees is a bit like Fight Club – the first rule is you don’t talk about it. Yet it is an issue that is of increasing importance as litigators ask counsel to share the pain and help clients with limited budgets bring cases to fruition.

Independent: Saved from the death squads: Darfuris given asylum in UK

Saved from the death squads: Darfuris given asylum in UK

Independent: Hundreds of Darfuris fleeing persecution in Sudan will be given protection in Britain after a government U-turn on its handling of asylum claims brought by refugees from the troubled African state.

The change of policy follows mounting evidence that non-Arab asylum seekers returned to Sudan face arrest, torture and death at the hands of the Arab militias and security services. In one case, highlighted by The Independent earlier this year, a Darfuri man repatriated to Khartoum was executed after government officers followed him to his village in the south of the region.

Independent: Darling unveils his great bank bailout – Mk II

Darling unveils his great bank bailout – Mk II

Independent: It was groundhog day in the Square Mile yesterday as the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, unveiled his second attempt to revive Britain’s “zombie” banks in just over a year.

Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland were allocated a further £39.2bn to prop them up, just 13 months after the Treasury injected £35bn into the ailing institutions to save them from collapse.

Most of the cash will go to RBS, which will get £25.5bn of taxpayers’ cash to strengthen its balance sheet; up to £8bn more will be available to ensure it can keep trading if there’s a second recession. RBS will also have £282bn of risky assets protected by a state-backed insurance scheme.

Guardian: David Cameron to shed ‘cast iron’ pledge on Lisbon treaty

David Cameron to shed ‘cast iron’ pledge on Lisbon treaty

Guardian:

• Conservatives abandon plans for referendum on EU agreement
• To appease Eurosceptics, leader will set out tough new stance

Times: Baby RB at risk of more painful death if cared for at home, says infant’s doctor

Baby RB at risk of more painful death if cared for at home, says infant’s doctor

Times: A severely disabled baby at the centre of a life or death battle between his parents would be at risk of a more painful death if his father was to have him cared for at home, the boy’s doctor told the High Court yesterday.

Doctors, supported by the mother, want to withdraw life support from the one-year-old boy, known as Baby RB, who cannot breathe unaided. But the father, who is separated from the mother, opposes the move.

Footage compiled by Baby RB’s father and played in court showed the boy reacting to a doll, tugging on a balloon string and pulling his mother’s hair, Martin Westgate, representing the father, said.

But Dr F, the consultant in charge of the boy’s care, said that the footage was not evidence of deliberate movement.

Times: City workers ‘driven out of Nomura for not being male or Japanese’

City workers ‘driven out of Nomura for not being male or Japanese’

Times: Two City workers who are each suing a Japanese investment bank for £1.5 million say they were driven from their jobs because they were not male and not Japanese.

Maureen Murphy, 30, and Anna Francis, 37, are both suing Nomura for sex and race discrimination and unfair dismissal. Miss Murphy also alleges sexual harassment.

Their barrister, Michael Duggan, told the Central London Employment Tribunal: “This organisation is institutionally racist and sexist.”

Times: Specsavers wins day in court with Asda

Specsavers wins day in court with Asda

Times: Specsavers, the high street optician, is heading for a court showdown with Asda in a row over copycat advertising.

The Guernsey-based retailer has accused the supermarket giant of infringing its trademarks in an advertising campaign for eyeglasses launched online and in more than 80 supermarkets last month.

It claims that the slogan used by Asda — “Be a real spec saver at Asda” — is designed to mislead customers and harm its business. It also objects to the use of a logo with two ellipses similar to Specsavers’ logo.

Specsavers won the first round of the legal battle on Tuesday after a judge agreed to treat the case urgently and scheduled a full trial for April. Mr Justice Kitchin, sitting in the High Court in London, ruled that there was sufficient evidence to believe that Asda’s campaign could threaten Specsavers’ reputation to bring the trial forward.

Times: Saudi rapist and murderer to be beheaded and crucified

Saudi rapist and murderer to be beheaded and crucified

Times: A man who kidnapped and raped five children, one of whom was left in the desert to die, has been sentenced to be beheaded and his body publicly crucified.

Muhammed Basheer al-Ramaly, 22, from the northern city of Hail, will be executed at noon today, according to Saudi reports. He will be beheaded by sword then his body tied to a wooden cross and his head stuck on a pole as a deterrent to other would-be killers.

Telegraph: David Cameron to tell voters: no vote on Lisbon Treaty

David Cameron to tell voters: no vote on Lisbon Treaty

Telegraph: The Tory party leader’s admission, which could come as early as Tuesday, will bring accusations that he has broken clear promises to grant a popular vote on the treaty.

Mr Cameron gave voters an “iron-clad” promise in 2007 that a Conservative government would hold a popular vote on Lisbon.

Independent: Postal union to sue over hiring of casual labour

Postal union to sue over hiring of casual labour

Independent: The Royal Mail is to face legal action over the recruitment of 30,000 agency staff during the post strike, union leaders announced tonight.

The Communication Workers Union served notice of action in the High Court on Friday after considering the move for the past few weeks.

Independent: We got it wrong on immigration, says Johnson

We got it wrong on immigration, says Johnson

Independent: The Home Secretary admitted yesterday the Government had made serious mistakes over immigration and in the aftermath of the 7 July bombings. Alan Johnson confessed Labour had been “maladroit” in its handling of immigration and accepted ministers had ignored for “far too long” the problems that led to a backlog of 450,000 unprocessed claims.

