Papers ponder plots to oust Brown

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The Sunday Times suggests that Labour is beginning to tear itself apart.

It claims Foreign Secretary David Miliband has told friends he would stand for the leadership if enough backbenchers turn against Gordon Brown.

The Observer reports that up to 40 backbenchers may be ready to back a leadership challenge.

That is dismissed by an unnamed ally of the prime minister who asks the Mail on Sunday: "Are Labour MPs really going to commit political hara-kiri en masse?"

Rise in murders

"Where is it all going to end?" were the words of Robert Knox's uncle, the latest victim of street violence.

The Independent on Sunday has seen an internal Scotland Yard report which reveals the murder rate for under-21s has more than doubled in three years.

The Sunday Mirror is appalled by Home Office figures showing just nine of 47,000 people convicted of carrying a knife received the maximum sentence.

The Sunday Telegraph says it makes it hard to persuade teenagers not to carry knives.

Divorce lawyers

The Mail on Sunday highlights the controversy over whether the Church of England should work to convert Muslims to Christianity.

It quotes the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, as saying the Church had rightly shown sensitivity towards Muslims but it may have gone "too far".

The Observer highlights an unexpected side-effect of the economic downturn.

A growing number of wives have been consulting divorce lawyers as rumours of job losses hit the City, it says.

'Not science'

The Telegraph reports Royal Society of Chemistry members have been amazed by the "extraordinarily simple" questions in science tests for 14-year-olds.

In one, pupils were shown a star-shaped fossil and asked whether the animal it related to could have been a snail, a starfish, a ladybird or a slug.

In another, they were asked: "What does a riding hat protect?"

The paper reports the society as saying the exam paper had more to do with reading ability than science.