Tottenham riots, Obama under fire for downgrade, polar bear ‘shot in head’

From political intrigue, to business scandal to scurrilous tales of the rich and famous, our trawl through the gutters of Britain's Sunday papers is posted before 12 noon every week.

BANK OF ENGLAND TO WARN OF SLOWER UK GROWTHMervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, is expected to warn on Wednesday that the UK economy will slow down, reducing the bank's "target range" for growth in the face of a world double-dip recession, the Sunday Telegraph reports. The US is still reeling from the loss of its top ranking AAA credit rating for the first time in modern history, and it is this which prompted the Bank's revised predictions.

RIOTERS BURN POLICE CARS IN TOTTENHAMAn angry mob last night set fire to two police cars and a double-decker bus in a north London protest at the fatal shooting by police of local man Mark Duggan on Thursday. Protesters refuse to believe Duggan was a gangster who shot a policeman who only escaped injury when the bullet lodged in his radio. The Observer reports looting took place.
Tottenham riots - picturesUS NAVY SEALS DIE IN WORST AFGHANISTAN ATTACKThe Taliban have carried out the deadliest attack on coalition forces in Afghanistan since the war began there 10 years ago. More than 20 US navy 'Seals' (members of the elite unit that killed Osama bin Laden) died when their helicopter was shot down during a night raid, says the Sunday Times. Seven Afghan troops were also killed.

SULLIVAN: Road runner obama zips along againAndrew Sullivan, in the Sunday Times, says Barack Obama took a minor short-term hit in debt ceiling negotiations to advance his long-term goals. "Wile E Coyote (the Republicans) built the biggest Acme bomb available and knew, just knew, that that pesky Road Runner (Obama) would be destroyed when he ran into it. But he's zipping along again, and their faces are blackened with soot."

KILLER POLAR BEAR WAS SHOT THROUGH HEADThe father of the group leader of British teenagers mauled by a polar bear in Norway has told how his son shot the animal dead, in the only first-hand account to emerge since 17-year-old Horatio Chapple was killed by the starving animal on Friday morning, says the Mail on Sunday. Michael Reid and three others are still in hospital.

MILLIONAIRES TO TAKE DAY TRIPS TO THE TITANICThe Observer reports that a new breed of super-deep submarines are being developed by several companies which will allow a marine version of space-tourism: the super-rich will be able to pay to be taken down to depths of as much as 1,100 metres at the bottom of the ocean. Film director James Cameron is working on his own such sub.

BARACK OBAMA UNDER FIRE AFTER CREDIT CRISISThe Observer reports that US president Barack Obama is at the centre of an ugly blame game in American politics after the shock news that Standard & Poor's had downgraded the country's top-level AAA credit rating for the first time in modern history. Republican Michele Bachmann said he was "destroying" the US economy.
Will investors ignore S&P’s US credit downgrade?WINEHOUSE 'SMOKED CRACK' THE NIGHT SHE DIEDThe People repeats unsupported allegations made by Tony Azzopardi, a 56-year-old who says he acted as a drugs fixer for Amy Winehouse. Azzopardi says he helped the late singer buy crack and heroin on the night she died and saw her smoke the former drug in the back of a Taxi cab. He has been interviewed by police.

Julian assange: how I got my white hairThe Mail on Sunday prints an extract of The Revolution Will Be Digitised, the latest book to accuse WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange of being a serial womaniser. Other insights by author Heather Brooke include Assange's explanation of how he got his platinum blond hair - "a childhood experiment with a cathode ray tube" and the revelation that his grandfather was a Taiwanese pirate.
Julian Assange: experiment gave me white hair  ·