From today's UK papers

FINANCIAL TIMES

Academics gave a mixed response yesterday to the government's offer of extra money to retain the United Kingdom's star researchers and encourage high-flyers from abroad to take up British posts.

The cost of split infinitives in business letters is not confined to raising the blood-pressure of grammatical purists, it seems. A report on corporate carelessness, published today, finds that bad business etiquette is costing companies up to £2bn a year in lost contracts, with "persistent sloppiness" more likely than serious mistakes to lead to loss of business.

GUARDIAN

A freshwater killer shrimp is about to invade Britain's rivers, threatening to wipe out weaker native species and eat its way through the insect populations vital for healthy fish life, according to Jaimie Dick of Queen's University, Belfast

INDEPENDENT

Working-class barristers are to be given fully funded apprenticeships under proposals backed by Cherie Booth QC that aim to end elitism at the Bar.

MISCELLANY

Britain's biggest ever vaccination programme since the campaign against polio - this time aimed at ridding the country of meningitis C - has been an overwhelming success with a reduction of up to 90 per cent in cases of the potentially fatal disease among school leavers. ( Guardian, Daily Telegraph )