Mr Johnson also acknowledged parts of Britain were struggling to cope. In his first speech on the subject, he said: “There are communities which have been disproportionately affected by immigration, where people have legitimate concerns about the strain that the growth in the local population has placed on jobs and services.”

Independent: Revealed – hidden misery of children trafficked to Britain

Revealed: hidden misery of children trafficked to Britain

Independent: Hundreds of children trafficked to Britain each year are being failed by social workers, teachers and doctors, it is claimed today in a report which uncovers the hidden misery of the international trade in young labour.

Independent: Woman admits hiding terror files in burka

Woman admits hiding terror files in burka

Independent: A mother of six has been given a two-year jail sentence after admitting concealing “a mini encyclopaedia of weapons making” in the sleeve of her burka.

Houria Chahed Chentouf, 41, from Manchester, pleaded guilty to two offences of possessing documents likely to be useful for a terrorist. She was released at Manchester Crown Court as she has served her time on remand.

The court heard she accidentally dropped a pen drive containing terror-related documents while being interviewed by officers at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport on 16 October last year.

Independent: Tory MP apologises for ‘gas chambers’ expenses email

Tory MP apologises for ‘gas chambers’ expenses email

Independent: A Conservative MP was ordered to apologise by David Cameron after he likened the plight of politicians over expenses to the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany.

David Wilshire’s remarks, on the eve of tomorrow’s publication of wide-ranging plans to overhaul the expenses system, provoked anger and embarrassment in the Tory leadership. The MP for Spelthorne, Surrey, has already been forced to step down at the next election after paying £105,000 of expenses into a company he owns.

Times: Parents fight in court over whether disabled son should live or die

Parents fight in court over whether disabled son should live or die

Times: The parents of a severely disabled baby faced each other in the High Court yesterday on opposite sides of a case to determine whether the boy should be allowed to die.

Doctors, supported by mother, want to withdraw life support from the year-old boy, known only as Baby RB. They say he faces a “miserable, sad and pitiable existence”. The father, who is separated from his wife, is fighting the doctors’ application.

Michael Mylonas, for the NHS trust, said that Baby RB, who cannot breathe unaided and has been on a ventilator since birth, faced a life of intolerable pain. He was born with congenital myasthenic syndrome, a neuromuscular condition from which there was no hope of recovery. The syndrome affects only about 300 people in Britain.

Telegraph: Lights are going out at the Foreign Office

Lights are going out at the Foreign Office

Telegraph: Diplomacy rivals prostitution as the oldest profession. Like street-walking, it has never enjoyed a wholly favourable reputation. Often confused with its clandestine cousin, espionage, it has for centuries been associated with deviousness and duplicity. Added to this is the outdated but stubbornly enduring image of the aristocratic diplomat, clad in pinstripes, quaffing champagne, leading the good life in a magnificent embassy.

Despite such stereotypes, other countries have traditionally held the British Foreign Office in high esteem for its pragmatism and expertise. Sadly, this reputation is now under threat. Like much of Whitehall, the Foreign Office today cannot make up its mind whether it is a service or a business. Blitzed by Labour’s targets culture and short of funds, it is punching well below its weight, when diplomacy is needed as much today as at any time in the past 500 years.

Independent: Change law on organ donation, doctors say

Change law on organ donation, doctors say

Independent: Every adult in the UK would be legally required to decide whether to donate their organs after death, under a radical solution to the critical shortage of organs for transplant put forward by the country’s oldest royal medical college. The ethics committee of the 500-year-old Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has called for an examination of “mandated choice” as a means of boosting the supply of organs, the shortage of which is leading to more than 1,000 avoidable deaths a year.

Guardian: Labour’s great bank sell-off could cost taxpayers another £40bn

Labour’s great bank sell-off could cost taxpayers another £40bn

Guardian: Alistair Darling will need to pour up to £40bn of taxpayers’ money into the banking system if he is to fulfil a pledge to carve out three new banking players on the high street in the next four years.

A formal announcement from the chancellor on the new shape of the banking industry is expected as soon as Tuesday and will give a clearer picture of the commitment from the taxpayer needed to execute the plans imposed upon the government by Brussels.

The EU is demanding branches be carved out of Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group that will be sold to new entrants and operate alongside a rejuvenated Northern Rock, creating three new banking players in an industry that was becoming dominated by a handful of high street names.

Times: Woman left broke by divorce payout takes fight to Supreme Court

Woman left broke by divorce payout takes fight to Supreme Court

Times: A British woman left almost penniless by divorce goes to the Supreme Court this week in a case that will test London’s reputation as the divorce capital of the world.

Sikirat Agbaje, 68, is challenging a divorce award made in her native Nigeria and upheld by the Court of Appeal in London that left her with just under £7,000.

Her former husband, Olusola, 71, a barrister to whom she was married for 40 years, took £616,000, including two properties in London.

But Mrs Agbaje, of New Barnet, North London, argues that the divorce in 2005 should have been heard in Britain, where she would be entitled to a far bigger share of the assets.

Times: Father of Baby RB fights hospital’s decision to turn off life support

Father of Baby RB fights hospital’s decision to turn off life support

Times: A father whose son was born with a rare neuromuscular condition will go to the High Court today to try to stop a hospital withdrawing support that keeps the child alive.

Doctors treating the one-year-old boy say that his quality of life is so poor that it would not be in his best interests to keep him alive. They say that they are supported in their action by the baby’s mother. The couple are separated.

The child, known for legal reasons as Baby RB, was born with congenital myasthenic syndrome, a muscle condition that severely limits movement and the ability to breathe independently. He has been in hospital since birth.