Focus on 'great payback scramble'

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After days of damaging headlines over the expenses claims row, it is time for what the Independent calls the <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/latest-expenses-revealed-as-mps-join-payback-scramble-1684570.html">"great payback scramble". </a>

They are, says the Guardian, the words hundreds of MPs fear - <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/13/mps-fear-repaying-expenses">"you've got to pay it back".</a> But the paper says this will not repay <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/13/mps-expenses-public-reaction">decayed public trust.</a>

It is the Speaker, Michael Martin, who is seen as the most vulnerable.

The Daily Mirror believes there is <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/13/martin-quit-calls-grow-over-fiasco-115875-21354158/">growing support in parliament</a> to axe him over the expenses scandal.

'Retarded homophobes'

The Daily Mail says the national adoption agency allegedly describes people with concerns about adoption by gay couples as <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1181380/Slurred-adoption-Nazis-Critics-gay-parenting-branded-retarded-homophobes.html">"retarded homophobes".</a>

The paper says the description has angered politicians, church leaders and disability campaigners.

The <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/100902">Daily Express</a> and the <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news">Daily Star</a> report illegal immigrants are paying up to £10,000 to be smuggled into Britain.

They claim flights go to Ireland from where migrants walk into Northern Ireland and take a ferry to England.

Rape investigation

The Times reports the policing standards watchdog is <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6283719.ece">to investigate the low conviction rate for rape.</a>

The paper says the initiative is the first of its kind.

The <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2428338.ece">Sun</a> and the <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/100893/NHS-tells-mum-her-boy-s-too-fat-">Daily Express</a> tell the story of a boy of five who was told by doctors that he is too fat because he is 1lb (0.45kg) over his ideal weight.

His mother was furious to receive a letter warning her son was at risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease. The primary care trust has apologised.

Oldest bust

Finally, you rarely find anything erotic on Page 3 of the Independent, but today you do... well sort of.

It is <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/after-35000-years-erotic-art-for-cavemen-discovered-1684569.html">a piece of erotic art for cavemen</a> - carved out of a mammoth's tusk more than 35,000 years ago.

The figurine, found in a German cave, depicts a naked woman with grotesquely exaggerated sexual features.

According to the paper, it is the oldest known statuette of the human form. The Daily Mail says the figure looks more like a frozen chicken.