ENGLAND'S cricketers, supposedly the best in the world, have suffered their first-ever series whitewash against Pakistan after losing the third and final Test in Dubai by 71 runs.

After being set an improbable target of 324 to win the match and salvage some pride, England's batsmen once again failed to deliver and were bowled out for 252 with Pakistan's spinners once again wreaking havoc.

The finger of blame for England's humiliation in the UAE has been pointed at the English middle order, who showed an astonishing inability to deal with spin. Between them Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell and Eoin Morgan managed a pathetic 200 runs in 18 innings at an average of just 11.11. They lost their wickets to spinners on 14 occasions.

There was an element of hubris in the words of Ian Bell (51 runs in six innings) who told the BBC last week that learning to bat against spin was “the last piece of the jigsaw” for England.

Sri Lankan bowling legend Muttiah Muralitharan, told The Daily Mail, that it was England's Achilles Heel. "On the subcontinent you have to learn to play spin very well," he said. "And in that department they are lacking."

He has a point. The top three English batsmen scored just one fifty each – the next three, Pietersen, Bell and Morgan, didn't manage one between them.

In fact, only wicket keeper Matt Prior averaged more than 30 runs across the entire series, prompting The Guardian to dig out a grim statistic which sums up the depth of the English malaise: "Only in two series have all the England batsmen failed to average more than 30 — in 1888 and 1935."

The main beneficiaries of England's limitations were the Pakistani spinners. Saeed Ajmal was the tormentor-in-chief and he finished the campaign with a 24 wicket haul, Abdur Rehman was not far behind with 19. The closest England offered in reply was Monty Panesar's 14.    

While it is perhaps too early to start talking about an overhaul of personnel, England now face a one-day series against Pakistan which offers plenty more opportunity for the Arabian Nightmare to continue. As The Daily Telegraph's Scyld Berry says: "Pakistan are perfectly capable of playing four spinners... and tormenting England further on the dry turning pitches of Dubai and Abu Dhabi."

And after this tour ends England head to Sri Lanka, where the spinners will be licking their lips. · 

ANTICIPATION surrounding Ridley Scott's reboot of cult sci-fi film Blade Runner has been heightened by reports that Harrison Ford, the star of the original movie, is set to join the cast, prompting speculation that the project is not a remake but a sequel.

News that Ford was in talks to sign up for the picture was broken on the Twitchfilm website. He played lead character Rick Deckard in Scott's 1982 movie of Philip K Dick's futuristic novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

"While this is still very early stages and it is quite possible that things won't work out the obvious implication is that what we are looking at is not a reboot but a direct sequel to the original," reported Twitchfilm.

Just six months ago producer Andrew Kosove told the LA Times: "In no way do I speak for Ridley Scott but if you're asking me will this movie have anything to do with Harrison Ford, the answer is no."

Quite what this apparent volte face means is unclear, but The Guardian is not afraid to speculate on the idea that it will pick up where the last film left off.

"Dick never wrote a sequel to the book, so Scott will probably be aiming to produce an original story," says the paper. "Three follow-up novels by Dick's friend, KW Jeter, were written between 1995 and 2000 to try to resolve some of the differences between Blade Runner and its source novel, but they were poorly received."

Scott himself signed up for the Blade Runner 2 project almost a year ago, but details remain sketchy. It is not even known if it will be his next project after he finishes work on Prometheus, another much-anticipated sci-fi epic that has its origins in his 1979 classic Alien.

Prometheus, starring Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender, is a kind of prequel set in the same universe as Alien although it doesn't feature the same characters or monsters. It is due out in June. · 

THE 'SeaWorld Five' get their day in court today, when lawyers for the animal rights group Peta attempt to argue that the group of killer whales held at two marine parks are being subjected to slavery, in breach of the 13th Amendment.

Peta alleges that the killer whales - Tillikum, Katina, Corky, Kasatka and Ulises - "were forcibly taken from their families and natural habitats, are held captive at SeaWorld San Diego and SeaWorld Orlando... and forced to perform, all for [the] defendants' profit". The lawsuit hinges on whether the animals have rights under the 13th Amendment, which bans "slavery and involuntary servitude".

SeaWorld said when the allegations were first publicised last year that they were "baseless and in many ways offensive". Now a leading British conservationist has warned Peta's lawsuit is a "strategic error" which could backfire and lead to worse suffering for captive animals.

