'Please do not hurt Maddy' says the Telegraph as the hunt continues for the missing child

The distraught parents of Madeleine McCann appealed directly to her abductor yesterday and pleaded with him not to hurt her.
Fighting back tears, Mrs McCann, speaking slowly and with her voice shaking, begged whoever had taken her to "give our little girl back".The three-year-old was abducted from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Algarve, on Thursday night as she slept.

The Times adds that

Chief Inspector Ole-gario Sousa, of the Portuguese National Crime Squad, told a chaotic press conference that he was not even sure that Madeleine had been abducted.
Mr Sousa said: “This is being treated as the disappearance of a little girl. But obviously we have not ruled out the possibility that she has been abducted.”
He said that legal restraints in Portugal meant that the police were forbidden from releasing any evidence in the case, even if it would help in the search for Madeleine. It would be illegal for Mr and Mrs McCann to be informed of the details of their investigation.

Maddie snatch: Was it a Brit? asks the Sun

a former top Portuguese policeman said cops frantically hunting the lost girl were working on the theory that her abductor was from the UK.
And the fruitless police operation was branded “a shambles” as it emerged that Kate and her husband Gerry were themselves guiding aspects of the search.

In a mixed bag of headlines this morning it leads with

Softer line on crime vetoed as jails fill up

A package of measures to head off a summer prison overcrowding crisis, including abolishing the option of custody for shoplifting offences, has been vetoed by Tony Blair, The Times has learnt.
The Prime Minister has turned down a series of proposals from Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Lord Chancellor, who will head the new Ministry of Justice when it is created formally tomorrow, for reducing the use of custody for low-level offences.
Lord Falconer also suggested shorter sentences for nonviolent offences, restricting the use of suspended sentences that tend automatically to lead to prison after reoffending, and ending the prison option for shoplifting where the value stolen is less than £200.
Ministerial sources say that Mr Blair, who will leave office in two months, is adamant that part of his legacy will not be a relaxation of sentencing policy.

The Independent looks forward to a new administration

Brown plans to banish the legacy of Blair by engaging with Iran

Gordon Brown is ready to hit the ground running after Tony Blair resigns with an ambitious strategy for his first 100 days in office that will herald a radical change of approach on the Middle East and the NHS and a clean-up of Whitehall.
He will use the departure of Lord Levy, the Prime Minister's personal envoy to the Middle East, to signal a fundamental change of approach on Iran and Iraq - where Mr Blair's foreign policies have bequeathed a legacy that could cost Labour the next general election.

It leads though with

The right to choose death

The number of terminally ill people travelling from Britain to end their lives in a Swiss assisted suicide clinic has doubled in the past year.
In protest at what they see as Britain's outdated euthanasia laws, patients from the UK are flocking to the Dignitas clinic in Zurich where they are promised a dignified death.
Latest figures show 34 people have made the journey since January 2006 compared with an average of 14 a year between January 2003 and January 2006. In all, 76 Britons have been helped to take their own lives by drinking a mixture of barbiturates prepared by doctors at the clinic.

The Guardian's front page warns of

New fears over additives in children's food

Food safety experts have advised parents to eliminate a series of additives from their children's diet while they await the publication of a new study that is understood to link these ingredients to behaviour problems in youngsters.
The latest scientific research into the effect of food additives on children's behaviour is thought to raise fresh doubts about the safety of controversial food colourings and a preservative widely used in sweets, drinks and processed foods in the UK. But the Guardian has learned that it will be several months before the results are published, despite the importance of the findings for children's health.

The aftermath of the French elections is widely covered,the same paper reporting that

Unions fire first shots in battle with Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday flew off for a three-day retreat in Malta to prepare for his French presidential takeover next week, while unions warned that any plans to force through sweeping reforms would face opposition.
The rightwing former interior minister was handed a clear mandate for his promised "economic revolution" and hardline clampdown on crime and immigration. Convinced that France has shifted firmly to the right, he now needs to secure a majority for his ruling centre-right UMP party in the parliamentary election next month in order to quickly push through his sweeping reforms to cut tax, loosen the 35-hour week, slash the bloated public service and curb strike powers.

