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Pakistan President Snubs Cameron’s Invitation to Chequers
MAIL ONLINE: Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari has turned down an offer of hospitality at David Cameron’s coun­try retreat Chequers.

Mr Zardari rejected an invitation to spend a night at the Buckinghamshire mansion, saying he was too busy as the diplo­matic row continued over his coun­try’s approach to tackling terrorism.

But he will visit Chequers for dinner this evening for informal talks with the Prime Minister, which are set to be dominated by Mr Cameron’s assertion last week that Pakistan is ‘exporting terror’.

He will then travel back to his hotel in London before returning to Chequers tomorrow for for­mal talks with the Prime Minister, who also accused Pakistan of ‘looking both ways’ on terror.

Mr Zardari will on Saturday address a rally in Birmingham at which he is expected to launch his son with Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal, onto the political stage.

Bilawal, 21, is the young heir to the most important political dynasty in Pakistan and has been at his father's side in France and the UK this week.

He became chairman of the Pakistan People's Party after his mother's assassination and has just graduated from Oxford and will now take to politics full-time.

Mr Cameron’s comments, made during a visit to India last week, have unleashed fury in Pakistan and angered some members of Britain’s million-strong British Pakistani community.

Pakistani sources have said Mr Zardari will use this week’s talks to ‘educate’ Mr Cameron on the suffering that terrorism has caused to his country. >>> Jason Groves | Thursday, August 05, 2010

The Profligate Blairhead
THE TELEGRAPH: Tony Blair spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money entertaining a host of Britain's leading television celebrities at Chequers during his last 15 months in power, it emerged last night.

The guest list included everyone from Charlotte Church, the singer and Channel Four presenter, and her Welsh rugby-playing partner Gavin Henson, to Tess Daly, the co-presenter of BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing, and her husband Vernon Kay, who is also a TV presenter. Other famous names included Lorraine Kelly and Fiona Phillips from GMTV, as well as Chris Evans, the BBC Radio 2 DJ.

Richard Madeley, one half of the Richard & Judy show, dined with the Blairs, as did June Sarpong, the youth television presenter. Steve McClaren, the England football manager, and his wife Kathryn, were also invited to Chequers, as was Match of the Day 2 presenter Adrian Chiles.

The Blairs' guests also included a number of leading figures from the world of business, including Indra Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo, and James Dyson, the vacuum cleaner tycoon.

The former prime minister even found room round his dinner table for church leaders such as Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York.

Mr Blair also managed to spend more than £1.6 million on foreign travel between April 2006 and March this year, including five separate trips that cost more than £150,000 each. Blairs turned Chequers into court of celebrities (more) By Graeme Wilson

Mark Alexander