Philippa Brakes, senior biologist at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, agrees with Peta that incarcerating a large-brained mammal such as a killer whale "amounts to slavery", but says the legal bid to have them released would not necessarily be recognised by the public.

Brakes told The Guardian that although the animals lead "hideous lives", few of those who have seen them in captivity are aware of their ordeals. She also cautioned about creating legal precedent with the move, which is being heard in court in America this week, for fear that if the case is lost then case law is enshrined against granting rights to "non-human persons".

"I would love to be wrong, and that they find for the orcas in this case, but I doubt very much that's going to happen, and I think it's a strategic error," she said. Brakes instead believes that animal rights groups should look to show that creatures such as orcas should be seen not as equals to humans, but as "persons with rights".

"It's more than court cases, it's really about changing people's attitudes and understanding," she said.

Writing for The Week in November last year, Alexander Cockburn endorsed Tillikum and the SeaWorld Five in their bid for freedom, invoking hundreds of years of legal precedent in which the rights of animals - and their consciousness - were recognised in common law.

Indeed Cockburn said it was only the dawn of capitalism that stripped animals of their rights: "They had been rendered, philosophically and literally, resources for guiltless exploitation, turned into objects of commerce, labour, food – and entertainment. Tillikum should get his day in court." · 

HARRY POTTER actor Daniel Radcliffe has announced that he is no longer under the spell of the Lib Dems, who he supported at the last election, and has switched his allegiance to Ed Miliband and the Labour party.

He described Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg as a "whipping boy" who had been "used" by the Tories and made too many sacrifices since forming a coalition government.

But the 22-year-old sprinkled some magic on Miliband, whose leadership of the Labour party has come under fire in recent months, and said he was a fan. Radcliffe made the comments in an interview with gay lifestyle magazine Attitude.

Asked if he was happy with Clegg and the Lib Dems, he said: "No, of course not.

"I was initially supportive. For me it was good that the Lib Dems would be fighting our corner. But he has become a whipping boy and it seems to me that he has been totally used by the Tories - anything they don't want badly reflected on them they reflect on to him.

"It's very unfortunate when you think how impressive he was in those pre-election debates. But he has made so many concessions."

Of Miliband he said: "I really like him. He speaks for what I believe in. I think he's genuinely left-wing, and will act as such if he gets in."

Perhaps in order to prove his own left-wing credentials, multi-millionaire Radcliffe insisted that those who earn more should pay more tax. "If you make a lot more money than most people, like I do, you should pay more tax and subsidise people who work just as hard as you, but don't earn as much," he said.

Radcliffe, who also expressed disgust at the "homophobic" language of the Republican presidential hopefuls in the US, is not the first celebrity to abandon the party.

"Colin Firth, another actor and A-list Hollywood star declared in December that he was ending his support for the Lib Dems," says The Guardian. "The party has also lost the support of Bella Freud, the fashion designer, and Kate Mosse, the author." · 

FOLLOWING a weekend that brought temperatures as low as -8.6C (Church Fenton, North Yorkshire) and a blanket of snow up to five inches deep, freezing Britons are asking: what next?

According to The Daily Telegraph, there is another month of snowpocalypse to come.

"Biting temperatures, snow showers and overnight frosts could last until the end of February," says the newspaper, stretching the definition of 'news' as it reports typical February weather.

The Guardian is more sanguine, saying "fears of further downfalls have receded" but anticipating low temperatures for the rest of the month in the south and east. The north and west, meanwhile, will experience "milder but more unsettled weather".

The Daily Mail admits that no further snowfall is forecast until Saturday but warns that the ice hazard will continue with "bitterly cold" temperatures in eastern parts of the country for the next 10 days.

While the snowfall did cause disruption, many people managed to enjoy the white stuff, with snowball fights, sledging, giant snowmen and even off-piste snowboarding and skiing.

The Mail reports that a 55-year-old man was airlifted to hospital in North Yorkshire on Sunday afternoon when he "came off his sledge at high speed". He suffered spinal injuries – but his condition is not thought to be life-threatening.

At least 64 schools were forced to remain closed today, mostly in the south east of England. Journeys on the London Underground were also disrupted, with passengers on a broken-down Tube forced to get out and walk. · 

Nicolas Sarkozy's troubled bid to be returned as French president in April and May's elections has suffered a fresh blow with the publication of a book that claims he is living the high life in the Elysee Palace while the rest of the country is enduring harsh austerity measures, according to The Sunday Times.

