A new survey confirms what every newspaper reader in the country already suspected: Richard Branson has been generating

A new survey confirms what every newspaper reader in the country already suspected: Richard Branson has been generating more headlines and column inches than any other British celebrity. For the past three months the Virgin tycoon has been the subject of more press attention than the Labour leader Tony Blair, the Princess of Wales and even the Spice Girls, according to the latest quarterly report from the newspaper cuttings service Durrants. In recent weeks, the 46-year- old multi-millionaire has raised his media profile to new heights through his abortive round-the-world balloon flight. Undaunted by the failure of that enterprise, he grabbed the headlines again by jetting off to New York with Chris Evans in a bid to sign the DJ for Virgin Radio. Durrants, which scans nearly 200,000 cuttings a year, is forecasting that the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, Referendum Party leader and financier Sir James Goldsmith and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer of Evita, will feature prominently in its next quarterly survey.. A new criminal offence to deter paedophiles from seeking or accepting work with children was proposed in a government consultation paper yesterday.

Ministers seek views on the details of the offence, such as the age of the children who should be protected, the jobs and activities which should be covered, how the offence should be formulated and the effect on employers and voluntary organisations. The paper proposes that the offence carry a maximum penalty of six months' imprisonment or a pounds 5,000 fine. Sex Offenders: A Ban on Working with Children, from Betty Moxon, Sentencing and Offenders Unit, Home Office, Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1H 9AT.. Britain's claim to be a world leader in tackling global warming may turn into hot air unless ministers devise new energy policies, government environmental experts warned yesterday. Coal, oil, and gas, which produce the greenhouse gases causing climate change, need to be taxed to reflect their threat to the environment, while non-polluting energy sources such as wind turbines and solar cells need support, said the five-member Panel on Sustainable Development, in its annual report. The panel called for the Government to end subsidies which encourage environmental damage and to scrap remaining tax incentives for company car use. It also advocates a tax on development on green-field sites. British Government Panel on Sustainable Development Third Report, free from the Department of the Environment Tel: 0181-691 9191, quoting ref 96EP229..

Six of Britain's prisons are now holding more than one and a half times the number of prisoners than they were designed to hold, according to official figures, which point to a huge imbalance, with some jails bursting at the seams while others have plenty of space. Shrewsbury prison is revealed as the most overcrowded jail in England and Wales. With 315 prisoners instead of 176, it has 79 per cent more inmates than its certified normal accommodation level (CNA). The prisons worst affected by the rapidly escalating jail population - now at a record 60,000 - are old Victorian jails in built-up areas, said Richard Tilt, Director General of the Prison Service, in a parliamentary written answer.. A majority of voters are against the decision to allocate pounds 60m of taxpayers' money to a replacement for the royal yacht Britannia, the Government is warned today in a second shot across the bows over the scheme. Sir Edward Heath, the former Conservative prime minister, yesterday put Michael Portillo, the Secretary of State for Defence, under pressure by criticising the Government's handling of the announcement as "not honourable". The Government had been hoping that the go-ahead for the replacement for Britannia would win votes in the election, and wrong-foot Labour over the monarchy. But the latest opinion poll shows that it could backfire on ministers.About 72 per cent are against the use of public funds for the vessel, and only 24 per cent are for it, with three per cent "don't knows", according to the ICM-Guardian poll which is published today.Senior Tory backbench MPs privately joined Sir Edward in criticising the Government for "dragging the Queen" into the general election campaign, although there was no suggestion of backtracking over the decision.Sir Edward accused ministers of acting in a manner which was "not honourable" for failing to reach a consensus with the Labour Party before announcing that the Britannia II would be funded from the Treasury contingency reserve, with no private company donations.He said the attempt to wrong-foot Labour in the pre-election campaign by announcing the Government's decision had produced a "mess", and it should have been left until after the election.

"The Conservative Party above all must be an honourable party and I do not believe the actions which have been taken are honourable ones," he said on BBC radio. "As it is, it has exposed us in the election campaign of being up to trickery in what we are doing about the royal yacht," he said."We are open to the accusation that we are constantly emphasising that not a penny more than the budget must be spent and accusing the Labour Party and our opponents of being reckless with their money."Sir Edward said he thought it would be a mistake for the Conservatives to include a pledge to fund Britannia's replacement out of public money in the election manifesto.Lord St John of Fawsley, the former Leader of the Commons, said it was "absolutely right" that cost of a replacement for Britannia should be met from public funds, rather than sectional business interests.Downing Street sources last night defended the decision and said Mr Portillo was "absolutely right" in his announcement.A spokesman said: "We will not reconsider We have come to a view and we are sticking to it The Government didn't precipitate a political row. It made a government decision and how others respond to it is for them."But the impression remained with Tory MPs that the handling of the announcement had backfired on the Government, in its eagerness to put Labour on the defensive.Labour's deputy leader John Prescott reaffirmed that there would be no public money for Britannia - in the first two years of any Labour government.. In the semi-darkness of an early January morning, the body of Brandon Hale was discovered by a woman walking her dog. The 48-year-old gambler was lying face up in woods in north London Above his left eye was a neat hole made by a single bullet. Mr Hale's death, which happened two weeks ago, is believed to be the latest murder carried out by a group of professional criminals prepared to kill for cash. David Veness, Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner in charge of specialist operations, has revealed to The Independent that the police believe that up to 20 hitmen - possibly more - are operating from the south-east of England.The Metropolitan Police's Organised Crime Group are investigating the contract killers who hire out their services from pounds 1,000 to pounds 20,000 per murder.Part of the reason for the upsurge is the greater availability of handguns. Increased rivalry between traditional crime gangs, particularly over drug deals, has also led to a rash of killings.A north London crime family, which has a reputation for extreme violence, has also been linked to the spate of murders.But one of the greatest problems the police face in convicting the professional hitmen, and in a small number of cases women, is the secrecy and unpredictability surrounding the criminals involved.Contract killers are usually hired because they have no direct links with their chosen victim and are therefore unlikely to be traced back to their employer.An underground network of contacts exists in which contract killers become known to a small group of people.