France prepares for Sarkozy revolution to begin in earnest reports the Times

Wearing jeans and an open-necked shirt, Mr Sarkozy, 52, departed without his family for several days of rest before he succeeds Jacques Chirac on Wednesday next week.
He is expected to appoint François Fillon, a former Education Minister, as prime minister then. Mr Fillon, 53, whose wife, Penelope, is Welsh, will lead the Government in parliamentary elections next month, with the aim of achieving the first return of an incumbent French party for three decades.
“We have to act, the French people expect it. They have given him a real mandate,” Claude Gueant, Mr Sarkozy’s chief of staff, said. Even the Socialist opposition concurred that the 53 per cent of the vote Mr Sarkozy won on Sunday was a clear-cut endorsement for the tough moral and economic reform he had promised.

Meanwhile it seems certain that in Scotland

Holyrood heading for minority rule

Alex Salmond, almost certain to be elected Scotland’s next First Minister, conceded last night that his failure to attract the Liberal Democrats into a ruling coalition meant that the country was now heading for minority devolved government for the first time.
The Scottish National Party leader, speaking the day after the Lib Dems had comprehensively rejected a power-sharing coalition, said that the bulk of his party’s preparations for taking power for the first time was now based on “the responsibilities of government as a minority”.

Politicians descend on Belfast for launch of power-sharing reports the Independent

After more than a decade, Northern Ireland's peace process is due to reach a triumphant culmination in Belfast today when Unionists and republicans form a power-sharing government.
Tony Blair and the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will witness what is regarded as a milestone designed to provide political underpinning to the cessation of violence.
News organisations from all over the world are in Belfast for the occasion, which will see installed at the Stormont Assembly an administration headed by the two largest parties, the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein. Mr Paisley and Martin McGuinness are to take office as First Minister and Deputy First Minister

As further reports about the shooting of a policeman in the Midlands filter out,the Mail leads with

Hero: Shot PC left body armour behind in rush to save colleagues

Murdered policeman Richard Gray died trying to save two colleagues being held at gunpoint by his killer.
The father of two, a firearms specialist, was shot in the head by Peter Medlicott - who had been pointing a gun at two unarmed officers called to investigate a domestic dispute.
It has emerged that PC Gray, 43, was in such a rush to come to the aid of his fellow officers that he may not have put on bulletproof armour or a helmet.

WIPED OUT ON A STAG NIGHT reports the Mirror on its front page

FIVE men on a stag party were killed in one of the M25's worst ever crashes today.
The revellers died when the recovery truck carrying their broken-down minibus collided with a lorry.
The driver of the recovery truck also died in the smash in Surrey in the early hours of this morning.
Only one passenger survived the collision and he was being treated in hospital for a broken leg and facial injuries.
The group of 13 men, thought to be aged between 25 and 30, had been celebrating in Leicestershire.
The groom was not involved in the incident.

The Telgraph reports that

The cab of the recovery truck was destroyed in the crash, which occurred between junctions 8 and 9, Reigate and Leatherhead, and resulted in the anti-clockwise section of the M25 being closed for nine hours.
The minibus had broken down on the M1 near Rugby earlier in the night. There were 13 men in the vehicle, all returning to the Brighton area after the weekend's stag party in Leicestershire.

Many of the papers report on the White tie event in Washngton

President muddles his dates in welcoming Queen says the Guardian

On a morning that should by rights have been frozen in time as a moment of pure pageantry, with military marching bands, pipers trucked out in tricorn hats and powdered wigs, and visiting royalty, one can count on George Bush.
The president yesterday once again demonstrated his gift for the gaffe, injecting an unintended sense of levity into the White House welcome for the Queen.
In his speech on the south lawn of the White House, he noted that the Queen had made repeated visits to the US during her reign, including celebrations to mark the country's 200th anniversary. "The American people are proud to welcome Your Majesty back to the United States, a nation you've come to know very well," Bush said. "After all, you've dined with 10 US presidents. You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 - in 1976."

The Sun reports that

As a crowd of 7,000 guests at the President’s “gaff” laughed, Mr Bush WINKED at the Queen.
But Her Majesty was also clearly amused by the slip.
She smiled and looked back at the President, appearing to say “Oh dear”.
Then Mr Bush joked: “She just gave me a look that only a mother could give a child.”