Rene Dosiere, a Socialist MP, claims in L'Argent de l'Etat (The state's money) that Sarkozy maintains a fleet of 121 cars parked under his official residence and serves £160 bottles of wine to guests at lunch receptions. "Sarkozy ignores the most elementary principles of the separation between private and public accounts," Dosiere says.

A recent example of Sarkozy's largesse at the expense of the state came last month when the president allegedly dispatched a jet used for presidential and government business to the Ukraine to return his DJ son Pierre, who had fallen ill in Odessa, to France. Sarkozy paid €7,632 towards this trip, but the French state was left with a €32,000 shortfall to make up.

The presidential cars cost the French state £100,000 a year to insure, and a further £275,000 to fuel, although apparently Sarkozy is more likely to be found in the Airbus A330 which in 2008 he had fitted to his specifications. The cost of this was a staggering £215m, according to Dosiere: twice the officially declared figure.

Dosiere's revelations will do nothing for Sarkozy's waning popularity among French voters, who remain on course to ditch him at the election. A pair of polls by LH2 and BVA over the last week show Francois Hollande, the Socialist challenger, stretching his lead over Sarkozy. Both give the left-winger 34 per cent of the first-round vote. (Holland maintains a massive 14 per cent lead in second round preferences, winning 57-43.)

In fact, the most pressing task for the French president is to counter the threat to him from the right. In recent weeks, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National, has come within 2 per cent of Sarkozy in the polls, threatening to emulate the achievement of her father Jean Marie, who forced his way past the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin into the second round of the 2002 presidential election.

Le Pen Jr told The Sunday Times this weekend that France should withdraw from the euro and should return to the franc. "Our companies are not competitive because our currency is overvalued. We need a national currency that we can use as a monetary lever. We would have employment, growth and economic dynamism."

To an electorate increasingly sick of excess at the Elysee, Le Pen's anti-establishment views and simple answers are gaining her a growing army of supporters. “We have never seen such an elevated level of support for a far-right candidate three months before a presidential election,” said Jean-Daniel Lévy, an analyst with Harris Interactive. · 

OLYMPIC nay-sayers have another reason to feel smug this morning after reports over the weekend that the Games will not only cause transport chaos in London, but they will also "break" the internet.

The latest piece of doom-mongering is contained in a report from the Cabinet Office designed to help businesses prepare for the Games, which are already predicted to cause havoc in the capital in a number of other ways.

"It is possible that internet services may be slower during the Games or in very severe cases there may be drop outs due to an increased number of people accessing the internet," warns the report.

It even talks about rationing access to the internet and says that providers "may introduce data caps during peak times". Phone services may also be affected it notes.

To make matters worse the problems could undermine the government's efforts to encourage people to work from home during the Games, to try and lessen the strain on the transport network.

But it now seems that Londoners are in a cleft stick. Those struggling into the office face huge delays on the Tube and trains, while those who stay at home might not be able to access the internet.

"There's been a lot of discussion about traffic hotspots, but very little about potential internet traffic problems," one office manager told The Guardian. "The risk is that home workers are unable to work effectively due to over-capacity."

The paper notes: "The government believes that encouraging businesses to allow staff to work from other offices or home, or at different times, is key to easing congestion in the capital this summer."

The Daily Mail also carries the warning: "Britain faces an internet meltdown during the London 2012 Olympic Games."
 
The timing of the government report could hardly have been better. This week thousands of civil servants are working from home as the government tests its plans to reduce pressure on the transport system during the Olympics. · 

ROBOCOP HAS come to London, and civil liberties groups – and residents – are not happy about it. An automated talking CCTV camera which warns passers-by that a communal garden is a "restricted area" has been dubbed "police state" technology.

Talking cameras first appeared in Middlesbrough in 2007 before spreading to other parts of the UK. They normally rely on a real person talking to alleged miscreants via a loudspeaker from the CCTV control centre.

The new system, installed by Camden Council on the Walker House estate near St Pancras, is thought to be the first time an automated voice triggered by CCTV cameras has been used in this way.

Local resident Jim Jepps was so outraged when he discovered that the mere act of walking through the communal garden by his block of flats triggered a robotic American voice to threaten him that he filmed it, posting the video on the internet.

