Newspaper headlines: Cancer link, Blatter elected and TV snub

Cancer cells: Poor diet and excessive portions are blamed in the cancer alert featured in the papers

A link between obesity and cancer makes the lead story for both the Times and the Mirror.

The Times says experts are urging patients and doctors to act on growing evidence that obesity causes deadly tumours, and do more to persuade patients to slim down.

The paper says the alert came at the world's biggest conference on cancer, the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago.

"It sounded the warning that obesity is killing tens of thousands of people a year in Britain and that the West is on the brink of a 'profound' change where obesity will replace tobacco as the leading preventable cause of the disease in little more than a decade," reports the Times.

The Mirror says, with Britain's obesity epidemic showing no signs of slowing, doctors fear cancer death rates will soar unless urgent action is taken to tackle the problem.

The Telegraph says a middle-aged cancer epidemic is being blamed on Britain's poor diet and overly generous portions.

Leading specialists convened to issue a stark warning that obesity will soon overtake smoking as the principal cause of cancer, it continues.

Only last week, says the Mail, the head of NHS England Simon Stevens warned that today's children faced a "rising tide" of cancer, heart disease and ill health due to the effects of their excess weight.

"In the past decade successive governments have imposed a raft of policies aimed at cutting smoking, including raising tax on tobacco, banning smoking in public buildings, and cigarettes being hidden from view in shops," says the Mail.

"Yet at the same time, calls for policies to cut obesity, including a tax on sugar, have repeatedly been ignored."

Leading medics say obesity is expected to be the single largest driver of cancer within a decade "as "Brits continue to pile on the pounds", says the Sun.

The paper continues: "Being tubby raises the risk of common cancers including breast, kidney, prostate and colon. For womb cancer, piling on pounds raises a woman's chances six-fold."

'Let's go Fifa!'

As widely expected, Sepp Blatter has been re-elected as the president of world football's governing body Fifa - and the British press is definitely not happy about it.

Barney Ronay on the front of the Guardian writes: "'Let's go Fifa!' Blatter roared weirdly, as he left the stage at the end of a gruelling day of electioneering that saw him returned to office unbloodied.

"Even by Fifa standards this was a bizarre and indeed rather disorientating day.

"Not only is Blatter back, he is apparently back as a reform candidate, here to root out the corruption, wire fraud and racketeering that afflicted the world's most lucratively beleaguered sport during the reign of his long-term predecessor, who also happens to have been Sepp Blatter."

In an editorial, the Guardian says Fifa had its big chance but blew it.

"The ball was at Fifa's feet. The global audience was gripped. The goal was gaping wide. At which point Fifa fell on its face."

The Times says leading figures from the world of football spoke of a "dark day" after Mr Blatter emerged from a turbulent week to secure his fifth term as president of Fifa.

And the winner is...

England 1966 World Cup winner George Cohen tells the Telegraph he supports a boycott of the next World Cup although it would be a terrible shame for the players to miss it.

Former FA chairman David Bernstein, writing in the same paper, says Mr Blatter's position is untenable and he needs to go.

The Independent says: "The general assumption a week ago was that Fifa's reputation was already as bad as it can get.

"Events since Wednesday's dramatic dawn raids on a Zurich hotel have emphasised just how grubby football's governing body truly is.

"And yet, against all logic, Blatter presented himself as the man to clean up the mess. Even more bizarrely, at least from an outsider's perspective, he has retained the support of a majority of Fifa members - primarily outside Europe."

The Sun says Mr Blatter's re-election has left football in a "stinking mire". As the Mirror puts it: "The beautiful game just got even uglier." And the Star give the score as "Blatter 1 Footie 0".

A cartoon in the Times has an indignant England fan saying: "I reckon we should refuse to qualify for the next World Cup."

Euro dash

David Cameron's whistle-stop journey around Europe, as he tries get support for changes in the EU before the UK's referendum, gets plenty of coverage.

The Times says Mr Cameron ended a bumpy two-day tour of European capitals with a more encouraging meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The paper says Mrs Merkel declared she was prepared to consider rewriting EU treaties to appease British demands. There was relief in Downing Street that the tour ended on a more positive note in Berlin, it adds.

"David Cameron received a mixed reception during his whistle-stop tour of Europe," concludes the Telegraph.

"The French decried his demand for treaty renegotiation, while the Polish said there could be no compromise on welfare benefits.

"By contrast, Mr Cameron described the Dutch as 'old friends and like-minded allies'. And Germany's Angela Merkel said that treaty change is certainly possible.

"The campaign for a reformed EU will evidently be hard-fought, but alliances can be built."

David Cameron's bumpy ride smoothed out in Berlin

The Guardian says Mr Cameron had a boost to his EU renegotiation plans after Mrs Merkel left the door open to revising the Lisbon treaty to accommodate UK demands.

The German chancellor adopted an emollient tone as she expressed the hope that a deal could be done with Britain, it continues.

The Independent says Mr Cameron's last stop, Berlin, was the most important one - but it questions the usefulness of the exercise.

"All the governments know more or less what they will settle for and where the compromises lie," it says.

"Whatever he gets, Mr Cameron will call it 'historic', declare victory and recommend a Yes vote in the referendum."

The Times says Mr Cameron's attempts to slim down the European Union risk having the opposite effect on his waistline.

The tour saw him confronted with a meal at every stop, forcing him to skip courses while trying to avoid causing a diplomatic incident.

The Times says Mr Cameron is understood to have left some of the dishes, unable to stomach the full array of delicacies put before him.

One Whitehall source is quoted in the paper as saying: "The prime minister is looking forward to a run when he gets home."

Lightbulb moment

The Telegraph reports that a sleep expert has warned that energy-saving lightbulbs could prevent people from sleeping because they emit more blue light than traditional bulbs.

Prof Debra Skene told the Hay Festival that people should try to dim lights in the hours before they go to bed so the body can prepare itself for sleep.

But she said that was more difficult these days because so many overhead incandescent tungsten bulbs had been replaced by energy-saving ones.

Prof Skene said: "If you want to reduce the effect on staying awake at night... you should try to have light in the room around you that's less blue."

Not something Gertrude Hindley would recognise readily

The Sun brings us the story of 103-year-old Gertrude "Topsy" Hindley who says the secret to her long life is that she has never once watched TV.

The Sun says as a result Topsy, from Sidmouth in Devon, has missed some of the world's most historic television events in her many years.

The paper suggests as examples the first episode of Coronation Street in 1960, Dallas revealing who shot JR in 1980 and EastEnders' Christmas Day divorce papers in 1986.

Topsy says caring for the animals at a rescue centre she set up had left her with no time for television.

She tells the Sun: "My friends have TVs but I didn't want it. I just want peace."

The Mirror says Topsy has missed the Queen's coronation, the first man on the Moon, the fall of the Berlin wall and The Jeremy Kyle Show.

"She might have point there," quips the Mirror.

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