Post by Taxigirl on Nov 8, 2003 10:00:51 GMT
The sombre headline "Friends in life, entwined in death" is how the Times introduces its coverage of the Soham murder trial.
It reports that the jury at the Old Bailey was told how the bodies of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were found together in a ditch in a lonely country lane.
The Times says the parents of the two girls stayed in courtroom number one to see photographs of their charred clothing shown on giant screens.
The two girls' necklaces, says the Sun, were found with the bodies.
The paper reports the prosecution's assertion that Holly and Jessica were probably suffocated. Ian Huntley denies murdering the two girls.
Allegations relating to his former girlfriend Maxine Carr, who denies conspiring to pervert the course of justice, also appear in many of Saturday morning's papers.
The Sun reports the claim by the prosecution that she agreed to be Mr Huntley's alibi, and that a crib card listing times for her to remember was found in her house.
Portillo bows out
Contrasting images of two public figures dominate the broadsheets.
As Prince Charles looks suitably embattled in a fort in Oman, Michael Portillo beams across the front page of the Guardian.
Appropriately, for a man who has just announced he is going to stand down as an MP at the next election, he is pictured underneath a sign marked "exit".
There is much disagreement about the political legacy he will leave when he retires from Westminster.
The Sun makes its position clear in the headline to its editorial: "Good Riddance".
Few in the Conservative party will mourn his departure, says the paper, because the Tories will find it easier to unify without him.
The Daily Telegraph takes a more equivocal view.
It says Mr Portillo's personal magnetism and chronic indecision made him the Hamlet of the Conservative Party and the "greatest enigma in British politics".
Royal allegations
Several papers note the difficulty of commentating on allegations that have yet to be published in detail. But that does not stop them from doing so.
In an editorial headlined "Clear as mud", the Financial Times says it hopes the statement from Clarence House denying unspecified allegations against the Prince does not herald a wider trend of denying stories that have yet to become public.
Job offer
A story which has both been made public and denied is the one on the front page of the Guardian.
It claims that Tony Blair is preparing to offer Peter Mandelson a job as a European commissioner.
According to the Guardian, "well placed sources" have said Mr Blair has already assured the former Northern Ireland secretary he can have the post if he wants it
Mr Mandelson has denied that he has been offered the job.
Key task
Finally, the Daily Mail reports that scientists have lost the keys to the laboratory where America keeps its most highly classified secrets about nuclear weapons.
A security audit revealed that nine master keys had disappeared from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
The paper says the authorities have now set about changing the locks - all 100,000 of them.