When Jepps nears the camera in the green space, the voice says: "Stop! This is a restricted area and your photograph is being taken. It will be sent for processing if you do not leave the area now."

Clearly angry, Jepps adds his own commentary: "Absolutely outrageous. Camden council, you do not have the power to make my home a restricted area and tell me to leave it."

Jepps is particularly angry because he says there is no problem with crime on the estate – and the latest home office figures show no crimes recorded there for a year.

Councillor Roger Robinson told The Independent the cameras were a response to ten years of harassment and threats against residents. He
said: "We don't want drug dealing and harassment.

"People have been known to smash cars and steal motorbikes. We're entitled to do something."

But Nick Pickles of pressure group Big Brother Watch told The Daily Telegraph: "This kind of technology may be acceptable in a police state or a science fiction film, but it is absolutely not in modern Britain."

He added: "The idea that a Robocop recording will tackle antisocial behaviour and crime is as laughable as it is a total invasion of privacy."

 · 

A FORMER mistress of John F Kennedy has published a book in which she reveals how she lost her virginity to the US President while working as a White House intern.

Mimi Alford, described in the New York Post as having been "a slender, golden-haired 19-year-old debutante", tells of her 18-month affair, which only ended when JFK was assassinated in 1963, in Once Upon A Secret.

Alford says she was just four days into her 1962 internship when she was spotted by the president while taking a swim in the White House pool. An invitation to an after-work party promptly arrived, and when she attended, she says she was plied with drinks while waiting for Kennedy (pictured above with his wife Jackie).

When he got there, the president is said to have offered her a personal tour. She accepted, expecting the other guests to follow but, as the NY Post puts it: "They didn't. He took her to 'Mrs Kennedy's room'."

The book then goes into a graphic account of Alford losing her virginity to Kennedy, who she called Mr President throughout their affair, replete with salacious snippets such as: "I could feel his breath on my neck. He put his hand on my shoulder... I finished unbuttoning my shirtdress and let it fall off my shoulders."

The president, according to Alford, was keen to share his teenage conquest with his friends.

One such story involves Kennedy's special assistant, Dave Powers, and yet more lunchtime swimming. Alford writes: "The president swam over and whispered in my ear. 'Mr. Powers looks a little tense... Would you take care of it?'... This was a challenge to give Dave Powers oral sex... I'm ashamed to say that I did... The president silently watched."

Despite drawing the most attention, the sexual shenanigans are merely one part of Alford's story, which also touches on the President's feelings about the Cuban missile crisis – "I'd rather my children red than dead," he is said to have told his mistress – and his inconsolable grief at the death of his infant son. · 

GREECE'S COALITION leaders must tell the EU today whether they will accept the terms of a new £108bn bailout package after weeks of wrangling – and after failing to reach an accord on Sunday night as they had promised.

If they accept it after today's talks, the bailout will be the country's second since 2010. It will accompany an agreement with the country's private creditors to accept deep losses on the bonds they hold.

The rescue is conditional on the Greeks enacting unpopular austerity measures and the country's rulers are reluctant to be associated with them.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the leaders of the main parties emerged from discussions on Sunday night with Papademos saying they had made "limited progress".

But two of those leaders sounded notes of scepticism. The far-right Popular Orthodox party's Giorgos Karatzaferis insisted he would not "contribute to a revolution that will humiliate us and ... burn Europe", and the conservative New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said Greece was "unable to bear" the reforms.

The alternative – allowing the country to effectively go bankrupt, entering default – is unthinkable. So is this down-to-the-wire wrangling just posturing?

According to The Financial Times, the Greek politicians are guilty of brinkmanship because they "must be seen by voters to be putting up a fight" over the package, while having every intention of agreeing it.

Rate strategists Rabobank aren't coy about the 'b' word either, telling Reuters that Greek brinkmanship could harm the global economy: "We continue to see the likelihood of a Greek messy default as remote ... [but] continued brinkmanship and a dose of pre-electoral posturing in Greece itself stands to prompt further market jitters."

But the Greeks can only cry wolf for so long – if that's what they are doing – says Jacob Funk Kirkegaard of the fiscally conservative, Washington-based Peterson Institute.

After March, he writes, when Germany is expected to approve a beefing-up of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) rescue fund, "a Greek default and possibly even voluntary exit from the euro area might be a risk worth contemplating". ·