For years the portly man dressed in a red tunic and sporting a large white beard has been delighting unsuspecting strangers with his munificence. But now Santa has been forced to hang up his sleigh bells and stay at home — but not before revealing his true identity.

Public outrage in the United States over OJ Simpson’s ”hypothetical” description of how he could have killed his ex-wife and her friend has prompted affiliates of the Fox TV network to refuse to screen the interview on the grounds of bad taste. Simpson has secured a ,5-million deal with Rupert Murdoch’s broadcasting and publishing companies companies which includes a Fox TV special.

A former Russian spy who is fighting for his life in a London hospital after being poisoned with the toxic metal thallium was targeted because he was an ”enemy of Vladimir Putin”, friends said on Sunday. Doctors treating Alexander Litvinenko, who defected to Britain six years ago, believe he has a 50/50 chance of survival and faces a critical three weeks.

Omar sits with his wife and three small children on their only items of furniture, a few cushions and a cheap carpet which covers the floor of a bare concrete room. They escaped from Baghdad last month, joining the quarter of a million Iraqis who have fled from their homes since sectarian violence exploded this year.